You just tell the story. Just tell the story. Tell the story. We see it here, you know, as you read through that, the disciples just told the message and some received the word with gladness, but none of them did anything without God opening their heart. You're going to see that as you go through. God opened the door to them. God opened their heart to them. God did this. Or the hands of the Lord was upon them like in our reading yesterday. and many believe. So that's what you, a timing thing. You walk through Acts, the word church or the word assembly is used 24 times. in the book of Acts, and it's used 20 times specifically toward God's people. There's times where it's used about the assembly that gathered there at Corinth who had a trouble, and any time it used for another group of people, it uses the word assembly, but when it applies to God's people, of the body of Christ. So that's just a significant thought. Here's the work of Jesus by the Spirit in his people. And 20 times in this work, the idea of the church is pretty important. Paul says in Acts 20 that he shed his blood for the church. He's made those elders overseers of, but Christ is the one that spilled this blood for the church. So you go back to who do we, who ought we obey? The Lord. And like I said, you don't have to push it by no means. You just live it. Just live it. Tell the story why you live that way. That's all you're doing. You don't want to push anybody into it. That won't do anything. You can't make it. That's right. But you can sure live it and let it shine and let God do his work and let him work those things out for sure. All right, let's get in it. We in Acts, we're up to chapter 12. That means we've got quite a few truths in between. 22 to 25. Oh man, is it rich or what? They send him out to Antioch. Then in 24 it says that he was a good man and full of Holy Ghost. and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed one of us to Tarsus to find Saul. I think it was more that he needed Saul than he just wanted Saul. I think he realized that this is where God wants us to do. He being full of the Holy Ghost, that told him to go get Saul? Yes, there's going to be a transition take place. Saul had gone back to Tarsus where he was actually raised there. Both of these guys were raised in a Roman world, as well as the Jews there in Jerusalem. But you had Grecian or Hellenistic Jews that spoke Greek that were that could relate to a Greek thinking world. So when you consider the fact that the apostles sent Barnabas from Jerusalem that's telling us he sent somebody that was relatable that can relate to him. One because he was from one of these cities that we see when you go back and look at it in the front part of Acts when they tell us that's where he was he was a Levite and when you're looking 19. 19 picks up from chapter 8 and verse number 1. If you go look in chapter 8 and verse number 1, you'll see this is where this picks up. Something you want to keep in mind, these things are happening all over. Remember, the disciples were spread out and they were preaching Christ everywhere. But the Spirit through Luke is only giving us glimpses of what was happening in certain places but these things were going on and spreading everywhere. We just don't have the full account of everything that was going on, we just have these significant accounts of what took place in Jerusalem, then what took place in Samaria, what took place in Judea, and now it's spreading to the utter ends of the world. It's going out exactly what Jesus told them, they were going to be His witnesses first in Jerusalem, then in Judea, Samaria, and the utter ends of the world. We see the Spirit fulfilling that promise in this. Well verse number one says, now Saul was consenting to his death and at that time a great persecution arose against the church. which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. The apostles stayed central to Jerusalem. Now you gotta remember, Jerusalem is not the headquarters. for the church. Heaven's the headquarters for the church. You want to remember that. Now Jerusalem is where the apostles were and Antioch is going to be the central place to where the message for the Gentiles is going to go out of. Paul and Barnabas will eventually report back to Antioch again and again. because it was at Antioch that they laid hands on them and sent them out on the mission. So they bring the report back. They work from Antioch, just like the apostles work from Jerusalem, but where's the headquarters? Heaven. This is God's church. He's the one who is fulfilling His promises in the people. But notice they were spread out. And that's where you pick back up. If you go back to chapter 11 in verse number 19, you'll see how it reads. Now, those who were scattered, after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch preaching the word to no one but the Jews only." That's all these are Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jews who's preaching the Jews but they're preaching in the in the Greek language. They share in the story in Greek. They take in the Septuagint, which was a Greek Bible of the old Hebrew Old Testament, and they go in with it and that word and telling them about Jesus. that he is the fulfillment, he's the Christ, he's the one who gave his life on our behalf, as the scripture promised, as Jesus promised, that he would suffer, die, and rise the third day, and Acts 26 is gonna tell us, and that light would be proclaimed to the Jews and the Gentiles. So this is what we see happening. Verse 20, but some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the, there it is, the Hellenists, or you can say the Greek, Jews preaching the Lord Jesus. These are not Greeks. These are not Romans. These are Jews. I'm in chapter number 11 and verse number 21. These are Hellenistic, Greek, how does the old King James use that word, Hellenistic or Greek? How does it say it? In verse 20. Grecians. Grecians, okay. So the Grecians are Jews who have been inundated with a Greek culture all their life. Is this got any parallel with Hebrews? Well, they all have parallel with Hebrews. Hebrews is pretty well telling the story about the Hebrews. Well, historically, yeah. You take like Romans, Paul said, look, we were grafted in. It started with the Jew. We are of a Jewish, Jesus was a Jew. Yeah, these are Jews here. That's what they are. They're Jews preaching the Jews. They use it in Greek. Yes. And I was wondering if, if Hebrews was originally in Greek speaking, I mean, Oh yeah, well, most all of the New Testament was communicated in Greek. Also they spoke in that day in Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew. And the book of Hebrews, you take like, for an example, Peter, we'll go look in first Peter, first Peter one. You'll see what I'm referring to. 1 Peter 1. The book of Hebrews is written to Jews who were around the world at that time, whether they be in Jerusalem or wherever it would be, showing that Jesus is superior to everything else. Because that was a major issue in that day. We find it, remember, we're gonna get in chapter 15 in a minute and already in chapters 11, we saw where Peter, they were questioning Peter. Remember, what did they contend with Peter about? The scripture says they contended with him. Not that the Jews, not that the Gentiles believed, not that the Gentiles were baptized. but they had a problem with Peter eating with the Gentile. That's what they were having a problem with. And we're going to see, Paul's got to address this on several occasions because that was one of the major problems they faced in that day between the Jew and the Gentile. Paul's going to have to teach in Ephesians that, hey, God's pulled that wall down. And in Christ, he's made one new man. It ain't a Jew and it ain't a Gentile. Both of them have access to Jesus. And Peter's gonna tell them, look, when we preach the gospel to them, God gave them the gift just like he gave us the gift of the Spirit. No different when they believed. So it's not that they were keeping the law of Moses for this, and they didn't have any problem with that. They just didn't want Peter eaten with the Gentiles. Even believing Gentiles. Remember in Galatians, Paul had to address it because Peter eventually is going to cave in and when the Jews from Jerusalem show up in Galatia, what does Peter do? He wouldn't eat with them anymore. Why? Because he had to deal with those stickler Jews that showed up and he was going to have to answer to them. So Paul says, I told Peter, he's playing the hypocrite. See so that was a major issue that they had to deal with in that day and we see it already in Acts with this work but first Peter, look in verse number one. Peter an apostle of Jesus to the who? Strangers. To the strangers, pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." He's talking the Jews who are in a Greek world sending this message to them because remember Peter was the apostle to the Jew, Paul was an apostle to the Gentile, but Paul always started with the Jews. even when he would go in the Gentile world, but he knew his mission was to reach the Gentile world that they would be acceptable unto God through Christ. But see, Peter's writing to a Hellenistic, Grecian group of people who are Jews, like the book of Hebrews is a message to Jews wherever they're located at so that they too can put their confidence in Jesus because He's superior to the priesthood. He's superior to the temple. He's superior to Moses. He's superior to everything. Now, God doesn't, He didn't come and do away with the word of God. No, He came to fulfill that word that everything was pointing to Him. Not that there was a problem with everything else. No, they just couldn't fulfill everything, but He came and fulfilled it. So that's what you see in the book of Hebrews, just like Peter's writing right here, because it was a major issue in that day, that it took time for the average Jew to overcome the division that was there between the Jew and the Gentile. Same with Samaria. They didn't like the Samaritans, but notice what they did. God sends what? Philip to Samaria. God does the work, but Jesus went through Samaria, didn't he? That's right. So we see, but with Peter, how did he illustrate it to Peter that it was going to be okay for him to go to the Gentiles? Remember the sheet come out. All these unclean things. And he said, look, what I've called clean, you don't call unclean. You don't call it common. You do what I tell you. And Peter did, and God continued to open that door. Yeah, yeah. He showed him those three times to reiterate to him. And now we back here at Antioch, if you look in chapter 11 of the book of Acts, we'll see that this is what's going on when they get the word of it. Notice I'm gonna read verse 20 again, but some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene who when they had come to Anah, remember they were in Jerusalem. That's where they were saved at in Jerusalem. Remember on the day of Pentecost, they were all there for Pentecost, but the Spirit failed and people from all over the world were saved and they stayed. Why did they stay? They stayed to learn about this Jesus and about His teaching. And that's when people sold their stuff so that nobody would be without, people just stayed. They didn't go back home. But when the persecution came, they had to leave. And when they left, some of them showed up in Antioch. And when they get to Antioch, they preach. And when they preach, notice what verse number 21 says. And the hand of the Lord was with them. and a great number believed and turned to the Lord." Man, that's a great way. The hand of the Lord was with them. We need God's touch. We need God's hand. That's saying that God approved. God was with them. God blessed them. God helped them. God increased them. God multiplied them. God used it to reach those people at Antioch because God was gonna use Antioch in a major way. in a major way. That's where, like I said, Paul and him are going to be launched out from Antioch. They're going to be teachers raised up out of Antioch. Verse number 22, the news of these things came to the ears of the church at Jerusalem. Remember the church are called out assembly, those that gather, we're talking about the people of God. And they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. He was a representative. He was an ambassador. The Bible even refers to Barnabas as an apostle, though he's not an apostle of Jesus like Paul and Peter. He is an apostle of the church. He's sent out by the church to do the church's work with their approval and authority. And here he comes, and when he came, and notice that phrase, when he came and had seen the grace of God, the recognizable grace of God, he was glad because grace is recognizable. The touch of God is recognizable. When you see God saving people, people are what, repenting, trusting, turning, and following after the Lord, yielding their life to Him, gathering to know all they can learn about Him, the grace is evident. As the scripture says in Titus, for the grace of God, which has appeared to all men, instructing or teaching us to deny ourself and say yes to Jesus and to look for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior who gave himself for us that he might purify us from all iniquity and make us a peculiar people of his who were zealous for good work. So he saw that, it was evident that God was among them in doing this work. And he encouraged them that with purpose of heart, They should continue with the Lord with purpose of heart, with an aim of heart. that they were to continue with the Lord, that they were, does the old King James say cling or cleave? Cleave, that's the idea. It is the idea by faith to stay connected to him, to be glued to him, to be inseparable from him. what you're doing is what Jesus is doing, what Jesus is doing is what you're doing and he said with that purpose in heart that they should continue with him for he is a for he Barnabas was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and full of faith and a great many people were added to the Lord. You see, so you've got a breakout of God's work going on in Antioch. When he showed up, there were multitudes of people coming to faith in Christ. Yeah, Luke falls in here somewhere too. He's gonna join them, that's right. He hadn't joined them yet, but he's coming. This is gonna be related to Luke so he can write it down. Luke was led by the Spirit to write the gospel of Luke, though he was not there for any of those things. And then he continued, as he says in Acts 1, where he says, these things that Jesus began to do, that's telling us, that he ain't finished. I mean, he's still doing what he began to do. And we just seeing what he's doing through the Spirit in the life of his people in the church. And that's the whole thing with the book of Acts. Now, something you want to keep in mind, this was going on in other places. Acts just doesn't give us those details because its objective is to show us, I mean, it would take You couldn't fill libraries up with everything that was happening. It's just giving us what we need to see. He's gonna tell us. We're gonna find Phillip again. He's gonna be in Caesarea. He went to where he went to and then he made his way and God's gonna plant him in Caesarea. Oh yes. That's right. Yes, yes. Didn't get they didn't get in the book. Yes. Yes, but they were doing The the work that God had given them to do That's something important brother Shannon when you look at verse 24 It says when he was a good man full of the holy spirit and full of faith and a great many people believed and would add it to the lord He could have been if he would have been a stickler He could easily say, man, this is a great opportunity. I'm gonna plan here. I'm gonna build the biggest church in the world and I'm gonna control it. But what it was his first thing that he wanted to go do. Let me go find some help. I need Paul. I've met Paul. Something about him drew me to him. He took Paul to the apostles, right? So he had already interacted with Paul. When they go back and share a word, you're going to see these things, but you're also going to see they're going to have a conflict coming up. Yeah. Yeah, over Mark. Mark is related to Barnabas. And I'll take Silas. Yeah. And you're going to see, but they both went and did mission work. Right. But what's going to happen though, you got to keep in mind is that he could have easily said, look, I'm, I'm, I'm really the only overseer here in the sense that I can, I can really take this and be the sole, uh, authoritative person here. But he didn't, but see, God was, God was bringing in Paul. and Barnabas was gonna help Paul, but God's gonna, there's gonna be a shift. You see this, every time it's gonna be mentioned, it's gonna be Barnabas and Paul, Barnabas and Paul, Barnabas and Paul. And then all of a sudden, it's gonna shift to Paul and Barnabas. Why? Because God has got Paul in a place where Paul is gonna be, he's gonna know he is the apostle to the Gentiles. You see the unselfishness when it says that people were full of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost. You cannot be, you're not gonna be selfish. No, you're gonna look like Jesus. You're going to be like Jesus. Yeah. And it gives, there's several people in the Bible that way, that were filled with the Holy Spirit. and then they did something that was completely unselfish for the betterment of the church the body yes the body not me they take themselves oh yeah completely out of it right that's what grace teaches us and and so this is a An example, but it's not the only example. Oh, it's filled with it. You remember Jesus didn't consider himself at being robbery that people would recognize him for who he really was. Yeah. Here's Barnabas. Right. Same spirit because it's the spirit of Christ that's in him. That's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of Christ. Yeah. Same spirit that was in him doing his works, now in us doing the same work. Amen. You gotta consider the elements here. You've got the body of Christ, you've got grace, people being reached, people being taught. They were instructed with purpose of heart to cleave unto the Lord, that is, stay stuck to Jesus. And you know what they started calling them there in Antioch? Christians. I was about to say, these verses right here, of course, you brought our attention to the four of them. That's right. And also that we're not to be Christians, we're to be disciples. We're disciples who other people recognize as connected with the anointed one. Derogatory. Yes. Yes. That's right. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's, it's the most unused word in the scriptures in reference to the people of God. And when it is used, it's used in a derogatory way for people who recognized a group of people who were uniquely different than everybody else and that they were connected to the anointed one Jesus the Messiah and outside world said those are Christians. Agrippa does it the second time and then Peter is going to say if you suffer as Christians that is because a world around you is going to look at it's only used three times I've listed I'll share this morning the different word usage of words that describe us in the book of Acts and how many times they're used in that in this one book as a whole and the least is the word Christian and it's always from a negative standpoint not a positive. See, but the word we live in has taken on that word, when somebody says, well, I'm a Christian, you then have to say, well, what do you mean by that? Because there's no way to define that outside of them explaining to us what they mean, oh, they are Christian. How does that, what do you say in there? Because it's so obscure. And so common in our world, there's no distinction in it. And that's why the Bible doesn't classify the believer. No believer called themselves Christians except Peter when he was referring to being persecuted by people who didn't belong to Jesus. You follow with me if that makes sense to you? So we'll talk a little bit about it. Yes. I do. Yeah, yeah. Instead of saying he's a disciple of God. Right, or a believer in Christ. I'm asking, are you a Christian? Yeah, we all have. But you hear me, I rarely ever use the word. And I've intentionally don't use it for that reason. So I use other terms to try to clarify what I mean by that. And so maybe we can. I may ask someone one day, he may say, well, explain yourself, what do you mean? Yeah. Could. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Very well could. Well, look, we're going to head on out. They'll be looking for us. Amen. Amen. Father, we bless you. Thank you. Help us, Lord. We want your hand upon us. We want people to see you in us. And we do want to cling to you in Jesus name. Amen. Love y'all.