Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: You think it's all done, all over. But instead, by the persecution that is coming upon Christians in Jerusalem, like seeds in the wind, they are dispersed across the ancient world, and the gospel travels with them.

Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's lesson, Pastor Bryan shares a lesson from Acts 13. In the early days of the Christian church, we see a necessary unification of unlikely church leaders.

God is showing us through this passage that he will build his church with the use of sinful people who have been miraculously redeemed by the work of the Holy Spirit. You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com. And while you're there, look for Pastor Bryan's book, Unlimited Grace. Dr. Chapell reminds us of the power and mercy of God's grace that motivates and inspires us to serve our Heavenly Father. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the lesson, Church Expansion.

Bryan Chapell: There are more people this day worshiping Jesus in China than in the United States. Smaller percentage of the population, but so many people in China that this day, there are more people worshiping Jesus in China than in the United States. There are more people worshiping Jesus in Africa than there are in the United States.

At the beginning of the last century, only a small percentage of the people of Africa would identify with Jesus Christ. Today, over 50% of the continent of Africa identifies as Christian. Over 500 million people in Africa identifying as Christian. More Muslims have come to Christ in the last 15 years than in the last 15 centuries.

The fastest growing church in the world is in Iran. Underground, persecuted and pursued, and nonetheless, a church that is growing like wildfire and is not stopped by false religion or the pressures of government. In the last 100 years, the places where more people worship Christ are no longer in Western Europe or North America, but in the global South, in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

The largest churches in London are African and people from the Caribbean. The largest churches in Texas are Hispanic. The largest church in the PCA, our denomination, is Korean. I say to you those things not simply to throw facts at you, but to deal honestly with what evangelist and pastor Francis Chan says is one of the best ways to undo the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and that is to claim that what is written in the book of Acts is simply ancient hyperbole that does not deal with today.

If we will perceive, if we will believe what the Spirit is doing, that one sent by our God who is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, then we will really confess that there may be different ways in which the Spirit address the task of our age, but the Spirit is alive and well and working and powerful, and our job is to say, how do we get on board with his work?

You must recognize that when you're in evangelical Bible-believing churches, it's almost cliché to say the way in which we pursue valid mission is we identify what the Holy Spirit is doing and try to get in line with his work. So easy to say, get in step with the Spirit. But what does that mean? How do we lift our sails to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit?

So much of what is written in the book of Acts is to help us know how the church in every age might resist what we know is the work of the devil in our own hearts: cynicism that says our challenges are too big for the Holy Spirit in this age or too different for God to be real for us now, to say the Bible is not realistic for our realities, to be hopeless about the Holy Spirit.

And so what is happening in a place like Acts chapter 13 is God is saying to us, here is how my church lifts its sails to catch the wind of the Spirit, to be in his purposes, going to his destination with his power. How is that done? The first thing made obvious in this passage is the church of God, to catch the wind of the Spirit, has to commit to unity with humility.

The humility is first saying, Spirit, show us what you're doing, not what we desire, not what we want, not what we're comfortable. Show us what you are doing. That has happened in these early chapters of Acts. Acts chapter 1, the risen Lord appears and he ascends, but not before telling his disciples, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will be my ever-widening witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Chapter 2: that Holy Spirit comes with power and a wideness of mercy at Pentecost as Jews gather for a feast day from the nations, and in doing so, hear the message of the gospel in their own tongues. And in chapters 2 through 6, the church begins to grow. Thousands are added such as believe, added to the church daily, we are told, so much so that even the Jewish priests start to believe.

And that's when the authorities have enough of that. So by the time you get to chapter 7, the persecutions begin. The apex of that is where a young man named Saul, at that point, holds the cloaks of those who stone Stephen who is proclaiming the gospel. You would think it's all done, all over.

But instead, by the persecution that is coming upon Christians in Jerusalem, like seeds in the wind, they are dispersed across the ancient world, and the gospel travels with them. So much so that we have to find new ways of expressing the gospel, new people to express it, and the same man who held the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen is met by Jesus on the road to Damascus who says, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" "Who are you, Lord?" "I am Jesus whom you persecute."

And Paul, the very one who has led the persecutions against the early believers in Jerusalem and across the ancient world, becomes a believer as God changes the heart of a monster. But by chapter 10, this same Paul who has been commissioned to take the gospel not just to the Jews but to Gentiles, gets the door opened for him by Peter the apostle as God not only changes the heart of a monster but changes the heart of a bigot.

Saul is going forward, but we know Peter will stop him. Peter who says the gospel is for the Jews, the covenant people. But Peter gets called by the Holy Spirit of God to the house of a Roman centurion, and there receives a vision of that Spirit in which God says to Peter, "Don't you declare unclean what I have declared clean." If my gospel can clean all peoples, it can clean the Gentiles. Open the door to the Gentiles, which becomes the open door to Saul, now named Paul, to take the message to the Gentiles.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. Would you say that you're burdened by some chains of addiction, some patterns of sin or habits of apathy? Would you like to be set free from that and enjoy joy, peace, and true satisfaction? Well, the good news, it's possible. Pastor Bryan says so in his book, a powerful book titled Unlimited Grace.

And based on Pastor Bryan's decades of teaching the good news of Christ and his amazing grace, this book Unlimited Grace will take you on a personal journey to discover how grace not only frees you from the guilt and shame of a sinful life, but also provides the daily fuel you need for joy, which is your strength as a Christian. Request your copy of Unlimited Grace, that's the title of the book, when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com. The web address again: unlimitedgrace.com. And now more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: But who will support him? Who will enable that? He's cut himself off from his homeland, from his people, from the Jews, from the authorities. How will Paul be supported for this mission to the Gentiles in the dispersion?

The early Christians have gone so far as to be in the place of the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. And in a town called Antioch, they establish a church. It's actually the first place that people called themselves Christians, followers of Christ. And in Acts 13, we get the first roster of the officers of the early church, and in doing so, we find a people who are not only humbly seeking to follow the wind of the Spirit, but humbly willing to yield to the people that God is bringing into the church for his own purposes.

Who are those people? Chapter 13, verse 1: there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul. Now, I'll just confess to you, as I was this week studying up on this chapter, this was better than ancestry.com. I mean, you just start looking at person and connection and connection, and you say, amazing is this work of the Holy Spirit preparing for the spread of the gospel.

Who is listed first? Barnabas. It's a Jewish name, a name that means son of consolation or just encouragement. And he needs to be an encourager because he will accompany Paul on the first missionary journey sent out from the church at Antioch. And one of the first places they will go is to Cyprus, which is taking it to a Greek culture. Barnabas' home was Cyprus.

He's got a Jewish name, but he's been raised in Greek culture. So when the gospel starts going to the Gentiles, to the Greeks, what begins to happen is he knows the language, he knows the people, he knows the culture, and he is able to not only encourage Paul in ministering to those people, but when disciples begin to object—the gospel can't go to the unclean Gentiles, to the Greeks—it's Barnabas who's been raised among the Greeks who says, yes, yes, the gospel is intended for the Gentiles. And he encourages the church in their ministry to the Greeks of Cyprus and other lands as well.

It's like it was all planned. It's like it was being worked out by the Holy Spirit ahead of them. Now, it doesn't mean it's without challenge because that first missionary journey in which Barnabas went with Paul and they begin to go to Greek lands, there are lots of challenges as people are pushing back, not just Jews not wanting that gospel of Jesus to go forward, but the Greeks not wanting it to enter their lands.

And so there's a cousin who's going with Barnabas, his name is John Mark, and he gets intimidated by the difficulties and he ultimately abandons Paul and Barnabas so that when they get back from their journey, report what has happened and are sent out again, Barnabas says, "Let's take John Mark again." Paul says, "He abandoned us. No."

And the consequence is that Barnabas and Paul have a falling out. The encourager does not become encouraging, and there's this breach in the work of the gospel even among its leaders, which won't be healed we will see for almost 10 years. And then the gospel begins to work as leaders yield to one another, give deference to one another, and ultimately even John Mark becomes used of God again.

Do you recognize that every time you pick up your Bible and you look at the Gospel of Mark—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—when you look at Mark, you are looking at the gospel written by the coward of the first missionary journey whom God redeemed, restored, and used? Every time you pick up your Bible and look at the book of Mark, you are seeing a trophy of the grace of God. This is God at work. This is God healing, repairing, and it's what an encourager like Barnabas would want to happen despite his own weaknesses because the Spirit is blowing.

And it's not just Barnabas who's listed, there is Simeon who is called Niger. Niger just means black or dark like Nigeria. It means this Simeon is from North Africa in all likelihood where there was a cadre of Jews. But if his skin is dark, it means by Jewish law his ancestors have at some point intermarried, and he is impure by Jewish standards to some extent. And yet this same Simeon the black is part of the church, not only part of the church, he's part of the leadership in the church.

And you get an even greater insight into what that means by recognizing that North Africa was in the ancient world simply known as Cyrene. And if this Simeon is Simon of Cyrene, you may have heard that name before, because while Jesus was on his way to the cross and because of the flogging no longer able to carry the cross, the Roman soldiers said to Simon of Cyrene, help him carry the cross.

And Simon of Cyrene saw Jesus crucified and dead. But if the account is right, what John Stott says is the greatest likelihood of the biblical writer, then what you see is Simon of Cyrene who watched Jesus crucified, become a believer and in Jerusalem becomes part of the persecution that now sends him out to Antioch where he's a leader in the church.

And it's not just Simon of Cyrene, Lucius of Cyrene. Lucius is a Roman name, an oppressor, from Cyrene. He's not just Roman in background, he is African in descent. And so you have an enemy as well as one who is put aside by ethnic hatreds, aligned with Simon of Cyrene, aligned with Barnabas ministering to the Greeks, and suddenly you see the leadership of the church being assembled for the ministry to the nations.

In fact, it almost gives you goosebumps to think that what you see in this first leadership of the first church to send out missionaries is this cadre of Africans who are being prepared to take the gospel to the nations. And it's not just God's work in that regard, no name would have been more arresting to early readers of the book of Acts than Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch.

Now, your translations will vary: a member of the court, a foster brother, a family member. We're all struggling to say what the Greek actually means. It just means this Manaen, brought up with, that's just the language, brought up with Herod the tetrarch. Whether he's a member of the court or a family member, brought up with Herod. Now, what do you remember about Herod?

His father, Herod the Great, was the one that the wise men came to. "Where is he who is born king of the Jews?" says Herod, "Well, I'd like to know that too that I might worship him." His intention is to kill any competitor to his own kingship, and so he ends up slaughtering the infants of Bethlehem in order to hopefully slaughter his rival, who has already fled to Egypt by an angel appearing in a dream to Joseph and Mary.

But this is the son, this Herod. What do you remember about him, but that he was a vassal governor of the Roman oppressors? Though he was Jewish by heritage, he is a traitor, a ruler who rules under the authority of the Romans over his own people. And because he seems to have abandoned Jewish faith, he marries incestuously and receives the preaching of John the Baptist against him.

And as a consequence, it is this Herod who beheads John the Baptist. And that's not all he does, for one night when the Jewish crowds bring someone named Jesus to this Herod, he tries him, then turns him over to Pilate to be crucified. Herod murdered Jesus. And now here is a member of his own court, now here may be an actual family member who is in the church.

Do you recognize how hard it must have been for the early Christians who believe in Jesus, who have been driven by persecution from home and family and livelihood, going now to a foreign nation, and they show up in church on a Sunday, and who is there to lead but Manaen? I could see somebody saying, okay, I can accept a Jew raised among the Greeks. I can accept a Jew with a different skin color. I can accept a Roman of African descent. But Manaen? Not Manaen!

That is a bridge too far, I can't go that far. And to honor this one would be to say, Holy Spirit, what are you doing? That I am being required to say that the same Jesus who would forgive my sins has forgiven someone like Manaen, so that he could be part of the family of God despite crucifying the family of God.

It must have been so hard, but not harder to accept than the last name in the list. After Manaen, there is the name Saul. The one who led the persecutions of the early Christians in Jerusalem and beyond. This is the one who took people from their families and put them in prison, or tortured them, or murdered them. This is he.

And you can just imagine that if you had been in Auschwitz, if you had experienced the decimation of your family and your town and your background and your way of life, and somehow you survived it all, and you got to a distant church in the United States, and you go to that first worship service, and the one who is leading the worship service is a Nazi general.

God, don't require this. This is too much. No, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned each to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. All have sinned and fall short of the glory. There's this leveling of the gospel to say, when sinners are leaders, it's because someone has cleansed their sin. Someone who could cleanse those as evil as these can deal with the sin in my life, my rebellion and my shame. If he could save them, he has a message for me.

Bryan Chapell: Hi friend, this is Pastor Bryan. I'm so thankful that you've chosen to spend some of your valuable time with me today studying through the Bible. If this message has caused a greater desire for God to well up in your heart, I'd like to pray for you.

Heavenly Father, when you sent the love of Jesus into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit, you changed us in ways that still amaze us. We love Jesus more than anything. We find ourselves strangely at odds with the world and even with some Christians because we not only love Jesus, but we love what and whom he loves. We love the unlovely, the destitute, the despised, and the forsaken.

How did this happen? It happened by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit that is even now proving his presence by changing our affections. We're not perfect yet, but we're on a different path, and we pray that you would help us to walk it. Where we stumble, forgive us, and by forgiving, make us even more intent to honor your Son. For we offer this prayer of thanksgiving and obedience in Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.