The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on June 22, 1986. The title is, The Church That Changes the World, and the scripture references Acts, Chapter 13, Verses 1-3. 

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 13, beginning at the first verse. In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manion, a member of the court of Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. The word of the Lord. I wonder if you realize that in that very brief reading that we heard from Acts chapter 13, we were witnessing one of the major turning points in all of human history. Did you realize that? Somebody has said, despise not the day of small beginnings.

And out of those three verses, what was happening in the church in Antioch came a major shift in the whole history of the world. I want to look at that again this morning. You might care to follow along.

Actually, I want to back up just a bit and give you a little bit of background information from the 11th chapter of the book of Acts, and then we'll come to the 13th again. interestingly enough this was the same passage that we meditated on on our vestry and staff retreat a couple of weeks ago as the new vestry was seated we went off for an overnight at Shrinemont and we began to think our way through this very passage and I wanted to share a little bit of that with you this morning. We're looking at a moment in history about 15 to 20 years after the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension of Jesus, and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

Why don't you just pause for a moment. Remember with me the point of the giving of the Holy Spirit in that mighty way. You shall be my witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Starting here in Jerusalem, moving throughout Judea, Samaria, you shall bring my gospel, the good news of salvation to every family and language and people and tribe and nation on the face of the earth. That's the point of the power. don't forget it it's not just that we could enjoy our spiritual jollies it's that we would be empowered as his witnesses in essence he's saying don't try to keep the gospel to yourself it's not just for you it's not just for Jews only it's not just for people that you're comfortable with and familiar with it's to break down every barrier and make of every nation one new people.

But you know, for the first 15-20 years of its life, the Christian church did just exactly the opposite. They didn't move out. They didn't try to evangelize the world.

The apostles themselves, let alone everybody else, stayed as close to Jerusalem as they could. And with very few exceptions, the gospel remained among Jews only. It didn't break down those barriers.

It didn't cross racial lines, national lines, ethnic lines. It stayed amongst the Jews. Tens of thousands of Jewish folk became believers, but hardly any Gentiles at all.

When they finally did leave Jerusalem, it wasn't out of obedience to the Lord's command. It was because they were persecuted out. And that's where we pick up the story in Acts chapter 11.

Look at verse 19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch. Finally they began moving out globally because they were persecuted.

But even then, it says, they were speaking the word of the gospel to none except Jews. Can you imagine it? Finally forced out to get on with the Great Commission.

They're in Gentile territory, surrounded by Gentiles, and they're just looking for their fellow Jews who happen to be expatriates and preaching the gospel to them. With one notable exception. Look at the next verse.

but there were some of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also preaching the Lord Jesus. Interesting thing about it is we don't even know who they were. It just says some of them.

We don't even know their names but they brought the gospel to the Gentiles really for the first time. And it says the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. In fact, there was such a turning in conversion to Christ that when the leadership back in Jerusalem heard about it, they said, we better send a pastor up there to take care of this new church that's beginning.

And so they picked a man named Barnabas and sent him to Antioch to pastor the church. And it goes on to tell us that he was very faithful. He exhorted them to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose.

And a large company was added to the Lord. So many, in fact, that Barnabas was overwhelmed. And he said, I better get an assistant.

And he went to Tarsus and got Saul, Saul whom we know as Paul, to come and be his assistant. And together they pastored the church for about a year. They taught the scriptures.

They built up the people in the faith. And it says in verse 26, And in Antioch, the people were for the first time called Christians. By the way, that is not a term of respect as it was used at that point.

It was a term of scorn. You ridiculous followers of a person long dead that you think is the Christ. You Christians, you.

It was sort of like Jesus people. You remember when that phrase first began to be used? It was heaping scorn on folks for following Jesus.

That's sort of what it was like at this point. Now, at that point in history, there were two Antiochs, one in Syria and one in Asia Minor. This is Syrian Antioch.

It's the third largest city in the empire after Rome and Alexandria. And it was most known for its sexual immorality. It ran rampant.

As a matter of fact, they had institutionalized sexual worship of Apollo and Artemis. And it was so notorious that in order to distinguish this Antioch from the other one, they called this the dirty Antioch. At this particular moment in history, the center of global Christianity is about to shift from Jerusalem to the dirty Antioch.

Now mind you, the Mother Church remains back in Jerusalem. And they honor the Mother Church as such. They care about it.

They pray for it. They give to it. They support it, as we'll see in just a moment.

but in terms of a working operation the center of the Christian enterprise is about to shift from Jerusalem to Antioch interesting place God chose to make his base of operations the dirty Antioch I want to pay attention to this church I want to see what it was about this church that God thought he could use for his purposes. We get a little hint of that in the last paragraph of chapter 11. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world and this took place in the days of Claudius.

And the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea and they did so sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Can you imagine somewhere in the middle of the service words of prophecy begin to happen this morning and somebody gets up and predicts that there's going to be a famine and we take up a collection before it happens? That's what you just read.

Agabus predicted there was going to be a famine, and it's going to hit the whole area, but those back in Jerusalem are going to suffer most severely because they're already under persecution. We better do something to help them. And they take up a collection before the famine even begins and send relief back to Jerusalem.

That gives you a little hint about what's happening in the church in Antioch. They're eager to share, eager to support, eager to give away their life. We'll turn now to chapter 13.

It says there were in the church in Antioch prophets and teachers. And it mentions several of them by name. I find it interesting just to meditate on this rather interesting collection of people.

Barnabas, we've already met him. The chief pastor, a Jew from Cyprus, a Levite. We learned earlier in the book of Acts he's a very wealthy man and he's a very generous man.

Perhaps the generosity of this church is modeled after the generosity of their pastor. His assistant, a man named Saul, about to change his name to the Gentile form of it, Paul. A Pharisee from Tarsus, formerly a zealot and persecutor of the church, and by his own confession, a murderer of Christians.

I'd like to have him for one of your pastors. Simeon, called Niger or Blackie. That word has the same root as the word Nigeria.

He's obviously an African. Lucius from Cyrene. Cyrene is now called Tripoli.

It's in Libya. He also is from northern Africa. In fact, there are some who speculate that Simeon was also from Cyrene, and in fact he was the same man that we met much earlier on the way to the cross.

Simon from Cyrene, the man who carried Jesus' cross part of the way. And Menaean, a member of Herod's court. He's a Roman.

He's the enemy. He moves in corridors of power. He shares responsibility for crushing the Jews under the heel of the Roman Empire.

Rather an interesting collection of leaders, wouldn't you say? Humanly speaking, those men would have had absolutely nothing to do with each other. And yet here they are, sharing leadership, finding in Christ something more important that they have in common than all the differences that they have in conflict.

Ross Main was sharing with us last Sunday on the situation in South Africa, and I was, again, incredibly moved as he talked about the deep Christian commitment on the part of some of the leaders in every single one of the political factions. Didn't that amaze you to think of the fact that folks who are at each other's throats politically share a faith in Christ? And yet somehow in the midst of their particular situation, perhaps there are things going on at the personal level, but in public they've not been able to find a oneness in Christ that is strong enough to overcome all the other differences, the political and social and economic and racial and historical differences, and so South Africa remains a powder keg ready to explode.

Well, in Antioch, they found a oneness in Christ strong enough to overcome all their other differences. And here they were, men and women who, humanly speaking, would have had absolutely nothing to do with each other, Finding that what they have in common is more important than what they have in conflict. Let me say to you, friends, that when the love of Jesus Christ overwhelms our differences to that extent, the secular world better look out.

That's a church that God can use to change the world. It says they were worshipping. King James Version puts it, they were ministering to the Lord.

We've been learning something about that of late, haven't we? That the measure of our worship is not what we get out of it, but what He gets out of it. That it is not simply a matter of coming and saying, Oh God, bless me, bless me, bless me.

We come and say, I want to bless You, Father. Let mountains and hills bless the Lord. speeding light, bless the Lord.

Young men and maidens, bless the Lord. We come to minister to the Lord. And the church in Antioch perhaps found unity with each other because they were centered in ministering to the Lord and waiting upon Him for a word of direction.

It wasn't, here's our plan, God. Would you please bless it? it was what's your plan what do you want to do father we want to bless that and it says the Holy Spirit spoke no doubt through one of the prophets brought a word and the others confirmed it and said yes that's a word from God and we'd better obey it and it was a very challenging word a very costly word.

It shook them up. It said, give away your pastors. I'm calling Barnabas and Saul to an international ministry.

Are you prepared to let them go? And they said, yes. We want to do what you want us to do.

And they laid hands on Barnabas and Saul and they sent them out. Now mind you, this was not God's call to Barnabas and Saul. That had come much earlier.

At the moment of his conversion, Saul had a prophecy given to him that the day would come when he would stand before kings and rulers of the Gentiles. He'd just been waiting for the appropriate moment. This was not God's call to Barnabas and Saul.

This was his call to the church to release them and to participate in what God wanted to do through them. And the church in Antioch said, yes sir, we'll do it. And they laid hands on him and sent him out.

The church in Antioch willingly gave away its best. It didn't try to clutch to itself the ministry, the blessings that God had given it. I'm reminded of a comment that Bishop Stanway used to make all the time about building a church staff.

He said, unless you're willing to give away your best, God can't bless you. we've had a lot of folks taken away this year rod and bill have gone to church of the epiphany rick and carol have moved just this weekend to go up to trinity had a whole bunch of our members go to church of the epiphany unless you're willing to give away your best god cannot bless you and god said the time has come to take barnabas and saul and the church in Antioch said, we'll let him go. As I've already said, out of this comes the first of three great missionary journeys that forever changed the face of the globe, forever changed the face of history.

Out of small beginnings come mighty consequences. As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. The church at Antioch said, yes, and history was changed.

I want ours to be a church like that do you? a church that God can use to accomplish his purposes to literally change the world let's just step back and summarize what we've seen what are the characteristics of this church in Antioch, the dirty Antioch number one it had its priorities straight it was centered in worshiping the Lord, in ministering to the Lord, in seeking His will and His direction for its life. It was open to the spirit of prophecy.

It was eager to fulfill the Great Commission, to share the Gospel with people of all backgrounds, whatever their nationality, race, language. Secondly, it was a church that practiced what it preached. It wasn't interested only in missions over there, but it practiced it right in the city of Antioch.

It modeled right in the city of Antioch a oneness that broke down all the barriers. It refused to allow human differences to stand in the way of our oneness in Christ. It shared leadership among people of radically different backgrounds.

It practiced what it preached. And thirdly, it was a church that eagerly obeyed. Whether that involved giving away its money or sending out its people, it was ready to share its life.

And it didn't make the distinction that you so often heard. Now, is this for evangelism or social action? see it didn't make that distinction it didn't matter whether it was feeding the hungry or sending out missionaries the issue was Lord what do you want that's the only issue how many of you believe that's the only issue only half of your hands went up that is the only issue Lord what do you want we meditated on that up at Shrinemont the vestry the pastoral staff and do you know that at the very same time the Lord was in the final stages here in Fairfax of completing a process of identifying for us the last couple of staff members that needed to be added at this interesting time of tremendous transition in our life together.

Some of you may already have heard that in that process there have been some wonderful surprises. And that in a couple of instances, God has called into our fellowship some folks who didn't fit our stereotypes. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll just let that tantalize you for a while.

Because we're going to meet those folks over the next few weeks. God has raised up a very diverse staff. And I think there are some very exciting days ahead.

As we learn what it means to have more in common than we have in conflict. as we learn to move together centered in ministering to the Lord and eager to be obedient to whatever He says. I wonder if you'll join me in praying that we might be a church so available to our Lord that He can use us to literally change the world.

Let's bow our heads together. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should bear much fruit. Father, it would be our desire to be a fruitful church.

That You would move in and through and among us in such a way that You would be very pleased with the fruit produced in this place. Lord, give us a heart to eagerly obey You in whatever You direct. Give us a heart to love each other and to share our life for Jesus' sake.