The Body of Christ Through the Ages - Acts 11: 19-30

Have you ever had a time in your life that you didn’t feel like God could redeem or use? Have you ever been so fearful that you closed yourself off from the world? The early church understands. Stephen had been martyred - killed after giving a profound speech about the ministry of Christ. As a result, the people scattered out of fear that they would meet the same fate. And they would not speak to anyone other then those who would like them. Remember that up to this point the early church was part of the Jewish culture and movement, so when the scriptures tell us that people were too afraid to speak to anyone who was not like them, they were really afraid to talk to anyone who was not a Jew and part of this sect called the church.

Yet their were some brave people amongst them who proclaimed the word of Jesus Christ! People who were willing to set aside their fears for something bigger then themselves. People who trusted that even in the face of something as horrible as persecution and death, God could use what others planned for ill. God could redeem even the most desperate of situations. So they shared their faith with others, and God blessed their efforts, and thousands of people came to believe in Christ Jesus. 

But the leadership of the church wanted to make sure that these new converts were not simply joining a fad religion. So Barnabas was sent to them to make sure they were believing in Christ and following his example to the best of their ability. When he found that these new believers were indeed faithful, he rejoiced with them! He praised them, but told them to continue to stay faithful in their work for the Lord and devotion. And more people kept coming to the Lord! 

These people who were coming to know the Lord were not like the disciples sharing with them. They were not Jews. They did not already know about Christ. They were people who were different, Gentiles. Because few church leaders knew how to minister to those who were different then them, Barnabas sough out Paul, the expert on ministering to the gentiles. When Paul returned to the area with Barnabas a shift happened. Believers started to be called “Christians” - Christ followers. They assumed their own identity under Christ, not simply as a sect of the Jewish religion. But because of this shift they no longer were given the perks of being a religion recognized by the state, as few as those perks may have been. They effectively opened themselves up to even more persecution.

Then the text before us this morning makes a shift; it goes from talking about how people came to know Christ to what they did once they were in relationship with him and other believers. When a prophet came to Antioch speaking of a famine that would hit Judea, the believers gathered together to send relief for those that they did not even know. They could have become concerned for their own safety - looking to stock up food for the coming famine. But instead they reached out to those in situations worse then themselves. They reached out with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ as a mark of their faith.

There has been a lot of talk over the years of returning to times when the church seemed vital. Returning to the ways of the early church. Or in America, returning to the 1950s when there was a boom in church attendance. But todays scripture reminds us that God can work through any day and age. We do not need to return to what was, we need to be faithful with what is right before us today. How can we reach people today for Jesus Christ in ways that transform their lives?

A few weeks ago I was at a retreat lead by a pastor who has an after school program in the building of the church he serves. During Holy Week the pastor and director of the after school program decided that they would offer ashes to the students on Ash Wednesday. The pastor didn’t expect anyone to respond. These students were simply using the church as a place to meet, they didn’t identify themselves as Christians. And they looked different then the pastor - most had hair dyed various colors and piercings. This was not the normal group of people the pastor ministered to on Sunday morning. Yet as he shared about our mortality and the gift of eternal life found in Jesus Christ, these students were so moved that they came forward and received ashes. The pastor was blown away. 

Friends, the Holy Spirit is moving among us today, just as it moved among the early church. But the Holy Spirit is also beckoning us to reach out to people in new place in new ways. To set aside our fear of being rejected when we witness, and instead to bravely share our faith, bravely share why Christ matters so deeply to us. We are not called to preserve the church so much as to be faithful to the leading of the Holy Spirit and trust that this is God’s mission and God will bring people to believe in Jesus in any day and age.

We need to be looking for every opportunity to share our faith. A speaker from Mississippi at the bishop’s day apart this year, spoke about how every year at annual conference in Mississippi there would be a handful of churches that were closing. The report about their closing would be like this: First Church has only four members. They cannot sustain the church. There are no other people in the community. Would you vote to close them. And the annual conference would take the vote and the churches would be closed. But usually within two years of the church closing, a new church would open up and have 100 people worshiping there every Sunday. It wasn’t that there weren’t people to join First Church, it was that they weren’t looking, weren’t reaching out. Brothers and sisters, only 18% of people in the US go to church even occasionally. 18%. That means the mission field is wide open to bring people into relationship with Jesus Christ. We have the same mission as the early church, our mission field just looks different.

We need to reach out to people who are different then us. Beyond our comfort zone. Our mission is not to make disciples of only those who are like us, but to make disciples of Jesus Christ to transform the world. How can we create new spaces for new people? How can we reach out to our community and beyond? How can we take our every day experiences - going to the grocery store, the bank, getting our hair cut - and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us for Jesus Christ? Let me be clear. This is not about getting new members. Or allegiance to our denomination. This is about reaching out for the sake of Jesus Christ. 

A final thought, Antioch where the believers were displaced to was the crossroads of culture and trade in the ancient world. It was a place ripe for the harvest. In a few weeks we are going to gather together at Mansfield United Methodist Church for an event called Meeting Christ at the Cross Roads. A time to celebrate the ministries of local churches in our area and look towards the future together about how to serve and bring people to Jesus Christ right here in Tioga County, today. How are we being called together to reach out in the name of Christ, nurture people in their faith, and serve in mission. How can we live into Acts 11 right here, right now? 

The work and mission of the church excites me. And there are people right in our backyards who have never heard why the church matters, why Jesus Christ is so important to us. Are we going to let the mission of God pass us by because of fear, or are we going to trust the Holy Spirit to work through and among us in this day and time? 

Amen.