And please turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11. The text is verses 19 through 26. The planting of the church at Antioch. Acts 11, 19 through 26. So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also preaching the Lord Jesus. and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. When he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them with all resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. for he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch." May God be pleased to bless to us the reading and the hearing of the Word of God. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this portion of Scripture and for your church, for the privilege of being a part of your church, of laboring in your church, and seeing your good hand at work through the ministry of people like us to build your church. And as we talk a little bit about that, we pray that you give us grace and understanding. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. This particular text takes me back in my own life to a time when I was a pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and I was called to attend a meeting with two other pastors in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. One of them was Glenn Black, who was a regional home missionary, and the other was Jonathan Male, who was a pastor in Abilene, Texas. We went to Amarillo, Texas, a city in the Panhandle, of Texas to meet with a group of individuals who were interested in the possibility of a new church and part of what came out of that meeting was our regional home missionary Glenn Black spending several months in Amarillo traveling from his home which was in the south in Lubbock to Amarillo to meet with these people and to I have meetings with them and to begin worship services with them. and then he enlisted the help of a retired pastor by the name of Robert Churchill who subsequently moved to Amarillo, Texas and spent about four years there consolidating the work and making disciples and then they finally called at the end of Mr. Churchill's term John Hilbelink who was the organizing pastor of that congregation and a church was planted in Amarillo, Texas. And there was a vision there, a vision to gather converts and disciple them for the purpose of planting a church. And that's God's way. And I think this is what emerges in our text this morning as we look at Acts 11, 19 through 26, that if we're going to be engaged in church planting, and I hope some of you will be engaged in that good pursuit, that you need the vision, God's vision, of discipling converts for the purpose of forming a new congregation and again I think this is what's taking place in Acts chapter 11 beginning with verse 19 and interestingly enough what we see in this little piece of scripture is movement from a rather scattered group of converts to a gathered church Look at verse 19. So then, those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenician, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. So here we have this scattered group of converts. And now look at verse 26. Well, it's actually in verse 26. And for an entire year they met with the church. And what is the church? The church is a gathered group of people. A people gathered, called out from the world and gathered together to worship God. And so there's a very purposeful movement from this scattered group of converts to a gathered group of disciples. And the text is talking about that process. And how does it take place? Well, let's look at the text again. Verses 19 and 20. So then, those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except the Jews alone. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And so, as a result of the persecution of Stephen, these Jewish folk went out to various areas. Phoenicia, to the north. modern-day Lebanon. And they went to Cyprus, that island in the Mediterranean. And they went to Antioch, a city in Syria, the third largest city in the Roman Empire. But some of them, verse 20 says, some of them also coming from Cyprus and Cyrene. Interesting. Possibly converts that were made in Cyprus and in Cyrene in North Africa second-generation converts who now come to Antioch good possibility that that's the case and they didn't have the prejudices of their Jewish cohorts in the faith and they were willing to speak to the Gentiles to the Greeks also and this is what's happening in the book of Acts. In chapter 10, what do we find? Well, here's Peter going to the household of Cornelius, under some duress, we might add, and he preaches to the household of Cornelius, and lo and behold, these Gentiles are converted. Praise God that that's the case. And then he reports that to the church at Jerusalem at the beginning of chapter 11. And now, What we see in the middle of chapter 11 is a beachhead being established in the Gentile world for the church of Jesus Christ. A real beachhead. And it's from this place that the Holy Spirit calls the Apostle Paul to extend the church into the Gentile world with his first missionary journey. But there's some things that have to take place first. a little more evangelism in Antioch. Let's look at our text again. Verses 21 and following. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. Many converts were made. God's hand was with those scattered believers who were doing aggressive evangelism. When you love Jesus Christ and His love is in your heart, you can't help but tell others about it. And that's what they were doing. They were aggressively proclaiming the gospel and evangelizing. And the hand of the Lord was with them, the text says, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. Well, there's a little bit of a parallel in verse 24, if you look at it. Talking about Barnabas, he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. Here was a man upon whom the hand of the Lord was resting, and the text says he was full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. I take it that when the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you do evangelism, you are full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. Those of you who have taken President O'Neill's evangelism class know that going out and knocking on doors is a fearful prospect, but you also know that if the hand of the Lord is upon you and you are full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and you go out into the community you know that you will meet people who will be ready to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know that has been your experience and year after year here in this evangelism class that has been the experience where you have gone out and seen men and women converted to faith in Jesus Christ Well, the story in our text does not stop here, because now there is a turn from making converts to making disciples. This is what the Great Commission is all about. Isn't that right? Making disciples. And this is what we see, I think, taking place in our text. Look at verses 22 and 23. The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. And when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them with all resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. You see, suddenly There is no longer the prospect of just a scattered group of converts, but the church at Jerusalem takes interest in what's going on at Antioch. And that's real important, because in the work of missions, churches, mother churches, have to get involved in works of missions. And we see that in our own denomination quite readily. I find it fascinating. Our church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, has two little groups that they're mothering. One in Western Massachusetts and one in Rhode Island. And another congregation with which I am familiar in Stillwater, Oklahoma, has a little group in Enid, Oklahoma, that they're quite interested in cultivating and mothering, as it were. But it's not enough just for the church, like the church at Jerusalem, to take interest in another group. Look at the text again. Verse 22, And the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Darnabus off to Antioch. It wasn't just moral support they gave, They sent a man out there onto the field. They sent someone out there to labor on the field. And we see this over and over again, too. A couple of recent graduates of RPTS are involved in this kind of work. John Shaw, who graduated last year, is in St. Paul, Minnesota. and he's been called by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and he's laboring with another pastor and a regional home missionary in St. Paul for the purpose of discipling converts to plant a church. That's what it's about. And Jared Olivetti, who is a recent graduate of our PTS. Some of you know him. You're nodding your heads. he was called to our Lafayette, Indiana congregation as an associate pastor and now he is laboring in West Lafayette under the supervision of the Mother Church to plant a church in West Lafayette and so a man is placed on the field and when that happens what can you expect? more fruit Look at the text again. Verse 22 and following, The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. And when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them with all resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit, and of faith, and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. So new converts are made and they are discipled as we shall see. But in this case, interestingly enough, the advance was strong enough that Barnabas said, hold it, I'm a little overwhelmed here, I need help. And so what does he do? Verse 25, he left for Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year, this is not a slow process. It takes time, it takes work, and you have to persevere. This is why the text tells us in, let's see, in verse 23, that Barnabas was one of resolute heart. persevered in the work. They taught for an entire year and met with the church. Interesting. No longer a loose organization, no longer scattered converts, but a church. And notice what else verse 26 says. And the disciples were called Christians in Antioch. These men and women were discipled. They were not just converted to faith in Christ, they were discipled and formed into a body, a church, the Great Commission again. Going, therefore, make disciples. How? baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always." Now, I would guess that in Antioch they did follow the words of the Savior Jesus Christ and made disciples in accordance with His command. That is, They baptized these individuals and brought them into a visible body and in that visible body they began to teach them. You see, there was a movement from evangelism to missions. There was a movement from making converts to planting a church. That's what was happening. And this is the work to which God has called the likes of you and me. I think it's rather unfortunate. The great omission and the great commission is often baptism. And the great commission often is viewed as the work of making converts. But the Great Commission is really the work of making disciples. And that means bringing men and women from the status of being converts into a relationship with a body and planting a church. And this is the vision of God. And I submit to you men and ladies that you need the vision of God and I need the vision of God. The vision of God is to plant churches plant churches by discipling converts and forming them into organized congregations. Several years ago I had the privilege to be delegate to the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and I was still a pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And the Synod was at Lawrence, Kansas. It was close to my home at the time. And I remember quite well another member of Synod introducing a man by the name of Alan Noel. who was a professor and still is a professor at Oklahoma State University. His vision was to see a new church, a reformed Presbyterian Church in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In God's providence, he gathered other converts and with the help of the Presbytery Home Missions Committee called a man to be placed on that field to consolidate that work and make disciples. And a church was planted in Stillwater, Oklahoma. And that congregation, as I've mentioned already, has the vision of planting another church in a nearby community, Enid, Oklahoma. That's God's plan. Praise be unto Him. His plan is to plant churches by making disciples of new converts with the purpose of forming new congregations. That's what we see in the book of Acts. How the church progresses and grows. And that's what we see in Acts chapter 11 as God plants the church in Antioch. And that's the scenario we see played out again and again and again in our day. Have in your heart God's vision and God's plan. God's plan is to plant churches by discipling converts for the purpose of forming new congregations. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your word and for what emerges as the teaching out of Acts chapter 11. We're thankful for this and we pray that you'd be pleased to bless us as men and women who have your vision for your church and planting new churches. Bless us to that end, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.