demonstration and proclamation in unity

From a sermon on Acts 11.19-30 given in 2005 ... I was living in Germany at the time ...

Here we are in Antioch, the capital of Syria, about 300 miles north of Jerusalem. This city of about half a million people was the third largest in the Roman Empire. It was known as “Antioch the Golden, Queen of the East” because of its magnificent buildings. It had a 4 mile long paved marble main street and it was the only city at that time known to have streets lighted at night.

Yet it was a grossly immoral city. All of the Greek, Roman, and Syrian deities were honored in Antioch. The local shrine was dedicated to Daphne – the followers of whom used ritual prostitution as part of the temple worship.

The Roman satirist Juvenal complained that the sewage of Antioch has long been discharged into the Tiber. Meaning that Antioch was so corrupt it was impacting Rome over than 1,300 miles away. Author James A. Kelso said, “Antioch was to the Roman world as New York City is to ours.” For you republicans, he is obviously referring to New York prior to Mayor Giuliani.

So it’s here in this setting that Barnabas was able to look at this growing community of believers and see the evidence of the grace of God and it was here that for the first time, the followers of Jesus are referred to as “Christians” – that is belonging to the party of Christ.

Soon after we moved to Germany my family and I took our first international trip from Europe. As we waited in line at passport control, my daughter Angela noticed there were two lines, one for EU and one for non-EU. She asked me what the difference was and I explained to her the non-EU line was for Americans. She asked how I knew this. I pointed out that everyone in the non-EU line was wearing white running shoes, talking real loud, and seemed to be having a lot of fun.

How did I know these people were belonging to the party of the United States? It was because they looked and acted like people from the United States.

Anyone that knows both my son and me can easily see that he is my son. There’s no doubt about it. He looks and acts like a younger version of me. He is his own person yet clearly he is my son. What is scarier is that if you know me, you know my father. I am simply a younger version of him. I look and act a lot like him.

So what is it specifically that Barnabas saw in the disciples in Antioch as the evidence of the grace of God? What was it specifically that the people of this immoral city saw that caused them to say that these disciples were of the party of Christ?

I suggest it was two things they saw. They saw the Kingdom of God and they saw the unity that is the wisdom of God.

Let me explain each of these. First, regarding the Kingdom of God…in the very first chapter of Acts (v. 3) we learned that Jesus appeared after His resurrection and He “spoke about the Kingdom of God” and He said (v. 8) that His followers would “receive power when the Holy Spirit comes”, and then He told them that they would be His witnesses.

You can be a witness in two ways. You can testify with words that something is true or you yourself can be the evidence that something is true. As we have studied Acts, or the rest of the Bible for that matter, it is clear that it is the concept of being the witness rather then talking the witness that Jesus had in mind.

Examples from Acts are prophecy (11.28), generous giving (11.29), large numbers of people coming to the Lord, appearances of angels (10.13), a vision from God (ch 11), a resurrection from the dead (9.40), and the healing of a lame man (9.34). What is happening here? These people, Jesus’ disciples, were proclaiming and demonstrating the Kingdom of God. Proclamation and demonstration go together.

Paul tells us in Corinthians to imitate him just as he imitated Christ. The Gospel of John records Jesus as saying, “those who believe in me will do what I do.” And what was it that Jesus did? In John 5.19, He tells us, “the Son can do nothing by Himself; he can only do what He sees His Father doing.”

In Luke 7.21 we find John the Baptist’s disciples coming to Jesus to ask Him if He was the one they were waiting for. At that time Jesus was curing many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. To John’s disciples He replied, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”

What’s the Good News? The good news is that the Kingdom of God is here. Jesus came to inaugurate what was prophesied in Isaiah 61. Jesus tells us in Luke 4.18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And then He went about casting out demons and healing many sick and in verse 43 of Luke 4, He says, “I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God because that is why I was sent.” He told about it and He demonstrated it; proclamation and demonstration.

He told us to do the same when He reinforced the discipleship model in Luke 9. He gave His disciples authority to drive out demons and cure diseases sending them out “to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” He repeats this in Luke 10.9 when He sends out the seventy-two telling them to “heal the sick that are there and tell them “the Kingdom of God is near you.”

So here’s the deal, in Luke 16.16 Jesus told us that up until John the Baptist, it was the Law and the Prophets that were proclaimed but now, there’s a new message, now the Kingdom of God is being preached. Here in this Antioch of Syria, it was received. In Acts 13.51, at Antioch of Pisidia, it was not, and these disciples, just as the disciples in Luke 4 were instructed, left that place “shaking the dust from their feet.”

So goes the discipleship model…. Jesus is the model for Christian living. He showed us and told us what to do. Every disciple from every generation on should in turn show and tell the next generation. Mt 28.19, ”go and make disciples of all nations”. What is it that generation after generation of disciples do? They do what Jesus did which is what He saw the Father doing. And what He did was demonstrate and tell about the Kingdom of God.

Part 1 – to be Christ-like we must do as the Father is doing. We must both proclaim and demonstrate the Kingdom of God. And I believe it was this that Barnabas and the residents of Antioch saw that enabled them to see the evidence of God’s grace in the disciples and call them Christians.

But that’s not all. Now part 2 … part 2 is the element of unity. We read throughout Acts how the disciples were in unity but a more amazing thing happens here in Acts 11. In verse 20 we see that for the first time the Jewish disciples go out to the Gentiles to tell them about the Good News of Jesus.

What’s so amazing about this? Simple – the Jews previously thought the Gentiles to be unclean. They were God’s elect and the Gentiles were not. There was no way humanly possible that these two people were coming together. But I believe here we see the living out of some real good theology that Paul gives us in Ephesians chapter 2 and 3.

In Eph 2.1-10, Paul tells us that we were all dead in our sin and that we followed the ways of the world and Satan. But to show His incomparable riches, by His grace through Christ Jesus, we have become God’s workmanship, created for the good works (not just good talks) that He has prepared for us.

In versus 11-22, Paul reminds us that at one time we were strangers and aliens, separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, and foreigners to the covenants – without hope and without God. But good news – Jesus became our peace and He has made the Jew and the Gentile one – breaking down the dividing wall of hostility. We are now joined together to become a holy temple – the dwelling in which God lives! The Holy Spirit dwells within us individually and corporately.

He not only indwells us individually to proclaim and demonstrate the Kingdom of God, but He indwells His church as we demonstrate the unity that comes by only His grace. The purpose of the Church is written clearly in Ephesians 3.10, “…that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.”

Who are these rulers and authorities? In Ephesians 6.11-12 Paul explains that we are to "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

The rulers and authorities are clearly aligned with the devil. They are not mere flesh and blood; that is, they are not merely human. They are supernatural. And they are intent on man's destruction, which is why we need the "armor of God."

They are "in the heavenly places". While that is their native sphere of life they have tremendous influence on earth. Remember Ephesians 2:1,2 Paul told us that the ruler of the kingdom of the air is at work in the sons of disobedience and that there is a "course of this world" which such people follow.

These rulers and authorities of Ephesians 3:10 are supernatural hosts in league with Satan and have a cosmic influence on the course of this age, its people, inventions, and institutions. These are the beings to which the church is to demonstrate the manifold wisdom of God.

What is this wisdom that the church is to make known? Well, according Ephesians 3.1-7, it was once not known but now has been revealed to Paul. And then in verses 8-9 Paul reveals it to us. And we are told in verse 10 that we are to now reveal it to these rulers and authorities.

And that secret, in verse 6 is that the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. So the mystery of Christ is that in His death on the cross He purchased not just eternal life for individuals who trust him; he purchased and formed a new people, a church composed of Jews and gentiles who are both heirs of God's promises and beneficiaries of God's grace - a people who are now being fitted together as His Holy Temple.

So how are we, the church, to demonstrate this wisdom of God to rulers and authorities as instructed in verse 10? It seems straightforward to me, the wisdom of a plan is seen by the fact that it works. We can easily see that all over the world today the plans of man are not working. We, as the Church, need to show the wisdom of God by showing that in the church His plan is working. The death of Christ was not in vain: it has reconciled us to God, it has broken down the wall of hostility between Jew and gentile, other races, and between each and everyone of us. It has produced one new body and it has given us the hope of his immeasurable kindness forever. We show the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers by living this way, by being the church Christ died to create.

So what was it in addition to the Kingdom of God that Barnabas and the others at Antioch saw in the disciples? They saw for the first time Jews and Gentiles being fitted together as the holy temple of God – the evidence of God’s grace. They saw something happening that was previously thought humanly impossible. They saw the wisdom of God at work when the dividing wall broke and alienated people became one body under the headship of Christ.

John 13.35,” By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 14.12, “… anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these …” I’ve read all kinds of commentaries that gave all kinds of theories regarding what the “greater things” are. I have to confess that I am not absolutely sure what these greater things are.

But I would like to suggest that the answer might be found here in Acts. That when we proclaim and demonstrate the Kingdom of God, we are doing as Jesus did. And when we proclaim and demonstrate unity in the spirit, that is true brotherly love and community, we do the greater things. And in doing so, the world and the rulers and the authorities will know that we are of the party of Christ, that God’s love and grace are immeasurable, and that His Kingdom and His wisdom reign supreme.