***The following is an unedited auto-generated transcript and may contain serious errors and speakers other than Dallas Willard. It is included here to assist your study. Please check the original audio for an authentic record of the event.
Dallas: One of the things I want to do when I get to heaven is spend a great deal of time exploring the beauty of sound. Isn’t wonderful what sound is? God made that, and it’s one of the things he looked at and said, it’s good. And it is good, just sound. I appreciate occasionally hearing something in a language which I don’t understand, because then I can concentrate on the sounds. Thank you very much. I’m sure that was a blessing to all of us. One of the things I want to do when I get to heaven is learn how to play a banjo. That’s just one. That’s just one.
We’re looking in these evenings at the Book of Acts, and I’m attempting to tell you what happened in the Book of Acts. And I chose that way of wording the theme, because I’m very anxious that we should be able to hold before us the meaning of this book. I think that commonly when this book is approached, and very like I may say with the Book of Revelations, people lose the forest among the trees, and they never figure out really the meaning of the book itself. The meaning of the book is that which God would teach us through it, by the events which are recorded in it. And we cannot find the meaning of the book by saying let’s go back and do what they did. The meaning of the book is not so much what they did, but the character of God’s working in the events in their lives. And I’ve been trying to make that stand out.
You recall that I said, if we want to understand what happens in the Book of Acts, we must hold before us above all, Matthew 21, 43, where Jesus tells the Jews that he will take the kingdom of God from them, and give it unto a people bringing forth the fruits thereof.
Now you see, the Jewish nation were called of God to be a light unto the whole world. They were above all called of God to learn the great lesson that there is one God. There is one personal God who created the earth, who desires to enter into a right relationship with man, individually and corporately, so that everything that hath breath would literally praise the Lord, and the earth would be a constant song of praise to his goodness and enjoyment of fellowship with him. That did not come to pass immediately, and God in his patience continues to work with us. And there will be a time when the Gentiles will have failed in general to accomplish that which God has called them to, just as the Jews did. And in that time, the Jews are going to turn and look at Jesus Christ, and they’re going to say, you know, he was absolutely right. He was absolutely right. And they’re going to turn to God through him.
Now in this process of history, the Jews, as they learned their lesson that there is one personal God, neglected to see that the other side of that is that that one personal God is the God of every person. And they took this God and tried to claim him for their own. And they tried to say, God loves Jews better than he loves anyone. And as a result of this, he is going to take the Jews, and he is going to let them have their way with the earth. He’s going to send a Messiah, and this Messiah will reform the nation of Israel as a political entity, which God never intended that it should be. He’s going to reform that nation, and they’re literally going to govern the whole world. They’re going to kill the Romans, chase the Greeks in a hole, and dominate the whole world. And the whole world is going to be a nice Jewish community. Just like some people, for example, I’ll talk about my own denomination, since it’s not you. I know a lot of Southern Baptists, for example, who think that the whole purpose of God in history is to turn human society in one continuous Southern Baptist meeting. And everything else is just a little strange at best, and it goes downhill from there. Now the Jew thought that the world was to become a Jewish society under the power of the Messiah, and that was a terrible mistake. As a result of this, a result of that mistake, they continually abused the institutions of the nation of Israel, the temple which God had given them, and the rituals which he had imparted.
Let me just give you out of the book of Isaiah the prophetic response to this mistake. In Isaiah 66, this is a verse which we’re going to read again in a moment from the seventh chapter of Acts. In the 66th chapter, the prophet is responding to the great emphasis which the Jew had come to place upon the temple and the ordinances of the temple. And the prophet says, in response to that mistaken attitude, thus saith the Lord, heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. So where is the house you’re going to build for me? And where is the place of my rest? For all of those things hath my hand made, and all of those things have been, saith the Lord. And then he turns, but to this, this man, this person I will look, to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word. Then he says something awful. He says, those people who are caught up in their cultural rituals and identifying that with godliness, he says, such a person, if he kills an ox to sacrifice it, it’s as if he slew a man, it’s something unholy. He that sacrifices the lamb, it is as if he cut off a dog’s neck. He that offereth oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood. It’s very difficult for us to sense the terrible impact of these words, the very idea of offering pig blood as a sacrifice to God. And yet, the prophet is saying, to these people who made the mistake I’ve referred to of identifying Jewishness with godliness, he is saying, when you offer a sacrifice, it’s like offering swine’s blood to Jehovah, yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations, and then the fearful statement, I will choose their delusions, I will bring their fears upon them, because when I called, none did answer. When I spake, they did not hear, but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.
When we come to the time of Jesus, we find him saying much the same things in many places. I’ll just read a couple of passages to you, because I want to make this point very strongly. In the 24th chapter of Matthew, when Jesus went out, first verse, and departed from the temple, his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple, marvelous thing, and they were showing him in great pride, how wonderful the temple was, and Jesus said to them very drily, no doubt, you see all of these things? Everything at the temple, verily I say in you that there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And it was true, 40 years later, it came to pass. You see, they had their eye on the wrong thing. Look again, we’re going to be talking about Samaritans for most of the evening this evening. Look again at John 4, the woman at the well. John chapter 4, verse 19 and following. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither worship in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what, we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews, but the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
And now if you look at the seventh chapter of Acts, we find this earth-scorching sermon that Stephen preached. He was bringing his own death upon him by the words which he was going to speak. And he takes the Jewish mistake of identifying righteousness and godliness with certain cultural practices and certain holy places. He takes that mistake and he drives it into the hearts of those who are around about him.
I look at his concluding words, again verse 44 of chapter 7, our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness. Our fathers that came after brought it in with Joshua under the possession of the Gentiles, whom God graved out before the face of our fathers in the days of David. And David found favor before God and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob, but Solomon built him a house. I wish I had time to just enlarge on the contrast in those two verses and the contrast between David and Solomon and what that meant for the history of Israel. But Stephen replies with the words which we’ve read from Isaiah. He says, howbeit the most high dwelleth not in temples made with hands as saith the prophet. Heaven is my throne. Earth is my footstool. What house will you build unto me, saith the Lord, of what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hands made all of these things?
And now Stephen signs his own death warrant. Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they have slain them which should before the coming of the just one, of whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.
And when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart. And they gnashed on him with their teeth. They bit him. The rage in their heart, because he had cut right at the foundation of their whole identity. The rage in their heart was such that they literally chewed on him. And then they pulled him outside and killed him.
And Saul stood there and helped the clothing of those who threw the stones, verse 58. The witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet whose name was Saul.
Now I’ve read all of that because I want you to see the movement. Because the next stage of the movement is the community of God in which Jesus places the kingdom of God, is now going to move literally away from the holy place. The community has been formed. And we spoke of this last time. After the day of Pentecost, there was a period of time in which a community of people was formed. And that community now is going to be expelled out from the Jewish institutions, buildings and locales.
One of the best ways of outlining the book of Acts is simply to take Acts 1-8. Tear ye at Jerusalem, chapter one. Tell ye be endued with power from on high, chapter two. Then you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and in Judea, chapters three through seven. That’s where we are now. In Samaria, chapters eight through 12, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth, chapters 13 through 28. Acts 1-8 outlines the book of Acts perfectly. And you have to see the drift and know the meaning of the events and then you can begin to pick up on why these things happened the way they did.
The Holy Spirit came upon the people of the day of Pentecost. Power entered into this group of outcasts and rebels. They were indeed the saving remnant of Isaiah. And they received the community of God. But you see that community existed in the literal framework of Jewish institutions. And during the first period, they are still Jews. We read last time as Peter and John went up ninth hour in the temple to pray, as they are prayer. They behaved as Jews did. They had no sense of what was going to happen. But something was happening which would pave the way.
Now through a period of time of attack and growth, from outside and inside, the inside attacks were most clearly the attack of deceit about sharing the goods that came to a head in Ananias and Sapphira in the fifth chapter of the book of Acts. This was an attack on the community from the inside. The attacks came from the outside. We read in the sixth chapter of the book of Acts, the attack which comes from this satisfaction about the parting of food between the Grecians and the Hebrews. That is to say, those Jews which lived outside of Jerusalem were called Grecians, and they were sort of second-class citizens. And the Jews who lived inside of Jerusalem and in Judea were called Hebrews. They were all Jews. But they recall these different things, and you find in the opening part of the sixth chapter of Acts, in those days when the number of the disciples had multiplied their rosa murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily menstruation. And the result of this was the appointing of the deacons to handle this. These are described as seven men of honest report, verse three of chapter six, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word.
You see, the community is articulating itself. Positions are identified. Roles are adopted. Every community has to have that.
Now, what is crucial to understand is now these roles are independent of the Jewish religion. They are not tied to the temple. They’re not tied to the rituals in any way. That’s necessary for the new community to be formed. The attacks from in, the attacks from outside, the response, the growth is what you see in this period from Acts two through seven, as the community is formed, and it is formed independently of the Jewish institutions.
Last time you recall, I titled my discussion Preparation for Persecution. Now, persecution had hinted at trouble before, but now it really comes with the death of Stephen, blood is shed. And we find the opening of the eighth chapter of Acts, a new era in the early church is opened up. Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church, which is Jerusalem, and now here is the effect, and this is crucial. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and, where? Samaria. Right? You see, this all fits together. This book was not written by accident. These events were planned. When Jesus spoke to them in Acts one, eight, he did not say, now, after you get baptized with the Holy Spirit, you’re supposed to witness to me. He didn’t say, you ought to go out and do it, did he? He said, you shall be. And so he’s seeing to it that it happens. He prepares the group so that when persecution hits and blood is shed, people are killed. The community will not be destroyed. It will scatter, and it will preach. Wherever it goes, it will preach. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc at the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore they were scattered abroad, and they went everywhere preaching the word. You’re familiar with the saying of Tertullian, the church father, that the blood of the martyrs is at the seat of the church. To persecute the church that is prepared in the way this community was prepared is like trying to put a fire out by throwing gunpowder on. It just blows up and goes. You can’t put it out. The effect of the persecution was to propagate the gospel. They didn’t have a missionary society. The truth of the matter is they didn’t know they were, it had not sunk in. Jesus said, go ye, uh-uh, no. How could you go to Gentiles? You realize that if you were in a room with a Gentile, you were considered unclean? You’re unclean if you were in a room with a Gentile. How could they do that? They couldn’t, but God could. So persecution came after the community was prepared, and they went. And where they went, they preached. Now Philip goes to Samaria. Samaria, you remember, these are half-breeds. And I want to just plot the movement without a lot of comment as to where Philip goes. And I want to call attention to the differing groups of people now that he contacts. So far as we know, everywhere he goes, he’s still preaching to Jews or half-Jews. But look at the area this man covers. Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto him. Jesus had already been there, and there had been a lot of people converted. You remember that story in the fourth chapter of John. We just referred to it briefly a moment ago. A lot of people were converted because of the woman of Samaria, her witness, and then the people who came and heard him and said, as the scripture puts it, now we believe not because of what you said, but because we’ve heard him ourselves, and we know that this is the Messiah. So these people had received, and Philip went there no doubt because of that. He knew that there was already a community of disciples in Samaria, and the effect was that as he preached, verse six, the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did, ungleamed spirits crying, coming out, and so on. Verse eight, and there was great joy in that city.
Now, I’m going to skip the rest of this story about Samaria, except to point out verse 14, because verse 14 is going to recur in a slightly different form later on when we come to the Gentiles. And when the apostles, which were at Jerusalem, heard that Samaria had received the word of God, this was not something they had planned on. And if you compare that to the first verse of the 11th chapter of Acts, this is after Peter preaches to Cornelius, and the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. Look at the also, okay? Well, what does the also refer to? It refers to all these people who came before, including the Samaritans of verse 14 of chapter eight. They had heard that Samaria had received the word of God. They sent Peter and John to make sure that this thing was all right, see. It did not seem likely that God would do that for the Samaritans, but he was, and they went down to check out and make sure, just like it didn’t seem likely he was going to do it for the Gentiles.
But now, quickly, let me show you what happens to Philip after this. There is a great movement of God among the Samaritans, and in the midst of this revival, if we wish to call it by that, you find in verse 26, a messenger of the Lord spake unto Philip, say, arise and go towards the south, unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem into Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went. You see, you have to remember that you’re dealing here with people who had learned how to obey. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candacy, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all of her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for her worship. Now we were dealing with half-breeds. This is probably a proselyte. You see the progression, reaching out step by step, preparing the community for the next step so that it will seem reasonable and right that this is possible. God does not overwhelm us. He doesn’t set aside our free will and our understanding. He brings us on. He says, come now, let us reason together. So here you have a eunuch, an Ethiopian eunuch. And you know the story, verse 29, and then said the Spirit. This man was reading the prophet Isaiah, and the Spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot, and Philip ran to him and heard him read the prophet and said, understandest thou what thou readest? The man said, no, I can’t unless someone explained it to me. And so Philip did not need much further invitation. Verse 35, and then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. But I want to tell you who that is that he’s talking about, and he preached unto him Jesus. Now this man, you can be sure, having been at Jerusalem, knew something about Jesus. No one failed to know something about Jesus. And no doubt the Spirit had prepared him. Remember this in your witnessing, that God knows who needs to be spoken to. He knows who can speak the right word, and he knows how to bring them together. And when you go forward as a witness for Christ, remember to count on that fact. Remember to count on it. As is your faith, so will it be unto you. And if you count on it, you will find it happening, and you will find that you do not need to force unpleasant situations. You find that you don’t need to offend people, though some will be offended. That’s a different story. You don’t need to offend people in order to witness to them. Learn to follow the leadership of the Spirit and let them lead you to prepared people to hear the word which you have to give to them, as he did here.
Philip was really a pretty spooky person at this point, because you’ll notice he no sooner baptizes this Ethiopian eunuch. Verse 37, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest be baptized. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And so they commanded the chariot to sand-sill, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and the eunuch went on his way rejoicing. And Philip was found at Azotus. Now Azotus is an old city of the Philistines, the traditional, one of the traditional Semitic enemies of the Jews, from half-breeds to proselytes to old enemies. And Philip starts there in Azotus and goes north up the Mediterranean coast, and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. Now tell me, who is it later on that we meet at Caesarea? His initials are Cornelius. You see the connection? You see how all of this ties together? Philip was not the only one working, but he was one of those who was carrying out the mission to Samaria. Samaria is not just the city of Samaria. It was an indefinite region. It referred to a group of people who had intermingled with the surrounding nations by marriage, and by religion. And consequently, we have a rather vague area surrounding Judea and Jerusalem, and I’m calling all of this Samaria in which these deeds that we’re reading about in Acts 8 through 12 occur. It’s a kind of vague region.
Now this is in the ministry of Philip, and I want to talk just about a few more of the high points in the progression into Samaria to make clear the way God works. There is, of course, the work with Saul, and it occupies several chapters, or a couple of chapters about, in this little segment from Acts 8 through Acts 12. But Saul is being prepared for his work beginning in Acts 13. And so I’m going to come back to that next time, because Saul’s work properly falls in that area unto the uttermost parts of the earth. It is Saul who finally picks up the community of God and relocates it in Rome. And that’s where we wind up at the end of the book of Acts. But I want us to look at some more people.
First of all, let’s look at Peter again. I’m not going to go in detail through the events of Acts 10 and 11. I think you’re familiar with the story. I think what I want to do is point out to you how much space is given to it. If you will notice, it begins at the very opening of Acts 10. And it isn’t done until the 18th verse of Acts 11. And I want to try to explain why it’s given so much space. There’s a principle here of repetition, which is followed in the scripture, to make clear a point which otherwise would be greatly in doubt. And that stands out right at the opening of the story in Acts 10. You remember that Peter is on the housetop praying about the same time that there is an experience in Caesarea. Peter has been traveling around in this area, which I’m calling Samaria. If you go back to verse 32 of chapter 9, you’ll see, and it came to pass as Peter passed through all quarters, he came down to the saints which dwelt at Lydda. And there were some miracles performed. And Peter winds up finally, at the end of chapter 9, in Joppa, at the house of Simon the tanner, I believe it is.
Now, as he is there, events are progressing with a Roman centurion in Caesarea. One can do a lot of speculating about who this fellow was. One could, for example, speculate that it is the same centurion that Jesus dealt with in the eighth chapter of Matthew, or perhaps one of the others which had been met with earlier. That may be so. It need not be so. This man was one who sought God. Verse 2 of chapter 10 says, a devout man, and one that feared God with all of his house, which gave much arms to the people and prayed to God always. Now this man was a person in whom God was working, and although the Jews could not believe it, they were going to believe it very soon.
Peter is fasting and praying, and he’s about to break his fast, as you go on through the tenth chapter. And as they are preparing food for him, he has a vision. And the vision is that they’re all manner of unclean things. That is animals which it was ritually forbidden that they should eat. And these were let down to Peter in a blanket. And he was told, rise Peter, kill and eat. And he always would say, not so, Lord. Not so, Lord. Peter was very big on saying not so, Lord. You know, he did that a number of times when the Lord was here. Not so, Lord. Peter had a mind of his own. I’m sure that’s one reason why he had the prominence that he did, because he had a good heart, but a mind of his own. So not so, Lord. He didn’t hesitate. Of course, he didn’t realize that that’s a contradictory statement. You can’t say, not so, Lord. You can say not so, and you can say Lord, but you can’t say not so, Lord, see. And that’s something for us to keep in mind.
Well, Peter had his lesson to learn, and you see, he was faced with a very heavy cultural barrier. He had been trained. No doubt he was revolted, as we are trained to be, by the things which we come up with. No doubt he was revolted at the idea of eating a pig. Revolted him, no doubt. Made him sick of his stomach. Not so, Lord. Rise, Peter, kill and eat. And this was done three times, repetition. God would be clear with the man, repetition.
And verse 19 of chapter 10, while Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, free men seek thee. Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them. See how the Lord prepared him. He shook him up at the foundations of his Jewishness, because he was now going to have to go open the key of the kingdom with the keys which the Lord gave him to the Gentiles. Paul did not open the key of the kingdom to the Gentiles. If he had it, he would have been suspect, because Paul was a Grecian Jew. He was a citizen of Tarsus, educated as a Greek and Roman, as well as a Hebrew. And if he had done this, they would have just said, well, you know, you know about these people from Tarsus, they’re not real Hebrews, but Peter, poor, ignorant, unlearned, Jewish Peter was the one who was going to open the door of the kingdom unto the Gentiles. Go with them, the Lord says, nothing, doubting. And they took him to Cornelius.
And Cornelius, verse 25 of chapter 10, Peter’s coming in. Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter took him by the hand and said, stand up. And Cornelius had the benefit now of the vision, because you’ll see in verse 28, you know how that it is unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company or come unto one of another nation, but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. All of a sudden, the mistake that had been inbred in the Jews for centuries was righted. There is no man common or unclean. Now then we’re ready to say, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever. Now we’re ready to say whosoever will may come. And Peter is only now learning this. The Lord had practiced it. The Lord had shown it for it. But now the church is beginning to learn it.
So he begins to speak to him. And the great lesson is expressed again in verse 34 chapter 10, when then Peter opened his mouth and said, of a truth I perceive, that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. And as Peter speaks, verse 44, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word, and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished. Peter had been smart. He had taken people with him as witnesses. They were astonished. Why were they astonished? Same reason that the people who heard this band of rebels on the day of Pentecost praising the Lord in their own tongues were astonished. They had no idea God was going to show up over there. That’s the principle. I’ve explained it to you before, and here it comes into play again. They were astonished. Because God turns up in a place they did not think he would possibly be.
Now this whole story has to be retold to the church back in Jerusalem, chapter 11. And the apostles and the brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God, just like with the Samaritan. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him. And they said, now these are Christians, these are not the non-Christian Jews. These are the Christian Jews, if you wish. They contended with him, saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them. I mean, this is just adding insult to injury. He sat down and ate with them. Well, Peter rehearsed the whole matter from the beginning and expounded it in order, told them the whole story. We get a repetition of the whole thing again.
Now then, when Peter goes through the whole story and appeals also to the witness of those who were there with him, and verse 15 is especially important, because you’ll see here he doesn’t even take credit for communicating the Holy Ghost to them, verse 15 of chapter 11. And as I began to speak, why, he sees him saying, I didn’t even get my sermon finished. I just started talking and it hit them. The Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then I remembered the word of the Lord. For as much then as God gave them the light gift. What was I that I could withstand God? Now you see, it is God that is moving these people. He takes them step by step. They have to respond. They have to be ready to change. They have to be willing to follow. They have to be ready to obey. But God takes them when they have the readiness and brings them through their experiences as they are able to benefit and profit and grow from them to the place that he wants them.
I want to just mention one other incident tonight, and that is the case here in the 11th chapter of some brethren from Cyprus and Cyrene in verse 19 of chapter 11. And here we see the church moving into its jumping off point for Rome, which is Antioch in Syria. Verse 19, now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution and that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Hanishi and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but Jews only. Now you know why they didn’t, right? They just preached to the Jews. Because it was still in their head that God would have to do only with Jews. He would always work through them. He would not deal directly with anyone else. And he would make the Jews dominant over the Gentiles. And then Jewishness would prevail throughout the earth. Verse 20, some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene. Cyrene is a way over on the north coast of Africa. Now these were people, you see, who had the benefit of an experience outside of the Jewish context. Since the work had been done in Philip in Samaria, had been done with Peter in Cornelius in Caesarea, now we’re ready for others besides Jewish Jews to begin to move in. And from here on, the ministry is turned over to Grecian Jews, Barnabas. These people we’re going to see in a moment, we don’t have their names, and above all Paul. But look what these people did. Some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in that setting, in Antioch, you don’t have Hebrew Jews and Greek Jews. You just have Greek Jews, right? And these were the Jews that were being preached to in verse 19. Grecians now are Gentile. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Now look at the repetition. And the tidings of these things came under the ears of the church, which is Jerusalem. You remember the earlier verses now, you remember what happened in Samaria, what happened with Peter and Cornelius, same thing. The church at Jerusalem has got to check this out. And so they send forth Barnabas, Barnabas is a man of Cyprus, they send forth Barnabas and he comes to Antioch. As the scripture says here in verse 22, as far as Antioch, because it was an area that was concerned north of Jerusalem, who when he came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, for he was a good man. You see, he was capable of taking this in. He was capable of seeing the work of God in this strange and unlikely manner, for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord.
And Barnabas looked at that situation, he said, I know who we need. We need Paul. We’ve got to have Paul. Paul can step right into this. And so look at the next verse. Then departed Saul, Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him into 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 because they could no longer call them Jews. They were first called Christians at Antioch.
Now with verse 12, the end of verse 12, we find a radical break in the book of Acts. And I’m hoping that you’ll find time in this coming week to read chapters 13 through 28 and you will see a different world because the center of the new community is now moved effectively from Antioch. The leading ministry is taken now from the hands of Peter and is placed in the hands of Paul. And you will see now, I hope that as you read the book of Acts, you will go back to many verses in Paul’s letters in which he breaks down all of the old boundaries between human beings. Whether Jew or Greek or Scythian, Scythian, what’s Scythian? Remember that verse, Scythian? Well, Scythian was your howling naked savage. I mean, he was like your wild man of the jungle. He was the living end, we might say, bombed and free, male and female, all of these distinctions are now changed and transformed. There is no longer the kind of subordination to a cultural system which was used to grind the life out of some people in favor of others. No more. Now every man stands before God in the dignity of God’s creation and in the church in the dignity of the sonship which we enjoy after we’ve been born again. Now there’s no more Jew in Gentile. Now there’s no more any of these things.
In closing this evening, what we have to think about is the meaning of this for us today. We have to search our hearts and minds and ask ourselves, how far do I limit God in my faith? By requiring that if he’s going to do anything at all, he must do it in a certain way. He must do it with a certain tone of voice, in a certain place, and so on. If we believe those things about God, we are still essentially caught in the Jewish, the Jerusalem captivity of the church. After a time of marvelous liberty such as we find in the first and second centuries, the church went into captivity again. It went into the Roman captivity of the church. And it stayed there for centuries. And it knows many captivities. And the mark of captivity is always that tendency to believe that God cannot possibly work except within the confines of our little earthen vessel with all of its cracks and marks and leaks, but which is so dear to us because it’s ours.
Paul’s principle was we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the glory should be of God and not of us. We mustn’t hold down the power of God in unrighteousness and unfaith because of a conviction that he must do things exactly the way we have planned, or he will pass us by individually and as a group in the same way that he passed by these very sincere people whom Paul described as having zeal for God but not according to knowledge.
Let’s pray together. Lord, we are thankful for these powerful words. We are thankful for the life of the church which is set forth in these passages. We pray, Lord, that you will help us to escape the bondage that we might place upon ourselves and upon our faith and even upon you, that we might find ourselves in a position of saying, as Peter said, not so, Lord. God save us from it. If there be those this evening here who need to make a stand on some issue for which the ministry of this church can be helped, we pray that they’ll move this evening and change their course for time and for eternity. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
We’re going to sing number 273, and if there are those of you who need to make decisions this evening, there will be those here to meet you and to counsel with you and pray for you, try to help you as you find your way better or as you find your way for the first time into the way of Christ. Let’s stand together and sing. I hear the Savior say, My strength indeed is strong, God of weakness, watch and pray, Thine in me, thine all in all. God in my own sin had left his crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. For nothing could have I, where by thy grace it came, I will wash my garden’s vine, In Bethlehem’s prison. Jesus made it wrong, God who made my own, Sin had left my crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.
Let’s believe that as we go from here this evening, and let’s share that in our hopeful message to everyone we meet, without asking which vessel they belong to, but just assuring them by our good cheer and our hopefulness and our confidence that Jesus indeed paid it all. Everything is taken care of from Him. Let’s spread the word. Now may the Lord be with you this week, and may you know His grace and His love in a way such as you’ve never known it before, for the glory of His kingdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.