Turn to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 11. We get a preview, a peek, a peek
into the early New Testament church. And there's just something
about this history and then right in the middle of this description
or the things that are happening was a verse that kind of seemed
to come together. What all churches ought to be
like or ought to examine themselves to see that they're doing this
and encouraging their members to do this. It's very specific. Nathan mentioned back in the
back about how blessed and glorious it is that brethren dwell together
in unity. And then he talked about some
really good things. But there's a key word, brethren,
brethren. You know, there's factions all
over the place, but there's a reason why there's factions, and there's
a reason why brethren should dwell together in unity. I had
asked some questions of me last night concerning this very thing. Let's read verse 1 in Acts 11
to kind of set the stage. Acts 11 verse 1 has set the stage,
and the apostles, now you know the apostles were Jewish, and
brethren that were in Judea, they were in the, where it all
started, in Jerusalem, in Judea, heard, they'd heard that the
Gentiles, oh boy, the Gentiles, that Samaritans have no dealings
with, Jews had no dealings with, Gentiles were below them. Their
many years of religious privileges had brought a haughty spirit,
which the grace of God does not do that. It brings us down. But
religion that does not have Christ as its center, they'll become
haughty, and depravity will soon take over. But they had heard
that the Gentiles had also received Receive the Word of God. There's
our basis right there. Do you believe this the Word
of God? Am I preaching from the Word of God? Do we look to the
Word of God and I this is what I was saying in the conversation
yesterday the Word of God is our It's our rule It's our life
because it speaks the Word of Christ the Word incarnate it
speaks about Jesus Christ So now let's skip to verse 19 And now they were scattered abroad. This is the Lord through the
persecution after Christ's death, they've been scattered. Well,
this is what the Lord is how he's gonna use to spread his
gospel. So they're scattered upon the persecution and that
arose about Stephen traveling as far as Phoenix and Cyprus
and Antioch. And what did they do? When you
get scattered, you still believe the gospel. What are we to do?
Preaching the word to none but the Jews. That you're still under
that old way, preaching to none but the Jews. And some of them
were men of Cyprus and Cyrene which when they were come to
Antioch, the Gentile town, spake unto the Grecians, that's Gentiles,
preaching about the weather, preaching some doctrine, preaching,
this is what my mom and dad taught me, so this is what I'm gonna
preach. No, they preached the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was
with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the
Lord. You preach about the weather,
they're gonna turn and know everything about the weather. You preach
about doctrine and about schisms, that's what they're gonna turn
to. But if you preach in verse 20, the Lord Jesus Christ, those
who believed are gonna turn unto the Lord, and that's what we
desire. Not my system, not your system. Like I said, There's
two religions. There's a religion of Cain and
a religion of Abel. I don't care what the denomination.
Cain believes that the best he can do, he's working constantly
to improve, he's a good man, provides for a family, I'm not
saying any of that, but in the ways of God and the spiritual
scope, he thinks that what he does will honor God. Abel brought an innocent, sacrifice
the Lord Jesus Christ so you preach Christ people are
going to believe and turn to Christ verse 22 then tidings
of these things came to the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem
that would be the main church in this time and they sent forth
Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch So he goes, he's
sent out by the elders, he goes to Antioch. Verse 23, who? Barnabas, when he came to that
little new early new church, when he came and had seen the
grace of God, that's what got my attention. Well, how do you
see the grace of God? Well, we'll get back to that. Was glad and
exhorted them all that with purpose of heart, not just cocky, not
just on Christmas day, not on Easter Sunday, but with purpose
of heart, that means fully committed, they would cleave to the Lord. It's awesome. It keeps going
back to Christ. This is just beautiful. For Barnabas
is what he's speaking in verse 24. Barnabas was a good man,
full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And much people was added
to the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus
for to seek Saul, or Paul. And when he had found him, he
brought him to Antioch, to this new little fledgling church.
And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves
with the church. How often? I don't know, but
for a whole year. They assembled themselves. That's
what church is. That's what fellowship is. It's
gathering together. That's why Paul says, you know,
in another place, if the writer is Paul in Hebrews, forsake not
the gathering, the assembling of yourselves together. Yes,
these new fangled social tools, Facebook and all, they're good,
but like everything, we abuse them. If you have a church that's
in the neighborhood that preaches the gospel, I think it's a crime
not to go there. But that's a whole nother issue.
It's a whole nother, they assembled themselves with the church, how
blessed it is for brethren to dwell together in unity and taught
much people. And the disciples were called
Christians first at this little play, at this little church.
Then there came the days that the prophets from Jerusalem came
to Antioch and there stood one of them named Agabus and signified
by the spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout
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 to the brethren, which dwelt in Judea, which also
they did, and sent it by the elders by the hands of Barnabas
and Saul." See, we get a good little glimpse of what's going
on. What's going on, and this is what we should be doing. I
don't care if it's 2024, getting ready to go into 2025. God's
church does not change with the times. I personally don't believe
that. It doesn't change with the times.
We go back to the scriptures. Well, they didn't have modern,
I know they didn't have modern conveniences, Actually, like
I believe what Maurice Montgomery said, he says, we got so much
more modern conveniences that are supposed to save time and
nobody's got time. Now, instead of doing stuff,
you pick up the phone and you do this and you do that and you
let this talk to you. Well, that's a convenience. You're
still There's still something about
face-to-face. There's still something about when I see, you know, Trent
comes in, I shake his hand. I can't shake your hand if you're
not here. I like that. Hug Bonnie, smile at everybody. Matt cracked me up when he was
up here. He was just kind of smiling, looking at everybody. And I'm
not saying these other tools are not useful. I'm not saying
that, but I'll tell you, and Joe and I, we totally agreed
on this. There's nothing like gathering together. Slow down. The school's going to be there
tomorrow. The sporting events are going
to happen, you know, they're going to happen seven days a
week. The world does not care about Christianity. These things
are still going to go on. But the believer, it's like we
saw in 1 Samuel this last time, the believer, what does he do?
He just keeps going back to worship, go home. Back to worship, go
home. It's all going to be there. A lot of things that we stress
over, it's our fault. We stress over. So this is a
beautiful glimpse into this New Testament church that springs
up by the grace of God. So who's reporting this wonderful
account to Antioch? Let's get a few things out of
the way. Well, Luke is the writer of Acts, so Luke is reporting,
but Barnabas is the one that we want to center in on. He's
going, he was sent out. He's a good man. It says in verse
24, he was a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.
Well, he was a good man, not of himself, because there's no
man good, says Romans. There's none of us good, no,
not one. He wasn't good from birth, he wasn't good by his
own nature or his own will because he inherited Adam's will, Adam's
nature. And when Adam fell in the garden,
he plummeted the whole human race. But he was good, so to
speak, because he was a man of faith. He was a man of faith
by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. What
did Barnabas and the others that were with him do? Verse 19 and
20, what did they do? Or what did these others do before
Barnabas even got there? They did the same thing that
we're supposed to do. Man or woman, it doesn't make any difference.
Personally, if you're a believer, you have a mouth. Now there's
orders in the church, but we're talking about this is just going
off. Look at what they did in verse
19 and 20. They were scattered abroad, the persecution, because
of certain folks. But what did they do? They preached
the word to none but the Jews only. That's they had the Old
Testament mindset. The New Testament hadn't been
written yet. They preached to the Jews only. If this is our singular object,
to speak of our sovereign Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, not our denomination, not man's so-called abilities,
not do's or don'ts, but we preach Christ. Verse 20, some of them
were the men of Cyprus of Cyrene, which they came to Antioch. They
spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like
the Ethiopian eunuch did. Just like Paul did. I've determined,
he says, not to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ and
him crucified. That is our objects, it's singular. And for those who receive this
wonderful truth, that's why we bring our children, that's why
we bring our neighbors, our friends, those who receive this preaching
in verse 21, and the hand of the Lord was with them and a
great number believed and turned unto the Lord. We're not proselyting
to get people to think like us. There are a bunch of other churches
that do that. Ask John Claude. Go to Africa and see all the
different, and then go to India. See all these different denominations. No, we don't go forth to proselyte
people after our way, but THE way. They turn to Jesus, not any other
man, person, or system. But salvation is centered, founded,
initiated in the person and achievements of Him who is set on the cross
Himself. It's finished. I have accomplished
everything. And that's why I kept trying
to say this to the person I was in a conversation with. Just,
it's about a person. It's a person. It's a person.
So folks, so the folks in Jerusalem are now telling, they're just talking to the Jews.
But now, they're speaking to the Gentiles. Like we heard this
morning, that's you and me, now we have hope. Now the gospel
is there's hope for you and me because now in verse 20, the
Gentiles, they're preaching the Lord Jesus Christ to the Grecians,
to the Gentiles. Now in verse 22, the word gets
back to Jerusalem, the church of Jerusalem, they send our brother
Barnabas. And he's now reporting the events
of this section of our text. Let us center in on verse 23.
This is what we, as church in Jackson, a church in Jackson,
as a church here in Jackson, we are to do one to another,
and to any who will join together with us in honor and praising
the only wise God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Look at verse 23. Who? When He came. He came in among them. He came
in among them. This newly started church at
Antioch, there's five things He did. First thing, Who, when He came, had seen the
grace of God. We'll stop there. He's seen the
grace of God. How does that happen? Well, what
I'm about to tell you is what separates a church from a club,
from membership, from a social gathering. This is not what we
do. This is one thing that's wrong
with churches today. They got way too much money.
They got way too many programs. They got way too many things
going on. They got big screens. They got big choirs. They got
all this. There's places that spend 90%
of their services singing, playing in the band or whatever. I'm
not against any of that, but in the church, when he had seen the grace of
God, or the effects of the grace of God, the effects of the free
favor and free pardon of God, it made a difference. When he
had seen, now I know all these things can be counterfeited,
but that's not for me to decide. That is not for me to decide.
If you're counterfeit or not, I've just preached the gospel.
Go back up to what they did. Did they examine? Did they excommunicate
if they didn't meet the qualifications? It's like I told these folks
a long time ago that were trying to debate. I said, you're telling me all these,
you got all these rules and regulations, you're telling me God who is
overall cannot control his church? The grace, and there's only one,
has efficacious or powerful influences. that causes those who receive
the truth to turn to Christ to be transformed from darkness
to light. It's not changing denominations. It's not changing a bus. Oh, this is going here, I gotta
get on this bus, and then I gotta get there. It's like waiting
in the airport. It's not catching another flight. This is transformative. This is true regeneration. This
is true repentance. This is true conversion. When
Barnabas had seen the grace of God, this grace is not merely
in word only, what I'm saying, but in effect. It changes the
heart, the mind, the attitude, and conduct. It makes us like
the person who's being preached, like the person preaching in
verse 20, the Lord Jesus, they turn unto the Lord. It changes. Thusly, in Antioch,
down in latter verses, it says that, verse 26, and the disciples
were called Christians first at Antioch. In Antioch, this
is where they were first called Christians. And I know, as polluted
and watered down as this term is, never be ashamed of it. Sometimes we see what the world's
reaction is like John 3.16. It's the Word of God because
they abuse it doesn't mean we can't use it. So the term Christian,
they were termed this, don't be ashamed of it, it's biblical
and it derives its terminology from Christ. So I'm not going
to be ashamed of it. Oh may we be moved more bold
in our lives for Christ, to speak of grace, when he saw the grace
of God in them. I'm like Henry Mahan, you know,
several pastors and I have talked, seems like it's, I don't say
one-sided preaching, but no, it's holistic. It saves the whole
man. And I know feelings come and
go, and I know there's people afraid of feelings, but Joe and
I agreed on this. When God saves a sinner, He saves
the whole man. Feelings and all. You read Songs of Solomon. I've
said this so many times over the years. You read Songs of
Solomon, and you can't have emotion when you're reading that? That
love letter, the church to Christ, and Christ the church? Really? Grace, it's unearned favor of
God. Grace, that which we can never
work for, but is freely, says the scripture, given, freely,
that word is without a cause in us, freely given, grace, unsought
for, but given, given, grace of God. He saw the grace
of God. Strong's concordance, Greek inner
concordance, it declares this to be, I love this, this is,
I didn't, a lot of times they just give the word. This kind
of expanded this when I looked this up. Exhaustive concordance,
got one back there somewhere. Strong's declares grace this
way, the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection
in the life. That's better than any other
explanation I've ever heard. It's a divine influence. And
I've used this example before. We're driving up St. Louis yesterday
early in the morning and we saw the moon. The sun is bright and
it's like, it's just a little bit, it's like, oh, you can see
the moon. How do we know that's the moon? How do we know it's
in orbit? Because it reflects light. It doesn't have any light.
It's just a dark ball of material, it reflects light, and it's visible
to those who have eyes to see it. He had seen, like I said,
I know it can be counterfeit, and people can fool one another,
we don't know one another's heart, but God knows. But God knows. When he had seen the grace of
God, You, yes, we all have varying interests, varying likes and
dislikes, but a true gospel church is unified under Christ's banner. He's what we are about. He is
our hope. He's our joy. He's our love interest. And therefore, when we gather
together, we worship Him. We don't, not things, Him. Secondly,
let's go keep looking back at our text in verse 23. Barnabas,
when he came among them, he had seen the grace of God. He was
glad. This is short, simple, sweet
outline. He was glad. Seeing such things
raised up in us, he was glad. That is, he rejoiced in heart. He was not envious or jealous
of others. Whoever, whomever preached, and
taught these folks the true grace of God, one gospel, not many
gospels, Galatians 1. Barnabas ultimately gave glory
to God. He noticed true conversion, true
repentance, true baptism, true regeneration. Then and also,
they continued always in the said truths, doctrines, and charity. When he had seen these things,
he was glad. He wasn't envious. He wasn't
envious if Nathan fills in and the Lord saves all of our children.
If Matt comes in and preaches and saves all children. Or Bruce,
it doesn't matter. This is not my gospel. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
gospel. Or any man we have in. Now, you
know the men we have in. Thirdly, just keep following
on in verse 23, he saw the grace of God, he was glad, and this
is what he did, this is what proper ministers do, but this
is what we all do, and exhorted them all. Stop there. Let us
follow this, his example. To exhort, that means to entreat,
that means to desire each one who names the name of Christ
to walk in what we say we believe. what we say we believe. Everyone
helps and encourages one another. Never just the speaker. You know,
the church, you come in here, he gives us, I was talking to
somebody, we have different gifts, but one Lord. Some of us play
the piano, some of us, it's different. We're all needed and all useful. It's not just the Lord has gifted
me, but he can take me out and raise somebody else up. We all
help and encourage one another, never just the speaker, but all
who have tasted his graciousness. May we be thus minded one to
another. Exhorted them all. Next point. Fourthly, with purpose of heart. If you don't have your heart
into it, you're just You're just blowing smoke as they say. With
purpose of heart. Turn to Numbers chapter 14. This
is what I mean with purpose of heart. Numbers chapter 14 and verse
24. Numbers 14 verse 24. They went into the promised land,
and a bunch of folks, and only two came back with what was properly
going on. Verse 24, But my servant Caleb,
because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me
fully, I like to say all in, that's my term, him will I bring
into the land where into he went, and his seed shall possess it. Barnabas came in, he saw the
grace of God, he was excited, he was glad, he exhorted them
and treated them with purpose of heart, not just your brain. He uses that too, but with your
whole being, with purpose of heart. And this was also proclaimed,
you don't have to turn there, proclaimed by David in Psalms
119 verse 32 and Psalms 9 verse 10. David says, you've done this
for me, I'm going to give you my all. That is, with purpose
of heart, we encourage one another to have a fixed resolution. That's what that means. purpose
of heart, a fixed resolution to hold to Him, His teachings,
His methods, His doctrine, or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians
15, to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord. What a snapshot. This is what
we are to be. And fifthly, Which one is more important?
That they would cleave unto the Lord. He's a proper elder. He's exhorting the people to
continue on the grace of God. The grace of God. The grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ. To cleave, that word means to
stay upon, to remain, or adhere. When you leave here, when you
leave this place in Jackson, when you go back to work, cleave
to the Lord. This is not a Sunday and Wednesday
Christianity. It is too much of that. This
is not a Christianity that takes God off the mantle when you need
Him and then opens the jar and then puts Him back. No. unto
the Lord, not a persuasion, not a religious enticement, not because
the crowd is doing it, but again, a person, his teachings, his
people, his way. Cleave to the Lord, but cleave
to the Lord's people. You know, we have family. But
your true family is those brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm not
saying be mean to your regular family. I know there's a lot
of dysfunctional family. I know that from yesterday and
I'm going to find that out again this afternoon. That's just the
way it is. We all have that. But again,
cleave to the Lord. The faith and grace of Christ
Jesus. Cleave to Him. Now, in closing,
once again, this way, this truth, this grace of God, richly believed,
richly trusting in our Redeemer, will show itself in action, which
is faith in works. How do I know that? Well, verse
27 to the end of the chapter. This new church just sprang up. They'd heard that there was going
to be a dearth in the land. And there was. So look at what
did they do. Verse 29, Then the disciples,
every man according to his ability. That's why we have the plate
back there. We don't pass the plate. It's not do what you can, as
you can, if you can. It's the Lord's work. He will
sustain it. Look at how few are here. And
look at what we have. It's a palace. According to his ability. determined,
good word, to send relief to the brethren which dwelt in Judea,
which they did. Why? Because they heard the same
gospel about the Lord Jesus Christ, they turned to him, and it makes
them rejoice. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go to the house of the Lord. I was glad, happy,
rejoiced, blessed, graced. So let us exhort one another,
that with purpose of heart, not half-heartedness, as my older
brother says, ask him how he's doing at work, he says, I'm just
going through the motions. Now that's what an employee is,
going through the motions. Purpose of heart, they would
cleave unto the Lord. Cleave unto the Lord. Well, what
does the now softened heart do? How does it act? What is its
attitude? What is its conduct? We will
do, we may honor as we are able to exalt and praise God, our
God in heaven. That's what we'll do. So may
we trust Christ today. May He give grace as it pleases
Him to do so. And may we follow on safe and
secure under His everlasting arms. Barnabas saw it. We have it here. It would be nice to see more
turn to the Lord. But that's in His hands. I'm just going to stand up here.
Whoever gets behind this pulpit, I pray that they would do the
same thing. exhort everybody to cleave unto the Lord. Bruce, would you close this,
please? Yeah.