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On May 19th, we celebrated Church Planting Sunday at The Bridge Community Church! Special guest preacher Scott Thomas shared with us Five Reasons for Church Planting. In doing so, he gave an illustration of churches that are pregnant with future pastors and planters in expectancy of birthing new churches. Then, this past Sunday we jumped back into our series in Acts. In Acts 11, we saw a new church birthed in Antioch and its subsequent stages of development in the process. It was a perfect text for us to follow-up Church Planting Sunday with! Antioch was also the first place that we were called "Christians." Why did they call us that? In this week's sermon recap we get a glimpse at why they called us Christians, as well as the stages of development in a young church plant.
Those Crazy Christians
Sermon Recap
Acts 11:19-30
The Big Idea: Disciples are made to make more disciples. Churches are planted to plant more churches.
Antioch (modern Antakya) - the largest city of the area and capital of the Roman province of Syria, with a population of a half million or more. Only Rome and Alexandria were larger in ancient times.
Antioch was known for its business and commerce, for its sophistication and culture, but also for its immorality.
One might say that Jerusalem was all about religion; Rome was all about power; Alexandria was all about intellect, and Athens was all about philosophy. Adding to that, one might say that Antioch was all about business and immorality.
Stages of Development in a Young Church
See Acts 11:19-20
1. Courageous Gospel sharing across boundaries
What does that look like for you in your context?
- Community boundaries
- Socio-economic boundaries (class)
- Racial boundaries
- Special interest boundaries
Early Missionary Witnesses - took the gospel to the Jews
Early Missionary Pioneers – took the gospel to the Hellenists
Early Missionary Pioneers – took the gospel to the Hellenists
2. Movement from God resulting in salvations
The hand of the Lord brought belief, and those who believed turned. When the Gospel came to Antioch, it came to an utterly pagan city.
A ministry can’t turn rebellious people to the Lord unless the hand of the Lord is with them.
- You can turn people to a personality without the hand of the Lord. (tv preachers, comedians and etc..)
- You can turn people to a social club without the hand of the Lord. (bars, country clubs, civic organizations)
- You can turn people to a church or an institution without the hand of the Lord. (mom said this is the right thing to do)
- But you can’t turn people to the Lord without the hand of the Lord.
Church, when we get out of our comfort zone, we must rely on the hand of the Lord. We must pray and we must ask the Holy Spirit to work. This is supernatural.
See Acts 11:22-23
Barnabas finds evidences of the grace of God among them. It is important that others be able to see the grace of God among us. They should not see an emphasis on self, on man-made rules, on human performance – but on the glorious grace of God.
Have you ever even thought about what we SHOULD look for? We place high importance on so many things (mission, giving, evangelism, service), but these things are vain if not centered, founded in, and boldly proclaiming the GRACE OF GOD. THE GOSPEL must be permeating our lives. Gospel in the pulpit. Gospel in our lives. Gospel in our community.
So, we have a new young church with new Christians. NOW WHAT?
3. Quick follow-up and investment in new believers.
Babies are not mean to stay babies. New Christians are meant to mature. God gives leaders to equip this process in the direction of the Holy Spirit, under the authority of Christ, and centered in His holy word.
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (Ephesians 4:11-12, ESV)
See Acts 11:24
4. New believers begin sharing the gospel
Barnabas exhorts and encourages the church and they start sharing the gospel themselves. We see disciples making disciples and the church growing when new believers engage mission, evangelism and ministry…
See Acts 11:25-26
5. Discipleship training and leadership development
Perseverance in the faith is a community project.
What do you have in place to train and develop new leaders and elders in your church? Is it holistic?
At The Bridge there are opportunities to grow deeper in knowledge at this year’s Summer School. You have opportunities to engage in holistic training in community via cell as well. For students and children there is also summer camp. You can read all about what is being offered this summer at The Bridge by clicking here (Leadington Summer Schedule).
See Acts 11:27-30
6. The young church begins to serve other believers in crisis and plant new churches
Notice that one of the first signs of vitality is, again, financial generosity! (cf. Acts 4:31-37). Then later in Acts 13, the church in Antioch sends off their best to plant to new churches. We see churches planting churches.
Those Crazy Christians
The Antioch church was the first place that the gospel had created a truly new Humanity out of many different nationalities. There were people coming to faith across cultural, racial, and class boundaries! They were not only coming to faith but they also began serving and giving to others!
The barriers came down and this shocked onlookers. No other religion had produced it. How could this religion, then, be seen as simply the power-grab move of a particular culture or strata of society? It could not. That is why only in Antioch were believers called “Christians” and only there did the world realized something remarkable had been unleashed in the empire.
Those crazy Christians were giving to other believers and serving beyond themselves. Is this still what we are known for today? Brad Paisley's new song "Those Crazy Christians" talks about Christians who are willing to jump on an airplane and go to Africa and Haiti and risk their lives in Jesus' name. If that is considered crazy, I'll take that label. May we never lose the drive the serve others in our own communities and abroad because we have been served by Christ. And if that's crazy, so be it.
Listen to past sermons at http://www.bridgepodcast.com . Watch past sermons at http://www.bridgechurchonline.tv
