Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

By Living the Truth 02/01/09

Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging our Vision

                Title: ‘By Living the Truth’    Text: Acts 13:1-13

Introduction: Two psychiatrists were at a convention. As they got caught up, one asked, "What was your most difficult case?"
The other replied, "I had a patient who lived in a pure fantasy world. He believed that an uncle in South America was going to die and leave him a fortune. All day long he waited for a letter to arrive from an attorney. He never went out, he never did anything, he merely sat around and waited for this fantasy letter from this fantasy uncle. I worked with this man eight years." "What was the result?""It was an eight-year struggle. Every day for eight years, but I finally cured him... then that stupid letter arrived!"

 

That letter was “truth” It was the truth a man had waited for - for over 8 years. But until that letter arrived – at least as far as the psychiatrist was concerned – “truth” didn’t exist, truth was a fantasy. And even when that “truth” turned up in the mailbox – he was still uncomfortable with it. (Jeff Strite)

For the vast majority of Americans – truth is a fantasy. It doesn’t exist. And if it does exist,  no one can know for certain what real truth is.

ILL: A man heard his friend say: “There are 2 sides to every truth” And the man replied “Yes, there are two sides to every truth… just like there are two sides to a sheet of flypaper, but it makes a difference to the fly which side he chooses.” (Jeff Strite)

In other words, the world thinks truth is flexible… but something deep inside tells us, that if we ignore “Truth”, we do so at our own  risk.

Transition: Open your Bibles to Acts 13:1 (pg. 841 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it there we will discover that we enlarge our vision of God by living the Truth.

I.  Acts 13:1-3                  By recognizing the truth

Read: Acts 13:1-3

I titled this section  ‘Recognizing the truth.’ What truths do we need to recognize pastor Bob? Well, I’m glad you asked.

First: God’s church is a diverse church.

The church in Antioch was a diverse church…a church that reached out to everyone. This is clearly seen in the people mentioned in the first verse.

·       Barnabas: A Hellenistic Jew (Jew born outside Israel and who spoke Greek)

·       Simeon/Niger: Niger means ‘black’ which means he was probably from Africa.

·       Lucius: is believed to have been one of the many who fled the Christian persecution in Jerusalem.

·       Manaen: was an upper class Jew and he was a close friend of the Herod who had John the Baptist beheaded.

·       Saul: was a Jewish Pharisee who also spoke Greek as well as Aramaic.

It’s believed these men were the leaders in the Antioch church. Usually the leadership is a representative sampling of those who attend. If so, the church in Antioch was a diverse group of people. PTL! Our God is beginning to give us a similar diversity here at CBC. And that’s a very good thing!

Truth: God’s church is a diverse church.

Second: God’s church worships God and practices spiritual disciplines.

The Antioch church worshiped God and practiced spiritual disciplines.

·       Notice that the church was worshipping God and fasting. I used to think that this was a special time of worship and fasting mentioned here, but notice there are two times of worship and fasting in the text. Once before the Holy Spirit selects Barnabas and Saul and another after they are selected.

This tells me that worship and the practice

of spiritual disciplines, specifically fasting

are regular and expected part of what it

means to be God’s people gathered as God’s

church.

This also tells me that there are special times

for prayer and fasting…like when we

commission those who will serve God in full

time Christian work, specifically,

missionaries or kingdom builders as we like

to call them.  

Truth: God’s church worships God and practices spiritual disciplines.

Third: Missions/Kingdom Building is a vital aspect of the work of God’s church.

·       Kingdom building is done by those who are already faithful to God where they are as seen by both Barnabas and Saul’s participation in worship and fasting.

·       Kingdom building is a calling from God, not an option among other things you can do with your life. As seen by the work of the Holy Spirit setting apart Barnabas and Saul.

This tells me that we can’t really say ‘yes’ to God’s call until we say ‘no’ to things that will keep us from that call. The choices are hard but God’s call must be our highest calling.

·       Therefore, Kingdom building is and must continue to be a vital part of who we are as a church.

ILL: Coca-Cola seems to be almost everywhere, in almost every country in the world. How did it get there? A motto posted in the company’s headquarters explains it ‘think globally, but act locally.’ (Jimmy Chapman )

And I want to thank Chris and the KB committee for keeping us connected to God’s work in the world and our part in it.

Recognizing the truth, then living the truth where we are, will impact the world.

Truth: Missions/Kingdom Building is a vital aspect of the work of God’s church.

Transition: Once we recognize the Truth, we are then responsible for it.

II. Acts 13:4-5          By sharing the truth

Read: Acts 13:4-5

Once we recognize the Truth, we are then responsible to share the Truth. This is what Barnabas, Saul, and John Mark do.

According to Acts 12:25 Barnabas and Saul return to Antioch from Jerusalem and they bring John Mark with them. The same John Mark who will eventually write the Gospel of Mark.

They first go to the Jewish synagogues and then to the places the Gentiles hung out. I would imagine that since they weren’t in Israel, there were few synagogues, so Barnabas, Saul and John Mark spent most of their time sharing the Truth of Jesus Christ in places the Gentiles would hang out:

·       The marketplaces

·       The teaching centers

·       The public eating places

·       The streams where women would wash their clothes

·       The public wells where people got their water

There is something we must notice here. There is no mention of anyone saved. There is no record of anyone believing the Truth of Jesus Christ. There is no acknowledgement of ‘success.’

While I realize I can’t say much by what Scripture is silent on, I can perhaps say that there will not always be times of ‘success’ when we share the Truth of Jesus Christ with others…This is true for the career missionary as well as you and I. So don’t be discouraged. We are only charged with sharing the Truth of Jesus Christ, not making people believe.

Transition: When we share the truth of Jesus Christ with others, some will believe, some will not, and some will fight us over it.

III. Acts 13:6-12          By defending the truth

Read: Acts 13:6-12

God will lead us to those who desire to know the Truth of Jesus Christ, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Often we will be forced to defend the Truth to those who oppose it. That’s what we see in our text.

Sergius Paulus, a Roman official, was interested to hear the Truth about Jesus, it seems God had already been working in his heart.

But, a magician named Elymas didn’t want Sergius to believe the Truth about Jesus…it would be contrary to his business. So Elymas tried to show that the Truth of Jesus Christ, that Barnabas and Saul talked about, was a lie.

Saul, who is now referred for the first time as Paul, stands up and defends the Truth of Jesus Christ by exposing Elymas as an evil man who was doing the everything he could to work against what was right…or in another word…True.

Paul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, makes Elymas physically blind to represent his spiritual blindness. Interesting that is the same thing God did to Saul on the road to Damascus. (Coincidence?) I hope Elymas came to the same place Saul did and later believed the Truth of Jesus Christ…but we are not told.

There are times we too must defend the Truth of Jesus Christ. To do that will require an intentional practice of worship, spiritual disciplines, and the study of God’s Word. And you can develop them all, here at CBC by faithfully attending Sunday worship and the many other opportunities for spiritual growth and development, like:

·       Sunday School

·       Small groups

·       Wednesday Praise & Prayer

·       Personal Discipleship

·       Attending our outreach events

·       Serving in active ministry

Read: 2 Timothy 2:15 ‘Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.’

Transition: Sergius Paulus believed the Truth of Jesus Christ because Paul stood up to defend that Truth.

IV. Acts 13:13          By struggling with the truth

Read: Acts 13:13

I said you can develop the ability to defend the Truth of Jesus Christ by faithfully attending Sunday worship and the many other opportunities for spiritual growth and development here at CBC.

But, as we learned in our Adult Sunday School class, all of that takes time and time is something we treasure more than wealth. And we struggle with how to make the time to grow spiritually. We all struggle with this…John Mark, in our text, struggled with it too. So much so that we are told he left Paul and Barnabas to go home.

Later in Acts Paul would say John Mark ‘deserted him.’ We get the idea his leaving was not a wise choice.

We can only speculate as to why John Mark left:

·       Perhaps he was young and homesick

·       Perhaps he was mad that Paul seemed to have taken over the group

·       More likely since he was a Jew born in Israel, all the contact with the Gentiles was rubbing him the wrong way

Whatever the reason, John Mark struggled with the Truth and gave up. My prayer for each of us is that when we struggle with God’s Truth, and we will, that we will not give up, that we will give God the chance to prove His Truth to us.

Conclusion

ILL: In Youth Worker Journal, Will Eisenhower tells of a typical experience he had as a counselor at a youth Bible camp: “It had been an exhausting day; the guys in my cabin were asleep, and I was dead to the world. Then there came a dim awareness: Ants were crawling all over my body. I was so tired, and sleep felt so good, that I actually resisted rousing myself. I knew that if I were roused even a little bit, I would have to acknowledge that my sleeping bag had become an ant freeway. I didn’t want to know the awful truth, so for at least several seconds I tried to fight it. At some deep level, I told myself that sleep was the reality and the ants were a dream.”

Truth can be like ants in our sleeping bag. Truth attempts to awaken us out of our sleep and confront us with reality. But we keep trying to ignore it and go back to sleep.

Waking up means that I have to face reality and see the truth, and then do something about the truth claims of Jesus Christ. More than that, it means I may have to change. It is small wonder that many prefer to stay asleep.

ILL: Winston Churchill once said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”

·       How we respond to truth determines the direction of our lives,

·       How we respond to truth determines the quality of our lives

·       How we respond to truth determines the destiny of our eternal soul.

 

Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”.