Riddle, John: Antioch Preaching And Teaching ~ Acts 11

Verses in the eleventh chapter of the book of the Acts. The eleventh chapter, please, of the book of the Acts. Read together from verse nineteen. the book of Acts, chapter eleven and verse nineteen. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phenice and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch, who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people, and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. And in those days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. And may the Lord bless to us the reading of Holy Scripture. Acts chapters ten and eleven uh are probably of particular interest to us, since they tell us of the extension of the gospel testimony beyond the borders of Judaism. The words of the Lord Jesus were these: Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. You'll remember that it says of Joseph in Genesis chapter forty nine that Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well whose branch ran over the wall. And it's very significant that when you come to John's Gospel chapter four, we find the Lord Jesus sitting by a well, near to a parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And by that well, the fruitful bough is running over the wall, over the wall to a Gentile woman. I know that she said, our father Jacob gave us this well, but her history had become a little mixed, for she was the product of colonists from the east who, under the king of Assyria, repopulated the northern cities of Israel after the population had been carried away. But here in the book of the Acts, chapters ten and eleven, the fruitful bough is running over the wall. God's purposes are extended to the Gentile people. We know, of course, that in the Old Testament, glowing prophecies exist in relation to the blessing of Gentile peoples in the time when Israel will become the head and not the tail of the nations. But you will observe that the coming blessing of Gentile peoples in the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus depends upon Israel's exaltation. What is not taught in the Old Testament is the fact that through the stumbling of Israel, Gentiles will be blessed. And that is essentially the teaching of the Epistle to the Romans, chapters nine, ten, and eleven. Nothing like that was envisaged in the Old Testament. Gentile blessing, yes, but in association with Israel's glory. But in divine grace and in the sovereign purposes of God, Gentiles today are blessed through Israel's stumbling. Ah, but you say to me, haven't we been brought into Jewish blessings? Haven't gentiles been grafted in to the root of the olive tree, that is, into the blessings of the Hebrew nation? My dear brethren, that is not at all the teaching of scripture. Jew and Gentile have been made one in Christ. It is not that Gentiles have taken Jewish ground, but of the twain God hath made one new man, so making peace. Ah, but you say to me, what then of the Romans passage? What then of the branches of the wild olive tree being grafted into the root of the good olive tree? The root of the olive tree in the epistle to the Romans are the blessings that the patriarchs enjoyed, and in particular the blessings of justification by faith. It isn't something national to which Paul refers when he speaks to the root of the olive tree. It is the blessing of justification and blessing associated with that to which reference is made. Now, says the writer, into that blessing, into the root and fatness of the olive tree, that is, into the blessings enjoyed by the patriarchs, those of justification by faith, have been brought in Gentile people. What I want us to think this afternoon is that in Acts chapter eleven we have the first assembly planted in Gentile territory. That is the assembly at Antioch. And you'll notice that the formative years of the assembly at Antioch surround four visits. In verses nineteen down to twenty one we have the visit of the preachers. Those men of Cyprus and Cyrene who preached the gospel. Then you'll notice in verse twenty two down to verse twenty four, we have the visit of Barnabas. Verse twenty five and twenty six, we have the visit of Saul of Tarsus. Verses twenty seven to thirty, we have the visit of certain prophets from Jerusalem, of whom Agabus is named. Four visits to the city of Antioch, then were the framework around which the early years of the assembly at Antioch were molded. The preaching of men of Cyprus and Cyrene, the visit of Barnabas, the visit of Saul of Tarsus, and the visit of the prophets from Jerusalem. Now, in each case, the visitors did different things. So far as the preachers from Cyprus and Cyrene were concerned, their business was to preach the gospel. They preached the Lord Jesus. So over verses nineteen to twenty one, you may write the word preaching. The business of Barnabas was exhortation, so that over verses twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four, you may write the word exhortation. The business of Saul of Tarsus was teaching, for you will observe that the word taught only occurs in the narrative, that is in verse twenty six, uh after Saul of Tarsus had arrived. Thus, over verses twenty five and twenty six you may write the word teaching. Over verses twenty seven to thirty you may write the word fellowship. For through the prophetic messages of Agabus and others, the assembly at Antioch was stirred up to exercise fellowship with needy saints in Judea. Thus, we may say that the early years of the assembly at Antioch were marked by preaching, exhortation, teaching, and fellowship. Now, what I'd like us to do, providing the digital clock doesn't go wrong, is just to spend a few moments on each of those four subsections. First of all, in connection with the preaching. Our good brother Mr. Thompson this morning was emphasizing the need to read our Bibles carefully and to pay attention to the words of scripture. And I'd like please just to underline his helpful guidance in these matters by drawing your attention to one or two words in this particular section of the passage. The word scattered abroad. The Bible says, now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen. What kind of scattering was it? Persecution had broken out. The word of God makes that clear. Were these early believers scattered in the sense that they were strewed hither and thither after some massive eruption? Was it that a catastrophe had taken place, an enormous explosion had taken place, and they were hurled indiscriminately hither and thither? That is not the meaning of the word scattered. The meaning of the word scattered is literally to sow. So that the Bible may well be translated thus, now they which were sown abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen. Now this is remarkable. Undoubtedly, the great enemy had thought he'd won a major victory. Possibly he thought he had destroyed the power base of these believers. Their headquarters had been shattered. Their central organization had been disturbed. They had been hurled in different directions. He had won a major victory. His strategy had been successful. Oh no, says the Spirit of God. These first century believers were not scattered in the sense of being strewn hither and thither. God was sowing them. Now I'd like us to pause for a moment and think about that lovely fact. Isn't it beautiful to understand from scripture that God is over all, and that he works his purposes out through what seems to be the most unlikely channels? Listen to the Apostle Paul. He's speaking to his brethren at Thessalonica, and he says, I would have come unto you once and again, but Satan hindered us. Now, was that a victory? Had Satan accomplished a great thing? Had the work of God been hindered? My dear brethren, supposing Paul had gone to Thessalonica in person, we would not therefore have had in our Bibles the epistles to the Thessalonians, which speak to us so beautifully about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Satan hindered the apostle from going to Thessalonica, but all the activities of the enemy were overruled by God, so that in our Bibles we should have such valuable and precious teaching concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus. Think again of the verse to which reference was made in the Bible reading this morning. Paul refers to the thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan that buffeted him. We're not told what it was. It has been conjectured from certain references that possibly he was suffering from chronic ophthalmia. That is that his eyesight was badly affected. Whether that is so or not, we must leave others to judge. But, says the apostle, lest I should be exalted above measure. Or the messenger of Satan, as Paul described it, was overruled by a divine hand for the spiritual good of his servant. And then, my dear brethren, of course, your minds will go to the second chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Through death, he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Satan appears to have done his most foul deed at Calvary, but that signaled his own ultimate and utter defeat. Now, what of ourselves? We were thinking in the reading this morning of the teaching of Hebrews chapter twelve and in particular now to verses five to seventeen, Of the fact that the Hebrew believers were passing through affliction and adversity. Possibly whether they were saying, yes, we have infinite resources, we have a great high priest, he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but why are we ever in this situation at all? Ah, says the writer, God is dealing with you as sons. God is training, shaping, fashioning your spiritual character to the end and with the object in view that his own likeness might be more perfectly reflected. And overruling the efforts of the enemy who crushed these early believers was the hand of God intent on their spiritual promotion. I wonder if there are dear saints of God in the meeting this afternoon, and this afternoon we find ourselves in circumstances which are far from our liking. We find ourselves in a position most uncongenial. Why has this happened in my life? For what purpose am I in these circumstances? What rhyme or reason could there possibly be for life as I now confront it? I wonder if it might be of some help to remember that our God is sovereign, and in his love and mercy, he has purposes to accomplish, purposes which could possibly never be accomplished at all, apart from the way in which he deals with us. Think of Paul. Paul is in prison. He's writing to the saints at Philippi. At the end of the es- es- epistle to the Philippians, he speaks of saints in Caesar's household. How could there possibly saint be saints in Caesar's household? Well, he said, brethren, I want you to understand that the things that have happened unto me have happened rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. The gospel is being introduced into a sphere that it would never have ever been reached had it not been for my imprisonment. Dear brethren, could it be in perhaps the uncomfortable and difficult circumstances through which we are passing, that God is bringing us into a sphere into which we can bear witness, bring us into touch with people before we may bear testimony, people who might never otherwise hear the word of life. How many a dear brother has been hospitalized, found himself in a hospital ward, not a place of his choosing at all. He doesn't say, hurrah, I'm in hospital. But through the faithful witness of a brother or a sister there in the hospital bed, men and women have been brought to a knowledge of Christ. I think of a dear brother crippled with arthritis back in Ayrshire in Scotland, now with the Lord, who had many periods in hospital, and many people were saved through his faithful witness. You see, God shows his people. Now, the second thing I want you to notice in verse number nineteen is this, that the Bible says they preached the word to none but to the Jews. And you say to me, yes, that's excellent because the word occurs again in verse twenty, preaching the Lord Jesus. There's a sermon there. They preach the word, but they preach the Lord Jesus. But my dear brethren, the words are quite different. The word preach in verse nineteen is in fact the same as the word spake in verse twenty. The word preaching at the end of verse twenty is the word for the public preaching, the heralding forth of the gospel, but the word preaching in verse nineteen has the idea of the man to man, face to face confrontation, the daily ordinary conversational witness of the people of God. So that the scripture is saying this, when the gospel came to Antioch, it was preached on two fronts. The word of God advanced at two levels. First of all, there was the individual witness of the believers. They preached, or better, they spake the gospel, and with that was associated the public heralding, the public proclamation of the word of truth. I don't know whether the Industrial Relations Society has its tentacles in Canada, but it certainly is a force to be reckoned with in the business life of the United Kingdom and does valuable work as a matter of interest. But in the industrial relations parlance, they speak of an eyeball to eyeball confrontation. Now that really is the idea of preaching in verse twenty and speaking in, of preaching in verse nineteen and speaking in verse twenty. It's facing our fellow men in the street. Speaking with them face to face, personal witness and personal testimony. Lovely to have the preacher come for the special meetings. He stands on the platform in the gospel hall or preaches in the open air, and we stand with him shoulder to shoulder. We say, brother, we're with you as he preaches. But you see, more than that happened at Antioch. The public preaching was supported by personal witness. Those who stood and heralded the gospel for all to hear in a public manner were supported man to man by those who witnessed to their neighbors, witnessed to their fellow Antiochians, or whatever they called them. Those who sought to confront people in the street and over the garden fence with the gospel of the grace of God. It's comparatively easy to stand on a platform like this and preach. It isn't always quite so easy to talk to the people you work with, or the people you live with, or the people you travel with, but that's what they did at Antioch. Now, will you notice, please, just briefly the content of the preaching? They preached the word, and they preached the Lord Jesus. Perhaps you say you hardly need say any more about that, but let's see, dear brethren, that our gospel message is thoroughly Bible based, and let's see that it is the gospel of Christ, and that we're not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Now, may I pass very quickly in this first section to notice the result? The Bible says a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. What do you understand by the word believe? I believe that on a frosty February morning, some hundreds of years ago in Whitehall in the city of London, a certain gentleman stepped out of a window, and very shortly afterwards his head was severed from the rest of his anatomy. Exit King Charles the First. Now you believe that, and I believe that. We believe a historical fact. We say this is true, this is a fact of history. But is that what the Bible means when it talks about believing? The word believe in our New Testaments is a very strong word. It has the idea of total reliance upon, absolute confidence in, unshakable faith in something. We trust ourselves exclusively and completely and absolutely to that fact. And that is the meaning of the word believe in our New Testaments. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved is not believe about the Lord Jesus Christ, although that is inherently part of it, but it's stronger than that. It means commit yourself absolutely in the totality of your person, with absolute confidence and reliance upon Christ who died for you and rose again. Now, I'm sure I'm telling you nothing new in Vancouver when I give you that definition, but wait a minute. They believed, says the Bible, and they turned unto the Lord. Now, the word turn here is our old word converted. And I'm going to ask you a question that you may think is very strange. You've believed? Good. Have you been converted? You say to me, of course I have. The two things are the same, aren't they? Wait a moment. Ye turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. That's the same word as we have here in Acts chapter eleven. Turning means I was going in this direction. I live with this objective. I thought like this. I spoke like this. I dress like this. I behave like this. But now I've been converted, and instead of going in this direction, I go in that direction. And instead of living with this objective, I live for a new objective. And instead of thinking like this, I now think differently. And instead of speaking like this, I now speak in a totally different manner. And instead of behaving like that, I now behave by a totally different standard. My dear brother, my dear sister, are we really converted? You see, we're living in a day when there's a very thin line sometimes between the regenerate and the unregenerate. When it's difficult to discern by conduct, to dress and deportment and character who's saved and who isn't. As believers, we ought to stick out like sore thumbs. We ought to be known as people who are different, who live differently, who love different things, who sing different things, who enjoy different things, who go to different places, who seek different fellowship. This is fellowship. This is the idea of turning. This is the idea of conversion. I say again, my dear brother, my dear sister, you believe, but are you really converted? Now let's pass to the second visit. We're now speaking of Barnabas. Barnabas, the man who was a perfect exemplar- example of his own name. He was the son of consolation or the son of exhortation, and that exactly was what he did when he came to Antioch in verse number twenty three. Now, there's a number of lovely things we could say about Barnabas. I just want to single out one or two. Will you notice when he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad? I think that's very precious. Barnabas hadn't preached at Antioch. Barnabas wasn't one of the original preachers, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, though of course he did come from Cyprus, but he wasn't one of the original band of gospelers who came to the city of Antioch. So he comes to the city, and he sees the fruit of the labours of his brethren, and he's glad. I think that's a lovely spirit. The Apostle Paul had the same spirit beating in his bosom. You'll remember that he speaks of Epaphras, and he says, who is for you, a faithful minister of Christ. Paul hadn't been to Colossae, but he speaks of the labors of another man who served the Lord effectively and faithfully in that triangle of cities represented by Hierapolis and Colossae and Laodicea. You haven't seen my face in the flesh, he says, but Epaphras is for you a faithful minister of Christ. Happy the assembly where the saints rejoice in one another's spiritual prosperity. Happy the assembly where we rejoice in the goodness of God displayed to our brethren. Happy the assembly where we come together and give God thanks for the way he is prospering our brothers and sisters in Christ in their various activities in the assembly witness and testimony. You know, it's all too easy, when perhaps things are a wee bit sticky in our area, to look at a brother or a sister laboring in another area of the assembly and say, why are they being blessed and not me? But there was no such spirit in the heart of Barnabas, and there was no such spirit in the bosom of the Apostle Paul. God give us grace to rejoice in the labors of our brethren. But then will you notice a very significant little word? The Bible says he exhorted them all. Now please note the little word all. He exhorted them all. None of the saints at Antioch were exempted from this man's ministry of exhortation, that is of encouragement, as he urged them on in the pursuit of spiritual matters. The Bible says he exhorted them all. Nothing exclusive about Barnabas in his ministry. Now, will you notice, please, the same spirit in the heart of the apostle? Have you observed in the epistle to the Philippians how in the opening verses the word all occurs a number of times. He speaks of his affection for them all, his desires from them all. Now, why is that? Read through and you'll come to chapter four, although there are hints of it before, but when you cap to champ- come to chapter four, the apostle says, I beseech Euodius and I beseech Syntyche that they be of the same mind in the Lord. For here were two first century believers in the assembly at Philippi who had once labored in happy fellowship with the apostle, as he makes clear in the following verses, but had now fallen out. Can you imagine it? Syntyche is saying, Lord, bless all my brothers and sisters at Philippi except her. And Euodius is saying, yes, I've got a place in my heart and a place in my home for all the dear saints of God at Philippi, except her. Oh, said Paul, I long after you all in the bowels, the tender mercies of Jesus Christ. I wonder, my brethren in the assembly, with whom you have fellowship, if that's your heart and my heart. If we're not careful, we can polarize. If we're not careful, we can form little cliques. If we're not careful, we can departmentalize the assembly. God give us a heart for all the saints of God in the meeting. God deliver us from a censorious critical spirit, from thinking that we're either above others, or maybe others are so far above us that really we could never ever have fellowship with them. Now then, what did Barnabas do? Well, it says he exhorted them all that with purpose of heart, and you'll think of Daniel there, won't you, that they would cleave unto the Lord. Now, the word cleave is actually a milder word than possibly would seem from the good King James version. It means actually that they would be near the Lord, that they would be with the Lord. I think that's lovely. Remember the word of the Old Testament, I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. When my two daughters, now aged two twenty two and sixteen, were little girls, they used to do what I'm sure we all did when we were children, they liked to dance along on the pavement in mother and father's shadow. I don't suppose children in Canada are any different to children in Hertfordshire, from where I come. But in order to be in someone's shadow, albeit sometimes a longer shadow, you've got to be pretty close to them. Now, says the word of God, I sat down under his shadow with great delight. I was close to him. I was near him. I was in proximity to him. Now that's the idea here, that with purpose of heart they would be near unto the Lord. Oh, may God keep us near to him. So then the business of verses nineteen to twenty one was the business of preaching. The business of verses twenty two, twenty three, and twenty four, and there we must leave the matter, was exhortation. But Barnabas was a good man in more senses than one. For as he looked at the assembly at Antioch, he said, now there's a need here that I can't meet, but I know the man who can meet it, and the name of that man is the man who was converted on the Damascus road. That man who soon after his conversion was able to take the Jews on in direct debate and bring them to the ground by his logical arguments. That's the man we need at Antioch. And thus says verse number twenty five: then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul, and back they come, and they have a whole year of ministry meetings. How about that? Say that's not very scriptural. This is one man ministry, perhaps two men ministry, actually, because they assembled themselves with the church. May I say this, brethren? In our ministry and Bible teaching so often, we are far too fragmentary, far too fragmentary. And the best men to give you good consecutive ministry are local men. Value the teaching gift that you have in your assembly. Give the young men opportunity to develop publicly the ability to handle the word of God. Now, I didn't say give them opportunity to take part in Bible readings, that's important. But, you know, we must go further than that, brethren. Give our young men opportunity to give consecutive public ministry in the assembly. And if God is raising up young men in the meeting or middle-aged men in the meeting who have the capability of handling the scriptures, give them room to exercise their gift. I hope you'll forgive me when I say don't rely on the full-time brethren too much. And so you'll observe in verses twenty five and twenty six that the word taught occurs in the passage. The idea then of verses twenty five and twenty six is teaching. Now you say to me, what is the difference between exhortation and teaching? A brother may come to Vancouver and give us an address on prayer. He may outline the reasons why we can pray, the basis on which we can pray, how we should address God, intelligence in prayer. And then the next week, another brother comes to Vancouver and he says, you know, brethren, we must be like Daniel. We must pray three times. We must be like the psalmist in Psalm one hundred and nineteen and pray seven times a day. Brethren, we must pray more, we must pray more, we must pray more. Now, the first brother has given teaching. The second brother has exhorted us to put into practice the teaching, and both areas of ministry are mutually complementary and equally important. The ministry of exhortation generally is based upon the ministry of the teacher. Now, what is the objective of teaching? Well, will you notice very carefully the way in which verse twenty six reads? Taught much people, number one. Number two, and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. Now notice, teaching, disciples, Christians. The idea of a disciple is not just someone who learns, but someone who adheres. So that the teaching was given and the believers adhered to it. And the result of adhering to the teaching meant that people looked at these early believers in Antioch and said, they're like Christ. They're Christians. And the object of all Bible teaching, brethren, is to produce in the people of God the likeness of the Lord Jesus. If we miss that point, we've missed the whole point of teaching in the scriptures. God's great desire is that the fair beauty of his beloved son might be more perfectly reflected in his people. And the teacher who merely looks at the Bible as an intellectual proposition and who teaches the people of God in order to dazzle them with his theology and his rhetoric has gone miles away from the point. The object of the teacher of Holy Scripture is that the people of God might become more conformed to the image of God's blessed Son. So we have preaching, and we have exhortation, and we have teaching. Now finally, please, says he, with two minutes left on the digital clock, if I put my hand over it, that'll be all right, I won't see. But will you notice, please, in verses twenty seven to thirty we have the prophets coming. We don't have prophets today, they're connected with the foundation. But here we are in the transitional period. The late Mr. Percy Parsons of London said this, that when a building is in the course of erection, it is surrounded by scaffolding. But when the building is complete, the scaffolding is removed so that the building may be seen as the architect and builder intended it to be seen. Now, brother now in heaven said, you know, a number of the early gifts were like the scaffolding, preparatory to the completion of the building. That is to the revelation of the mind of God in its completeness, in the completed canon of scripture. I've not time to deal with that, but will you notice, please, that as a result of the predictions of Agabus and others, the disciples, number one, determined verse twenty nine and number two, they did verse thirty. As a result of the ministry of the prophets, there was a determination to send relief, and verse thirty says they didn't only determine, they did it. We have an old proverb in England, after all is said and done, there's more that's said than done. But you wouldn't say that of the saints at Antioch. They determined, and they did. Now let me terminate with a story, a Bible story. Do you remember the song of Deborah and Barak in the book of Judges in chapter five? Sisera, with his nine hundred chariots of iron, had been defeated. Blessed shall Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, be. Blessed shall she be among women. And you remember what Jael, the, uh, wife of Heber the Kenite did to Sisera. Gave him a bang on the head he'd never forget. But Deborah and Barak went on in chapter five to celebrate the victory, and they mentioned certain of the tribes. Now, one of the tribes was Reuben. For the divisions of Reuben, there were great thoughts of heart. You can almost see them, can't you, there in their territory in the land. What can you hear, brethren? Oh, we can hear the clash of steel on steel down there in the valley. We can hear the rumbling of eighteen hundred chariot wheels, Cicero's about the business. We can hear the shout, we can hear the noise of the battle. Great thoughts of heart, brethren. Let's get down to the battle. Let's get stuck in there. Let's join with our fellow tribesmen and defeat the enemy. Let's get rid of Jabin, king of Hazor, and his captain Sisera with his nine hundred chariots of iron. And it says, it says, for the divisions of Reuben, there were great thoughts of heart, and they did nothing. Nothing. They just sat up there in their rocking chairs and did nothing. But these believers determined, and they did. Do I hear someone saying, I've been thinking about helping with the tracting for a long time? I really ought to give the brethren a hand. Or they're short of the workers in the Sunday school and the children's meeting, and uh, I've been exercised about this, you know, for a long time. And there's someone in the office or the factory or the workplace to whom I ought to be speaking, and I really ought to have a word with that person. And we debate within ourselves, and our ideas, our strategy, our objectives are second to none, and we determine, but we do nothing. Not so the saints of God at Antioch. They determined, and they did, and they exhibited their fellowship, and they sent it to the elders by the hand, H-A-N-D. I know the good authorized says hands, but it's by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Have you ever noticed that? Four hands in Acts chapter eleven but one hand. Two hearts in Matthew twenty four but one heart. Did not our heart burn within us? Two necks in Romans sixteen but the authorized really gives the word in the plural, but it's in the singular. Aquila and Priscilla, who for my sake have laid down their neck. Two hearts but one, two necks but one, four hands but one. Excellent wedding address, if I may say so. And so then here, here was the assembly at Antioch. Preaching, exhortation, teaching, and fellowship. That was the pattern. Thank God the pattern remains today, and God give us grace to implement it for his praise and his honor and his glory.