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Christ’s Church includes many connected churches

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Chris Sicks
April 14, 2024

Sermon Manuscript

Christ’s Church includes many connected churches


April 14, 2024
Acts 11:25-30
Chris Sicks

Last week, we talked about the amazing things that happened in the city of Antioch.
The global church became possible when bicultural refugees went to Antioch and shared the gospel with their neighbors.
And the Gentiles believed the good news!
No longer were Jews the only “chosen people.”
After Antioch, it was clear that anyone can be a member of God’s family, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Earlier in the service, we read together what Paul wrote to the Gentile believers in Ephesus.
Listen again to Ephesians 2:18–20.
18 “For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
19 Consequently, you [Gentiles] are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people [Jews] and also members of his household,
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”

Most of us are Gentiles, non-Jews.
But we are no longer foreigners and strangers.
In Christ, we are fellow citizens, members of God’s household.
Christ is the chief cornerstone, the necessary connecting block that holds the entire building together.
We are different people, with different accents and skin colors.
But together, we are the one temple where God is present among us.
Listen to how Paul continues to describe the Body of Christ, in Ephesians 2:21–22.
21 “In [Christ] the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.
22 In Him we are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.”

Friends, in Christ we are being built together.
Christ is uniting us as individuals, into one local church called One Voice Fellowship.
He is also building us together with other believers in the region, and around the world.
The Body of Christ is a connected organism that depends on all its different parts.
That is the focus of tonight’s teaching from Acts 11:25-30.
Please give your attention now to the Word of God.

25 “Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,
26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.
So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.
The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

27 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world.
(This happened during the reign of Claudius.)

29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea.
30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.”

Together we read Isaiah 40:8:
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
Father, thank you for sending your Son to earth to save us.
Jesus, thank you that you do not choose followers from only one nation or culture.
You do not discriminate, but you save people from every culture, language, and tribe.
Holy Spirit, please teach us today from the Word.
Humble us, encourage us, and use us as gospel messengers to a broken and needy world.
We pray in the powerful name of Jesus, amen.

I am going to begin by explaining about tonight’s text.
Then will share some applications for us today as a church.
Before the complete Bible was written to guide and instruct us as believers, God used prophets to communicate his truth to his people.
Listen again to verses 27-28:
27 “During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.
28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world.
(This happened during the reign of Claudius.)”


Between the years 45-47 AD, many people died of famine throughout the Roman Empire.
Historical records about this famine were written in Egypt, Israel, Syria, and Rome.
Grain supplies collapsed and prices rose because of flooding in Egypt, and drought in Syria.
It was the worst famine in the history of the Roman Empire.
The Holy Spirit inspired Agabus to tell the believers in Antioch about the famine before it happened.
What was their response?
Listen to verses 29-30:
29 “The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea.
30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.”

Notice that the believers in Antioch are called two things: Christians and disciples.
Christian means “little Christ.”
Disciple means student or follower.
No one is born a Christian.
We are all born with a sin problem, with hearts that prefer to do things our own way.
Our rebellious hearts lead us to make decisions that hurt ourselves, and hurt people around us.
And because our sin problem comes from inside of us, we cannot cure ourselves.
But the good news of the gospel is this: Jesus Christ loved you enough to die the death you deserve.
A Christian is someone who realizes that Jesus died on the cross for you, personally.
When you believe that, your sin and shame are transferred to Christ.
And at the same time, Christ transfers to you healing, hope, peace, and eternal life.
That is a simple explanation of what we believe to become Christians.
Luke also referred to those Christians in Antioch as “disciples.”
Because while we are alive on earth, we must never stop learning and growing.
Our faith develops and deepens as we live it.
Listen to what the apostle James wrote about the connection between learning and doing, in James 1:22.
22 “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.
Do what it says.”


The disciples in Antioch are a great model of what James describes.
Barnabas and Saul spent a year teaching these new believers in Antioch.
Together, they explained the Old Testament and shared the teachings of Jesus.
But the Antioch church did not “merely listen to the word.”
They did what it says.
The disciples in Antioch decided to send help before the famine began.
They did not wait to see what the need was.
And they didn’t hoard their own resources, to prepare themselves for the famine.
They generously gave to others, as the Holy Spirit led them.
Who did they help?
It was their “brothers and sisters living in Judea.”
We need to pause and be amazed by those words.
For many, many years, Jews would never associate with Gentiles.
Jews would not eat food with them, go into their homes, etc.
There was a “wall of hostility” between them.
But remember what I read earlier from Ephesians 2:18,
“through Christ we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

This famine impacted the entire Roman empire for several years.
Many people died.
After they leave Antioch, Barnabas and Saul take up collections from other Gentile believers.
Listen to what Saul wrote in Romans 15:26–27.
26 “Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem.
27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them.
For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.”

When the Gentiles in Antioch and other cities became disciples of Christ, they joined the one family of God.
Gentiles were grafted onto the olive tree that Paul describes in Romans 11.
The spiritual blessings that God promised to Abraham became accessible to all.
The Word of God to the Jews became the Word of God to all people.
The Jewish Bible became the “Old Testament.”
Through faith in Christ, anyone can call God “Father.”
Because through His Son we all have access.
The disciples in Antioch were learning all of these amazing things from Barnabas and Saul.
That’s why they responded with loving generosity toward their new brothers and sisters.

Notice that the believers in Antioch did not send money directly to individuals in Jerusalem.
They gave the money to their pastors, Barnabas and Saul.
They were God’s representatives to His people.
That’s why it is also accurate to say that the people gave their money to God.
Sometimes in the Body of Christ we help each other directly.
But we can avoid jealousy and favoritism if we give our gifts to God, through the leaders of the church.
That’s why we have a deacon’s fund at One Voice.
It is an account with money that we use to help brothers and sisters who have financial needs.
Did you notice that Barnabas and Saul did not deliver the money directly to individuals in Jerusalem?
The two pastors took the money from Antioch, and gave it to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.
Why?
Because the elders of the church in Jerusalem were the shepherds of that local church.
They knew the people there.
They could pray and decide together how to wisely distribute the money.
The word “elder” in verse 30 is “presbyteros” in Greek.
From that word we get the name Presbyterian.
One Voice Fellowship is a church in the Presbyterian Church in America.
Some of you come from other denominations, Anglican, Baptist, Assembly of God, and others.
In any bible-believing church, the focus is not on our form of church government.
The focus of any healthy ministry is always Jesus.
Churches exists to help disciples in their relationship with God.
We are a presbyterian church because it is a good and biblical way to organize churches.
In the New Testament the word elder is used interchangeably with other Greek words that mean pastor, overseer, shepherd, or bishop.
Those different words describe the same office in the church.
Presbyterian churches are led by elders, and that includes pastors who we call “teaching elders.”
We will have a sermon series in May to talk more about the offices of elder and deacon.
Then in June, God willing, we will elect elders for the first time as a church.
That’s why I want to take a few minutes to unpack how our church government today flows from passages like Acts 11.
The church in Antioch and the church in Jerusalem were part of Christ’s one Church (with a capital C).
The same is true today.
We are not independent individuals, we belong to Christ our Good Shepherd.
And we are not independent as a congregation, we belong to Christ’s Body.
One Voice is a part of Potomac Presbytery, a group of about 30 churches in the DC area.
And we are one of 2,000 churches in Presbyterian Church in America.
I love being a part of a denomination that is passionate about reaching out to the world with the good news of the gospel.
So I want to share three of the benefits of being connected with other churches.

Benefit Number 1: Churches are Connected for Accountability
We saw last week what happened after Gentiles believed the gospel in Antioch.
Luke wrote this in Acts 11:22-23.
22 “News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.
23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.”

This is the third time in Acts that the leaders in Jerusalem investigated the movement of the gospel to new people groups.
We will read later in Acts 15 about a church council in Jerusalem where some important decisions were made that affected every local church.
God works through the elders in a local church, to make wise local decisions.
But sometimes the collective wisdom of a larger group is needed.
And, sadly, sometimes pastors need to be corrected or removed from office.
Independent churches sometimes cover up the sins of their leaders, because they do not have a structure of accountability outside their local church.
But, we have a presbytery that will intervene if a pastor commits adultery, or teaches something unbiblical, or steals money.
We see this principle of regional accountability in Acts 11.
The church in Jerusalem didn’t say:
“the things happening in Antioch are none of our business.”
The elders in Jerusalem understood that if one part of Christ’s Body is unhealthy, it will affect the entire Body.
Another way that the regional presbytery protects the health of the Body is by ordaining pastors.
God willing, Clement will be ordained as our Associate Pastor in June.
How do we decide who can be a pastor?
A lot of people have been hurt by unqualified men who were rushed into positions of leadership.
It is extremely important that every pastor is a man of good character, who is well trained, and prepared for ministry.
Evaluating candidates for ministry is one of the most-important jobs that our regional Presbytery does to serve our local churches.

Benefit Number 2: Connected churches support one another
Planting new churches is very difficult.
New churches like ours depend on the support of other churches.
Right now, we have 15 partner churches that invest in our ministry.
Many are from our denomination.
But six of our church partners are Baptist, Anglican, Evangelical Free, and Assemblies of God.
Their prayers and financial support have been absolutely essential to our new church.
God willing, we will be more financially independent one day.
That is not easy for a church like ours.
Many of you are just getting started in the US.
You are trying to get better jobs, and learn how to live in an expensive area.
We all work hard, and the Lord is faithfully providing what we need.
He also gives us enough to share, to invest in Kingdom-building work.
If we all trust him with our money, we can eventually pay our own bills as a church–without all those partner churches.
That’s important, so that we can become a reproducing church.
That’s the third benefit of being a connected church:

Benefit Number 3: Connected churches are united in mission
In two weeks, we will see just how important this new church in Antioch was.
After teaching those believers in Antioch for a year, Barnabas and Saul started traveling around the region.
They planted more churches everywhere they went, because “the Lord’s hand was with them.”
Each new people group enriched the Body of Christ, making it more complete.
That church-planting mission was launched by the multicultural congregation in Antioch.
Would you please pray with me that we might be a church like Antioch?
There are many, many people in the DC area who have not heard the gospel yet.
Could we be a church of people from many different places, who send church planters to other places?
Could we plant more churches like One Voice in the region?
Only the Lord knows what the future will bring.
But personally, I am praying that one day we won’t need churches to support us.
Instead, we will be supporting other new churches, as they share the gospel with their new neighbors.

Dear brothers and sisters, we are members of God’s global household.
We are individual stones, united by Christ into one temple.
And in that one temple, God dwells among us by the Holy Spirit.
He is the glue that holds us together as a church family.
I would like to finish by reading a quote from Professor Andrew Walls.
He is writing about Paul’s description of the Body of Christ as a temple or body.
“The Ephesian metaphors of the temple and of the body show each culture as necessary to the body but as incomplete in itself.
Only in Christ does completion, fullness, dwell.
And Christ’s completion comes from all humanity…None of us can reach Christ’s completeness on our own.
We need each other’s vision to correct, enlarge, and focus our own;
only together are we complete in Christ.”

Please pray with me.
Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, thank you.
We thank you that you had a big vision for the church.
From the very beginning, you intended to bring the good news of salvation to all people groups.
We come from many different backgrounds, with different gifts, needs, and cultures.
United in you, we can experience what it truly means to be the one Body of Christ.
So Jesus, please grow our faith, and expand your flock.
We want to see more people of all nations turn to you in faith, and become our brothers and sisters.
We pray all this in Christ’s name, amen.


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