The expansion of the church to the Gentiles is the central theme, demonstrating God's unfolding plan beyond Israel. The sermon traces this expansion from the scattering of believers after Stephen's persecution, through the pivotal moments of Peter's vision and ministry to Cornelius, and the subsequent establishment of the first Gentile church in Antioch. It highlights how God uses both divine intervention and human response, like Barnabas's encouragement and Saul's training, to fulfill His purposes. The message concludes by emphasizing that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch, a name that signifies true followers of Christ, and calls for practical application of faith through service and evangelism.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.00 → restored 4.53
I think I should mention the fact that last night I talked to Dr. Sanford Mills. Some of us know and learn to love Dr. Sanford Mills. He is the Florida director of the American Mission to Jews. He was at Fort Lauderdale. Some weeks ago he was speaking in Washington, D.C., had a heart attack. kind of a heart failure and they brought him home and he's been into the Miami Heart Institute and they've performed four bypasses on his heart. He's been through a big operation but he's home.
He's had to go back since he came home he's had to go back to the hospital twice but he told me that on Thursday night on Friday night he completed his A book he's writing on Second Thessalonians, so he's still trying to get on with some work for the Lord. He can't do any speaking yet, of course, but he does want to come up here for a few days' rest. He loves his place, and when he's well enough, we should see him around him again. So please pray. I told him we've been praying for him all through, and he appreciated that, and asked that we please continue to pray for him and for dear Mrs. Mills in these days. Now let's turn to the eleventh chapter, the Acts of the Apostles.
Acts chapter eleven. The last time I was speaking here on a Sunday morning, I spoke about the tenth chapter of the Acts. I think that was the Sunday of the ladies' missionary conference about six weeks ago, so you probably forgot what we talked about. However, we're trying to pick up the threads in a moment. The eleventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the disciples, that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised, and did she eat with them.
But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them, saying, I was in the city of Joppa, praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, and a certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, and it came even to me. Upon the which, when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered and saw four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter, slay and eat. But I said, Not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean has at any time entered into my mouth, for the voice answered him again from heaven.
What God has cleansed, that, call thou not common. And this was done three times. And all were drawn up again into heaven. And behold, immediately there were three men already come into the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me. And the Spirit made me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me. And we entered into the man's house, and he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Now as he began to state, the Holy Ghost, as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye should be baptized with the Holy Ghost. For as much then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, what was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things they held their peace and glorified God saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance until life.
I think we should rejoice about that verse. Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. Now they that were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Phineas 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, spoke unto the Grecian, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great multitude 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 called Agabus. And he signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dirt 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. Shall we pray? Blessed God, we again thank you for thy precious word which we have in our hands, in our mother tongue.
We thank thee thou hast not left us orphans in this world with no guidance, but thou hast given us the word of God which is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And we pray this that this morning the Spirit of God might take the word of God and apply it to our heart. teach us the lessons that would have us learn from these scriptures. We seek thy blessing in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, it seems to me to be profitable when I should speak, shall I say often in one place, to take some consecutive studies.
And it took a long time. We went through the Gospel of John. I think I was speaking here on John for a period of five years, but we didn't speak very often, of course, to take all that time. But we did get through John's Gospel. And then we went straight on into the Acts of the Apostles. But that was eighteen months ago. And we did get, last time I spoke, as I said, to the end of the tenth chapter. And since We don't speak very often. It's a little broken up. But just to refresh our minds, we have been saying, trying to say anyhow, that as we see it, the Acts of the Apostles is a pattern for us.
We have said several times that when God commanded Moses to build a tabernacle, he called Moses up into the mount. He stayed up there forty days and forty nights. And there God showed Moses a pattern of the tabernacle. And he told him, See that thou do all things. This is repeated in Hebrews. See that thou make all things according to the pattern that I showed thee in the mount. And so then Moses built the tabernacle according to a plan in heaven. God said when he asked him in the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus, He said, I'm going to come down and dwell amongst my people.
And he was going to dwell in that tabernacle. Now today there's no tabernacle on earth in that sense. There's no temple on earth in the sense that it was centuries ago. But God still dwells among his people today. And he dwells amongst his earthly people, amongst his people here on earth, his church. The Holy Ghost comes to dwell in our hearts when we accept Christ as our Savior, and the Lord wants to dwell among us. And he actually calls us the temple of God. Now, how is it God?
And it seems to me that in the Acts of the Apostles, we get a pattern, just as God gave Moses a pattern up there in the heavens, so he gives us a pattern as to how we should act and as to how the church should be built and multiplied in these days. And we have noticed, particularly the eighth verse of the first chapter, where he said, And ye should be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth. And we have seen how the church started on the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem. and the various activities.
The numbers grew until it says the end, the last verse, the fourth chapter, that the numbers have grown up to five thousand men without women and children. The church was being established in Jerusalem. But the laws and orders were very clear. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, three circles, ever widening circles to the othermost parts of the earth. And when we get to the eighth chapter, it says, At that time there was a great persecution against the church, which was in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad. It seems to me, and we've said this, it seems to me that they were so slow in doing what the Lord asked them to do, to start at Jerusalem and then go to Judea and Samaria, that the Lord had to send a persecution.
And the persecution scattered them. And through the persecution, they did what the Lord told them to do. It says they were all scattered abroad through where? Through the regions of Judea and Samaria. That's where he told them to go. But note the last words of that second verse of the eighth chapter. The first verse, rather. They were all scattered abroad except the apostles. Except the apostles. Those apostles stayed at Jerusalem. And they were the men to whom the Lord gave that message, to go into all the world. They were the men to whom he said, start at Jerusalem, go to Judea and Samaria, and then the other most parts of the earth.
And then he sent persecution, and they were all scattered abroad, but the apostles stayed there in Jerusalem. But God miraculously and wonderfully worked it out. They went down to Samaria, Philip went down there, you remember, and then we went over the story of how the Spirit of God called Philip down to the desert, where he talked to the Ethiopian eunuch, and the eunuch went back to Ethiopia, spreading the message, I believe. But in the tenth chapter, God called Peter in a very definite way to take the message to the Gentiles.
Now, this was a hard thing for Peter. Because the Jews in those days used to talk about Gentile dogs. Even the Lord Jesus said to that Sero-Phoenician women, it's not meat to take the children's meat and give it unto dogs. She had a wonderful answer. She said, Yay, Lord. But the dog can lap up the crumbs that fall from the table. And he said, Greatly thy faith. And he gave her the blessing she asked for. God's heart has gone out to all the world. God so loved the world, not only the Jews. True, the Jews were his chosen people.
True, God said to Abraham, when he called him out, he said, I will make of thee a great nation. And he that blesseth thee, I will bless, and he that curses thee, I will bless. And we know God has a great future for his people, Israel. We know that. And we know God's plans are being fulfilled and worked out today as we see the Jewish people going back. to Palestine, going back to Israel, and we know we're near the end of the church's history, and God is about to take up his dealings with Israel again. We know that. But God had a bitter heart that they include only the Jews. God's heart went out to Gentiles as well. God so loved the world.
He did say to Peter in the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, remember when The Lord said, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Well, some say this, some say that, some say Jeremiah, some say one of the prophets, so on. And then he said to Peter, But whom do ye say that I am? And Peter made that wonderful confession. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord said to Peter, Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Bar-Jonas, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto me. But my Father which is in heaven, and I say unto thee thou, Peter, and upon this rock this confession that he had made, upon this rock I will build my church.
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom. Now, in some pictures you see Peter, the kind of doorkeeper in heaven, you know, and he's got the keys, and when we get to heaven and knock the door, he opens the door and lets us in. I don't think that's what the Lord intended at all when he said the keys of the kingdom. It seems to me that when Peter was the man, God chose Peter to be the man to preach the gospel for the first time on the day of Pentecost. And he preached to the Jews, men and brethren, he said in that verse, I think, of the second chapter of the Acts, men and brethren, he spoke to Israel.
And he put the key in the door and he opened the door to Israel, the door of the gospel. And as we have seen, many were saved, five thousand at one time in Jerusalem, three thousand on the day of Pentecost, and the numbers grew greatly. But always to the Jews. But Peter had another key to use. He had to open the door to the Gentiles. And in a miraculous way, God gave him this vision. He saw this sheet come down from heaven with these unclean beasts. And he said, Arise, Peter, kill and eat. Peter said, Nay, Lord, I can't eat anything common or unclean. I have never defiled my lips with those animals, the animals which you told us not to eat.
But God says, What God has cleansed, if that's called thou not common or unclean. Three times he did this. And then the men were at the door, knocking. The men from Cornelius, whom he had sent down. And they told them that their master Cornelius had been told by an angel to come down to Peter. And Peter realized he had to go and take the gospel to the Gentiles. And we know the story. We went over it last time I was speaking. And we all know the tenth chapter of Acts so well. How did it while Peter yet speak? The Holy Ghost fell on them all. And they believed. And they were baptized.
And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they prayed unto him to carry certain days. And not only did he go there and lead them to Christ and baptize them, but they said, Stay here a bit. Stay with us a few days. And he and his men, and there were six of them, it seems, stayed there. Of course, ate with them. And this was a terrible thing for a Jew to eat with a Gentile. And news of this thing got up to Jerusalem. And so we get to the first verse of the eleventh chapter, and it says, The apostles and brethren, still in Jerusalem all the time, the apostles and brethren that were in Judea, heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they were of the circumcision, that's the Jewish people, they contended with him, saying, Thou wentest into men uncircumcised and did eat with him. It seems to me their problem was not so much that he preached the gospel to them, but that he ate with them. The Jews would have nothing to do with the Gentiles, they weren't allowed to eat with them. You know, I've met some, in my experiences, I've met some Christians. I remember a family I knew so well, loved. But they got old to this notion that nobody but their own little group could eat together. some friends we loved so much and we'd been away in Greece for some time and we were going back to England and of course we wanted to go and see these loved friends but we received a letter please don't come because we're not allowed to eat with you not allowed to eat with because they thought I was broader and wider in my thoughts than they were.
And they were so narrow and perfectly right that we weren't allowed to eat together. And that's how the Jews were. They couldn't eat with the Gentile. And this is what Peter had done. I can imagine Peter, when he stayed there and ate and with his friends, he must have said, what are we going to do? We have to explain this matter. We've got to go up to Jerusalem and say what's happened. And so they went up to Jerusalem. When he came to Jerusalem, they contended with him. And they said, why did you go in and eat with them? And then Peter told the whole story. He said he rehearsed the matter and told in detail what happened. Now, we won't go over it for sake of time, but there are one or two details I'd like to mention. It says that Peter is explaining it in his way, you know.
He says that the Spirit bad me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house. And he showed us, now listen to these words, he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house. Cornelius had seen an angel in his house. Well, surely the angel could have told him how to be saved, couldn't he? An angel, he knows God's plans and purposes. No, God did not give the business of preaching the gospel to angels. I love that. God has chosen men who have stood on the brink of a lost hell and seen the ground slipping away before them and God has saved them from a lost eternity.
And they've had the experience of conversion and salvation. And God has chosen these men to preach the gospel. Angels have never been in that state. Angels know God's plan Angels do God's will, but we were sinners, lost and hopeless, and going down to a lost eternity. And God saved us and gave us the job of preaching the gospel. I wonder if we're all doing it. That's our great business, to be telling others about what God has done for us. So he didn't let the angel tell Cornelius what to do, but the angel told Cornelius to send for Peter. And Peter had to do this visit. And Peter said... Send men to Joppa, call for Simon whose surname is Peter.
Now listen to these words. Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. Do you think Peter put that bit in himself? I wonder if he did. Go back to chapter ten. It says in verse six. Verse seven. Now send men to Joppa. Call for one Simon whose surname is Peter. He lodged it with one Simon the Tanner, whose house is by the sea. And he should tell thee what thou oughtest to do. He should tell thee what thou oughtest to do. That's the words of chapter ten. And then when he's telling over again in verse thirty-two, he tells the people, when Peter gets there, Cornelius says, that the angel said, Send therefore to Joppa, and call hither Simon, whose surname is Peter.
He is lodged... in the house of one's famine of Tanner by the seaside, who, when he cometh, shall speak unto thee. So then, in the sixth verse of chapter ten, he shall tell thee what thou oughtest to do. And when he's repeating it, he says, he shall speak unto thee. But when Peter tells the story, he says that the angel says, He shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house, shall be saved. I think you know Peter was so enthusiastic about it that he put his own version of it.
Truly that's what he did. He taught him words whereby he and all his house could be saved. I remember a long year ago when I was in Greece and before I knew enough of the Greek language to preach the gospel in Greek I had a great friend and he used to get me to come down. He was the pastor of the Evangelical Church and he used to get me down to speak sometime and He used to interpret, you know. He's a wonderful preacher. And we worked together wonderfully. I learned the whole secret of interpretation is to give short, complete sentences. Never break a sentence in the middle because no man can interpret half a sentence. I learned to be short, short sentences, complete. And I would say it and he would say it in Greek, but I'm sure, you know, he was like Peter in some case.
I used to think he added a bit there. When I got to know a little bit more what he's talking about, I knew that he was sometimes he was so enthusiastic. And I think it's what Peter did. He put his own bit in. He'll tell thee words, tell thee words whereby thou shalt be saved. Well, that's what he did, of course. What an enthusiastic man Peter was. You'll tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. So then, it says, when they heard these things in Jerusalem, When they heard them, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
So they were reconciled to the fact that, yes, God is going to bless the Gentiles. Indeed, there are many scriptures in the Old Testament which we won't turn to that prove that God had in his mind to bless the Gentiles, and he will, yes, bless the Gentiles. Now in the eighth chapter we read that they that were scattered abroad, verse four of chapter eight, they went everywhere preaching the word. Now this links up now after this little parenthesis about Peter, about the eunuch and about Cornelius and about the Apostle Paul being saved. From chapter eight, verse four, we jump right over to chapter eleven, verse nineteen.
And it says, they that were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenician and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but the Jews only. See, they were doing what God told them now. They were forced to because of the persecution. They traveled out and they went up the coast, right up through Syria, where we have Beirut today and Tyre and Sidon and all up through there. preached Antioch, way up in the north of Syria. Now, I've been up that coast. I haven't been as far up as Antioch, but I've been to Tyre and Sidon, and all up that, through Beirut, I've been in there, and all up that coast, and that's where they traveled up, preaching the gospel, but always to the Jews.
And we get right up to Antioch. Now, Antioch was a large seaport. They tell me, I've read that there's a beautiful spot there, beautiful foliage and fruit and so on. It was a big city, a seaport, very much under the influence of Rome. In fact, there was a saying they had in those days that the Antiochus built on the river, was built on the river Orontid, and there was a saying that the mud from the river Tiber at Rome had dirtied up the water of the river Orontid.
It was a very wicked city. and the sins of Rome had come over to Antioch, and they went to this wicked licentious immoral city. They reached there. They got to Antioch. Antioch in Syria, there is an Antioch in Pisidia, but this is Antioch in Syria, way up north of Peru. We're studying. Some of them that were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were, come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And now God's opening the door to the Gentiles. This was God's plan.
And we've been following in the Acts of the Apostles the opening, like a flower opening, you know, the gospel spreading. As I said, first of all, they stated to loose them, but God forced them out, and now God's will is being fulfilled, and they're reaching at last to the Gentiles. Peter opened the door in the case of Cornelius, and now they're going forward, and God spoke to the Grecians. They spoke to the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus. Verse twenty-one, the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. It was great work that happened at Antioch.
This is the first Gentile church in the New Testament, the one at Antioch, mostly Grecians. Great number believed, just as in Jerusalem. A great number believed, a great number believed there. And a church, a big church grew in Antioch, and it became the base for missionary effort. God's plan, as I said before, was Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, And then the other most parts of the earth, and that was a jumping off spot for the great missionary enterprise which ultimately came to Europe by the Apostle Paul from that church at Antioch.
It's wonderful to see God's planning. We've often talked about this here that God has a plan. God has an eternal plan for his Son. God has an eternal plan for his people, the Jews. He has a plan for his church, his heavenly people. And this is how it was unfolding. God's plan was being worked out. He need to have a base to send the gospel out. And the Lord developed this wonderful church, model church down there at Antioch. We'll read and learn more about that when we get to the thirteenth chapter of the Acts. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord.
Then tidings of these things came to the ears of the church which is at Jerusalem. And they wanted to find out about this just as they wanted to find out about Peter. So they sent down Barnabas. Barnabas was a great man. is a good man. There are very few men called good, but Barnabas was called a good man. I like it. It says, verse twenty-four, he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost. He was the man who, in chapter six, had possessions, I think, in Cyprus and chapter five, I think, chapter five, and verse thirty-six, and Joseph who by the apostles were surnamed Barnabas, which being interpreted as son of consolation, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, he sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Barnabas had given up what he had, given it to the Lord, and now he was out full time in the Lord's work, and they chose Barnabas to go down to Antioch to examine this matter and see what was really going on. And when he came... and he saw the grace of God he was glad and he exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should speak to the Lord for he was a good man full of the Holy Ghost and faith and much people was added unto the Lord did you notice this it says in in verse twenty one a great number believed and turned to the Lord in verse twenty four much people was added to the Lord and In verse twenty six, they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people.
You see how God was increasing the numbers, much people, many people, and the church was being established and growing. This was the early days of the church's history. God was working. God was working out his plan for his church for these two thousand years. The church has been in the world today, but he's laying down the roots and the bases and the foundations for the days it would come. And you notice in all this the Holy Spirit is the one that is guiding and leading and planning. They didn't plan it.
The Holy Spirit sent them. If they didn't go, he sent a persecution to force them so they'd go and they were led by the Holy Spirit. There was no central council through the church at Jerusalem, the apostles, they kept their eyes and their hands on everything. That was their job. That was the apostles' job. We have no apostles today. They passed off the seas. But whilst they were there, that was God's plan for them to look after things and they sent down to Antioch. And he stayed there, Barnabas, and preached and taught, and much people were adding to the Lord. And then Barnabas thought about Saul of Tarsus.
Do you remember when Saul was converted in the ninth chapter, we went over these things. And when he went up to Jerusalem, verse twenty-six of chapter nine, when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he is said to join himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him. And believe not that he was a disciple, but when Barnabas took him, but Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus and he was coming in with them and going out at Jerusalem and spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus.
It was Barnabas whom God used to introduce Saul of Tarsus to the church at Jerusalem. And then Saul of Tarsus disappears off the sea. He says in verse thirty that he brought him down to Israel and sent him forth to Tarsus. And then we hear nothing about the apostle about Saul for a long time, some years. But all of us remember Saul. And he went up now a journey from Antioch. He had to go north and then inland to Tarsus up there in the in the mountains of what we call Asia Minor today, and he found Saul up there.
And I wonder what the conversation must have been. You don't get anything of it here. But when Barnabas called, they were good old friends and they met, and he said, I want you to come down to Antioch. I expect, I don't know, maybe Saul was saying, what's the Lord got me here for? I'm not doing anything. I'm not, the Lord said, that he would make me a witness before kings and Gentiles. What am I doing here? But God was training him. It's good to know that God takes his men back in the desert. He had Moses in the desert for forty years before he used him. John the Baptist, the first thirty years of his life, was in the desert before God used him.
And the Lord Jesus spent forty days and forty nights in the desert. before he came out into his public ministry. And Saul of Tarsus said he, and Saul said, I was three years in Arabia. And now he's all these years in Tarsus, in the background, being trained. Sometimes God has to lay us aside in the background, that we might be alone with him, that he might train us and make us what he wants us to be so that he can use us. And all of us here this morning have had love, long and lots of experiences in life, training ground. I like to think that God has something for us to do in the later years of our life and that all the rest of our life has been trained and all the experiences and trials have been training time to make us what we are today and make us what he wants us to be for what little bit there's left of life that we might use it for him.
So Saul came out of the background and was brought by Barnabas. down to Antioch. When he found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came to pass a whole year. They assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. So this place, Antioch, this wicked Roman city out there on the River Orontes in northern Syria, became the spot where the disciples were first known as Christians. Now, some people think this is a mocking gearing sort of a name. I don't think so. I think it was God's plan that we should be called Christians. And it was in this place where the Gentiles had been saved in so many numbers.
In this wicked city where lives had been changed and wicked men had become saints and they became disciples that God first called them Christians. Christ ones, followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's a theory of course that if you were born in the United States or born in Great Britain or some other so-called Christian country, you're a Christian. But of course we all know that is not so. The disciples were called Christians. The disciples that are Christians, a lot of people call themselves Christians, but they're not disciples. Disciples were called Christians and we should examine our hearts and see how we stand today. How much are we really following?
How much are we doing what the Lord said about the disciples as he take up his cross and follow me, and leave all and follow me, and prepare to make sacrifices to serve the Lord and follow the Lord and be a real disciple? They are Christians. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. And so we have that name down through the ages now that we are called Christians. May God help us. that we, each one of us here this morning, might live up to what this title means, Christian. Now one other little point at the end of this chapter is a little bit of practical Christianity. They knew there was a famine and they gathered supplies together and they sent them.
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 to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So Barnabas and Saul, who taught in this church for a year, were now chosen for another job, to take this practical relief to this famine-stricken area in Judea, that the Christians might get relief and help. Now, that just about closes God's dealings in the building of his church. just about closes his dealings at Jerusalem. The next chapter, chapter twelve, is the last we get about Peter in this book of the Acts.
The first twelve chapters of the Acts of the Apostles are dealing with Jerusalem and dealing with Peter. When you get the end of the twelfth chapter, then Paul the Apostle comes on the scene. That's the first time he's called Paul there in that chapter. And then God goes out to the Gentiles. We've been dealing with the first part, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria. And we go back to Jerusalem next time we speak, God willing, and see this experience of Peter when he was put in prison there. And now God brought him out. And then Peter disappears off the scene. Do you remember that?
John the Baptist said of the Lord Jesus, He must increase, I must decrease. And poor John was put in prison and beheaded. He decreased, all right, but the Lord Jesus increased. And Peter did a great work, a work God gave him to do. I often question whether God chose Saul of Tartus. to do the work which he really had given to his apostles. Remember when Judas died, Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own face.
Then they chose another one, Matthias, and made the number of the twelve complete. But they stayed at Jerusalem, and God chose Saul of Tarsus to take the message to the farthest ends of the earth. So he says in the fifteenth chapter of Romans, When I get to Spain, I'll come and see you on the way at Rome. Saul's outlook was Spain, the very limits of the Roman Empire. What a vision that man had. But God trained him in the background. Maybe God's got some little work for you and me to do yet. Still here at Parker's mouth. Thank God for this little outreach down at O'Callag. And there are other works I'm sure God has for it.
And this could be the base of operation, this is Antioch-wise. Park of the Palm could be the base here for sending out. May God help us to put ourselves at His disposal that after He's trained us in all these wondrous conference meetings and teachings He's giving us that we might really be used of Himself to take the Gospel out from here. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank You again for thy precious words and for the story of the New Testament church started in those early days in the Acts of the Apostles. We thank you this is our pattern and our guide, help us to stick to it and not work according to the plans of men, but according to thy plans.
And as the Holy Spirit led in those early days, we submit ourselves to thee and ask thee that the Holy Spirit of God might lead us in all the details of our work here for thee. Lead us on, we pray thee, and magnify and glorify the name of thy beloved Son in our midst. strengthen us day by day that we might go forward for thee. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then, Lord, we commit to thee just now. Our brother Dave Wardenberg, our sister Mrs. Slenson, Dr. Sanford Mills, these of whom we've spoken this morning, and others who are sick, we pray, Lord, many of our number have codes. We pray thou bless them and strengthen them and build us all up and lead us on for thy glory.
We seek thy parting blessings. In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. oh yeah Thank you.