Welcome to this podcast from Harvest Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina, where our vision is to make disciples who make disciples. I'm your host, Liz Stefanini. I read an article this week about growth strategies in business, and it identified four basic strategies. If you have a business and you want to grow it. There are at least four different ways, and maybe these are the four main ways that businesses grow and expand. The first one is market penetration. So this is where the business attempts to increase market share with their product. And there's a lot of different ways they can do it. They can lower the prices in their products and service. They can increase their marketing efforts. But they're just trying to get more penetration into the market where they are now. That's one way. The second way is product development. And this means creating new products. They've been selling one thing or a multiple number of things and to gain more business, they create more products. For example, a company that might sell ice cream for institutional buyers might add gelato or something to it. So it's product development. A third way is market development. So this is when a business will take their product from their current market and expand it out to a new city, maybe a new state, or perhaps even a new country. And that is market development. And the fourth way is diversification. This is the riskiest way in business, and that's when a business will decide they're going to do something totally different. I like to watch Shark Tank, and if you're a Shark Tank viewer, you'll know sometimes they'll come in and they'll pitch it, and then they'll say to the sharks, oh, well, we've got this brand new thing we're going to do, and usually the sharks will go, nah, that's not, you know, that's too risky. But those are the four ways that business grows and expands. Now, why do I bring that up? The church is not a business, and the church should not operate like a business. But the church does share something in common with business, and that's the desire to expand. That's the desire to grow. God established from the outset the desire for the church of Jesus Christ not to remain stagnant, but to move through all the world. He said at the beginning of Acts to those first followers, you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the ends of the earth. So there was clear expansion in God's mind from the beginning. It would be closest probably to the market development that businesses use. As we come to Acts chapter 11 today, we're coming to a section where The church is now going somewhere else. We're preaching through the book of Acts in this series called When God Builds His Church. So let's read our passage for today, Acts 11, 19 to 30. Now, Those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. During this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and through the spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. This happened during the reign of Claudius. The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. This is the word of the Lord. Now let me set the context, the stage for what's happening here in Acts chapter 11. The author of Luke, or the author of Acts is a man named Luke, and in between talking about the first Gentile convert, which was Cornelius, and that happened at the beginning of chapter 11. And what he's going to come to very soon after this, that's the apostle to the Gentiles, that's Paul and all about his life and his ministry. In between those, Luke describes in this passage the expansion of the church northward into Antioch. And this forms a great segue into the rest of the book of Acts. It's really interesting. Last week we covered this man named Cornelius. The last couple of weeks we looked at it. He was a Roman centurion and he was saved. Peter went and shared the gospel. And this was really new because prior to this it was Jewish believers in Christ. Now we cross over into a new group of people, Gentiles, right? And that day you were either Jewish or Gentile. All non-Jews were called Gentiles. and they started trusting Christ. So Peter did this, and they were saved, and the Holy Spirit came on them, they spoke in other languages, and that was giving evidence the same thing had happened to the Jewish believers. It only happened four times in Acts. It doesn't happen all the time when someone becomes a Christian, but this was evidence that God is reaching out to a new group of people, and unfortunately, Some of the Jewish church leaders heard about this and they criticized Peter. Peter, why did Peter go to the house of a Gentile? I mean, that was really an unclean thing to do for a Jewish person in the first century. So they criticized him, but then he explained to them what happened, and they received it, and Acts chapter 11, verse 18 ends with this statement. So then, even to the Gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life. So the church leaders, the Jewish believers in Christ are now beginning to accept Gentile believers. Luke builds right off of that and talks about church expansion. And that's what begins in verse 19. And in our passage today, there are three parts of church expansion. This is on your outline sheet if you're following along. And the first one is the mouth of believers. There are three organs in the human body that we're gonna build this outline off of. And the first one is the mouth of believers. Let's look back at verse 19. Now, those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed, traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. Stephen was the first Christian martyr. When he was killed, a persecution broke out and believers got scattered all over. And many of these people who were scattered, they kept speaking to Jews. That's what verse 19 is. But watch what happens in verse 20. Some of them, however, some of these very ones who had been scattered, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. Antioch and Syria was a great place to go if you're gonna go expand the gospel. It was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, and it was a cesspool of sin. Just five miles outside the city was a temple devoted to this false goddess Daphne. And people were, quote, worshipped there, but there were ritual prostitutes, the priestesses there were ritual prostitutes. It was just It was sin on steroids. This is like the Las Vegas of Syria in the first century. That was Antioch. It was known to be morally corrupt. And notice who went there. There's no apostle going there. They don't send Peter there. They don't send Paul there. Who goes there? Some of them. Men from Cyprus and sorry, you know, we don't even know their names This is not this is not a bunch of famous evangelist We don't even know the names of these people it was just they were just ordinary believers they were average people like you and me and That's what I love about this. It is the mouth of believers that God uses to spread the gospel They spoke, they began to speak to Greeks. It was just rank and file believers. If it would have been today, this would be people at. in their jobs and in their neighborhoods and in their friend groups and in their hobby groups. These would be people just going to places like that or going to new areas that had not heard the gospel and telling people about Christ. This is the first part of church expansion. It comes through the mouth of believers. The second part is in verse 21, and that is the hand of God. So we've got the mouth of believers, and we have the hand of God. Verse 21, the Lord's hand was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. I want us to Look at a few expressions or a few instances of this expression. The Lord's hand was with them So you can get a good idea about what that really mean. What does it mean? The Lord's hand was with them Well, let's go back to the Old Testament first. Let's go to exodus chapter 3 verse 19 and 20 and this is in the The story with Moses and the children of Israel are in bondage in Egypt and Moses is going back and forth to the Pharaoh and he's calling for Pharaoh to let God's people go. Look what Exodus 3 19 says. I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him so I will stretch out my hand and Strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform of them among them after that. He will let you go This is God speaking to Moses. God is saying I'm gonna stretch out my hand I'm gonna put my hand on this situation a few chapters later in Exodus chapter 6 verse 1 then the Lord said to Moses now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh because of my mighty hand he will let them go. Because of my mighty hand, he will drive them out of his country. So in the Old Testament, this phrase occurs many times in reference to this series of events when God put his hand and stretched it out and rescued his people. In the New Testament, It appears over 175 times and many or most of the times, it's just talking about physical hands. Obviously, the Old Testament reference was a metaphorical use, a figurative use of hands. But most of the time in the New Testament, it's about physical hands touching someone. Tons of times in the Gospels, it's about Jesus actually taking his hand touching someone to heal them like for example in Mark chapter 7 verse 32 there were There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and who could hardly talk and they begged Jesus notice to place his hand on him Luke chapter 1 Verse 65, all the neighbors were filled with awe and throughout the hill country of Judea, people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it asking, what then is this child gonna be? This is in the prophecies with John the Baptist being born and the baby Jesus being born. For the Lord's hand was with him. We've also seen this expression earlier in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter four, when Peter and John were arrested and they got released and they went back to the believers and they gathered in a prayer meeting, they were praying for God to do amazing things. And notice what they prayed in Acts chapter four, verse 30, to the Lord, stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant, Jesus. So the conclusion of all of this, you look at all of these instances about the Lord's hand, is that when God's hand is on someone, it means his power is working in and through them. That's what's happening. That's what it means when it says the Lord's hand was with him. God's favor is on a person and he is empowering them to do great things. So when I say the mouth of believers, they were speaking the gospel, but they weren't getting anybody saved because their words alone didn't have power, even though they're true words, even though they're the words of the gospel. So these believers were out there and they were speaking, but the Lord's hand was with them. That's when people get saved. When God's hand is on someone, when God is empowering someone, So here's the application. Ordinary believer, God wants to do it through you. When we think about evangelism, God wants to do it through you. Evangelism is introducing other people to Jesus Christ. It's sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others. God wants to do it through you. There are two important words in that sentence, God and you. He wants to use you, but he is the one who will be doing it. There are a lot of seemingly opposite truths in that statement and that is you can do it and you can't do it. Part of me wants to say you can do evangelism. And then part of me wants to say, well, no, you can't do evangelism. And I think they're both true. If you put them together, you can't do it on your own. I can't do it on my own, but God can do it through us. That is what we desire at harvest. We desire growth by conversions, by new people becoming believers in Jesus Christ. So we've got the mouth of believers. We've got the hand of the Lord. And then thirdly, now as the passage continues, we see the heart of believers. And as we walk through the rest of this passage, the heart of these new believers, it's just amazing, the heart of the believers that already exist to go to help them, the way the new believers grow and turn and help. Let's watch it. Three aspects. First of all is encouragement. Verse 22, news of this reached the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. Remember I said these weren't famous or known people? So the word just got out that people had gone out and shared the gospel and people were being saved. So naturally the mother church in Jerusalem, they sent a person, a respected leader like Barnabas to go down there to either explore a little bit what was happening and or encourage them and support them What they were doing and as the passage goes on it it it makes us lean towards the latter verse 23 when he arrived and Saw what the grace of God had done. He was glad and Encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts Barnabas We know him as Barnabas, but Barnabas wasn't his original name Does anybody know what his original name was? It was Joseph If you go back, we won't take the time to turn it, but if you go back to Acts chapter 4, verse 36 and 37, you find out that there was a Jewish man, one of the earliest converts to Christianity, who owned a field and he sold the field and then he gave the proceeds to the church. This was Joseph. He was, as I said, probably one of the first converts, but They gave him a nickname. Hey, let's call this guy Barnabas. Barnabas means son of encouragement. This guy is an encourager. Let's call him Barnabas. Barnabas was the one that believed that Saul, the former persecutor, had really trusted Christ. And this one who was arresting Christians and trying to kill Christians, Barnabas believed it and came alongside Saul and welcomed him into the faith and introduced him to others. Barnabas was the ideal person for them to send for this particular task. And notice that Barnabas had a great ministry because of what he saw and what he did. What did he see? He saw evidence of the grace of God. Now, to me, part of this is what Barnabas's focus was. You know, in life, we can, two people can see the same thing, but see different things. Somebody could have seen, oh, well, these are new believers and they don't have this and they don't have that. They don't have the other. Barnabas went down there and he saw evidence of the grace of God. And I think it's true in your marriage, in your friendships, in your job, in your church. Often what you see is what you choose to see and want to see. Barnabas was that kind of person. He Barnabas was an encourager. He saw evidence of the grace of God. And what did he do? Verse 23, when he arrived and saw evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. That is a biblical picture Encouragement there are a couple different aspects of biblical encouragement. One is this word that's translated Encouragement is a word that also includes comfort or consolation. So 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 4 Praise God who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort We ourselves have received from God. That's the same word. It's comfort and It's consolation. Sometimes that's what people need. They just need comfort. They need a pat on the back. They need a hug. They need encouraging words. That's one aspect. The other aspect of encouragement is exhortation. It's urging someone on towards spiritual maturity. So first Thessalonians 4 1 it's used. Finally brothers we instructed you how to live in order to please God as in fact you are doing now we ask you and urge you. That's the same original word for encouragement. We urge you to do what we urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. Larry Crabb gives a simple definition of encouragement, which I like. Encouragement is the kind of expression that helps someone want to be a better Christian, even when life is rough. What Barnabas did in this passage, in this moment, is encourage these believers. Verses 25 or 24 describes the qualities. Notice the qualities of Barnabas. He was a good man. full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And a great number of people were brought to the Lord. And verse 25 and 26 carry it even further, and they show another aspect of the heart of believers. So we're seeing Barnabas's heart. We're seeing Barnabas's heart for people here. He's encouraging them, he's helping them, but he's also discipling them. And notice what he does to disciple them. He calls in extra help. Verse 25, then Barnabas went to Tarsus, to look for Saul. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Think about this. It has been eight or 10 years since Barnabas spend any time with Saul. It was right when Saul was converted in his early days of his conversion that he helped him along, that he welcomed him, that he introduced him to the others. And now for some time, Barnabas was out engaging in ministry and encouraging people. And it had been a number of years, but he knew apparently had heard somehow that this Saul, who also is called Paul, is someone that was growing and God's hand was on him and God was using him greatly. And so here was too much for Barnabas to do. Barnabas got to the spot, obviously. He said, you know what? I cannot do all this ministry by myself. I need a partner. I need someone else. I need someone who can help teach and train and develop. And he went to Tarsus. He found Saul. He brought Saul back with him. And then Paul took the lead. And this shows Barnabas' heart. A lot of times people are so concerned about what they do. This would be like if you were the leader of the Bible study, but there was somebody else that you felt like your Bible study group could really benefit and learn more from in this particular season of their life, and it would mean you stepping aside to let the other person come in. That's what Barnabas did with Paul. In fact, if you read Acts, There's a transition that happens. You're reading along and it's, it's Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas and Saul. And then it starts as acts keeps going. It's Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas. So this shows great humility. This shows wisdom. Barnabas is wise. He's humble. He doesn't care who gets the credit. He doesn't care who gets top billing. He, all he cares about is that people are encouraged, that ministry happens to people. And that is what he does right here. And what is, what's the results? A whole year, a whole year. Uh, uh, they, They ministered, they taught, they shared. He brings him to Antioch. And it says the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. So a lot of you, I assume, well, more than assume, I know, you call yourself a Christian. That's not the way believers used to talk about themselves. Up to this point in the New Testament, believers called themselves brothers, or brothers and sisters, as we would say it today, or disciples, or they said, we're in the way, right? The way, capital W, the way of Jesus, who was the way, the truth, and the life. Now, because they were growing, and they were becoming like Jesus Christ, And their character was obvious to the community around them. The unbelievers in that community in Antioch, remember what I said about Antioch? It was a cesspool. It was sinful. This unbelieving, sinful community looked at this people and said, they are Christians. They are Christians. They are Christians. Christ and what they what they did that the Jews would not call them that because Christ was The Greek form of the word for Messiah, right? They're not gonna They're not they're not gonna say these are followers of the Messiah because they wouldn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah unless God saved them and So they took that name, Christ, and they added a little suffix to it, ians, and it came into our language in English as Christian. Those who are of Christ. What a great thing. that these first believers followed Jesus so well that unbelievers said, wow, these are Christians. These are, these are of Christ. This isn't just some little group. These people are of Christ. You know, sometimes it, it's outsiders. that give names to Christians. Well, all kind of names, right? I think back to in 1640, George Fox stood before a Justice Bennett and he told him to tremble before the word of the Lord and this justice then gave them the somewhat derogatory name, in his view, as the Quakers. That's where the Quakers came from. Methodist. Where did the Methodist denominate? Well, the systematic and methodical approach towards spiritual discipline that John Wesley and others had led people to call them Methodists. Well here, it's interesting, in the New Testament, I can't find any spot where believers call themselves Christians, it's unbelievers that call them Christians. Well, as we start to wrap up the last few verses of the passage, we see another evidence of their heart. So here they're called Christians, they're growing, they're developing, and notice what happens. During this time, verse 27, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, And one of them named Agabus stood up and through the spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. This happened during the reign of Claudius. The disciples, as each was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. How awesome is this turn of events? You've got the mother church in Jerusalem. And out of the mother church in Jerusalem, there's persecution and these believers go and they expand, the gospel expands and now new believers are formed and new churches start getting established. And in one of those places, Antioch, The emphasis here isn't on the prophecy. It just mentions a prophet stood up and said, there's going to be a famine. And what do these new believers do? They're like, wow, we need to help our brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. And they, they did it. They collected their gifts and they sent them to the elders. This is what will last. Believers seeing themselves in solidarity with other believers in the church, other expressions of the church, other places in the church. We saw it this week, unfortunately. We have great missionary partners and partnerships in Nigeria. And so when we saw in Nigeria this week, some rebels come in and burn down orphanages near our own ministry partners, we don't go, oh, well, that's them over there, right? It's us. And that's what these believers experienced and felt and acted on, and it's awesome. So let's, let's draw it together. When, when God builds his church, what happens? It expands its witnesses to new places and people. When God builds his church, it expands its witnesses to new places and people. There is nothing in this world that can compare to being invested in God's work. to being passionate about seeing the gospel spread. I mean, you can have a career, you can have relationships, you can have possessions, you can have all of that, you can have a great family, but the question is, do we have the passion that these early believers had to spread the gospel, to tell people about it, to open our mouth, to share the gospel with people, to see people saved? This is what it's all about, and this is what outlasts us. In Leadership Magazine, several years ago, there was a man named Nishan from Beirut, who told a story that shed a little light on what it means to really be a Christian. I want to read, it's very short, but I want to read it to you. He said, in the town I don't think I can pronounce it, so it's a town in Armenia. In a town in Armenia, I met a woman whom everyone called Palasan's wife. She had her own name, of course, but townspeople called her by her husband's name to show her great honor. When the devastating 1988 earthquake struck Armenia, it was nearly noon, and Palasan was at work. He rushed to the elementary school where his son was a student. The facade was already crumbling, but he entered the building and began pushing children outside to safety. After Palasan had managed to help 28 children out, an aftershock hit that completely collapsed the school building and killed him. So the people of this town honor his memory and his young widow by calling her Palisan's wife. Sometimes a person's greatest honor is not who they are, but to whom they're related. The highest honor of any believer is to be called a disciple of Jesus Christ who laid down his life for all people. That's what we see in this passage. We see Jesus dying for people, and we see those who've received Christ spread that news to others. This is the gospel. We see in this passage the gospel expand northward into Antioch, and we're gonna see it expand a lot, Lord willing, in the next several weeks and months. But what about us? What about harvest? What's our view of expansion? How do we want to expand? Well, first of all, let me tell you how we don't want to expand. We don't want to expand by believers transferring from one church to ours because they're dissatisfied with that particular church. Now, obviously, if you've moved here, if you've come If you've come in from somewhere else, as many have, we welcome you here. I don't mean that at all. But the church in America, unfortunately, I mean the whole church in America is not growing. It's not expanding by conversion. New people are not being saved and that Becoming the result Or the result being that new church that church growth happens typically what happens in the few places where churches numerically are adding people is there They're just getting those people from another church So our desire is to expand by conversion our desire is to see people saved our desire is for you to open your mouth believer and and tell people this good news about Jesus and to depend to be on your knees and to depend on God for him to be the one that puts his hand on you to empower you to do it. And we want to do that. That's our vision. It's to make disciples who make disciples. And the strategy that supports that vision is live, grow, go. It's a three-step process. The live is about introducing people to Jesus so they can live. That's evangelism. That's the first step. The second step is then they grow. They develop in their faith. We saw that in this passage. And the third step is they go and make disciples as well. We want to do it as individuals. We want to do it in ministries. This is why we have ministries out in the community like ESL, where we're teaching people who don't know English very well. Our great desire is not just that they would learn English, but they would learn English to help them and meet a felt need so we can introduce them to the greatest need they have, who is Jesus Christ. This is why we do things like typically in the summer have vacation Bible school. Before COVID, we always had an in-person, very large Bible school. This year, it's neat. We don't have a large in-person room, but we're having multiple different people doing it in their neighborhoods. The Truett's did it last week in their neighborhood. And Michelle said, it surprised her a bit how little The children right there knew about the Bible. We've got one coming up this week. Lynn Randall's doing one with several. So these are the kind of ways that believers can open their mouths and their hearts to help people. But we also want to do it internationally. We also want to see the gospel expand to places where it is not yet. where it hasn't taken root yet, where there aren't churches on every corner. And God has providentially raised up people out of harvest, like Don and Cy Hill, to go to Thailand, where there's no church and no believer in the area they went to. plant a church or Tom and Sherry Muma to go to not physically go all the time, but to go back and forth to the nation of Chad and help church planting movements. And God has raised up many other harvesters to take missionary roles. And in fact, in just a few minutes in this service, you're going to hear about another international church planting team that, uh, that we're going to be behind. So we always want to not only just hear the word, but to put it in practice. So here's where I'm gonna close this morning. I wanna give you three prayer points. I wanna give you three ways that I would suggest and ask you to pray. And we're actually gonna pray together here for a minute about these three things. But I encourage you to pray about these things all week long. First of all, ask God's hand, ask God for his hand to be with us for expansion through evangelism. Ask God for his hand to be with us for expansion through evangelism. That's how we want to grow. We want so many people, even though it's in this area which has been known as the Bible Belt, there are more and more and more unchurched and unsaved people all around us. Secondly, Ask God for his hand to be with our missionary team. We have 16 missionary partners that we support that are expanding the gospel in a lot of other places. And then ask God for the filling of his spirit, for boldness in witnessing. Will you bow your heads? And I wanna give us a couple of minutes right now to do this. Ask God for his hand to be on us. Ask God for his hand to be on our team. And ask God for his spirit to be bold. And I want to invite you, if you're comfortable, to turn to somebody beside you and just pray. And the way we do it here at Harvest, we don't want anybody to be uncomfortable who's not wanting to pray out loud. If you don't want to pray out loud, just bow your head. That's our universal symbol, that you're praying and you're agreeing in silence. But if you do want to lift your voice and pray with that person, we'll do it all over the room, just with somebody right there beside you. Let's do it. Let's take a couple of minutes now and pray about these things as God leads us. So Lord, hear our hearts and our prayers today, and we thank you for the incredible opportunities that you give us to be your ambassadors, to be your representatives, to speak to others about you. And thank you, Lord, that somebody was that ambassador to us. Will you fill this church with the Holy Spirit? Fill every believer in this church with the Holy Spirit so that when people call them Christian, it'll mean something and that they will be used by you to expand the gospel. We pray it in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks again for joining us today from Harvest Community Church. This podcast is also available on our website HarvestCharlotte.com. Please go there if you want to send a question or comment, learn more about our ministries, or find out how you can donate to support the podcast.