WEBVTT 00:07.965 --> 00:12.226 [SPEAKER_00]: My name's Don, I'll be doing our Bible reading this morning from Acts 11. 00:15.907 --> 00:24.708 [SPEAKER_00]: Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. 00:25.288 --> 00:33.430 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 00:34.881 --> 00:38.623 [SPEAKER_00]: The Lord's hand was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. 00:40.283 --> 00:44.845 [SPEAKER_00]: News of this reached the church in Jerusalem and they sent to Barnabas, sent Barnabas to Antioch. 00:45.366 --> 00:52.289 [SPEAKER_00]: When he arrived and saw that what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 00:52.949 --> 00:57.631 [SPEAKER_00]: He was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. 00:59.232 --> 01:08.779 [SPEAKER_00]: Then Barnabas went to Tysus to look for Saul, 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. 01:09.499 --> 01:12.221 [SPEAKER_00]: The disciples of Cold Christians first at Antioch. 01:13.863 --> 01:25.351 [SPEAKER_00]: During this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, one of them named Agabas stood up through the Spirit, and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. 01:25.951 --> 01:27.633 [SPEAKER_00]: This happened during the reign of Claudius. 01:28.422 --> 01:33.508 [SPEAKER_00]: that disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 01:34.289 --> 01:38.013 [SPEAKER_00]: This, they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. 01:43.979 --> 01:44.820 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Dawn. 01:45.921 --> 01:46.282 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, 01:46.845 --> 02:10.952 [SPEAKER_01]: In the early 2000s, Apple started working on their iPhones, and as they started discussing and developing what would be on their phones, in one of their meetings, Mike Shabanaku was one of the project managers at the time, suggested that Apple devices should have screen readers. 02:11.732 --> 02:20.295 [SPEAKER_01]: As you can imagine, phones that had buttons were able to be navigated by people, particularly those with vision impairment. 02:20.835 --> 02:26.598 [SPEAKER_01]: However, suddenly they are being presented with a flat glass screen. 02:27.438 --> 02:38.122 [SPEAKER_01]: And so Mike was very passionate about adding as a standard feature in the phone, a screen reader so that it could be more accessible. 02:39.033 --> 02:44.918 [SPEAKER_01]: He's quoted to have been said saying, we should build it in and we should just give it away. 02:45.318 --> 02:54.666 [SPEAKER_01]: It should get the same love and care and quality that we give everything else in this company and it should be on everything we make always and forever. 02:55.346 --> 02:57.708 [SPEAKER_01]: There was much discussion in this meeting. 02:58.089 --> 03:07.937 [SPEAKER_01]: For them to be able to do this, they had to put more time, more resources, more money into their products to make these kind of features accessible. 03:08.882 --> 03:14.023 [SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, was it going to be beneficial for them as a company? 03:14.463 --> 03:16.003 [SPEAKER_01]: Apple is a business. 03:16.243 --> 03:17.864 [SPEAKER_01]: It is there to make money. 03:18.224 --> 03:23.885 [SPEAKER_01]: So in these discussions, they had to look, what was the return on investment? 03:24.245 --> 03:27.345 [SPEAKER_01]: Was it worth their time, their resources, their money? 03:27.405 --> 03:35.367 [SPEAKER_01]: To put these things on their devices, just so a particular group in their community could access the phone. 03:36.067 --> 03:48.176 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, in 2009, they launched the iPhone 3 and after Steve Jobs had given approval for screen writers to be on all their devices. 03:48.676 --> 04:04.368 [SPEAKER_01]: Within the big presentation, they did on the iPhone 3, at the two hour mark, they presented these accessibility features, one of them being the voiceover, a screen reading feature. 04:05.108 --> 04:10.629 [SPEAKER_01]: so that people with vision impairment would be able to access and use the iPhone. 04:11.830 --> 04:19.731 [SPEAKER_01]: The whole part of accessibility within their presentation lasted for 36 seconds. 04:20.832 --> 04:22.472 [SPEAKER_01]: Many people didn't pick up on it. 04:22.812 --> 04:31.334 [SPEAKER_01]: Reporters, many reporters didn't report on it, but to the blind community, it made a world of difference. 04:31.969 --> 04:43.097 [SPEAKER_01]: So much so, the blind community was so taken by these accessibility features, they even wrote a film called 36 seconds that changed everything. 04:43.717 --> 04:59.568 [SPEAKER_01]: Suddenly, they could buy a product straight off the shelf and be able to use it when previously, they would have to spend a minimum of $1,000 on a screen reading device for them to be able to use the different devices that were on offer. 05:01.060 --> 05:22.676 [SPEAKER_01]: If you have been around our church for this year, at some point during this year, while you will have known that we've just come out of a series on Daniel, the Book of Daniel from the Old Testament, before we looked at Daniel, we were actually in a series on Acts, and we were looking at the first 10 chapters of the Book of Acts. 05:22.896 --> 05:44.253 [SPEAKER_01]: today and next week we're going to dip back into the book of Acts just for these two weeks before we get to our vision Sunday which with Kim can I encourage you to be here on the fourth of October to be a part of that and so today as Don has read for us we're looking at a part of Acts chapter 11. 05:45.485 --> 05:53.951 [SPEAKER_01]: To give you a bit of context, if you have not been lucky enough to be a part of the start of our series, ax comes off the back of the gospels. 05:54.051 --> 06:02.497 [SPEAKER_01]: It comes off the back of the books in the Bible that tell us about the life, the ministry of Jesus, his death and his resurrection. 06:03.257 --> 06:09.520 [SPEAKER_01]: And as we read through the start of Acts, it talks about the birth of the early Christian church. 06:10.000 --> 06:24.847 [SPEAKER_01]: The ascension of Jesus into heaven, the Pentecost where the Holy Spirit came down on the believers and the disciples that were gathered in Jerusalem, and the birth of the early church came about. 06:25.187 --> 06:38.579 [SPEAKER_01]: Thousands of people came to an understanding that Jesus Christ was the Messiah that had been prophesied about, and this new age of the kingdom of heaven was here on earth now. 06:39.119 --> 06:41.982 [SPEAKER_01]: And many people believed and they started gathering. 06:42.462 --> 06:49.188 [SPEAKER_01]: And together they gathered and they learnt more about who God is and who he's calling them to be. 06:49.488 --> 06:57.696 [SPEAKER_01]: They had teaching, they had prayer, they had hospitality, there was generosity amongst the new early church. 06:58.717 --> 07:00.438 [SPEAKER_01]: But there was also persecution. 07:01.237 --> 07:10.005 [SPEAKER_01]: The Jewish religious leaders were not happy with this new idea of Jesus being the Christ and the Messiah. 07:10.466 --> 07:15.911 [SPEAKER_01]: And so we hear of Stephen being stoned as was mentioned at the start of our Bible passage. 07:16.611 --> 07:25.858 [SPEAKER_01]: Stephen was killed and put the Jews, particularly the Greek speaking, believers in Jesus, actually left Jerusalem. 07:26.338 --> 07:31.022 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, you know, it's a good sermon if I've got a map from first century, right? 07:31.362 --> 07:35.024 [SPEAKER_01]: So just to give you a little bit of context and 07:36.005 --> 07:38.006 [SPEAKER_01]: I'm even using the laser today. 07:38.506 --> 07:39.806 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a good day, people. 07:40.326 --> 07:41.107 [SPEAKER_01]: It's a good day. 07:41.167 --> 07:44.268 [SPEAKER_01]: So we have Jerusalem down here. 07:44.948 --> 07:50.150 [SPEAKER_01]: This was the religious hub of the Jewish people. 07:50.730 --> 08:00.493 [SPEAKER_01]: And then as they left, they moved up through Samaria to Phoenicia and then our story in Acts 11 is around Antioch. 08:01.298 --> 08:10.700 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, before I get to Antioch, which our story is based in today, I just want to make mention of the importance of Jerusalem. 08:11.100 --> 08:22.422 [SPEAKER_01]: We hear about it all the time and particularly in our scriptures, but Jerusalem is such an important part of the Jewish religion, the Jewish spirituality. 08:22.842 --> 08:25.403 [SPEAKER_01]: Their culture, their politics, it is 08:25.983 --> 08:26.584 [SPEAKER_01]: the place. 08:26.804 --> 08:27.945 [SPEAKER_01]: It is the hub. 08:28.325 --> 08:40.735 [SPEAKER_01]: Thousands of years, a thousand years before this story, David had Jerusalem as this place that was going to be the place where Solomon, his son, built the temple. 08:41.216 --> 08:47.681 [SPEAKER_01]: They poured so many incredible resources into this temple, this beautiful place. 08:47.981 --> 08:50.842 [SPEAKER_01]: that gave God honor and glory. 08:50.902 --> 08:55.863 [SPEAKER_01]: They're God, they're one true God who had done so much for them throughout history. 08:56.203 --> 08:57.243 [SPEAKER_01]: This was the place. 08:57.324 --> 08:59.244 [SPEAKER_01]: This is where their focus was. 08:59.284 --> 09:01.445 [SPEAKER_01]: It all culminated in the temple. 09:01.845 --> 09:06.306 [SPEAKER_01]: This is where their sacred elements were in the Holy of Holy's. 09:06.366 --> 09:07.986 [SPEAKER_01]: This is where the priests were. 09:08.206 --> 09:10.267 [SPEAKER_01]: They would come and give sacrifices. 09:10.747 --> 09:16.071 [SPEAKER_01]: so that they would have a right relationship with God and a right relationship with each other. 09:16.352 --> 09:19.895 [SPEAKER_01]: This is where all the festivals happen, the religious festivals. 09:20.155 --> 09:27.401 [SPEAKER_01]: People would come from all around together in Jerusalem for these spiritual and religious gatherings. 09:28.061 --> 09:45.949 [SPEAKER_01]: Not only that, but if you are a part around for our Daniel series, you might remember that even when the Babylonians came and destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, took their sacred elements out of their temple and brought it to Babylon. 09:46.749 --> 09:59.357 [SPEAKER_01]: It was still seen as an important part when Daniel was said to pray three times a day, even to the point of it risking his life and he was thrown in the lion's den. 10:00.357 --> 10:06.881 [SPEAKER_01]: Daniel turned and prayed three times a day towards where Jerusalem. 10:07.681 --> 10:11.684 [SPEAKER_01]: It was still of such deep importance to them. 10:12.750 --> 10:33.644 [SPEAKER_01]: And so much so that when they were released from exile, they went back, they rebuilt Jerusalem, they rebuilt the temple, and there they gathered again, and there the Jews gathered, and there there were religious festivals and rituals came to be. 10:34.537 --> 10:47.384 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is such an important part of the Jewish religion, their culture, their traditions, their politics, this is where the leaders of the church were. 10:48.464 --> 11:01.271 [SPEAKER_01]: And if that is how important Jerusalem is, now we hear about Antioch and another city where not only are Jews coming to the understanding of who Jesus is, 11:04.192 --> 11:11.880 [SPEAKER_01]: If that is how good Jerusalem is, how amazing must Antioch be if it's going even further and wider? 11:12.360 --> 11:15.623 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, let me tell you a little bit about Antioch in the first century. 11:16.084 --> 11:20.388 [SPEAKER_01]: It was one of the three major cities in the Roman Empire. 11:21.028 --> 11:24.732 [SPEAKER_01]: Behind Rome and Alexandria, it was thought to have about 11:25.192 --> 11:27.753 [SPEAKER_01]: half a million people in Antioch. 11:28.134 --> 11:31.635 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a key city for trade. 11:31.675 --> 11:34.397 [SPEAKER_01]: There was a lot of wealth in Antioch. 11:34.677 --> 11:40.860 [SPEAKER_01]: Because of its positioning, remember at the top of the map, over towards Rome, it was by the coast. 11:41.220 --> 11:43.101 [SPEAKER_01]: It was on the edge of the desert. 11:43.121 --> 11:45.282 [SPEAKER_01]: There was so much trade that came through. 11:45.322 --> 11:52.005 [SPEAKER_01]: They said that if you moved around for your work, you would at some point come through Antioch. 11:52.165 --> 11:53.905 [SPEAKER_01]: That's the type of place it was. 11:53.925 --> 11:56.086 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a place where people gathered. 11:56.386 --> 11:57.787 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a free city. 11:58.107 --> 11:59.907 [SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, it had autonomy. 11:59.927 --> 12:05.149 [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't under all the other rules of the Roman Empire necessarily. 12:06.049 --> 12:10.470 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a growing vibrant city. 12:12.070 --> 12:18.032 [SPEAKER_01]: So Jerusalem was known as the Jewish religious hub. 12:22.163 --> 12:23.624 [SPEAKER_01]: for its immorality. 12:25.105 --> 12:27.526 [SPEAKER_01]: Because so many different people came. 12:27.606 --> 12:29.087 [SPEAKER_01]: There were so many cultures. 12:29.147 --> 12:30.488 [SPEAKER_01]: There were different religions. 12:30.968 --> 12:39.673 [SPEAKER_01]: Colts would gather in Antioch because they had the freedom to be able to do and create these religions of their own. 12:40.573 --> 12:47.297 [SPEAKER_01]: There were certain religions that they had that had just a monstrous rituals. 12:47.717 --> 12:50.459 [SPEAKER_01]: It was a place where anything happened. 12:51.346 --> 13:06.457 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, if Antioch was on the river the Arontes, and it is said it wasn't just the Jewish people that spoke about Antioch's immorality, it was known in the Roman Empire as the place of immorality. 13:07.077 --> 13:13.579 [SPEAKER_01]: The Theologian Paul Hill says Antioch was notorious throughout the Roman Empire for its immorality. 13:14.059 --> 13:31.084 [SPEAKER_01]: A typical statement is that of the Satyrus Juvenile who, in complaining about Rome's degenerating morality, remarked that the filth of the Arrentes, so where Antioch was, had flowed into the Tiber where Rome was. 13:32.302 --> 13:38.109 [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't just immoral, it was the standard for immorality in its time. 13:39.250 --> 13:44.937 [SPEAKER_01]: And yet here we have a revival breakout in Antioch. 13:45.795 --> 14:07.185 [SPEAKER_01]: Here we have not in Jerusalem, but in Antioch, people who aren't just of the Jewish faith and background, but even Gentiles, and outside the Jewish religion, coming to an understanding of who Jesus is and turning and worshiping and giving their lives to Him. 14:08.506 --> 14:10.507 [SPEAKER_01]: Now in marketing terms, 14:11.715 --> 14:15.417 [SPEAKER_01]: They call code call, a code lead, and a warm lead. 14:16.097 --> 14:20.179 [SPEAKER_01]: A warm lead is someone who is already interested in your product. 14:20.299 --> 14:28.083 [SPEAKER_01]: They might know about it, they might want it, they might have a different element of your product, but they know about you, that is a warm lead. 14:28.763 --> 14:34.866 [SPEAKER_01]: A code lead is someone who doesn't really know about you and isn't really interested in your product. 14:35.746 --> 14:39.332 [SPEAKER_01]: Think of a retail shop in a shopping center, alright. 14:39.812 --> 14:43.237 [SPEAKER_01]: A warm lead is someone who walks into your shop. 14:43.778 --> 14:49.907 [SPEAKER_01]: They know you're there, they clearly know you exist, they have entered in and they are looking around at your products. 14:50.448 --> 14:50.508 [SPEAKER_01]: Now 14:50.508 --> 14:53.310 [SPEAKER_01]: Now the sales assistant still has to come up to them, right? 14:53.390 --> 15:00.274 [SPEAKER_01]: A good sales assistant will greet them, will introduce themselves, ask if there's anything that they might be interested in. 15:00.354 --> 15:01.335 [SPEAKER_01]: Can I help you? 15:01.655 --> 15:03.576 [SPEAKER_01]: Is it something specific you're looking for? 15:04.076 --> 15:05.717 [SPEAKER_01]: But that is a warm lead. 15:05.937 --> 15:08.019 [SPEAKER_01]: Someone who's already open to it. 15:09.199 --> 15:15.003 [SPEAKER_01]: A cold lead would be someone who is in the shopping center but just walking past your shop. 15:15.992 --> 15:20.273 [SPEAKER_01]: The shop assistant has to actually go outside their shop. 15:20.333 --> 15:26.535 [SPEAKER_01]: You do see this sometimes in the shopping centers, particularly apparently if you need your hearing check, I've noticed. 15:27.516 --> 15:33.037 [SPEAKER_01]: And they go outside their shop and they draw your attention to it. 15:33.057 --> 15:34.598 [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, have you heard about us? 15:34.758 --> 15:35.858 [SPEAKER_01]: Would you be interested? 15:35.958 --> 15:37.499 [SPEAKER_01]: How about you come in and have a look? 15:37.899 --> 15:40.840 [SPEAKER_01]: But the person is there for a completely different reason. 15:46.016 --> 15:58.986 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, for the Jewish believers in Jesus, they just saw as they traveled up through a way from Jerusalem, it just made sense for them to talk to other Jewish people. 15:59.667 --> 16:03.890 [SPEAKER_01]: They already had an understanding of the one true God. 16:04.190 --> 16:13.338 [SPEAKER_01]: They already had an understanding of all the stories of their culture, how God had moved for their people in considerable ways. 16:13.998 --> 16:21.704 [SPEAKER_01]: They already had certain knowledge and understanding of the one true God and what they were looking for. 16:21.744 --> 16:26.108 [SPEAKER_01]: They said, anticipation of the kingdom of heaven coming to earth. 16:27.349 --> 16:32.613 [SPEAKER_01]: And so it made sense for them to be talking to the other Jewish people as well. 16:33.534 --> 16:37.737 [SPEAKER_01]: But in Antioch, something different happens. 16:40.215 --> 16:51.800 [SPEAKER_01]: The men, the unnamed men, decide that maybe actually Jesus isn't just relevant for the Jews, but maybe for the Gentiles as well. 16:52.540 --> 17:01.624 [SPEAKER_01]: F. F. Bruce the Theologians says this, the idea that the gospel could have any relevance for non-Jews was not one that would naturally occur to them. 17:02.004 --> 17:10.229 [SPEAKER_01]: But in Antioch, some daring spirits among them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, took a momentous step forward. 17:10.589 --> 17:15.372 [SPEAKER_01]: If the gospel was so good for Jews, might it not be good for Gentiles also? 17:15.873 --> 17:22.317 [SPEAKER_01]: So they began to make known to the Greek population of Antioch, the claims of Jesus as Lord and Savior. 17:22.877 --> 17:29.479 [SPEAKER_01]: to present him as Messiah, to people who knew nothing of the hope of Israel, would have been a meaningless exercise. 17:29.899 --> 17:39.002 [SPEAKER_01]: But the Greek terms carry us, Lord, and Satya, Savya, will widely current in the religious world of the Eastern Mediterranean. 17:39.482 --> 17:48.407 [SPEAKER_01]: Many were trying to find in various mystery cults a divine Lord who could guarantee salvation and immortality to his devotees. 17:48.828 --> 18:03.377 [SPEAKER_01]: Now, the pagans of Antioch were assured that what they vainly sought in those quarters could be secured through the Son of God who had lately become man, suffered death, and conquered the grave in Palestine. 18:10.135 --> 18:13.998 [SPEAKER_01]: is important and relevant to everyone. 18:15.119 --> 18:25.449 [SPEAKER_01]: And as I look at the people that I interact with that I outside the church, I feel like there are a lot of cold leads in my life. 18:26.650 --> 18:32.415 [SPEAKER_01]: People aren't coming up to me and saying, oh, you're working a church, tell me about your God. 18:33.697 --> 18:39.601 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not coming up to me and saying, Oh, hey, I've heard about Jesus' name, mused in vain today. 18:39.861 --> 18:42.002 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you tell me what he really means to you? 18:43.303 --> 18:47.906 [SPEAKER_01]: These are people who are just going about their everyday lives. 18:48.966 --> 18:50.928 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not asking about God. 18:51.148 --> 18:54.610 [SPEAKER_01]: They're not asking about what it is to be a Christian. 18:57.156 --> 19:17.996 [SPEAKER_01]: but I can guarantee that they are looking for purpose, that they are looking for meaning, that they want something in their life that gives them purpose and meaning, that they want their life to stand for something, that they want a blessing on their own lives and on their families' lives. 19:21.702 --> 19:36.485 [SPEAKER_01]: And are we making our faith accessible to people in our community who may not know about Jesus and may not even be asking about Him. 19:37.656 --> 19:43.739 [SPEAKER_01]: But can we do things in our lives that make him accessible to them? 19:44.339 --> 19:46.040 [SPEAKER_01]: It might cost us money. 19:46.600 --> 19:52.003 [SPEAKER_01]: It might mean we have to go out of our way with our time and our resources. 19:52.995 --> 20:08.966 [SPEAKER_01]: But if it opens the door to people knowing about Jesus as their Lord and Savior and having an impact in their life as it has had an impact on ours, we'll surely that is worth our time and our money. 20:10.056 --> 20:25.551 [SPEAKER_01]: Because in fact, even though the people in Jerusalem were reaching out to the Jews, the people in Antioch were actually doing what God had called the people to do from the very beginning. 20:26.172 --> 20:33.839 [SPEAKER_01]: All the way back in Genesis, the very beginning of the Bible, we hear about Abraham who God renamed Abraham. 20:34.540 --> 20:48.928 [SPEAKER_01]: And it was for out of his descendants that God chose his people, his descendants to become a nation, that would show the rest of the world what it was to worship this one true God. 20:49.429 --> 20:58.554 [SPEAKER_01]: In Genesis chapter 12, it says the Lord said to Abraham, Abraham, go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you. 20:59.034 --> 21:02.515 [SPEAKER_01]: I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. 21:02.856 --> 21:05.737 [SPEAKER_01]: I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. 21:05.877 --> 21:10.138 [SPEAKER_01]: I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will curse. 21:10.518 --> 21:14.880 [SPEAKER_01]: And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. 21:16.641 --> 21:17.821 [SPEAKER_01]: The Jews knew this. 21:17.881 --> 21:20.822 [SPEAKER_01]: This was the foundation of their faith. 21:22.523 --> 21:25.304 [SPEAKER_01]: Who would be blessed through Abraham's descendants? 21:28.413 --> 21:32.017 [SPEAKER_01]: Not just your people, Abraham, will be blessed through you. 21:32.938 --> 21:35.321 [SPEAKER_01]: All people, all nations. 21:36.061 --> 21:41.608 [SPEAKER_01]: From every nation and tongue, all people will be blessed through you. 21:42.922 --> 21:48.047 [SPEAKER_01]: And that is the call that still is on our hearts if you believe in Jesus. 21:48.327 --> 21:59.537 [SPEAKER_01]: If you believe in the same God as Abraham, he has put on all of us that all people will know about him through us. 22:02.360 --> 22:04.662 [SPEAKER_01]: That is his call on our lives. 22:06.223 --> 22:12.964 [SPEAKER_01]: Because God has enough love and grace and blessing and wisdom for all people. 22:14.485 --> 22:20.606 [SPEAKER_01]: And we know, if you have experienced God, it is the best place for us to be. 22:21.286 --> 22:25.447 [SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, it is the best place for all people to be. 22:26.987 --> 22:29.728 [SPEAKER_01]: And it's not just all on our shoulders. 22:31.050 --> 22:33.933 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, it is so little on our shoulders. 22:34.053 --> 22:36.715 [SPEAKER_01]: It is actually in the hand of God. 22:37.336 --> 22:47.725 [SPEAKER_01]: Theologian David Peterson says, but this passage in Acts 11, this is the first detailed account of evangelism by ordinary believers. 22:48.345 --> 23:04.559 [SPEAKER_01]: previous accounts involved apostles or prophetic leaders such as Stephen and Philip, however, just as the account of Peter's ministry and another disciple of Jesus to Cornelius and his household finished with affirmations about God's sovereignty in the situation. 23:05.319 --> 23:07.221 [SPEAKER_01]: So here, the founding 23:16.453 --> 23:23.318 [SPEAKER_01]: Acts 11, 21, the Lord's hand was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. 23:24.519 --> 23:31.585 [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't necessarily what the people said or did the Lord came first. 23:33.126 --> 23:36.108 [SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know what your journey is. 23:37.029 --> 23:44.735 [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where you are at in your faith with your understanding of who God is and who Jesus is for you. 23:47.878 --> 23:56.863 [SPEAKER_01]: But I can guarantee that God loves you so much, that He desires for His hand to be upon you. 23:58.504 --> 24:13.612 [SPEAKER_01]: And if you haven't made a decision, maybe you've been around church for only a short time, maybe you're only just starting to explore who Jesus is and what His life and His death and His resurrection really means for you. 24:14.780 --> 24:20.026 [SPEAKER_01]: Can I say if that is you here today, whether you're here in the building or maybe you're watching online? 24:21.648 --> 24:24.431 [SPEAKER_01]: That the Lord's hand is upon you. 24:25.953 --> 24:34.483 [SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't just hold his hand for the special Christians in the room, for those who can quote Bible verses off the top of their hat. 24:35.635 --> 24:39.719 [SPEAKER_01]: You might be thinking, well, Linda, you don't know what I've done. 24:39.739 --> 24:41.580 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't know my history. 24:42.321 --> 24:45.964 [SPEAKER_01]: You don't know how little my knowledge of the Bible is. 24:46.405 --> 24:47.566 [SPEAKER_01]: You're right, I don't. 24:48.878 --> 24:52.542 [SPEAKER_01]: But God does, and He still loves you. 24:53.182 --> 25:12.781 [SPEAKER_01]: And He still has His hand upon you in such a way that He sent His Son to die for you, so that you did not have to suffer any punishment of your sins, but He took it all on Himself, so that we can live in grace and love and wisdom and discipline and discernment, 25:13.897 --> 25:17.740 [SPEAKER_01]: so that we can follow God with everything that we are. 25:17.880 --> 25:23.184 [SPEAKER_01]: Jesus made that way possible for me and he made that way possible for you. 25:24.666 --> 25:34.714 [SPEAKER_01]: And if today, you feel the hand of the Lord on you, but you haven't made that decision to trust and follow Jesus. 25:35.694 --> 25:36.795 [SPEAKER_01]: It is so simple. 25:38.056 --> 25:41.299 [SPEAKER_01]: All you need to do is say thank you, Jesus. 25:42.311 --> 25:46.054 [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for making such a huge sacrifice for me. 25:47.095 --> 25:50.697 [SPEAKER_01]: Please forgive me for all the wrong I did. 25:51.978 --> 25:58.143 [SPEAKER_01]: And Holy Spirit filled me so that I know how to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. 25:59.864 --> 26:02.146 [SPEAKER_01]: And can I encourage you if that is you? 26:03.233 --> 26:05.634 [SPEAKER_01]: Can you come up and speak to me after the service? 26:06.154 --> 26:11.077 [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to have a prayer team up the front, come and speak to them and have someone pray for you. 26:11.637 --> 26:18.401 [SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe speak to the person who has brought you or has been kind of tracking with you in your faith. 26:19.081 --> 26:21.622 [SPEAKER_01]: We don't have to do this alone. 26:23.843 --> 26:31.007 [SPEAKER_01]: And for those of you who are in the building or online watching that you've made that decision quite a while ago, 26:33.237 --> 26:45.264 [SPEAKER_01]: And maybe you too are like these believers in Antioch who are trying their best to live out the mission of Jesus here on earth. 26:46.144 --> 26:54.829 [SPEAKER_01]: Well, as I read through Acts 11, I hear of two different things, really clear things that the believers in Antioch did. 26:56.650 --> 26:59.592 [SPEAKER_01]: They would speak and they would give. 27:00.867 --> 27:04.489 [SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, they spoke a lot about Jesus. 27:05.449 --> 27:10.731 [SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, they spoke a lot about this man being the Christ being the Redeemer. 27:11.572 --> 27:18.015 [SPEAKER_01]: Because as we've heard in this passage, this was the first time that it was mentioned that they were called Christians. 27:18.715 --> 27:20.656 [SPEAKER_01]: Now they didn't call themselves Christians. 27:21.036 --> 27:31.186 [SPEAKER_01]: In fact, there's only a couple of times in the New Testament we even read this word Christians, and it was never by the Christians themselves calling themselves that. 27:31.486 --> 27:38.653 [SPEAKER_01]: They called themselves the followers of the way, or the followers of Jesus, believers, brothers and sisters. 27:39.033 --> 27:40.835 [SPEAKER_01]: They didn't call themselves Christians. 27:41.095 --> 27:44.638 [SPEAKER_01]: It was people outside the faith that called them Christians. 27:45.379 --> 27:54.822 [SPEAKER_01]: Just like people who followed Herod were called Herodians, people who followed Christ were called Christians. 27:56.043 --> 27:59.844 [SPEAKER_01]: But it was thought to be a bit of a derogatory term. 28:00.664 --> 28:04.566 [SPEAKER_01]: A bit like what we would say today, God bother us. 28:05.746 --> 28:06.086 [SPEAKER_01]: Right? 28:06.527 --> 28:10.348 [SPEAKER_01]: These were people who always spoke about Christ. 28:14.102 --> 28:19.843 [SPEAKER_01]: And they spoke to people about Christ, even about to people who didn't necessarily want to hear about Christ. 28:20.163 --> 28:22.323 [SPEAKER_01]: This is why they were called Christians. 28:22.583 --> 28:26.144 [SPEAKER_01]: They were clearly talking about it all the time. 28:27.064 --> 28:30.485 [SPEAKER_01]: So much so that they would give in this name. 28:31.325 --> 28:42.547 [SPEAKER_01]: In Acts 11, 20, it says some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 28:44.314 --> 28:46.836 [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we need to speak out. 28:48.097 --> 28:52.120 [SPEAKER_01]: We are asked to use our words to proclaim our faith. 28:52.561 --> 29:00.627 [SPEAKER_01]: And this can be difficult, and we can get ourselves in trouble, and it may not be necessarily PC for the place that we are in. 29:02.148 --> 29:06.072 [SPEAKER_01]: But we're asked to speak the name of Jesus in our places. 29:07.362 --> 29:14.152 [SPEAKER_01]: amongst your friends and your family, your workplaces, and your schools, and your neighbourhoods. 29:15.914 --> 29:18.338 [SPEAKER_01]: We are to speak out our faith. 29:19.965 --> 29:21.446 [SPEAKER_01]: to tell people about it. 29:22.127 --> 29:32.255 [SPEAKER_01]: To let them know what we did on a Sunday morning, not just about the footie that we watched or the sunshine we enjoyed, but maybe that we went to church as well. 29:33.296 --> 29:37.059 [SPEAKER_01]: And it might be in different ways that we have heard it before. 29:37.940 --> 29:42.604 [SPEAKER_01]: We need to make it accessible to the people, but you are in that place. 29:43.545 --> 29:46.607 [SPEAKER_01]: And you know the culture, and you know the people, 29:47.417 --> 29:56.723 [SPEAKER_01]: We need to pray that God will give us the right words to speak, so that people will know and hear the good news of Jesus. 29:58.043 --> 30:00.645 [SPEAKER_01]: And not just speak, but they gave. 30:01.646 --> 30:02.646 [SPEAKER_01]: They were generous. 30:03.307 --> 30:11.752 [SPEAKER_01]: In Acts 11, 29, it says that disciples as each one was able decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30:17.812 --> 30:24.016 [SPEAKER_01]: And you can guarantee if that they were generous towards people they didn't know, who were a long way off. 30:26.118 --> 30:32.242 [SPEAKER_01]: It's then to reason that their character was such that they were generous to those that were close to them. 30:32.582 --> 30:39.887 [SPEAKER_01]: They were generous to those that they lived amongst, that they worshipped with, that they were connected, that they were in relationship with. 30:40.965 --> 30:50.572 [SPEAKER_01]: And it was these two things that had them standing out against all the other options that Antioch provided. 30:51.872 --> 31:07.363 [SPEAKER_01]: It had this that they stood out of believers of the one true God, the believers of Jesus Christ because they wouldn't stop talking about Him, but they lived it out in their generosity as well. 31:09.801 --> 31:18.048 [SPEAKER_01]: who in your life needs to hear of the life transforming message of Jesus Christ. 31:20.650 --> 31:37.165 [SPEAKER_01]: Who in your family are amongst your friends, in your neighborhood, in your workplaces, in your schools, in your retirement villages, who amongst you needs to know of Jesus Christ. 31:38.522 --> 32:00.316 [SPEAKER_01]: who has God placed you amongst that you need to speak out and be generous, so that people can see the difference that Jesus has had in your life, in order that they may have their eyes opened, that they may be able to see the hand of God in their life. 32:01.256 --> 32:09.360 [SPEAKER_01]: and that they too may receive the greatest blessing that they could ever imagine in having a relationship with God. 32:10.041 --> 32:15.803 [SPEAKER_01]: As I finish in prayer today, think of someone in your world. 32:16.824 --> 32:20.126 [SPEAKER_01]: Think of that person that God has placed in your heart. 32:21.086 --> 32:27.249 [SPEAKER_01]: Think of that gentle in our anti-Occ, that unbeliever in Melbourne, 32:30.835 --> 32:34.737 [SPEAKER_01]: that you know needs to have Jesus in their life. 32:36.157 --> 32:52.965 [SPEAKER_01]: And let's pray that as the hand of the Lord is upon them, our words that we speak, and the generosity of our time and our money that we give will speak volumes of the God in our life and how He wants to be in there as well. 32:53.285 --> 32:54.186 [SPEAKER_01]: Will you pray with me? 32:59.643 --> 33:14.751 [SPEAKER_01]: We are so humbled that your hand, your gracious, majestic hand, would be upon our lives, that you would want a close and meaningful relationship with us. 33:15.652 --> 33:20.835 [SPEAKER_01]: We thank you for that, our life is so much better for having you in it. 33:23.043 --> 33:35.616 [SPEAKER_01]: God, as we think of the people that we interact with on a daily basis, throughout our week, throughout our lives, God, we desire for them to know you as well. 33:38.079 --> 33:44.386 [SPEAKER_01]: And as your hand is upon all people that you created and that you love. 33:48.642 --> 33:55.943 [SPEAKER_01]: Holy Spirit give us the courage to speak words of love and grace and faith. 33:58.584 --> 34:04.265 [SPEAKER_01]: Holy Spirit give us the words that will penetrate hard and hard. 34:07.805 --> 34:15.326 [SPEAKER_01]: That will speak life and love into the people around us, so that they too may know of your 34:21.363 --> 34:27.068 [SPEAKER_01]: because we think upon these people in our lives, God, we put them in your hands. 34:32.072 --> 34:45.564 [SPEAKER_01]: And help us to do our part as your vessels here on earth to continue to bring the kingdom of heaven here on earth so that all glory will be given to you. 34:46.780 --> 34:48.804 [SPEAKER_01]: We pray this in your mighty name. 34:49.425 --> 34:49.766 [SPEAKER_01]: Amen. 34:50.929 --> 34:54.436 [SPEAKER_01]: We stand with us as we finish our service in song.