ACTS "Through The Bible"- Acts 11-12

Brett Meador: This is so unusual to the Jews, this idea of being cleansed without going through all the practices of the temple. This is a big admission for them to say that as they repent of their sins, they are forgiven.
Guest (Male): Good news for Jew and Gentile, says Pastor Brett Meador. This is something the Jews were used to in the Old Testament, where you had to go to the temple and sacrifice an animal. The idea of anyone who would accept the work of Jesus Christ, the work of the cross, that he died and rose again, they would be saved. This is what the Jews are having to learn. In Acts 11, we see God opening the door of salvation to the Gentiles and raising up a thriving church in Antioch. We're introduced to Barnabas, revealing the character of a godly servant committed to building up and encouraging believers. In today's word, Pastor Brett Meador reflects on the church's reliance not on human strength, but by the grace and providence of God.
Brett Meador: We saw in chapter 10 Peter with his vision of the sheet coming down. "Rise, Peter, kill and eat." We went through that all. Now we come to chapter 11. In fact, let's pick it up in verse one. It says, "And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision," Jews, "contended with him saying, 'Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised and did eat with them?'" But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them, saying, "I was in the city of Joppa praying. In a trance, I saw a vision. A certain vessel descended as it had been a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, and it came even unto me. Upon the which, when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered and saw four-footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things and fowls of the air. And I heard a voice saying unto me, 'Arise, Peter, slay and eat.' But I said, 'Not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.'" But the voice answered me again from heaven, "What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common." And this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven. Behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me. And the spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house. And he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house which stood and said unto him, "Send men to Joppa and call for Simon whose surname is Peter, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, "John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost." Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things, Peter's dissertation there, they held their peace and glorified God saying, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." Verses 1 through 18 here is where the Jews are accepting. They're being told and reminded to accept the Gentiles. The accepting of the Gentiles is something that would take a long time. We're going to see even later on in the Book of Acts more Gentiles saved and more Jews criticizing. It's not going to be done now. We're definitely seeing a lot more Jews come around and realize this is part of God's plan. Remember, this is the idea "clean" meaning forgiven, washed, cleansed of your sins. This is something the Jews were used to in the Old Testament where you had to go to the temple and sacrifice an animal and be declared righteous. You had to wait for the Day of Atonement. The idea of someone just being cleansed, anyone who would accept the work of Jesus Christ, the work of the cross, that he died and rose again, they will be saved. This is what the Jews are having to learn. The first thing we see is the Jewish Christians were accepting the Gentiles. That's number one, verses 1 through 18. But now we come to the second section of this chapter. Now evangelism for the Gentiles starts in verse 19. It says, "Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord." Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem. What's that? A bunch of people getting saved up in Antioch, and Gentiles of all the craziness. And they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch. This is our getting to know Barnabas moment. His name means "Son of Consolation." We'll talk more about him in a second. "But Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. There in verse 23, who, Barnabas, when he came and had seen the grace of God and was glad and exhorted them all that they with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord." For he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. A lot of things are going on here. Barnabas is sent by the Jews in Jerusalem. They are saying Gentiles are being saved up there in Antioch of all places. Antioch was like the Las Vegas of the biblical world. It was a wealthy city, wealthy because of its paganism and its goddesses and gods and the money that was brought to Antioch. For the Jews to hear that a bunch of people were coming to Christ, they said, "Barnabas, you've got to go up there and inspect and see what's happening." He goes up there. I love this because Barnabas gets some pretty good ink right here from the Lord. What does it say in verse 24? "For he, Barnabas, was a good man." He's a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And much people was added into the Lord. That's the little description of Barnabas. Barnabas was the dude called a good man by the Lord, by the Holy Spirit. That's really something because we know technically there's no one that's really able to be called good. No one's righteous. Isn't it interesting that Barnabas gets this delineation in the Bible? He's got to be a hero in the Bible we need to look at. I want to show you what Barnabas sees when he goes, and I also want to show you what Barnabas says. First of all, in verse 23, what he sees. It says, "Who, when he came and had seen the grace of God." Paul told young Timothy, "Be strong in the grace." It's funny how people like to be strong in theology or strong in righteousness, which is good, but I'm happy for grace. I need a lot of grace. What is grace? That is undeserved, unearned favor that God shows to his people. Barnabas comes, "What's going on up here in Antioch? Let's see what these people... Wow, grace. I'm seeing God's grace." Grace was abounding. You should stop talking about sin and stuff like that and only talk about fun things like grace and mercy. The reason you have the whole Bible, even the black backdrop of ugliness and sin and failure and no one's righteous, not even one, you have to preach that because that's the black backdrop that allows the diamond to shine brightly. We talk about that all the time. It's the grace of God, his forgiveness and his mercy. You won't appreciate the grace of God if you don't understand the wrath of God. You won't understand the mercy of God if you don't understand his righteousness and the penalty of sin. It's a mistake to only talk about grace because then you won't fully understand the beauty of his mercy and his grace. There's a balance there, but you have to make sure that grace is a part of it. There are some churches, maybe you grew up in more of a fire and brimstone kind of church where you couldn't do this and you can't do that, and you can't go hang out with those people, and it's all about the do's and don'ts. But you have to get back to the grace. I love that the Antioch church is on course because it's the first thing he sees. He had seen the grace of God and what did that do? It says it made him glad. He had seen the grace of God and was glad. That's what he saw. I love that. May the Lord see that here. We love the grace of God. But then what did he say after that? It says here in verse 23, he exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. The Jews were good at cleaving to Judaism for centuries. I wonder if Barnabas is thinking, "I wonder if these Gentiles even have a clue what it means to be faithful and to stick with something and to not waver back and forth or waffle in your faith." By the power of the spirit, Barnabas gives this word and exhorts them. Maybe this was one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, a word of prophecy. Remember, edification, comfort, and exhortation. That's part of a prophecy. I wonder if he was giving this as a prophetic word. It's part of an exhortation. He exhorts them that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord. What a good admonition, encouraging them to hang on for dear life, which they're going to have to in the days they're living. The attributes of Barnabas: a good man, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, it says here. Because of Barnabas affirming, we seem to see adding there in verse 24, adding to the church. Then Barnabas goes down and finds Saul. Remember he's still called Saul, he's not yet Paul. We dropped Saul off a few chapters back and we sort of left him. Now we're bringing him back into the story and Saul joins Barnabas and they tag team here in Antioch. They're here for a whole year. What are they doing? It says they taught much people, teaching the word. They taught much people, which is a huge thing. I think teaching the word is so underutilized in the modern-day church, but that's what makes a church grow. That's what makes a growing church healthy, is to teach the word. We see that here, and so the church is going to get stronger and stronger. Number one, we have the Jewish Christians accepting the Gentiles in the first part of the chapter. Number two, in 19 through 26, we see where they are evangelizing the Gentiles, evangelism for the Gentiles. And now in this last part of this chapter, we're going to see them receive help from the Gentiles. The Christian Jews in Jerusalem are going to receive help from the Gentiles. We pick it up in verse 27. It says, "And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem to Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the spirit that there should be great dearth or literally famine throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar." "Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea. Which also they did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul." You might say this is just church business happening. They're helping out some people during a drought. But there's a couple things you don't want to miss here. For example, remember I told you the Antioch people were wealthy? They were commerce and business, known for this. But what a deal. The famine was going throughout Judea, not up in Antioch, but down in Judea and people were literally starving, famine in the land. By the way, Josephus mentions this same exact famine in his extra-biblical writing. It only confirms that this happened, and in fact Josephus even brings up Claudius Caesar in that day and how he did some stupid things with the agriculture that made it even worse. You learn more from Josephus about this very famine, which is fun. I was reading James Montgomery Boice's commentary on this and he said, "As far as I know, this is the first charitable act of this nature in all recorded history. One race of people collecting money to help another people." No wonder they were first called Christians at Antioch. I love how Christians are the ones who are often the first ones to help throughout history. As the church grew, it was the Christian church that started helping the needy more than anybody else. If you know the history of many hospitals and some of the nicest organizations that reach out to people that are hurting, many of those, most of those were all started by the Christian church. The Christian church should be those who reach out, and that's such a key part. We're blessed as a church to be able to reach out. We've been able to help other countries, everywhere from countries in Africa like Burkina Faso to Vanuatu in the South Pacific. We're helping a church in the country of Jordan and in Peru and also in China, Tibet. We've got amazing missionaries that go into the world and preach the gospel. One of the things we're supposed to do is be seen with our good deeds. We saw that verse when we were reading scripture, that you preach the gospel but also that they might see and know that you're disciples by our love one for another. Note, just sideline note, how did they handle the money? Where did the money go? Verse 30 says, "Which also they did and sent the money to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Paul." The church model is where the elders were the ones who received the money and they would then disperse the money as God gave them wisdom. Church leaders, that's the way it's supposed to be. There are a lot of people today who abuse money. No wonder people are cynical and skeptical of church leadership because of guys like that. By and large, though, most churches have a governing board of elders who pray about how they spend money and are trying to do the spending of money wisely. I'm saddened that it seems like all the crazy people get all the press. But to be wise, the money went to the elders of the church. That's important. Be that as it may, they received help from the Gentiles. Now we're going to go to Acts chapter 12. It's all part of the same story and I think it's good to get it all in context. It says here in verse one, "Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church." Some of you think, "I thought Herod died." He did, but that was Herod the Great. This is Herod Agrippa. Herod Agrippa was Herod the Great's grandson. He was an Idumean, which was like an Edomite, a descendant of Esau. Verse 2 says, "And he, Herod the king, killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. And then were the days of unleavened bread." What's going on during the unleavened bread feast? James, this is how the James ends. The last we hear of James is he's killed with a sword. There's some interesting history about that I'm not going to go into, but it's amazing that James... which James is this? This is James, remember James and John, the Sons of Thunder, the sons of Zebedee, one of the disciples. Now he's dead. This is the second big martyr in the Bible. Others had died also, but these are we had Stephen in Acts chapter 7, now we have James killed with the sword. Now he puts Peter in prison and he's going to do the same because he realized the Jews love this stuff. Herod Agrippa was constantly trying to gain favor with the Jews. When he found out that he killed James and the non-Christian Jews were saying, "Whoopee, James is dead," he thought, "I'm taking Peter, too." That's what's going on here. Verse 4 says, "And when he had apprehended him, Peter, he put him in prison and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him, intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people." "Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept the prison." What's going on? There's a few things here. The first thing I have to say is probably in my opinion the most unfortunate translation in the King James Bible is right here. I love the King James. I think it's an amazing translation of the Bible, but this is really a bad translation where it says that it was Easter there in verse 4. "Intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people." What does your newer Bible say? Passover. That's correct. Easter was a pagan celebration. It had nothing to do with these people. This is in 1611, there was a bias of the translators that was superimposed upon this. Just FYI, so you might want to cross that word Easter out and put Passover there to make sure you got it right. Herod plots to kill Peter on the Passover. That's what he's wanting to do. James was killed, now Peter's imprisoned and about to be killed. When did the church start praying passionately? It's when James was killed. Then the church started praying. What would have happened if the church was praying before James was killed? We can't know for sure. I wonder if sometimes I've noticed as a church we start praying fervently when things really bad happen, but wouldn't it be great if we learned that lesson to pray before we have need? Remember the disciples that couldn't cast out certain demons? They said, "Jesus, how did you cast them out when we couldn't?" In Mark chapter 9, Jesus after being asked that, why couldn't we cast them out, Jesus said, "This one comes out particularly by prayer and fasting." There was a certain intensity of prayer and fasting that needed to be for this kind of demon. To be praying, wouldn't it be great if you and I were passionately praying before you were sick or before you're broke or before your kids rebel or before you need protection from this or that or direction? What's Peter doing at this time? That's interesting. The church is praying, and in fact the Greek word here for praying is this very fervent prayer. It's an interesting word study. The church is praying with real fervor here. That's something you get from the original language you kind of miss in the English here. But what's Peter doing? Sleeping. I think that's hilarious. It says, "But Peter was sleeping between the two soldiers bound with two chains and the keepers before the door." Peter's sleeping. How could he be sleeping at a time like this? You might say that's not responsible, but it kind of reminds me what Peter said himself in First Peter chapter 3, verse 12. He said, "For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, his ears are open to their prayers, but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." Peter's the guy who wrote this. Peter knew that he could trust. Jesus was sleeping during the storm. I wonder if Peter's like, "I think I'm just going to be like Jesus. Go and lay down, take a nap." That's what I say when I go take a nap. "I'm just being like Jesus." I'm not quite as good as Jesus on those things, not even close. But Peter can rest because he's trusting in the Lord. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says the same thing. "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, lean not on your own understanding, and in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths." When you feel yourself stressing, full of anxiety when you should be sleeping, how can you sleep at a time like this? Proverbs 3:21 through 24, "My son, let not them depart from thy eyes, keep sound wisdom and discretion. So they shall be life unto thy soul, grace to thy neck. Then thou shalt walk in thy way safely and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid. Yea, thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet." Whenever you find yourself putting your head on your pillow and you're wide awake and your brain's just going buzz and you can't go to sleep, maybe it's time to pray. Maybe it's time for you just to get up out of bed. Have you ever just wasted time in bed? Sleep, go to sleep. Come on, I've got to work tomorrow. Go to sleep, sleep, sleep. The harder you try, the more frustrated you are. Maybe if you can't beat it, join it. Get up, make some hot tea, and go find a little corner in your house and just pray and seek the Lord. That can be really helpful.
Kurt: Pastor Brett Meador drawing encouragement through the example of the imprisoned Peter. We'll continue Peter's story that will result in victory through his trust in the power and providence of God next time. I also invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in the studio to share some final words from this message. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church in the Portland, Oregon area where Pastor Brett Meador is the senior pastor. We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. Pastor Brett has joined me. Brett, we're at another exciting point in the Book of Acts as we see the growth of the church, but we're also seeing the persecution of the church. The apostle Peter continues to preach outside of Jerusalem and many are saved, but there are some difficult days that lie ahead, right?
Brett Meador: That's right, Kurt. The early church was growing rapidly, even multiplying, but it was also facing huge, intense persecution. I think we historically look at those ten waves of the Roman emperors and it was coming, and you could sense that during the time of Paul. But sometimes we as modern-day Christians, we're surprised by hardship. The Book of Acts reminds me that opposition has always accompanied the spread of the gospel. As a church in modern times, just to realize that God can use that. Here's James martyred, Peter imprisoned, the church under pressure, and yet instead of collapsing, the believers prayed even more fervently. Acts chapter 12 shows us the church praying continually for Peter. What's amazing is that God is still working through all of that. You sense that he's using all of that for his purpose. Other times with James, the Lord allows suffering for reasons we'll never really fully understand this side of heaven, but we also remember Romans 8:28 that tells us all things work together for good to them that love God. And so the church has often flourished best when the believers stayed faithful even under pressure. I think in difficult days, the gospel kept spreading because you can't imprison the word of God. That's the mistake they made. You can't quiet the living, powerful word of God.
Kurt: I love that statement, that you can't imprison the word of God, because it is powerful. It's also an encouragement to the church today to stay faithful even in persecution. Thank you, Pastor Brett. Well, if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or to hear more of this study in the Book of Acts, just go to todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Next time, Pastor Brett will share the story of how Peter is miraculously freed through the power of prayer while Herod meets his ultimate end. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.