Hallmarks of a Healthy Church

Well, my wife, Donna, and I have had the privilege over the last several years of working with a ministry to professional baseball players, which is interesting because I was not particularly successful at baseball. There's an irony to this, that I played one year in Little League and I was a far left fielder, which if you're like, that's not even a position. I know, I was behind the left fielder and my job was to hold up the fence and count the flowers in the outfield. So it's always been a bit of an irony that here I am ministering to a lot of Major League Baseball players, but we love it and have really been able to nurture a lot of friendships there. And one of the last times we were speaking at one of their conferences, I attended one of their breakout sessions because I wanted to hear kind of the insider conversation. And they had Adam Wainwright and Matt Holliday leading a breakout session. These were men that were two of the most successful players for the St. Louis Cardinals during one of their most dynamic runs in franchise history, nine appearances in the playoffs and two World Series wins. And the room was packed with young players that wanted to hear from these older men how they did it. And this breakout in particular was particularly designed

to be about baseball. And so the fascinating thing was as I sat there, there wasn't a single sentence about how to grip a bat. There wasn't a word spoken about how to throw a ball. The whole session was about culture. How did we create a culture of a winning team? And these men talked about how they would support each other in the locker room, how they would pray for one another and hold each other accountable, how they would host meals at their homes, how they would set up parties in the hotels, how they would speak to one another and build one another up. They told a great story of Adam who was their pitcher. He got injured early on and was gonna be out the entire season. And he said, we saw that it was gonna be a real morale hit for the team that they're like our star pitcher who's out before our season begins. This whole season is gonna be a loss. And Adam said, I didn't want the culture to feel that way. And so on the first day of spring training, as they showed up, Adam was standing there at the bus in a full cheerleader outfit, jumping up and down and screaming for his team as they took the field for the first time. He said, because I wanted them to know, I may not be able to pitch, but I'm still a part of this team and I'm gonna be your biggest cheerleader.

And they won the World Series that year. Why do I say that? Because we love stories like that. We love stories about a winning team, a team that looked out for each other, loved each other, helped each other, and were a part of something bigger than themselves. And we love stories like that because all of us deep down really want that. I wanna be a part of a community that cares for one another and has a cause that's bigger than me. I wanna be a part of a vibrant team that accomplishes something great. And sports, part of the reason why we love them is it kind of distills and displays that deep human desire to be a part of a community with a cause. Why am I talking about this? Because what we just read is we are looking today at a passage about the most vibrant spiritual community in the history of the world. And we're not just gonna look at the history of this community, the church in Antioch, we're gonna look at the hallmarks of this community, what they were like. It's interesting, I don't know if you noticed this when I read the passage, it mentions the name Claudius as a reference. And I imagine some of you know who that is, maybe most of you are like, I don't know who Claudius is. Here's the funny thing is, he was the emperor at the time.

And he was the emperor that came up through a series of intrigue, we don't have time to talk about that. The previous emperor Caligula was assassinated as troops ran through the royal palace looking for other royal family to murder. They found him hiding behind a curtain because they saw his toes sticking out. And he was kind of known as the idiot of the family. His mom said Mother Nature started to work on him and abandoned him. She would use her son as an illustration of stupidity. Whenever she thought someone was dumb, she would say, you're as dumb as my son, Claudius. It's tough go, thanks mom. And yet suddenly as they found him behind the curtain trembling, they thought, you know what? He'll make a good emperor and he rose to power through a series of intrigue and kind of different drama. And yet he turned into sort of an able, capable person. He expanded the empire, he built great public works. Fascinating guy, married four times, unlucky in love, divorced two, killed one, and was probably killed by the last one. It's hard to say. Here's the thing. Most of you knew none of that. And he was the emperor of the most powerful empire in the world.

And all he is near is a footnote, right? But I imagine more of you know the name Apostle Paul. And you know about the letters he wrote to the Romans, and the Corinthians, and the Galatians, and the Ephesians, and the Colossians, and the Philippians, and the Thessalonians. All those letters were launched from right here. What we're looking at in Antioch is the first church plant, and their first pastor will be the Apostle Paul, the persecutor who becomes their pastor and their preacher. From this church, a movement. will launch that changes human history, right? And I don't say all that to belittle government. God's ordained government for the stability of society and to restrain evil. But what I'm trying to say about the fact that you don't know Claudius, but you do know this, is sometimes what happens in the halls of power is not ultimately what changes history. And maybe the most important thing happening today will be what's happening in rooms like this, as churches gather to talk about what God is up to, because we're gonna watch Antioch change the world, their world and ours, and I wanna see it, not just to get that historical information, I wanna be like them. I want us to be like them, right? So let's look at it, verse 19. It says, now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen

traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one but the Jews. All right, we got a map here, this might help you. Let me show this to you real quick. I won't nerd out on this map the whole time. But I want you to see Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected down here in Jerusalem, right? And the church was born in Jerusalem, that when Christ rose from the dead, appeared to many, they began to preach in Jerusalem, and much of what we've seen in the book of Acts is the explosion of the church in Jerusalem. Thousands of people coming to faith. But then Stephen, one of the church leaders, was killed, martyred for his faith. And as soon as he was, a persecution broke out, and they scattered all over the place, right? And this isn't one of the major points of this sermon, but I do wanna say this. Stephen's death is the catalyst to send the church out, preaching the word of God, I don't know if you saw that. Can God use pain for his purposes? Yes. The martyrdom of Stephen is gonna lead to the propagation of the gospel, right? So I don't know all the reasons for your pain today, and I don't know what all your pain is, either. But I know a God who used Jesus's suffering to procure our salvation, and used Stephen's suffering to proclaim the gospel to the world.

So I don't know all your pain, but the Bible's honest about it. Life is pain, your highness, right? And yet I know a God who brings purpose out of pain. The blood of Stephen is the seedbed of the church, right? And so, what happens? When they had to leave Jerusalem, they start to scatter. And some of them go up here to Phoenicia, this is this coastal region. Some of them head over to Cyprus, this island here, and they make their way up to Antioch. And it says as they do that, they're preaching the gospel only to the Jews. And there's something about that that makes sense. They were Jewish people at the time, and Jesus was their Jewish messiah that fulfilled the Jewish scriptures, and they went to these cities that had big Jewish communities. And so they were like, yeah, this is kind of a Jewish thing. And they weren't wrong, they're just limited, right? But then in verse 20, something happens. It says, but there were some of them, men of Cyprus and men of Cyrene. Cyrene's actually off the map. It's way out here, it's North Africa. Men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. So we saw Cyprus, this island, and then some men from North Africa.

So African brothers and some island boys show up here in Antioch, and they begin to preach to everybody. They begin to preach to the Hellenists. Now, we've talked about them before. The Hellas is Greece, and so a Hellenist is someone who had been influenced by Greek culture. And we looked in Jerusalem, it was talking about Jewish people who lived and acted more like the Greek culture around them. But here, what we're gonna see in context is, suddenly, we've jumped to the branks of a single ethnic group that we saw last week as Landon preached and did a great job. Jesus is called the Lord of all. He's not just the Lord of one ethnic group. That we saw the dam break open and the good news of Jesus spreading out to other communities. And now here in Antioch, we see the gospel land in this community. And Antioch, if you don't know, was the third largest city in the Roman Empire at that time, right behind Rome and Alexandria. Had maybe half a million people. But it's in some sense an unlikely place for a church to really land. It was a polytheistic place, a worship of all the Roman gods. And one of the favorite cultic activities in that area was prostitution.

Use young girls and young boys to worship your deities as you exploit them. So it was a pretty dark and immoral place. But it was also very multi-ethnic. And there in the midst of that city, this little church establishes a beachhead, an outpost. You get the first church plant. The gospels moved from Jerusalem up to Antioch. And from Antioch, it will go to the ends of the earth. But I want you to see what this community is like. Antioch is going to reach the world with the gospel. And the hallmarks of this healthy spiritual community, there are seven. And here's the first one we've already seen in our text. It says that those who scattered spoke the word and preached the Lord Jesus. What does a healthy spiritual community do? They speak the word. I want you to notice here that it says the word, they spoke the word, and also that they preached. And that word preach, it's not the word for a sermon like what I'm doing now. It's the word euangelion. Eu, the prefix, is good, like euphoric. It's a good thing. And angelion in Greek is where we get angel. An angel's a messenger. Galas is a message so these people as they were scattered because of persecution they went about and they spoke the good message the good news about the Lord Jesus

How did this spiritual community that's gonna change the ancient world and our world begin? It's because ordinary people carried the name of Jesus. Did you notice how we don't even get their names? This wasn't the Apostles as great as they were wasn't anyone who officially worked for the church It was people whose lives have been touched by Jesus say we cannot stop speaking about what we've seen and heard How does a vibrant spiritual? Community grow it's because ordinary people speak the word, right? We showed you a survey not that long ago That two-thirds of you arrived in this room because a friend invited you not a pastor not a savvy marketing campaign But somebody said hey, I've showed up in this community where they preach this book and it's changed me It's helped me and I want to tell you about it and I want to bring you that's how a church grows My mother came to faith because a college girl found hope in Jesus and went back to her high school teacher and said I want to tell you about the hope I found and My mom the high school teacher put her faith in Jesus because of the faithfulness of that young girl My dad came to faith because his former frat buddies Attended a conference where they put their faith in Jesus and they came back and told my dad you have to go Hear what we heard see what we saw experienced what we experienced people good people want good for their friends and You see when they scatter they preach the good news that there's hope in Jesus because there's something about us that does this we Celebrate what changes us? We do That's what human beings do we celebrate food. We celebrate restaurants. We celebrate books. We celebrate podcasts We talk about what teaches us. We're wired that way and yet it's interesting a couple decades ago It got popular to talk about yet do all that with the things that you love celebrate them except your religion Okay, religion is a private thing a personal thing You keep your mouth shut when it comes to those things But the people who told you to do that don't keep their mouth shut When it comes to their political beliefs or philosophical beliefs They just said that to get you to stop talking and yet we celebrate what changes us We talk about what's good and good friends want good things for their friends And so if Jesus has changed your life

You should talk about it right and talk about what he's done for you And here you got ordinary people carrying the name and the church is born. Let me tell you I'm going to talk about Jesus, right? But they expect me to right and they'll always wonder yeah, you got a financial incentive to do this Don't you right? I'll shake their hand in the lobby and they'll think oh, he's just being efficient But when you talk about how God is changing your life You will confuse people and you might also give them some hope because they might be hurting and looking for answers, too Right, but I want you to notice they didn't just talk about a vague spirituality It says they preached the Lord Jesus Something concrete and something real How do churches die? How are their big empty church buildings all over the cities of America? Let me tell you the simple reason they stop using this They stop speaking the Word of God They stop telling people about the hope in Jesus and when you let go of this book that gives life You let go of what gives your church life they spread the good news about Jesus and it changed things in Antioch and for many of you you say and it changed things in me, too This is the book that changes life Right and look at the response in verse 2 The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord That's your second hallmark of a healthy spiritual community Number one is they speak the word and number two, they see people turn and believe We want transfer growth, that's great You moved here from some different city and you looking for a church and you found us We love that because people move here from all 50 states and multiple countries. We want transfer growth, but we also are praying for transformation growth That people come to church here that have as many people have told us I just thought you were the next bar on U Street and showed up and y'all started singing. I was like, whoops We're like gotcha surprise and you heard about something that will give you life without a hangover afterwards You know that we want to see people turn and change as a result of what God is doing in their life

I gotta tell you, you know, we did Easter at the anthem a couple weeks ago It was very cool to be in the anthem. It's a very cool Theater but the coolest part for me in the second gathering. I didn't do in the first I just asked people to put up a hand or look up at me if they wanted to put their faith in Jesus And I just saw many people do it and just looking at their faces I thought you know what I'm so glad they're here. I'm so glad we're doing this and maybe they just came to sort of fulfill a religious duty, a family obligation, but somewhere in the mix of all this, they said, you know what? These people have a joy and a hope and a peace I don't have, and if it's in Jesus, I want that. And I gotta tell you, the most exciting thing as a minister, to move among us, to see people's lives being changed for the good because of the gospel, and hear that it says the hand of the Lord was on these people, and so people turned and believed. I wanna turn towards him, and I trust who he really is. In a couple weeks, we're gonna do a baptism gathering up here, which is a miracle of itself that the venue trusts us to put so much water on stage. And yet, because you take care of this venue, they do, and let me tell you something. We have a wait list for people to be baptized. That's awesome. That's a good problem for a church, of people saying, I wanna associate with him. So a vibrant spiritual community, the people speak the name, and people turn and believe.

And in verse 22, word gets out. And the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch, so news comes down south to Jerusalem of what's going on, so they send Barnabas to investigate. Now, up until this point, Jerusalem's where all the magic happened. It's where all the preaching was going on, the apostles are there, where all the miracles are going on, where all the church is growing. Jerusalem was where it's at, and yet suddenly, they hear the gospel's going wild in some other place, and they go, well, Barnabas, go see what's going on in Antioch, and go see if it's legit. And in verse 23, it says, when he came and he saw the grace of God, he said, I don't know, I think the worship in Jerusalem's better. I mean, we got the apostle Peter, he's a better preacher, or whatever. Is that what he does? Does he fold his arms? No. It says, when he came and he saw the grace of God, he was glad. And he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. He sees God moving, and this is the hallmark of a healthy church, he celebrates grace. I'm gonna celebrate the kindness of God, even if it didn't come through me, right?

Selfishness, ego, pettiness, they don't make championship teams, and they don't make healthy churches. And yet here you see a healthy church celebrates that Jesus is moving in someone's life, even if it wasn't through me. And so it's interesting, because you see in Jerusalem, they had gone on a journey before, Landon covered this last week, where they kind of thought the gospel's just for us and people like me, and God had to really work on Peter and the rest of them to see, no, it's for a broader community, and right as God was showing them the gospels for all nations, suddenly they hear that God is moving in Antioch. God laid the groundwork for them to celebrate this, and they do, it's a healthy step. Healthy churches celebrate the grace of God. And let me tell you something, for us, no one has celebrated us more than Passion City Atlanta. When they launched us, so many of them gave generously so we could launch. Most of them have never been here, but when I go back there and preach and give a report of what we're up to, people will break out in applause over what God is doing in you, in your life, and many of them don't know you, and yet they're just excited to hear

that God is on the move. That's a healthy thing, that's a healthy community, that not just to be a cul-de-sac of God's grace, but a conduit of it, and celebrate it where we see it. And so that was eight years ago when we moved here and then we showed up. And I gotta tell you, there were other churches already here in this town. And so I wanna give you my honest take on National Community Church and their pastor, Mark Batterson. When we showed up in town, they showed up with a check and said, we wanna invest in what God is doing through you. And then they invited me to a pastor's prayer group where pastors got around and didn't talk about how many people were at their church or how big they were, what they're doing. Men got around and put hands on each other and began to pray for one another and support one another. I talked to a pastor just this last week and he said, my town's not like that. And so praise God for Mark Batterson, praise God for National Community Church and what they're doing and the heart they're doing it with. We showed up and before we launched, we went to District Church with their pastor, Aaron Graham. And I showed up with my wife and family just to kind of sit there and go to church. And Aaron saw me in the crowd, stopped the sermon, pointed me out,

made me stand up and prayed over us that God would bless us as we grew as a church. All right. All right. All right. All right. Capitol Hill Baptist, Mark Dever, walked me around his offices, introduced me to every single one of his staff and told me which ones I should poach because he thought they would like our church better. Triumphant Church, Pastor Emeritus, T.L. Rogers and Pastor Perrin, put me in a car and drove me around and said, we got to show you the real DC. They wanted to show me what God was doing. in the city, pettiness chokes grace. God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And when the gospel expands, we celebrate that the message of Jesus, the good news of the grace of God is going out, even if it's not underneath our flag. And we wanna be a people like that. The world of the stingy shrinks, but the world of the generous expands. And as a community, we wanna celebrate when God is moving in our friends. Pastor Randall's at Waterfront Church. He and his wife invited my wife to go see the new building that God gave them

that they're gonna expand into. It's just so exciting that they knew we would wanna celebrate that God is moving through them. I'm gonna go speak to some pastors at a thing called Mega Metro in a couple weeks. Pastors of megachurches in metropolitan areas. We're not a megachurch by definition, but we are in a metro, so I'm about half in, all right, but I just got invited. And I'm gonna go speak to them and just champion what God is doing in their community. I'm gonna go in a couple weeks and speak at Illuminations. They're translating the Bible into every language on planet Earth, and they will finish it in our lifetime. And you know how they got there? Because all of the major Bible translation organizations decided, you know what, there is strength in unity. We need to get along, we need to share best practices, we need to work together, and suddenly they got more efficient, faster, and more people know Jesus because ego went down and grace went up. This is what a healthy church does. It celebrates the grace of God. I remember when we had Pastor Levi Lusko come preach for us, something about his preaching touched one of my daughter's heart. And she said, I wanna go read his book. And his book is bigger than this. I was like, are you sure?

And she was like, yeah. And she went and told him, I wanna read your book. And I'll never forget, he just took her by the hand, walked her in the back, got her, explained why he wrote it, signed it, and gave it to her. And then, unprompted, he walked up to me and he said, you know what, man, when my kids were being touched by the grace of God through someone else's ministry, he's like, there was always a little part of me that was like, you know, your dad preaches, too. You know, your dad, you know, I wrote a book. People like it, people tell me they like it. And he said, but I realized, I wanna celebrate when God's on the move in my family and in my friends. And when it's coming through people who I trust that are preaching the word of God, I wanna be the first to celebrate it and the first to champion it. And I thought, that is such a healthy perspective. And so, friend, I wanna encourage you, as you hear about friends learning about their faith and celebrating the gospel, you celebrate what God's doing in their life. That's a healthy thing to do. And that's what Barnabas does. And not only does he celebrate, look in verse 23. When he came and he saw the grace of God, he was glad and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

That sounds like a bit of a pileup of religiously words. What does it mean? Steadfast purpose. It's literally resolve, and that word purpose in Greek is from the heart. That I'm not just gonna say, yeah, I know I should go to church or whatever. No, I'm gonna resolve from my heart to remain faithful. That means to abide. That word remain faithful, it's used to the people that when Jesus was speaking, they just stayed, they didn't leave. That I'm gonna stay right here by him the whole time he's talking. That's the fourth hallmark of a healthy, vibrant, spiritual community is resolve to remain. Now, why does he say that, resolve to remain? Well, it's because he sees they just kicked off some initial energy, but initial energy fades. You all know that. Marriages drift unless you cultivate that intimacy. Friendships drift unless you resolve, no, we're gonna keep strengthening the bonds of our friendship, right? Enthusiasm fades, but it's only in resolve that you'll see real results. We know this from exercise. In January, so much initial energy to work out.

I'm gonna be healthy. 2026 is the year of the new me. And by April, those same gyms are empty, right? There's no line for the bench. Why, because our resolve fades. But you know, one workout doesn't make you strong, doesn't make you healthy, right? You gotta have consistency over time to see results. And here he looks at them and says, this is great that God's in the move in your life, but we're not gonna do the camp high, where everyone goes to camp and starts crying and gives their life to Jesus, and then goes home and goes right back into everything they used to do, and then they come back and get re-saved to the next camp and promise they'll do better, and throw a twig in the fire to celebrate commitment to God and there's twigs flying everywhere, or whatever. We're not gonna keep doing that. He says, we're gonna say, hey, is God at work on you? Yeah, then make a decision. Resolve to remain. And let me tell you why we need this. I experience this too, as an introvert, folks. Every time they announce on stage, Neighborhood Nights is coming, I do what many of you do. I should probably go to that. And then every night it comes around, I go,

I don't know. It's been kind of a long day. Maybe I'll just let the TV wash over me. And you do that, and it won't happen right away, but slowly you'll drift into isolation. And so much of the spiritual growth you would experience in community, you're not gonna experience. And when you look up a year later and you're no different, you'll know why. God's grace comes from the Lord, but it comes through means, and so he sees it's working, he says, you know what, show up, show up, show up. Gains are created through consistency over time, resolve to remain, and I wanna encourage you, church, the next time someone gets up here and says, we're hosting a dinner, that's free in your neighborhood, and I mean, they're just putting it all on the bottom shelf, show up, say, I'm gonna be there, and I'm gonna show up and believe that God might use this to help me, right? Luke then tells us Barnabas's motivation for this, and I love this in verse 24. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. Your next hallmark, number five, is it's served by good men. It's interesting, why send Barnabas?

He wasn't one of the apostles. Well, he's from Cyprus, so maybe they're like, you know the area you go. But Luke, who wrote Acts, tells us the real motivation for why Barnabas was doing what he did, celebrating and exhorting. It's because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and that's why a great many were added. He's a good dude, and cultures, churches thrive when good men decide to serve. Did you know Barnabas isn't even his name? His name's Joe. Barnabas is his nickname. You see, in Acts chapter four, it says, thus Joseph, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, which means son of encouragement, a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. This is in the early days in Jerusalem. The church kicked off and they didn't have any money. And Barnabas just saw these apostles serving. They didn't have any money. He's like, well, I'll sell this field and bring you the money. You need money? I got it. Saul comes to faith, and Saul was a little crazy, and people didn't trust him and were avoiding him. Barnabas was the one that was like, does Saul need someone to help him?

I'll come help him. Barnabas wants to sit with Saul. Things are popping off in Antioch. It's a little uncertain. Should we celebrate or be scared? And Barnabas says, I'll go. Barnabas sees the grace of God moving in their lives, and he was like, let me encourage you guys to remain. Barnabas is a what-needs-done guy. I don't know. You need us to give? I'm gonna give. You need me to sit with that guy? I'm gonna sit with that guy. You need me to encourage those people? I'm gonna encourage those people. Churches grow because good men get involved. Now, I'm not saying there's not a place for women, okay? The apostle Luke loves to celebrate the contributions of women to the church. I'm gonna talk in a few weeks about Tabitha, right, and all the good that she did, okay, ladies? So if there's anyone that's like, what about, you're a part of this story, too. But I'm just saying, good churches thrive also when men decide. This is not just my wife's thing or women's thing. This is my thing. And God raised you up to be a part of this, right? You've heard the old statement,

all that's needed for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing. Well, there's an inverse to that, too. All that's needed for good to thrive is for good men to choose to serve. And Antioch exists, and Paul becomes their pastor, and Antioch sends Paul out to write these books to the communities that he preached to. Why, because Barnabas showed up. And Barnabas said, I'll do what needs done. I'm just willing to get involved. And so many of you are in the wake of the blessing of men like this, of guys like Doug Steele, who just showed up at our church and said, what needs done? You need a greeter, I'll greet people. You need someone to do premarital counseling, I'll do premarital counseling. That's not his job. And yet, he's done more weddings than I have. Because Doug was a Barnabas kind of guy, a what needs done kind of guy. Kirk Crawford drives not, does not live nearby, but he drives in early, consistently on Sundays, to set up all that we have to set up to turn this into a house of worship. You get to sit and worship because of the faithfulness of men like him. Jake Middlebrooks has had so many jobs here at the church.

I don't even know what all you've led and done. But even today, he was helping me find the pack, or else I wouldn't have had a mic that worked. Because Jake is a get it done, what needs done, I'm here to serve kind of person. And that's what a church needs to flourish. It needs women, but it needs men who will step up and say, you know what? I wanna be that kind of guy. For the glory of God and for the good of this city, for the good of this church, put me in, coach. And look at the result. A great many people were added to the Lord. But then that creates a problem. What do I do with these people? And so he realized, I need some help. And so in verse 25, it says, so Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for. Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. Saul, we saw, was persecuting the church. Jesus literally knocked him over, said, you work for me now, and so they kind of parked him in Tarsus because he didn't quite know what to do with him. And yet, as this church pops off in a more Gentile, ethnic, multi-ethnic environment, suddenly he realizes, man, we gotta get this guy involved. Let's pull him down here. And so they begin to preach together, and it says, for a whole year,

they met with the church and taught a great many people. Now, that's a terrible thing because, I don't know if you know this, churches are supposed to be small. So the fact that they do this and teach a great many people is really, they've lost the heart of God. Big churches are all bad, and so Barnabas and Saul should not have done this. That's a joke, folks, if we haven't met. Size is not a moral category. And we see in the news a lot of megachurch pastors who do terrible things, but I've seen petty tyrants that work at 7-Elevens as an assistant manager. Evil exists in the hearts of all kinds of people, right? And so it's a dangerous thing to have a lot of people following you because a lot of people can get hurt if you go wrong. So let's pray for pastors, especially those over larger churches. But hey, size is not a moral category. What matters? What matters is evangelism, discipleship, community, service, and worship. That's what matters. And here they've got these key planks in place and healthy things grow. And so it begins to grow, right? And yet I want you to see this.

It says in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. This is your sixth point. A healthy, vibrant spiritual community is populated with learners, learners. That's what disciple means. Disciple means a learner. It's learning with an action orientation. Education for the purpose of action. A disciple's like an apprentice. If you're apprenticing with a potter, you're gonna make some pottery. If you're apprenticing with a blacksmith, you're gonna create some tools. You're meant to take what you're learning and apply it in your real life. And so notice as they begin to teach, it doesn't say, and they gathered a great many attendees. There's a good place for attendees, and Paul will find places in his ministry where he'll just explain the gospel to people like, I don't know if I believe all this. I just came with a friend, I'm not sure. There's a place for investigation. And yet for those who step across the line and say, no, I belong to Jesus. I wanna run with him. You go, okay, then all this education is for action. That there should be a change in your life as a result of your encounter with the word of God.

And so notice as they begin to teach them, they run into another problem. What do we call this thing? Up until now, they've just been called Jews. Because the whole church was Jewish. And they're like, but suddenly we got all these people that aren't Jewish, what do we call it? And suddenly it says, and they were called Christians. Where that name came from. Where does it come from? Well, Christ was the Greek translation of the word Messiah. And so that means they didn't just think Jesus was a rabbi or an inspirational teacher. We thought he was the king, the hero of the human story. And at the end means, I'm with that guy. And it existed before this. You can read about the Herodians, that Herod was their guy. That's my guy, I follow him. And so Christian was just, oh, that's your guy. You follow him. You're about what he's about. You're doing what he does. You're kind of behind that guy. That's what a Christian is. But did you notice what it says? They were called Christians. It's led many scholars to believe they were called Christians by who? Everyone outside their community. They suddenly saw this great many people responding

and they go, what's going on with those guys? And the best they could tell is they watched them. It was like, they have this real commitment to the Christ. And it's anning them, it's changing them. It's making them live in a different way. The way they spend their money is different. The way they talk is different. The way they treat their wives are different. The way they raise their kids are different. The way they talk to us is different. They're different kinds of people. We gotta call you something. We'll call you Christian. Let me ask you something, family. Would that ever happen to you? Would people at your workplace, in your neighborhood, ever accuse you of being a Christian? That if they found out you were one, they'd go, that makes sense. That explains why you're so nice. That explains why you've been so kind. I thought you were hitting on me. Turns out you're just a Christian, okay. Or, if they found out at your office that you were a Christian, would they go, huh? No, it's just, I didn't know y'all were allowed to be so mean. I thought that was kind of outside the framework of what y'all were doing.

But you know what, to each his own. You see an Antioch, they're disciples. They're learning. Not perfect, but they're on a journey. And it's on a journey that the rest of the culture sees and says, we gotta call these people something. You know what, they look. like Christ, they act like Christ, they talk like Christ. My hope and prayer is that if you're here investigating the faith, keep coming back, we'll keep talking about them, and you really don't have to be perfect, and no question is out of bounds. And yet as we come to have a commitment in him, people should see the change. And the last place they see the change, verse 27, it says, now these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. This took place in the days of Claudius. Remember that guy? So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea, and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. The last hallmark of a healthy spiritual community is it overflows with generosity. Did you see where the famine was?

Where was the famine? All over the world! You can read about it, by the way, it really happened. Of course it really happened, the Bible says so, but it also says it in Josephus and other places. I was just saying that for the skeptic. You're like, did that really happen? Yes, it did, you can read it in other places. Claudius had to deal with all kinds of regional famines, and then a big famine hit, he saw all kinds of difficulty in that arena, and yet here, it was a worldwide famine, it was deeply hurting the Roman community, and what happens when you suddenly feel scarcity? If you feel scarcity, it's very natural. You go buy all the toilet paper and bottled water you can, okay, stock up on canned goods, and then maybe some shotgun shells. So when your neighbors try to get your toilet paper or canned goods, okay, this is standard ops in the modern world, and yet that's not what the Christian does. When the famine hits the whole world, they don't turtle up and shrink, they go, you know, I wonder if Judea needs help. We should send some money to Jerusalem. They don't know them, they haven't been there, but the grace of God has touched them. That's undeserved kindness, and those who know grace show grace, and they're touched by the kindness of God,

and they go, you know what, we're suffering. I bet they have a hard run down there, too. I bet there's some challenges down there. We should support them, and you see an overflowing generosity from this church. I had a mentor that used to say it. You know God's got your heart when he gets your wallet, and I gotta tell you, I think that's really true, and let me tell you this, and we'll close here. This is how Christianity grew in the ancient world. Famine hit in the time of Claudius. Plagues will hit later, and the standard Roman ops was when hard times hit, it's every man for himself, and you saw in Roman culture, if a plague hit a city, you would abandon it, because you didn't want to get sick. You'd leave your wife, kids coughing on the floor, and I'm sorry, I'm gone, right? The Christians would stay, and they would care for their own sick, and they would care for their sick enemies, too. Now, the crazy irony is, when they risked their life, because they pooled their resources as a community and didn't scatter, they supported one another. More of them survived, and so you saw a greater Christian community survive, and then you saw more and more Romans say, you know what, when hard times hit me, all my Roman friends scattered. You Christians showed up. Tell me more about the Christ that changed you,

because y'all are weird, but it's a good weird, and you saw Christianity grew because of the kindness and generosity of Christians, right? Later, when Rome fell, and the barbarians ran through Rome, the Roman Empire fell, and yet the church expanded. Why? Because they brought the gospel to the barbarians, the Germans, and the Goths, and the Visigoths. The Christians said, these people wrecked our empire, but I bet they need Jesus, and you saw, even when Rome fell, Christianity thrived. Why? Because of the generosity of communities like this. This is the grace of God has touched us. Our God is ruling over this place. Let's go. We're gonna take a break from the book of Acts in May, but I gotta tell you, as we get back into the midsummer in season two, you're gonna see what we saw in season one is from Jerusalem to Antioch, the gospel spreads, and then from Antioch, a great mission is gonna expand all the way to the ends of the earth, that because of a healthy winning team like this, you've won, and I've won. We got a book like this telling us of a grace like this because people looked like their savior, Jesus Christ, who came and lived for us, sacrificed himself for us, rose from the grave, and then offered grace to us so that we can spread that good news

to a city that desperately needs it. And so we're gonna take a break from the book of Acts in May, but I gotta tell you, as we get back into the midsummer in season two, you're gonna see what we saw in season one is from Jerusalem to Antioch, a great mission is gonna expand all the way to the ends of the earth, that because of a healthy winning team like this, you've won, and I've won. We got a book like this telling us of a grace like this because people looked like their savior, Jesus Christ, rose from the grave, and then offered grace to us