Spreading Branches
Acts 11:1 – 11:30
Jeff Hughes – August 3, 2003
Calvary Chapel Aggieland
I. Introduction
a. The gospel had come to the house of Cornelius there in Caesarea. We saw last week, where he and his entire family, and some of his friends came into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
b. Peter hung around a little while there in Caesarea, and taught the folks there, so that they would know at least some about that faith that they now shared.
c. There were some people in Jerusalem who weren’t real impressed with gentiles coming to a saving faith. They had made the assumption that the Jews were God’s chosen people before, and that as Christians, they were a smaller group that truly were chosen.
d. Well, they had it half right. This often seems to be the case with us as human beings. We get things half right. Paul would later explain this to us in 1st Corinthians that we look through the glass dimly, but that there is coming a time when we will see Jesus face to face.
e. The part that they had right was that they were chosen. God chose each and every one of us from the foundations of the world, that we might receive the gift of salvation through a relationship with His son, Jesus Christ.
f. The part that they had wrong was one of arithmetic. That’s right, arithmetic. Their math was all wrong, and I’ll explain why. God didn’t want His chosen folks, his church, to be subtracted from an already narrow group of Jews.
g. God wanted to multiply the gospel throughout people of every language, every nation, every skin color, and every culture. The gospel transcended these barriers then, just like it still does today.
h. We are going to take a look at the spread of the gospel in the first century, as we continue through the book of Acts today. But first, let’s have a word of prayer.
II. PRAYER
III. Illustration
a. When the 1960s ended, San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and many hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They had children and got married, too, though in no particular sequence. But they didn’t name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing Frisbee with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school. That’s when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand.
b. Every fall, according to tradition, parents bravely apply name tags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy’s name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.
c. “Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?” they offered. And later, “Fruit Stand, how about a snack?” He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn’t seem much odder than Heather’s or Sun Ray’s. At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. “Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?”
d. He didn’t answer. That wasn’t strange. He hadn’t answered them all day. Lots of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn’t matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children’s bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed, was the word “Anthony.”
e. In our study this morning, we are going to look at a group of people that made a bad assumption. They assumed that because the Jews were God’s chosen people, that they were the only ones that could be saved through a relationship with Jesus.
f. Someone had to set them straight. That someone was Peter. Our study comes from Acts, chapter 11, and we are going to look at the whole chapter this morning.
g. Since we have so much ground to cover this morning, we’re not going to read through the passage in its entirety, but we will read the scriptures as we get to the points that deal with those verses.
IV. Study
a. Intro
i. In the past 7 months, we have seen the church grow and mature, week by week. We saw the birth of the church at Pentecost, the scattering of the church under persecution. We saw the main persecutor of the church, Saul, converted on the road to Damascus.
ii. We saw God opening the doors wider and wider to the church, as we see Samaritans getting saved through the work of Philip. We see Peter going to Lydda and Joppa, spreading the good news.
iii. This all comes to a head when Peter enters the house of a Roman centurion to share the gospel with him and his family. The folks back in Jerusalem weren’t too happy.
iv. I like to call these guys the “we’ve always done it this way crowd”. These are the naysayers that threaten every move of God when it breaks out. These are the guys who like to put God in a box, and God simply won’t do that.
v. This morning, we are going to see how Peter deals with these guys. We are going to look at six points, though from Acts chapter 11. The Accusation, the Account, The Acceptance, Antioch, Adding to the church, and lastly, aid to those in trouble.
vi. Our first point comes from verses 1 through 3. Here we see Peter’s arrival in Jerusalem, after traveling from Caesarea. Peter was out doing God’s work, God’s will. You would have though that the church there would welcome him in, and commend him at being used of God to spread the good news.
vii. That wasn’t the case though. Let’s read starting in verse 1.
b. The Accusation (Acts 11:1-3)
i. 1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3 saying, "You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!"
ii. To a Jew of the first century, there were two kinds of people, Jews and gentiles. As we covered last week though, it was God’s plan from the beginning that the Jews be set apart, not only to protect them, but that they might be an example for the gentile peoples to follow. We see this in Isaiah chapter 42, verses 6 and 7.
iii. It tells us 6 "I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles, 7 To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
iv. Now, as we covered last week, Jewish men got up every morning and tradition has it they thanked God that they were not a slave, a gentile or a woman.
v. They hated the gentiles to the extent that if they saw a gentile woman in labor, they would not help, because the though was, all they were doing was bringing another gentile into the world.
vi. So, word of Peter’s experiences in Caesarea, would have been scandalous. News of this kind of thing would have traveled fast through the first century church grapevine.
vii. They didn’t have phones in those days, but word about what had happened had gotten to Jerusalem before Peter.
viii. By the time Peter arrives in Jerusalem, the church is up in arms. The apostles and the rest of the church there at Jerusalem got all stirred up.
ix. They bought into the whole Jewish mindset that the gentile people’s only use was to provide kindling for the fires of Hell. They really thought that. We still have people like this running around today, but now the story is that some people aren’t chosen, so their existence is simply lived out so that they can spend all eternity separated from God.
x. I don’t buy that argument today, just like Peter didn’t, after God changed his heart. Jesus came so that anyone who calls on His name can be saved. The choice is up to us.
xi. So, where were we? When the apostles and the church heard what had happened in Caesarea, they got all upset. They contended with Peter.
xii. The word translated contended there is the Greek word diakrenoo in the original language. It means to judge or to doubt something. This tells me that the apostles and the rest of the church had their doubts about the gospel being available for the gentiles, and they had judged Peter to be wrong in taking the gospel to them, even before hearing his story.
xiii. It always amazes me how people doubt a move of God. In my experience, when someone with a pretty wild past gets saved, people always speculate. “Did he really get saved?”
xiv. Well, to tell the truth, that is something between that person and God. It doesn’t have anything to do with you, so steer clear of those kinds of thoughts, and engaging in that kind of activity.
xv. The apostles and members of the church there at Jerusalem were outraged that Peter would even eat with these Romans, let alone share the gospel with them.
xvi. The church at Jerusalem still stuck to the Jewish customs and dietary laws. They forbid them to eat with gentiles. Their fears might have come from the persecution that arose against the church.
xvii. If they went and accepted the gentile believers, it would make them very obvious there in Jerusalem, as being friends of gentiles. Nonetheless, God had called the gentiles, though, and Peter makes an explanation of his actions in the next passage. We find this in verses 4 through 16.
c. The Account (Acts 11:4-16)
i. 4 But Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning, saying: 5 "I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came to me. 6 When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 7 And I heard a voice saying to me, ’Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I said, ’Not so, Lord! For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth.’ 9 But the voice answered me again from heaven, ’What God has cleansed you must not call common.’ 10 Now this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven. 11 At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. 12 Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 And he told us how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, ’Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, 14 who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.’ 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning.
ii. Peter starts out to answer the charges against him by simply relaying the story in the order that it happened, so that his listeners would see the hand of God throughout the chain of events that transpired.
iii. He retells the same story that we saw in the previous two weeks to those that were there listening. Even though the story is somewhat abbreviated, and told from Peter’s first-person point of view, it is a repeat of the same story we saw in chapter 10.
iv. Now, why is this significant? Well, one thing that we need to consider while reading Acts is that the scrolls that Luke wrote on had a maximum length of thirty-five feet. Once the scroll got longer than that, it became too bulky for a person to carry.
v. This thirty-five foot rule is the limit for a few books of the New Testament – Acts, Romans, Matthew, Luke, and John. Luke little over a third of a way through the book at this point.
vi. But the Holy Spirit leads him to write out this account again, a repeat of what happened in chapter 10. I believe that there is a purpose in this.
vii. God’s purpose in retelling this account is for our benefit. God really wants us to get this. This is something worth recalling. What He wants us to understand, what the big idea is – Salvation is for the gentiles as well as the Jews.
viii. Peter tells them about the vision he had while praying on Simon the tanner’s roof there in Joppa. He tells them what God shared with him up on that roof – that whatever God calls clean, we should not call it unclean or common. What this means is that if God has cleansed something, it is truly clean.
ix. He goes on to tell them that men came from Caesarea to get him, while he was having this vision, and that he had clear direction to go with them.
x. He spends a little time describing to them Cornelius’ vision, when the angel came into him and prompted him to send for Peter at Joppa.
xi. Verse 14 is rather curious though. We only find this passage here, and not in verse 10. Some people down through the ages have though that this was a mistake in the Word.
xii. This is simply not the case. If we are not told exactly word for word what was said to Cornelius while he was speaking with an angel, does it mean that that’s all the angel said? No way!
xiii. I tend to believe that this just simply adds more detail to the accounts that we looked at earlier.
xiv. To finish his account as to what actually happened there in Caesarea, he tells his accusers that the Holy Spirit fell upon the gentile believers there at Cornelius’ house, just like the Holy Spirit fell upon the believers while they were in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost.
xv. There is no doubt that this came as a shock to these Jewish Christians that were listening to Peter. That really rocked their world. The same manifestation of the Holy Spirit came to them as came to the gentiles.
xvi. Peter then ties this all together with what He had learned from the Lord previously, and what it all meant to them. We see this in verses 16 through 18.
d. Acceptance of the Gentiles (Acts 11:16-18)
i. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ’John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?" 18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life."
ii. While Peter was standing in front of this group of gentiles, who were no doubt speaking in tongues and glorifying God, he remembered something.
iii. He remembered what Jesus had told the disciples that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. They would be filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.
iv. Peter then reasons that if God gave this group of gentiles the same Holy Spirit that He had given to each of them when they believed, who was he to withstand God?
v. The short answer is he wasn’t. He knew at that point, that he needed to step out of the way and let God do his work. This is a point that we could take to heart.
vi. When God is working, we need to let God do what He is going to do. The Pharisees were guilty of standing in the way of God, right? What were the Pharisees? Let me give you a little background on these guys. The Pharisees were a group that appeared during the reign of the Macabees, a couple hundred years before Christ.
vii. The name means “set apart ones”. Their original purpose was to uphold the godly virtues and commands that had fallen so far out of the public mindset in the Jewish culture.
viii. They got hardened and legalistic over the years, to the point that they denied the Lord Jesus. The believers at Jerusalem were starting to get hardened and legalistic as well.
ix. God shook them up though, by sending Peter to the gentiles at Caesarea. They were shook up alright. The just sat there silently, when Peter relayed all of this.
x. I believe that they were convicted. They were reflecting on the hardness of their own hearts towards the gentiles, and they had to repent. They got their hearts right and then God spoke to their hearts.
xi. They realized that God had done a work outside of their preconceived ideas about how He should work, and they were convicted.
xii. They gave glory to God for the amazing things that He was at work doing. I think at that point of realization, they began to catch a glimpse of the vision that God had for the church, and they realized that they wanted to be a part of that vision.
xiii. We are small, but God has given us a vision. To see the people of Bryan and College Station strengthened to minister the gospel to the people around us.
xiv. One place where God’s vision was taking place was a city called Antioch, and we see this in the next 2 verses.
e. Antioch (Acts 11:19 - 20)
i. 19 Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. 20 But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus.
ii. Luke, our author begins this passage concerning the church at Antioch with a description for us as to how the church started at Antioch.
iii. He takes us back to Acts chapter 8 when Saul was busy burning through the church there at Jerusalem. This was the time that Stephen was stoned for his testimony in front of the Sanhedrin.
iv. A group of believers left town as a result of all this, and they spread out, and they taught in the synagogues along the way. They went north up to Antioch, they went to the island of Cyprus, and they went to the narrow strip of land called Phoenicia. In the synagogues, obviously they would teach the Jewish people.
v. But, when they got to the seething metropolis of Antioch, they taught the gospel to any who would listen, including gentiles.
vi. Antioch was a very large city in the Roman Empire; it is in modern day Turkey. It was the capital of the province of Syria. It is also called Syrian Antioch, to avoid confusion with another city called Antioch in Pisidia. The ancient historian Josephus called the city of Antioch the third most important city in the empire, after Rome and Alexandria. It is estimated that the population of Antioch is around 500,000 at this time.
vii. The city was known for its sophistication and culture, but also for its immorality. The temple of Artemis and Apollo was about five miles away, with their temple prostitutes.
viii. They spoke to Hellenists, who were Greeks, gentiles. We don’t know who was inspired to preach to the gentiles, or when, but what is important is that whoever it was, whenever it was, it was fruitful, and they were faithful to the call of God on their life.
ix. We know that this evangelistic effort was fruitful from the next 6 verses, as God builds up the little church at Antioch with gentiles. So much so, that it gets the attention of the apostles in Jerusalem.
f. Adding to the Church (Acts 11:21 - 26)
i. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. 22 Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. 23 When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. 24 For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. 26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
ii. Whoever was in Antioch preaching the gospel, God’s hand was upon them. We see here in verse 21 that a great number of folks came to the Lord.
iii. We also don’t know the chronology of all this happening. We don’t know if Cornelius and his household have been converted already, setting a precedent for the evangelism in Antioch, or if it happened spontaneously.
iv. Personally, I believe that God acted on the believer’s hearts spontaneously, and that the gospel was preached no matter what the church in Jerusalem had to say. I would think that this was probably the case, since when they heard about what was going on in Antioch in Jerusalem; they sent Barnabas to go check it out.
v. We were introduced to Barnabas back in Acts chapter 4, when he sold his land to give the proceeds to the church, and again in chapter 9, when he extends the hand of fellowship to Saul after his conversion.
vi. Barnabas is a good guy, he had been around for a while, and had proven to be a faithful servant of the Lord. So, the apostles have a mission for him. Go to Antioch and check out this new church that has taken root, because we hear that there are gentiles in it.
vii. When he got there, he saw what was going on. The people were believing in the Lord, and having their lives changed. They were being set free from the bondages of sin in their lives, just like we have the opportunity to do today.
viii. He was happy when he saw them. He encouraged them to continue on in the faith. Fitting, because his name, Barnabas means “son of encouragement”!
ix. The scripture tells us that Barnabas saw the grace of God there at Antioch. That’s what people want to see and need to see when they come to church, not a bunch of rules and regulations. Grace, which is God’s unmerited favor, is what they want to see.
x. Suppose you break a law, and you go before a judge, and he throws the book at you, and you get five years, the maximum sentence. That’s justice. If he decides to go easy on you and gives you probation, that’s mercy. But suppose, he dismisses all of the charges and hands you a check for $1000. That’s grace.
xi. That’s what Barnabas saw at Antioch, people having the same grace with each other that God had with them. Not all the rules and regulations, just grace.
xii. Barnabas came and started teaching in the church there at Antioch. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and grace. He spent his time building up the members there in Antioch, strengthening them, and more people were added to the church. Healthy sheep beget healthy sheep, so on and so forth.
xiii. Barnabas then goes out on a limb. The apostles told him to go as far as Antioch, but when the church is established pretty well, he goes on a little farther, some 50 miles to Tarsus to look for Saul.
xiv. Some twelve years had passed since we saw Saul last, but at this point, Barnabas had a fast growing church, and he needed some help with ministry there.
xv. At some point, Barnabas prayed, and felt the Lord leading him to go and get Saul from Tarsus. He looked around and saw all these Greeks, these gentiles, and thought that Saul would be the perfect man to teach the gospel to them.
xvi. His prayers were right on. He finds Saul and brings him to Antioch. They started teaching the Word, and more and more people came, and were encouraged. They stayed there a year teaching and preaching the gospel and a numbers just kept growing.
xvii. I want us to notice a pattern here. It is a pattern of effective ministry. In verse 20, we saw how the men who were scattered preached the Lord Jesus. Some people came. In verse 23, we saw Barnabas come and encourage the people, and more people were added. However, in verse 26 we see that Saul taught the people and a great number of people were taught. When we teach God’s Word, people will come to hear God’s Word being taught plainly.
xviii. Last thing I want us to notice here is that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. It was probably a term of scorn used by non-believers first. What it means is “little Jesus people”. They probably liked the term so much though, that it stuck. This growing church was being strengthened, and built up in the Lord, and when a church is strengthened, they reach out, and we see this in out last point today, taken from verses 27 – 30.
g. Aid to the Church at Jerusalem (Acts 11:27 – 30)
i. 27 And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 Then one of them, named Agabus, stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. 29 Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. 30 This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
ii. As the church got strong in that year, some people with the spiritual giftedness of prophecy came up from Jerusalem to encourage and build up the body at Antioch. That’s what the gifts are for, to encourage us, to build us up. Not to scare us, or to lay guilt trips on us so that we give money, that’s not the scriptural model.
iii. One of these guys was a fellow by the name of Agabus. Agabus told all of them through the power of the Holy Spirit that a great famine was going to come over the entire known world at the time.
iv. Luke goes on to prove the veracity of Agabus’ prophecy by telling us that this famine did come to pass during the reign of Claudius. Other historical sources verify this as well. This is a known historical fact, that was foretold here by Agabus.
v. The Old Testament measure for a prophet was that everything the foretold would come to pass. No different today. People that do have the gift of prophecy are a blessing to the body. I would say though, that in my experience, they are rather rare to run across. A lot of people claim to have a prophetical gift, but come up short on the delivery end.
vi. The baby Christians there in Antioch decided that since the famine would hit Jerusalem rather hard, that they would send aid to the church in Judea.
vii. Notice that there wasn’t a big move to stockpile stuff themselves. They didn’t horde the beans and build shelters. Their first thought was for others, and that’s God’s heart, too.
viii. No arm twisting, no giving campaigns, just a bunch of people giving what they could to support the church. That is an awesome sight to see.
ix. They entrust Barnabas and Saul, their beloved teachers with the relief package to send to Jerusalem, some 300 miles to the south. We are going to look at what is happening in the church at Jerusalem during all this next week, but first, I’d like to close with a short story.
h. Conclusion
i. Sam Rayburn was Speaker of the House of Representatives longer than any other man in our history. There is a story about him that reveals the kind of man he really was.
ii. The teenage daughter of a friend of his died suddenly one night. Early the next morning the man heard a knock on his door, and, when he opened it, there was Mr., Rayburn standing outside.
The Speaker said, "I just came by to see what I could do to help."
iii. The father replied in his deep grief, "I don’t think there is anything you can do, Mr. Speaker. We are making all the arrangements." "Well," Mr. Rayburn said, "have you had your coffee this morning?"
iv. The man replied that they had not taken time for breakfast. So Mr. Rayburn said that he could at least make coffee for them. While he was working in the kitchen, the man came in and said, "Mr. Speaker, I thought you were supposed to be having breakfast at the White House this morning."
v. "Well I was," Mr. Rayburn said, "but I called the President and told him I had a friend who was in trouble, and I couldn’t come."
vi. Grace is the attitude that should flow out of our lives as Christians. Sam Rayburn knew it, and so did the church at Antioch. I want to leave us with one thought this morning - Be prepared to show God’s grace to someone today.
vii. Let’s go before Him now and seek Him.
V. Closing Prayer
