When I was in my last two years of high school we began a
coffeehouse ministry in Tidewater, Virginia at the farm on which Pat Robertson
and his family lived. The fact that the coffeehouse was on property where Pat
Robertson resided was lost on nearly every one of the hundreds of high school,
college, and military kids who trudged there every Friday and Saturday night.
All they knew was the House of the Risen Son was a cool place for live music,
worship, teaching, and occasionally, some amazing miracles.
One night as I was leading, a guy from high school showed up
with his guitar. Now I didn’t know a whole lot about him, except that he had a
scarred past and no deep knowledge of who Jesus was.
So he shows up and I say to him, “You want to sing tonight?”
He’s shocked. “But I’m not really that religious, and besides I don’t know any
of the music that’s usually played around here.” so I say, “That’s alright. I
see you have your guitar with you. I’d love for you to come up and sing something
for us.” He smiles and says, “Let me think about it.”
Later that night, after a number of worship songs and a
brief message about the grace of God in Jesus Christ, he nods to me, as if to
say, “I’m ready”. He gets up on stage and says, “I’m not really clear on all
this about Jesus, but I’m interested. Doug asked if I’d like to sing. The only
song I can think of that relates to what we’ve heard tonight is this one.” And
he begins playing, Santana’s 1969 hit, “You’ve Got to Change Your Evil Ways”.
He played and sang it well. But later that night I was excoriated
by several Christian colleagues for inviting “a pagan” to come up front and
perform. Even at 16 I thought, “What’s wrong with this picture?” Since that time
I could regale you with scores of other prejudicial vignettes perpetrated by
Christians. Indeed, the ministry of Jesus and the early church is full of them.
This week we turn to Acts 11 and find the same man we
profiled last week, Barnabas, at the heart of Christian prejudice and fear.
This time he’s called upon to travel nearly 500 miles north to Antioch to
investigate reports of Orthodox Jews, Gentiles, and Hellenists coming to Christ
and entering the church. Remember, those who send him are the same Christians that
Barnabas must convince of the legitimacy of Saul’s faith.
Think of all the natural biases against Christians in
Antioch. Antioch is the third largest city in the Roman Empire behind Rome and
Alexandria. It has a population bigger than Pittsburgh – over 500,000 people.
It was a center of commerce. It was a crossroads for travel and trade between
Europe and the Orient. It was a melting pot for races, cultures, and religions.
Moreover, it was a city known for sexual immorality. Five miles outside of town
was the grove of Daphne, where worshippers of Artemis and Apollo pursued their
religion of pleasure with temple prostitutes. The Roman satirist, Juvenal, once
opined that the moral pollution of Rome came from the sewage of the Orantes
River that flowed through Antioch, then into the Tiber River that flowed
through Rome some 1300 miles away.
So when the Christian leaders of Jerusalem hear that good
things are happening in Antioch, they can’t believe it; and they send Barnabas
to check it out. Why Barnabas? Why this Jewish Christian from Cyprus? You say, “Because
they trusted him.” Undoubtedly. But I think there’s another, more powerful
reason than that, and we are going to examine it this week. For what Barnabas
discovers in Antioch is what, perhaps, he alone could truly perceive – three marks
of a genuine, growing walk with Jesus. In short, he had it and he could recognize
it in others.
In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the
following:
- Three times in six verses – Acts 11:21 to 26 – Luke describes the church at Antioch the same way. How?
- What was the reason for this description? See verse 21.
- Why would Christian leaders in Jerusalem be suspicious of the Gospel breaking out in Antioch?
- What does “Barnabas” mean?
- For whom is that same description used in the New Testament?
- What three marks of walking with Jesus does Barnabas see in those at Antioch?
- Why does he react as he does? See verse 23.
- Why does he travel another 200 miles to get Saul?
- How is walking with Jesus all about replacing getting with giving?
- Someone has said, “A saint is a dead sinner, revised, and edited?” How much death, revision, and editing has occurred in you?
