The church at Antioch exemplifies a model of Christian community that is committed, evangelistic, inclusive, and well-taught, demonstrating the vital role of spiritual gifts and dedicated leadership. The sermon highlights the church's financial responsibility, drawing parallels to biblical instructions on giving, supporting ministry, caring for the needy, and the principle of equality among believers. It emphasizes that effective giving requires clear communication of needs and that the church's leadership should be prayerfully guided and financially supported to effectively carry out God's work. Ultimately, the church at Antioch serves as a pattern for a missionary-minded body of believers, encouraging a global perspective and a commitment to spreading the gospel.
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Well, let's look at our segment in the book of Acts once again. Considering the church at Antioch, Acts chapter eleven, we'll begin reading this time in verse twenty-seven. While you're turning, I'd like to express our thanks for being with you. We kind of know a lot of people that we've known by reputation and just casual meaning. It's been just wonderful time being with all of you, enjoying the things of God and Christian fellowship one with another. It's almost a pity we just can't keep doing these kind of things till the Lord comes. But he has other purposes for us, and there is a world down there that needs to hear what we know.
And these times are refreshments and equip us to communicate that great message. Verse twenty-seven of Acts chapter eleven. And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch. Then one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did, and sent it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. And then chapter thirteen, verse one.
Now in the church that was at Antioch, there were certain prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manet, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Solution. From there they sailed to Cyprus and so on. We've seen the church in Antioch as a committed church, an evangelistic church, an inclusive church.
a church that was well taught in Scripture, that had the advantage of multiplicity of spiritual gifts being exercised regularly there, that had the attention and care of full-time workers so that the work could be accomplished properly. And we will see today a few more things. A number of times this week, Dick has made reference to things like collections. He has encouraged us to participate in a gift to the Murphys.
He has given reports on the financial condition of the conference and a history of how the Lord has worked. Many of you have been offended by that? I haven't. I think that's the way it should be done. In fact, the way you guys do things is a lot of the way I think things should be done. That's just a little compliment, okay, for what it's worth. That's kind of an uncommon thing in a Sunday life. We as a movement have adopted a stance when it comes to finances that basically says this, we are silent about it.
We even come to the point of saying, we do not make needs known. Now, we may think that's wrong, but God doesn't. God made a need known here. It wasn't his need. There was a need of saints in Jerusalem that were going to be touched by a famine. And he communicated that through a number of prophets, and Agabus particularly stands up. and makes comment to the church at Antioch, and they are moved to give. I would suggest that it is impossible to give properly in a vacuum of information.
This is the way we function. We function according to information that comes to us from God directly. The Word, we'll look at that soon. and we function from other means of communication. It is impossible to give without some factual knowledge. You have to know who to give to, at least. You must know that. And that doesn't come to us through some mysterious voice. God was not in heaven dropping the address of George Mueller's orphanage into the laps of people so they could give to them. Somewhere or another there was information communicated. I think we all recognize that.
The debate comes over how it is done, not that it is done. We had information supplied to us this week. It was not offensive. It was not begging. It was not manipulative. It was not coercing or any of those things that are extra-biblical. probably extra-biblical. I do find the Apostle Paul twisting arms just a bit when he said, look, I've bragged about you folks in all Macedonia how you promised to give. You made a pledge. And look, I don't want you to be embarrassed, and I don't want to be embarrassed to find out that you haven't fulfilled that. So by the time I get there, have the collection ready. Don't go scurrying about getting a ready one.
That sounds like a little bit of coercion, doesn't it? It really is. Paul really twists arms. He boasts about the promises they made as a standard of how the rest of the saints should give, and now he sends them a little letter and says, fulfill your promises, folks. I don't want to be embarrassed, and don't want to embarrass you. The Bible is not silent in relationship to finances. In fact, it is one of the major subjects of the entire Word of God. If there is an area in which there has been some change in my outlook on how the church is to function, it is in this area.
The concept of secret, not communicating, is a way to do it, but I think it's an extra biblical, not anti-biblical necessarily, but an extra biblical way of going about it. And it is fine if a person decides to go that way, and if he seeks to set the church that he functions in or his organization up on that kind of a basis. that the financial side of it is something we never talk about. It's fine to do it if you want to do it that way. But I don't want to superimpose that on us as the biblical way of doing it.
The Apostle Paul in the Epistles and others that we'll see as well, when it comes to this matter, finances like the church at Antioch was right up front about it. He talked about the necessity to support certain kinds of people. We'll look at that today. He talked about how we should give, the attitudes that we should have in our giving, the things that we should give for. He even talked about situations in which he will say, have not I a right. He just doesn't talk about other people. He talks about himself and how proper giving would impact on his relationship financially in the things of God.
There's much more in the Bible than we think about finances. It is because we seldom address those issues that we think there is very little there. I went through a study of every book of the Bible and noted the references to giving, to money, to support, to finances, to them virtually. Every book of the Bible has a contribution to make. It's everywhere. far more about giving, far more about financing than many of the doctrines that we count important in the function of the church. Yet we say very little about them. Part of it's embarrassing because we expect that if Tom and I talk about it, we're there with an open hand. The Apostle Paul realized that. And in Philippians he said, look, I'm talking about finances not because I desire a gift, but that fruit might abound to your account.
He's very clear in that. He kicks out this question of wrong motives right up front. He addresses that so nobody thinks that he's doing it for ulterior motives. And I'll say the same thing right now. But there is much to say about finances in Holy Scripture. And there's a lot more clear communication than we as brethren ever anticipate. in this whole matter of needs, communication of needs, exercise of one another, and encouraging us to participate in the great privilege of giving to the work of God. Consequently, we need to reteach and rethink our ways in this.
We are in a building program in our assembly back in Dubuque, and we are largely a poor college church. Let's everybody cry a little bit. College students never have any money, even though we took about three thousand dollars in on the pool table last year, a quarter game, you know, kind of thing. But college students are poor. At least their parents are poor. It's sort of a flow-through kind of a thing. You understand that. At one point last year our treasurer and I stood up and we had a little acting routine that we had worked out in which we encouraged the students to give a dollar a week to the assembly.
That that dollar a week would make the difference in our ability to build the chapel or not to build the chapel. It brought us up to the point where we could see our way clear. Now, dollar a week is not a lot of money, but it made the difference. Now, the reason we had to say that is most college students, you know, when the collection bag is being passed, it takes a couple minutes to go across the back rows, and then when it would hit the front row where all the college kids are, I go, you know, that express train right across there. And we don't want that because it gets the ushers out of sequence, and that's the last thing we want in the local church, you know. We don't want to do now. The bags are coming at me in both directions, you know.
And we can't have anything like that. But it was a noticeable thing that someplace along the line, college students have assumed that they're not responsible for giving. And that's not true. None of us as Christians are free, are we? from that responsibility. Now it's not according to what we'd like to give in these big numbers, it's according to what we have. God is very reasonable. It's proportional. And that dollar may be equivalent to somebody else's hundred dollars. And God recognizes that. And we as spiritual brothers and sisters should recognize that. But the process of giving, a part of what God has entrusted to us, is something we need to address.
and particularly in a vacuum of silence, which is interpreted in our society in Christianity as we don't have any needs. Silence means you don't need it nowadays. George Weber, who was very much committed to silence in relationship to finances, made a drastic change in his life, and came up with a little cute saying, and I think it's true, he said, faith without hints. is dead. Faith without hints is dead. If we choose the pattern of silence, I don't even want to hear how the Lord's provided for you ever.
Keep it quiet. Because that's a big hint. The Lord provided this miraculously. I was out in the middle of nowhere and the carburetor dropped out of the sky when my car was... I don't want to hear that story. If you believe in silence, believe in silence. Keep it to yourself. That's your position. But if you believe in encouraging the saints to give and encouraging the saints then by telling them this is how God has provided. That's exactly what was done this week. It's an encouragement to all of us. God communicates to us directly. Communicate it through a prophet. They're going to be a famine, folks. That's not prophecy.
That's a historical prophecy. I hope there's no famine in town. Man, that'd be tough. I've read about famine. But he makes this communication of need. And we learn something from this, that the disciples are exercised about this, and they purpose to give. Here you have in embryo form all the teaching that you have in Corinthians about it. They purpose to give. They make a collection, and they send it up, and here's a very interesting point. They send it up in the hands of two men. We can understand why two men. thus there be temptation to faithful men and they deliver it to the elders and that's a little different than our church practice too for some reason or another we said money matters or deacons work that's not true it's related to the elders it's the elders who take the funds and distribute the funds quite frankly i don't think those who are deacons have the spiritual qualifications yet to handle this very important thing in the church, which is the distribution of God's finances.
That's an elder's responsibility, plural elder's responsibility within the church. It was delivered not to the hands of deacons, it was delivered to the hands of the elders. And the elders were responsible for the distribution of the finances. Because that is a very touchy subject. You need all the wisdom that God can entrust to you to rightfully do that. Now the Bible tells us a lot of things about our financial responsibilities, and I'd like to throw up an overhead on the board. I guess I better be quick in saying what I'd like to throw up there. We will have a little bit of embarrassment. As soon as I can find this, we'll throw up that overhead.
Just talk among yourself for a minute or two. Here we are. One of you gentlemen flip this one on here, please. Now, these are items that are specifically spelled out in Scripture as responsibilities that we as believers have in the matter of finance. And as soon as I say that, you notice you have no reference in front of number one. We're looking at the responsibilities of a church, local church, the Christians in a church. The first one has no reference.
That's creature comforts. Now, the reason there's no reference for this is that in New Testament time, they met in one another's homes. They didn't have to build a building. They didn't have to buy the pews to put the lights in, air condition. And I suggest to you that that's not for God. That's for us. These are creature comforts. God doesn't need a pew to sit on. He doesn't need the light to read. That's for us. He certainly doesn't need air conditioning. We do, right? So we? Sure we do. This heat and cold is part of the fall, and we need to take advantage of the brains God has given to us to accommodate that.
So there are creature comforts. The electricity is creature comforts. I'm not giving to God in the collections in the church until I pay for my part of the air conditioning and the electricity in the chair I'm sitting on, and the comforts are there. That's given to me. Now it does turn into giving to God when I do that for a visitor or somebody else. That's giving for the ministry of God, but a lot of it is giving for me. And that's where we start. Let's assume that's a given. Now that has translations in local churches that meet in the home too. Our assembly during summer months and on prayer meetings meets in our home, in our basement.
And the elders, mine as myself, decided that we should shampoo the carpet in the recreation room in the basement. The church made it dirty, the church should make it clean, right? And that's part of the creature comfort dimension. Later on, when our building's completed, that part of it will stop and we'll concentrate on cleaning the carpet at the chapel then. That makes sense. Creature comforts. That category of support that is seen in First Corinthians nine-fourteen. I can't quite read it down there, so yeah, I guess I can. First Corinthians nine-fourteen, in which a category of people are identified who live by the gospel.
They spend their efforts in some form of spiritual work. And the great principle that comes out of Holy Scripture is this, in any kind of work, the laborer is worthy of his hire. That's whether you are a carpenter or whether you are making your living by preaching the gospel. And one, listen this real clearly, one is not superior to the other. Right? One is not superior to the other. That's at the heart of brethrenism. One is not superior to the other. My brother designs torpedoes for Jesus. I preach the word for Jesus. My missionary uncle says, Russell, how can you design torpedoes for Jesus?
He said, so that you missionaries can preach the gospel in peace throughout the world. And I think that's right. We both serve the Lord, but our means of livelihood takes a different turn. And in First Corinthians, the Apostle Paul identifies this, that those who serve the author should live by the author. So God has ordained that those who preach the gospel should live by. Now, that can be the evangelist type. That can be a teacher. It can be an exhorter. All of those are necessary ministries within the church and outside of the church and others as well.
That is a gift orientation. A person is exercising his gift full time in the exercise of teaching the gospel, spreading the gospel, whatever it may be. That person is supposed to live that way. I am ashamed of it. As I mentioned, we want some of these young people to get involved in that kind of thing. Look, it's work. Larry, is it work? It's work. You don't have to say I'm a charity king. Though you receive gifts, it's work. You don't believe it? Try to preach for forty-five minutes once. Right, Tom? You just don't do that in a minute of cooperation.
Well, some of you may think we do. But it's not true. It's not true. It takes some time and experience. It's work. In First Timothy five, a chapter that's full of information relating to finance, the Apostle Paul says, there are certain widows that are the obligation of the church to fulfill financial responsibility to them. You must carry their load financially. And it lists some very stringent regulations there. Spells it out very clearly. We must do that. If a widow... is once married, she does not have support of the family, she has entertained the saints, been faithful in the work of God.
The parachute for that widow is not her savings, is not social security. The parachute that is there to protect her for the rest of her life is the Church of God. And we miss something when we let other organizations take care of that. You have served us all your life. It is our privilege now to serve you. And that's the way it is. And the Apostle Paul addresses that. Now he doesn't overlook family responsibility. So that's primary. And he goes into some details there. But those things not being in place. The church is the support agency.
Here's one that you probably have never heard. In First Timothy, Five, Seventeen, and First Peter, Five, Two, there are supported elders within the church. Now we address some of this concept of the, quote, full-time worker, unquote. I hope you all understand how I use that term. It's an extra-biblical term. It's like brethrenism. It captures a lot of thoughts in itself. It's a heretical statement. We're all full-time workers. Hope we all understand that, but it helps us identify a group. There should be elders who are fully supported by the local church and others who are not fully supported but partially supported, so the work of God might be carried on.
That isn't necessarily the teaching, preaching part of the church function. It may be an administrating elder. It may be a visiting elder, but it is clear out of the New Testament, First Timothy five says, the elder that rules well is worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and teaching. And then in First Peter it says, look, you elders don't do it for filthy lucre's sake. We've removed that temptation from them pretty well. You know, it's not there. The elders would love to do a temptation. I'm going to elders meeting. I get twenty bucks tonight. Well, we've taken care of that one. I heard of one elder's meeting where they were meeting, and one of the, at a business, one of these cursed business meetings, you know, one of the guys stood up and said, hey, he's doing it for nothing.
Don't be too hard on him. One of the brothers told me that, and that's the truth. Look, I'm not getting anything for this. Don't grave too much. I don't have to do it at all. Isn't that right? That's a lot of free time they're putting in. Now, you know what? I think it's kind of unbiblical that it's free time. clear statement. I don't know how the brethren have missed it. Oh, yes, I do. First of all, they didn't believe their elders to start with, so we missed it all together then. And now that we believe their elders, we certainly wouldn't want to pay them. Okay, we're coming along. And what I'm saying to you is in First Timothy five and First Peter five, it is clear, it is clear that the elders of New Testament church were financially supported by the saints.
And the reason is so that they can have time to do the work. That's simple. You ask any elder in this room, what's his biggest problem, and he will tell you, I don't have enough time. And the reason is, we expect them to work forty, fifty hours, be a good father, be a good grandfather. You're involved in everything there is to do and do the work of the church too. It's impossible. We've given them an impossible thing to do because we have overlooked this one fact. They should be supported. That may be partial support, it may be total support. Praise that for the older men who say, I'm going to take a retirement early and spend the rest of my life working in the church. That's a good way to do it. Doesn't mean the church shouldn't give. Fact is, I think elders should be supported, and if they don't need the money, it's up to those godly men to do with it what they want.
They may want to turn it right back into the church, but let's give it to them so they can turn it right back in. The elder is worthy of his hire. Oh, that sounds crass, doesn't it? But the labor is worthy of his hire, and it's worth to be an elder. And both in Timothy and Peter, that is clearly addressed. It's part of our responsibility. We've blown it there largely. And I think one of the things I want to challenge you to do is to re-examine Scripture when it comes to finances. And you younger men who have some voice, come to this point and say, hey, here it is. Let's do it. You're establishing a local church. Don't be ashamed of the fact that one of the things you might want to do with your elders is say, hey, we want to support you so you can give more attention to the work of God.
We'd be better off if that would be done. We'd be better off because it's New Testament principle. We need to return to that. We need to support the needy. The Apostle Paul is taking this massive collection for people who are needy. In times just a few years back when there were these hard times that many folks throughout the assembly world, a recession set in and touched a lot of our people. And if a man or woman wants work and they can't get it and they're running out of funds, it's altogether right that the church pick up the pieces. They call it benevolence fund in some of the other churches.
Needy saints. And there were hard times. And some of you know more about hard times than I do. Some of you folks, any of you come through the Great Depression, I hear stories about that. Yeah. There were hard times, weren't there? And you had to help one another out. And look, the biblical mentality, and this is the way it's to be. It was this way in the beginning of the church, and it should be continuing. We do not hold what we have as our own. If I have food and you need food, it's yours. They had all things in common, and that is not released. That concept, the principle of that concept, has never been released on the New Testament church, that we are one body, that in the fellowship of a local church, if there are needs that one can supply and the other has need of, Paul says, this one give to this one.
And he says, this is a verse that's a tough one to handle in Corinthians. We like to handle it in a capitalistic American. It's our outlook on life. That there might be, do you know what it says? That there might be an equality. And Paul hears us back then in the twentieth century America saying, Oh, Paul, that's not the way it's supposed to be. And he repeats it just in case we didn't hear it the first time, that there might be an equality. That's the same thing we have in the beginning of the book of Acts. Now, I know very well some of you are saying, Oh, I don't like that. I work for that. It's mine.
No, I work for that. it belongs to the people of God wherever there's need. Right? Big adjustment in our attitudes there. Big adjustment. What's mine is yours. It's a biblical concept. If you have need and I have what you need, it's up to me to voluntarily supply that for the glory of God and for your benefit. The verse is true too, so watch out. That's what it is. Mutual support of one another. Needy things. Now, up until this time, there has been direct responsibility in the things that we have had before us.
A preacher has come and ministered to you spiritual things, and Paul says, no big deal for you to minister to him, carnal things. The elders rule over you in the spiritual matters. They build you up in your most holy faith. It's no big deal to give to them because they've given to you. These widows have ministered to your needs or to your parents' needs, and now you minister back to them. There's always been a payback kind of a thing. When it comes to missionary giving, that's not the case. The Apostle Paul in the Philippian Church says, only you gave once and again so that the gospel could be carried out to another place. You see, there's no direct benefit to the Philippians. The benefit is to the people that Paul takes the gospel to.
But we see in that book, And we see through other illustrations in Scripture that it is a responsibility we have not just to give when I get something, but to give so that other people may get something. So the rest of the world might hear the gospel. And they go forth, Paul goes forth, and he says something on the Philippian Church, that is wonderful. You stand with me. in the defense of the gospel. You put a buck in the mail, send it to a missionary, and God gives you credit for the work that that missionary does. That's a good exchange. It turns earthly currency into heavenly reward. That's the kind of currency exchange we want, isn't it?
That lasts forever. And it's really true. You send money to a marriage or to another college, and the work of God goes on in that particular instance. Who gets credit for that? Well, I might be teaching the class, but you get the same credit. Isn't that wonderful? That's the way Paul says, but you stood with me in the gospel. And it abounds to you, consequently. And that's one of the motivations we have, not just getting the work done, but we're serving the Lord in the doing of that. Serving him with what he is entrusted to us. Finally, in Galatians, number seven, the Apostle Paul says, do good to all men, especially the household of God.
Look when they knock at the door and say, I'm collecting for the Heart Fund good. Give them something. That's giving to God. We've all had people who have benefited from what the Heart Fund or the American Cancer Society or the Red Cross or these other organizations have done for us. Right? Give to them some. That's how spiritual is giving for the spread of the gospel. That's doing good to all men. Buying the Girl Scout cookies with the right mentality is credit for God. They're teaching moral values that are parallel to some of the things we teach in the church, and that's good.
We're doing good to all men, and that counts. If you'd turn off that light, I'll see you again. Thank you, my man. You see, the Bible clearly addresses these things. These are not mystical kind of things, you know. They're spelled out specifically for us. And that touches us all, right in our pocketbook, right in our purse. And we need to recognize that in our Christian experience. God has a call on the finances he's entrusted to us. He has a call that that be sacrificial. It's not leftover. It's not I get all my things and then I give. Sacrificial giving is part of what God calls us to.
And there's ample places to do it. This church in Antioch was responsible financially. That's an important dimension of church life. Quickly, a couple more points. This church at Antioch had spiritual leadership. Think that's important? That's critical. Spiritual leadership. You see that in chapter thirteen where the leaders of the church, apostles, gifted men who had a public position, the prophets, the teachers, We're gathered together for serious prayer in discerning the way that church should function.
That tells me something about their leadership. Doesn't it tell you something? Serious prayer. These are men of prayer who would fast, set aside time for concentrated prayer on how the church should be governed, what the church should do. And above all things in our leadership within the church, we need men of God who are given to prayer in the direction of the local church. Gifted men to be sure, gifted in various ways. We know their gifts, but they are praying to God, and this is a commitment of their life.
Spiritual leadership. It is very difficult for a church to rise above the spiritual level of its leadership. It's possible. It's possible to see young people go beyond their leadership in spiritual endeavor, but it's not normative. It's very hard to rise above the spiritual leadership of your church. And there's this little insight. What about the leaders of the church in Antioch? Here's a snapshot. They're praying. Does that tell you what you need to know? The church is governed in dependence on God. Lord Jesus, you're the head of the church. You have entrusted me with being an elder.
You have entrusted us with being the leadership. I need to know your mind for this church. Right? That's the bottom line of leadership. Now, later on, there'll be all sorts of qualifications and descriptions of responsibilities for the leadership in the church. But here's the first one, a spiritually minded man. who is dependent upon God for His direction. That's what we mean. This church finally was a missionary-minded church. It is the missionary-minded church of the New Testament. Missionary endeavor number one, missionary endeavor number two, came out of the church in Antioch.
And it leaves us a pattern that if we are doing right at home in our local church, if we are really known as Christians there, we will have a worldview that says, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel. It will not be a parochial, provincial viewpoint that says, I'm just here. We will have a concern for all the world and the outreach of the gospel to everyone. I think as we look at the Antiochan Church, we can understand why they were first called Christians there, can't we? Committed, evangelistic, inclusive, well-taught, multiplicity of gifts, people committed to the works that they spend their whole life seeing that it be done properly, financially responsible, led by spiritually minded men, committed to the spread of the gospel in the whole of the world.
There's a church in the New Testament, I want our little assembly to become like it's a church in Antioch. And we'll do us all well if we evaluate our churches and see that we get at least a B plus in each of these areas of church life as we seek to live for Him. And I suggest to implement these kind of things that those of you who are leadership people, go home and say, let's see, are we inclusive? By the way, most of you are sitting in the same seat. Are we inclusive? Is there good teaching? Are we taking care of the details? Do we need more help? Ask those hard questions and try to imitate this church where they were first called Christians.
Let's pray again. Father God, help us to take these good lessons from your word of the church in Antioch, these little snapshots of how that church functioned and try with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to implement them in our own local assemblies. We would pray that revival will sweep through our assemblies here and throughout North America, that revival will sweep across this country so that many be added to the church and your name be glorified once again in this good land. We pray this for your glory in your Son's name.
Well, believe me, God, yes, if I am here, he and me, I'm so tired of it. Oh, I'm sure, though.