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My name is Drew. I'm the pastor here at Hope Heights. Thrilled that you're here with us. Fun to see that. Joel and Julie, we've known them for a long time. And, yeah, Joel in my phone is still Joel. Ldi, which is our Leadership Development Institute. She's downtown. Because when I first met him, he was like a new intern, and I needed to remember he was an intern. And then he still is an intern, even though he's not. It's very fun. We're thrilled to see those things happen. Great. I hope there were some good nicknames, and I will not ask you to yell them out, but I would love after to hear if someone had great ones appropriate, obviously, for church. When you said junior high trips, those mostly would probably not be church appropriate. There's lots of good. I mean, we know people because of their nickname. And today we're gonna be thinking about, like, what you call a person, what you call a nickname that you give is for reason. I've shared this before. When I was in middle school, I had AI generate what I looked like in middle school. This is me. When I was in middle school, I got the nickname Pickle. I think I've shared this story a couple times, but I got the nickname Pickle because at a lunchroom table, I was, like, joking around with Pickles, making them talk, and I don't even know what I was doing. But I also wear a lot of Green Bay Packer stuff. So at the time, I was wearing something green, and I was talking about Pickles, and a friend was like, okay, Pickle. And then it stuck for years. In middle school in Collierville, Tennessee, I was called Pickle. In fact, when I left that school, I have all these cards kids wrote, and they all said, we love you, Pickle. Hope to see you again. Sometimes, Pickle. There's people who didn't know my name was Drew. I was Pickle, which was. That was a moment. I took the opportunity somehow. God gave me some wisdom in there that when I moved, I could not tell people that I had that nickname. So Drew came back, which was really nice. There's a lot. I mean, we have no nicknames just because of often what people do. Right. These are some of the great people of nicknames. People know who the Sultan of Swat is. It's Babe Ruth. Right. Or Prime Time. He's back in the news often these days. Deion Sanders, the Great One. I don't think I knew he was called the Great One till I looked up Wayne Gretzky was called the Great One. Anyone know who Flo Jo is? It's kind of her name. Florence Griffin Joyner, but one of the fastest women ever. Flo Jo. It's such a good nickname. The King of Rock and Roll. There's a reason why Elvis was called the King of Rock and Roll. Why Aretha Franklin is called the Queen of Soul, right? There's a nickname that is because of what they did. Because she's the Queen of Soul. The Boss. That's one of my ultimate favorites. Brucie. Bruce Springsteen being called the Boss just for. I know it's May 4, so I was asked to not make these jokes. I'll make one. Chewy, right? Is Chewbacca. We all know if you say Chewie. Oh, it's the creature from Star wars, right? Goose from Top Gun is one of my all time favorite nicknames of all time. But such a good name. May you rest in peace, Goose. It's just great, right? Movies have these great nicknames, nicknames you could say. And just everyone knows who that person is because of the story behind it. You probably personally have this in your life, right? People who. You just know a nickname of a person. You may even have people that you didn't. You don't know what their name is. You can't remember their name. All you remember is this cool nickname they had. It often is because of a thing that happened, right? Or thing they do or something they're good at. Well, there's a name today that we see the first time in Scripture. We're in a series in the book of Acts. And the first time we see this name used is in this passage today, right? Kind of in the middle of Acts. We've gotten a good ways in before we even see this word. And the word is Christian. It's like the first time. In fact, it's one of the only times we see in Scripture people being called Christians. This is a word, though, I would guess you do know, and a sort of nickname or a description of people. This word maybe brings like different emotions to you. Maybe different thoughts of like, do I like being called this? Would I consider myself this? How I feel about these people? I think I have met people have said, I am this and I don't like these people all in the same sense. I think there's a lot. Right? Because that word could mean a lot. Sometimes you don't want to be called this. I remember early on in my faith, like in college when I first was, like reading the Bible for the first time and around Christians, and I put faith In Jesus. I remember being adamant that I wasn't going to go by this. Like people would say, are you a Christian? I'd say, no, I'm a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they go like, oh, you're in a cult. I was like, oh, I'm a Christian. Like, right. Because there's like baggage to this word. It could mean lots of things. And even today you kind of. If someone says, are you a Christian? I'd have to say it. Well, tell me what you think a Christian is. Because it could mean a whole lot of things connected to a whole lot of things. Well, people have felt that way since there's been Christians, right? There's all sorts of. Here's just some people throughout history. Christopher Hitchens, who's not necessarily a fan of that, says, Christians talk as if they know it all and yet their actions often speak otherwise. Actually might be really true. And for sure in his life he experienced that. Gandhi says this. I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christian. Maybe you felt that like these people don't seem to be, or at least some people who are say Christian don't. Then people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who is a well known pastor who fought in World War II, in a sense was trying to stop the Nazis and was eventually killed. He says being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God's will as he defines. If someone said, what is a Christian to him? He said it's less about avoiding sin and more courageously actively doing God's law like that. And Tim Keller, who we love, says a Christian is someone who has met Christ and has been changed forever. You say, well, what does that word mean? What does that nickname mean? And he would say, someone who has met Christ and changed forever. Well, that's our hope today, is to get a little opportunity. We're in Acts 11, we're going through the book of Acts today and we will be still for another little over a month and then we're done. We are going to today hopefully understand maybe like where does that come from? Why would people be called that? And what does that mean? Maybe a little bit at least. What is it really like when you get down to it? Why are you called that? Why is your nickname Pickle? Well, why are you called a Christian? Really quick, just so we know. Book of Acts has been incredible. The Book of Acts, Jesus read raises from the dead at the end of Luke, the Gospels or any of the Gospels, all of them. He raises from the dead. He raises from the dead. He gives this great commandment to his people. He says, I want you to go and make more disciples. I want you to make more people who follow me, who find life. I want you to see life back in the world. And so he leaves. So the Holy Spirit then comes and we get this great moment of Pentecost in the beginning of Acts where the Holy Spirit, God himself comes and does these miraculous things, these signs and wonders. And we see people over and over again added to the church. We see more and more people come to faith in Christ, say yes to Jesus, and churches start up. And they start up specifically in Jerusalem and in other Jewish communities or at least God fearing communities who are sympathetic to Jews. We see cool things like a guy who's never really walked, healed in front of people. And all these people come to faith right in the beginning of Acts. And then we see over and over these same miraculous things happen. In fact, we get to the point where we see a moment where Philip is sent to talk to the Ethiopian on the road. It's this cool thing where the Spirit leads them to the same place and he's baptized. We see the conversion of Paul, who is actually a guy who was opposing Christians. He was actually dragging them out of their homes, part of killing them. He actually was enjoying that life of actually not just I don't think I like them, but actively opposing them. It's this incredible thing around, there's all this tension. These people are trying to stop this thing and it's not being stopped because God is behind it. And so today, just in the timeline of that, at the time this was happening, if you remember in Acts 8, we had this moment where there was scattering because there's persecution, because those things were happening. People got scattered. And we heard these stories of Philip and actually like our here at Hope Heights, we love this story of beginning of Acts 8. We use it as part of kind of our mission statement here, kind of our call to what we do. We follow Jesus together for great joy in our city. In the beginning of Acts 8, we see Philip scattered. He shares about Jesus. They see darkness and evil pushed out of a city in Samaria and they say there was great joy in that city. So we're seeing this happen. We see him heal people. We see all these cool things right when this was happening, while he was moving there. We hear that kind of the same time. Meanwhile, in a city called Antioch, other things are happening, similar things, but with different people. The same spirit is moving there. It's not just kind of these one moments in Samaria, but we're seeing another moment at the same time. And so we're in Acts 11. If you want to open your Bibles, you follow along while all the passages will be up here. We're going to look at a part of the story here in Acts 11 of the Church in Antioch, which is not a Jewish community. In fact, it's a different kind of place. And so we originally saw this happen right in Jerusalem and Samaria, in Acts 8, even to the Ethiopian who goes back to Ethiopia. We're seeing this happen where God's moving his people and they're expanding all over. And today we're going to move into Antioch. So it's going even farther out. In fact, now we're going to a place that's more of a Greek community. We call it Gentile community in scripture, like non Jewish place. A really interesting city, actually. I think we'd understand the city well, because of the city we live in. I'm not gonna get there quite yet, but this is our hope today. Gonna get there. What's going on with these things that we now are calling Christians, this group? And what does it mean to be a Christian? Why is that important for us to even understand? All right, let's get rolling. We're gonna start here in Acts 19. In Acts 11, 19 we're gonna go through about Acts 30 and a little bit in 13. So let me just start here. I'll start. We're just gonna walk through the passage together. We're gonna. I'll make some observations so we know what's going on. And then the hope here at the end is to bring it together and go like, what does it look like then this passage will give us a real good picture, I think, of kind of generally what does the church look like? Okay, now we're in Acts 11. Remember, this is happening around the same time our friend Philip's walking somewhere else. And while he's walking there, this is happening now. Those who were scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word among word only among Jews. But some of them, however, men of Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also. That's important here because this isn't just Jewishry. These are people who are would be Greek, part of the Roman Empire, who would have very different, like faith system, life system, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus and the Lord's hand was with them. And a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. It's actually very similar passage as Acts 8, that Philip goes to people, but this one is talking about a different place, different people. And the Lord's hand is there. And they also see this. More people added to this. So this is where Antioch is, kind of where Star is here. If you see. If you go all the way down, you see where Jerusalem is, people have moved up here. And these arrows are actually places that we know people and from all over. But people have come from all over and are in Antioch. It's really like a hub of this region, really even of the world, of the known world at the time. And so it mentions a few people, right, that are from Cyrene, like North Africa. There's people there from North Africa, from Cyprus, the island, from all over. We'll actually meet people later at the end of the passage. They're from all over the place. That's important because we're seeing this similar thing happen that we saw in Jerusalem in Pentecost, where people come from all over and are changed by the Gospel. And they actually. Some go back to their home or at least understand the cultures in different places. This is like what we see just in church planting today. People can go actually to a place where they can understand the people, or if we can help someone, even train someone, or support someone in a place where they can be like, with their people. They understand whether it's language or culture. We're seeing God do that in Antioch. It's not like the church had this cool plan. They just, like, people went to Antioch, which was Gentiles, which is kind of crazy that they're even there. And then they're seeing God move in this place and really cool, all these people from all over the place. And it's because Antioch was the third largest city in the empire around Rome and Alexandria were the only two other big cities. Antioch was a big deal. Antioch was kind of like we like to consider ourselves, I think, like, people don't add twin cities to lists when you're like, oh, what are the biggest, most influential cities in the country? And they say, like New York and LA and Chicago. And you're always like, and the Twin cities, right? So they actually were a bigger deal than that. Antioch was this huge city. They say between 300 and 500,000 people lived in this cool valley. There was this river there. It was just a perfect spot. They had built this huge wall that protected it. They were very proud that there Were lots of cultures in one place, lots of money in one place, lots of like art and religion and different people from different places. It was this like cool mix of people and culture and it's like a crossroads where lots of business happens and it goes out from there. It was continuing to grow quickly because of that. People wanted to be there in this city. It was a big deal. In fact, on their coin, on one of Antioch's coins. This isn't the coin exactly, this is a Roman coin. This is what it said. This is like kind of their motto, right? Antioch metropolis, sacred, inviolable, autonomous sovereign, the capital of the East. Like it was, you've entered. This is a big deal. This is a place that considers themselves not just a little town or a little city. We are a gathering of cultures and places. We were sacred because there was like well known temples around the area in the hills and in town. People would come from all over to worship different gods and from different religious backgrounds because there's all different people. So people came and they brought with them their religion and they worshiped all over the area as well. So it was like a thriving area in that people would actually even just come there to be a part of like a famous, to go to a famous temple that was in Antioch. Because it like for them was to give money to that temple meant more. Maybe you're closer to the gods. It was a place that couldn't be violated, right? It couldn't be attacked, it couldn't be taken over. They. They could sustain themselves. They didn't need anyone else. They got this and people in fact had to come to them and needed them. I mean, this capital east, true, like it's the biggest place around and it's really cool. God sends people there and says, I'm gonna, I'm going to go here and people are going to start hearing the gospel. We're going to see God's hand change people in this place, in this city. It says there were actually Jewish community there. They had moved there, but because there's so many people that it wasn't like a Jewish community. It was a community of all kinds of people. This coin has a SC on it that just stands for Senatus consulta, which means it's connected to the Roman Empire, means decree of the Senate. And I share that. Just because this is part of like the, the world power. They are like right in the midst. They're one of the key players in the world and the economy and all that's happening around there. There's an Old historian that said Antioch was one of the best exports of poor morals. And so they're also known for the things that maybe you think of like in a city. It's the things that, like my family who lives like in the woods in Wisconsin thinks about the city. Like they're like, ooh, there's all just shady things going on in the city. Well, there was some pretty, you know, things that happen when there's lots of money and lots of different people and economically lots of different groups. All those things that you see in a diverse city that they say one of their main exports was evil morals. So in this place, which feels kind of like home in the sense of like we understand what a city like that feels like on a river with all this industry, all these different people, all these different places, they said it was one of the places in the world where you could eat from around the world is what one of the historians said, which feels kind of like Central Avenue right here. We get how this feels in that place. The Lord's hand was with them. And a great number of people believe and turn to the Lord. The same thing is happening. God is not like, I can reach the people who are Jewish because they're like, they get it. They understand the history and they understand the scripture and they're already God fearing people. He goes, oh, no, like, my reaches cannot be stopped. We heard earlier, right, in Acts, you can't stop this. And so the Lord even there, even with these people who seem so far from who God is, even unaware probably even of the scriptures of the history of the Jewish people, very much uses. Luke here used the same phrase that we see over and over. A great number of people believed or he added to the. Added to the people as a phrase. Luke loves to use that phrase over and over again in Acts. It's essentially a story of like, let me tell you another story and how more people were added. Another story how God brought more people, another story how more people have become part of this thing. In a diverse, thriving global center, God grows his church and lots of really cool good things happen as people turn to the Lord. It's. It's really pretty spectacular here. This is happening. Let's see kind of what's happening. As we move on, people hear about this incredible thing that's happening. News of this reached the church in Jerusalem. Word got back. Can you believe what's happening in Antioch? And they sent Barnabas to Antioch. Can you remember Barnabas? We heard about him a while ago. He was the son of encouragement. He's actually from Cyprus, which isn't far away. He would have, they think, maybe even known some of the people there. And maybe it was because he's a great encourager, he's a leader in the church. Maybe also because he's from up there. They're like, hey, you maybe understand those people go, what's going on in Antioch? See what's going on. And when he arrived, he saw what the grace of God had done. It's a great way to share when you're like, what has the grace of God been doing in our church? And he went to see what it had done. And he was glad and he was encouraged. Glad he also could be rejoiced. He rejoiced and was encouraged. And he encouraged them to all remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And a great number of people were brought to the Lord. There it is again. Luke just wants you to know, hey, this is what God does. He grows. He multiplies. He's going to keep seeing this happen. A couple of really cool things that we see in here. First, Barnabas comes. He's encouraged by it. He doesn't come necessarily to say, I'm taking over. Or like, are you sure this is. He sees clearly when he comes that the grace of God is doing things, that this free gift, this gospel, is changing people's lives. People are turning away from all the things that could be in their lives. Worshiping of other gods, all that the world could offer them. Money, sex, prosperity, greed, favoritism, legalism. All these things are things people are turning from because of the hand of the Lord. Selfishness, just broken people being turned to the Lord, having life in him. He's seen that goes, wow. And then what does he do? He encourages them. So this community of people, he encourages them to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. This word encourage here is really a cool word. This word encouraged here is a word that is one of those words that you can't. Doesn't like, always translate as well because the word has a richer meaning. It's a word that means kind of multiple parts. It means like you put your arm around someone and you point them to what is true or what is best for them. So it's that encouragement. If you feel. I feel like that in my mind, that's a coach, right? When I'm a kid who's like, hey, bud, next time throw the ball over there. That was the wrong way, right? Or, hey, hey, man, Run that way. You'll find your parents, right? There's a. There's an encouragement about, like, drawing close, holding them close, and then showing them where life is. And that's what he does. He comes and says, this is so incredible. And then he gets to say, yeah, keep remaining true to the Lord with all your hearts. That's. That's the thing that he encourages them with. And we hear about him as this good man. Good, good. Not in the word sense of, like, oh, he was a good guy, but in the sense of, like, good. Like we hear in Genesis, like, good, holy, right? Like who God has made him to be. And that's what he is. He was glad and he rejoiced, filled with that grace. He gets the opportunity to encourage them in that. It's a moment I think we've had in lots of places where you see a thing you, like, can't not go. Oh, my goodness. I asked my daughter the other day, I said, when's the moment you've had? Like, where you just went, wow? And then you, like. We had to move towards it. She said, Zariah said, oh, I remember when we were at the mall in Des Moines, and I saw the hello Kitty store, and I could. And I squealed and I ran into it. Yeah, we remember that. I thought, oh, cool. It's cool. Hello Kitty. Is that important to you? Kelly remembers a moment where she. We walked into a bookstore in an outdoor mall, and the lady said, hey, we're closing, so all the books are free. And she squealed, and we all carried, like, bags of books out of that place. They're free. Who cares what they are? We'll take them all home. I remember this feeling, this feeling of glad, this rejoicing that made me want to go, like, keep doing whatever you're doing. When the first time you see things like mountains, right? It's like you walk over a hill, or you come out of a path in the woods, and you go, whoa. And you're at a lookout. You're glad. You rejoice. You have to imagine Barnabas. He goes back to a place not real far, culturally kind of similar to where he grew up. And he walks into the city, and he walks to a room of people worshiping Jesus. And he probably looks around. You might even see people from Cyprus. And he goes, I can't believe this is happening. God isn't just moving in these Jewish people. He is moving in all of these people. There's a moment where he just realizes, wow, God is gonna. Is doing something here. He's really going to the ends of the earth. And then he puts his arm around them. I don't know if he actually does that, but he says, keep following Jesus. Keep remain true in your hearts to this one. He sees what they're doing, which is that. And he encourages them to keep doing it. It's a really cool moment in our church history that this is happening because this will explode into other parts of the world. Really, really incredible. And then it keeps moving. So he actually stays there with them and he decides, I want to get other people to help encourage them and teach them and equip them. And so he goes and gets a friend of ours that we met earlier who went from killing, persecuting, dragging people out of their homes to now moving into homes and caring for people coming to Christ. Right. Saul, we also know as Paul. He goes and finds him. Now, Tarsus isn't very far, isn't real far from there. It's far, but not like it's closer, I think even than Jerusalem. So he goes to Tarsus, where Saul's from. He had been there for a while now. And he gets him to come to Antioch to help with these people. And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of the people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. There it is. There's only three times, I think, in Scripture where that people are called Christians, always by other people. Usually, like other people call them Christians. Usually the people in Scripture call each other believers or disciples, followers of Jesus. They call themselves People of the Way, and other people call them, give them the nickname Christians here. So we spend some time with them and this is when they first are called Christians. We're going to get back to, like, why would you call people Christians? And then this really cool stuff is happening. As they're there teaching and the church is growing, they're seeing more people come to faith. And in that you see these things happen as the people are changed. During this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. Down, because the down height, wise down is why we always say that from Jerusalem, one of them named Agabus, great name, stood up and through the Spirit, predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. And this actually happened during the reign of Claudius. We hear about this in Scripture too. The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. Actually, we'll hear about this story later. They actually gathered money. So their response was, hey, there's a famine all over. And they went, we need to gather money so that we can go help these people who are in a famine, who are hungry, who need nourishment. And so they gather money. Their response is this generosity. Their response is, we gotta help out others. Even these are people that necessarily know or necessarily have relationship with. They're people who might even be from, like, culturally, other places that aren't friendly. But their response now in the church, as these Christians, as these believers, is, oh, we gotta gather money and do this is actually, if you remember, this is what Barnabas, we first meet him. This is what happens with him. Remember, he sells his land and gives it. It's. It's got. Right? He's like, oh, I get that. That's what you do. You feel now this. Your heart has changed, and now you want to be generous. And so they. They send this money. In fact, it's really cool. Historically, there are like, ledgers, Roman ledgers, that have this recorded because they want to know, like, where monies were moving. And they said there was this thing that happens where these people of the Christians people, the people of Christ is another way they would say it. These people of Christ in the city of Antioch have sent a significant amount of money to these other people like them, these other people of this Christ in Jerusalem, but they sent it as a trade without reciprocation. And there's a note in like, a Roman ledger thing that says we might need to, like, figure out a new term for the giving, trading without getting something in return. Like, it was foreign enough to the minds of them that, like, why would you give money to these people and not get something in return? Right? Because, like, that's. You should get something from it. I love that, like, a new word might have been created for, like, charity. In fact, even the word for charity comes from the word for grace and comes from early Christians. Like charity. The idea of giving, not because we get something in return, because we just feel like generous and want to care, is a Christian value. The world can thank the church for that happening, that encouraging people in that. I love that even the world around them saw these people and went, they're giving stuff. Maybe there's a plan in the future to get something back. Maybe this is some kind of financial move. But they saw hungry people and they said, we gotta give. This is the picture of this church in Antioch now in the Book of Acts, we stop for a Moment about the church of Antioch. And we hear this story about Peter. We're not going to get there today. Encourage you to read that, encourage you to even maybe in your small group do that. There are some questions. If you go through our sermon stuff on our app or on the website, there's a link to some questions if you're interested in studying this. There's this really cool story about Peter and his escape from prison. You wouldn't believe it. You gotta check it out. But we're gonna skip it today and we're gonna hear a little bit more what happened. So these people continue. They're generous, they're gathered. Barnabas and Saul are there. And now we hear a little bit about the church as we hop back into some of this story. In Acts 13. Now in the church at Antioch there are prophets and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manon, who had been brought up with Herod. So this is a list of people all from all over the place. From Africa, from different backgrounds, probably different religious backgrounds, different cultural backgrounds, different economic backgrounds, connected to like high up leaders, not connected to high up leaders. People who are actually killing Christians who are now followers of Jesus. It's cool. I think Luke wants us to go. Holy cow. That church was diverse. And can you believe these people are all in the room together? It shows us the gospel. This is a new thing that's happening in the world in that people are no longer associated with because of their like ethnic background or their geographic background or their economic background or their family history that didn't determine like who they worshiped or what their life looked like. A lot of people, that's where you grew up and what your name was, how much money you had that determined like who you worshiped and how that played out. And this is going. There's something above all that, beyond all of that, that can unite a group of people who normally would not be united. And there's this new thing, right? Or this not really new thing, but this God who's doing this. And so he brings these people together. In verse two, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. So another thing the church does not just gathered money, sent them, not just worshiped together, not just became like a diverse in lots of ways a church that can unite and bring people together, but the church also Becomes a place that sends people that actually says, hey, this is so important. This good news is so good, we want to send it. And the Spirit leads. We see. And we're going to see in the rest of the Book of Acts these trips that Paul and Barnabas and others are going to take. As we kind of send our first missionaries next week, we're going to get to look at those first trips. So what does Acts 11 and a little bit of 13 tell us? Right. I use the GS. Here's the GS of Acts 11. God's hand is in turning people to him. Good people are made from God's grace. It's going to get corny, right? Jesus, gathering of all kinds of people. We see a lot of generosity, which we see all the time with the gospel. You see this all the time with Jesus. And then we go into the world to share this good news. We go, what would the church do? This essentially is what we would call, like, big picture things at church is what we say, the Gospel. And community on mission here at Hope, we like to say, hey, this is what we do. We gather around the gospel. It's good news. We do it together in community, and we do it so we can move in towards those people around us, right? So this would be like, you go, what's a Christian? It's this. You can make a sign, you can start a church called the Gathering. Good people changed by God's grace to share good news to all people through generous and growing to all the globe. It's that easy. It's the simplest of mission statements. It rolls off the tongue, hey, what's a Christian? Oh, I know what a Christian is. It's a gathering of good people, change by God's grace, to share good news, generosity, going. And your friend would go, cool, I want to be a part of that. That doesn't sound like a cult, right? I think we can get. We can really whittle this down, right? What is a person who. Why would they call these people Christians? What stands out? I think Barnabas tells us this before we get there, though. I think when we hear that word today, now it's 20, 25, if you don't spoiler. I think when you hear that word, we generally think of kind of two categories if we don't think of what we just saw in Antioch. Right. A friend this week told me, he said, typically, I think if I think of a Christian, I think of Ned Flanders or I think of Angela from the office. Hopefully, you know, these references, if you're a really good Christian. You probably weren't allowed to watch either one of these shows. I made a. If you're wondering in real life, this is what he would look like, thanks to AI. This is just for fun. If you're wondering what they look like on the Simpsons. Anyway, Ned Flanders, if you're unaware or if you are aware he's on the Simpsons, he is like, the character, right? Culturally, this is what we'd see Christians as. As, like, the hidey ho, good neighbor. He's super friendly, loves his Bible. He's actually a really kind guy. My friend this week was like, I think if I let him watch my kids, like, he seems safe and fun, nice. I know fun kind of is a joy. Kills. Kills the joy. His kids are always, like, doing weird Christian things. But he has this kind of like, he's a good, corny, naive guy. Kind of disconnected from the real world. World doesn't necessarily like fun. Fun is, like, stuff maybe isn't fun. Loves the Bible, loves the Lord, says corny things. You might think, is that a. That's a Christian. You go, generally, what's a Christian? Oh, it's that person. They don't seem fun. They're like, fake. There's probably a fakeness in there that you might think or people might feel. You go, like, okay, he's not, like, mean, but he's. I don't know, Right. Ned Flanders. And then we have Angela, which happened years after Ned Flanders was created. Many years on the Office, who is like the Christian on the Office now. She's very different than Ned Flanders. She's kind of stuck up, very judgmental. Look at the pose. She's a hypocrite. She's kind of the example, like, right. I believe these things. She's telling people, oh, you're bad people. You should be Christians. And then she's doing lots of things that aren't Christian in the sense of, like, ethically. She doesn't really live a different life at all. She lives the same life as anyone else. Doesn't really seem changed by that. But she would call herself a Christian. Lots of looking down on people. And she loves cats, which you might think, oh, Christians all love cats. Depending on where you're at on that one. So here's what I think. I think we. This is what I would think, right? When you say Christian, I go, what kind do you mean? Maybe is the word I use the phrase. You thinking I'm like an Angela. Judgmental hypocrite. Do you think I'm a Ned Flanders, like, I'm going to be. No, you don't want to hang out with me because I'm corny, no fun, and maybe kind of fake. I think all of this comes from, like, we're seeing behavior and outside, we're seeing, like, the layer of what life looks like out here rather than deep down in, like, what makes a Christian. I think there's a reason why they called them Christian. The word. And Barnabas tells us this. When he arrived, he saw the grace of God, right? Wow. And he encouraged them to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. This, I think, is what. What did he encourage them to do? Keep doing what you're doing. And what you're doing is you're remaining true to the Lord with all your heart. What does it look like to look to the Lord, to Jesus, to our God and say what is true? What do you have? For me, this could mean, like, how. How's my life going to change? What. How have you built the world to work and not just, I want to follow your, like, rules and steps. You wrote some cool stuff. And so, like, I'm a follower of your philosophies of life. I want you to do it with all of your being. This heart is like, the foundation of what motivates you and moves you. Your identity, who you are and how the world works. Remain true in the Lord with all that you are. It sounds a lot like, right, Love the Lord with all your strength and might and heart, all of you. And so Barnabas is saying, praise God. Let's keep. Keep following this Jesus. Let's keep putting our hope in King Jesus. He's not just a place that we come from, and that's what gives us our heart and identity. He's not our ethnicity or our practice. He's not our social class or our political party. He's not our language that we speak. But we are going to gather around this person and give our hearts to him. We're going to be true to our king, King Jesus. I think Barnabas is telling us this is why they called them Christians. The word they used to call them is the word they used for other people groups who gathered around a person as, like, their king ruler, center of, like, their life philosophy. There's other people at the time like this that they would call their names, right? Like the Jeffians, because they all hung out with Jeff and love Jeff, right? Whoever it was, they said Christians because some people from outside that group saw them and said what they knew about them was they are in love with this Christ, this Jesus, it's really important. That is what makes them who they are. That's what makes them people who say, there's people who can't eat in Jerusalem, we gotta send them money. That's what makes them we. We. There's people who don't know this good news. We gotta send people to tell them the good news. It might be really scary. It's gonna get really shady. It's gonna get really dangerous. But we have to do this because we're gathered around this Christ and he has changed us. So it's kind of like Hebrews. I really am encouraged by this passage of Hebrews. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. This is the church we're seeing here in Antioch. And today, not giving up, meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching. We gather to encourage each other. Not encourage like, way to go encourage, like, hey, draw close and like, keep pointing us to the one who are gathered around. So why they call them Christians? Because they gather around Jesus. Because they gather on the Christ, the one they call this anointed One, this Christ. Why would they do that in a city that offers so much, in one of the coolest places in the world to live, that has everything you could possibly want and more? You probably discover new things each day that are tasty to eat or partake in or feel good to your body or people that offer you things or just wealth and prosperity. Why would they turn to this other person and not the emperor or any other person? Because they know as Antioch might be a metropolis and sacred and sovereign and capital, there is no one even close to to this Jesus. The Spirit has come and opened their eyes. So they know that there is a Jesus who is much better than a metropolis. Antioch is this great multicultural hub teeming with commerce and intellect and power and political opportunities. But they know that there's a Jesus that brings together every tribe and language and nation all into his one eternal kingdom. It's not just geographic, but it's by grace. He has a kingdom that's insanely bigger and stronger and better than any Antioch could ever be. We hear that in Hebrews. You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. We have a kingdom that's way better than this metropolis. Even though it is the third largest city in the Roman Empire. When they look around, they go, oh, you think this kingdom's good? And they know they have a better sacred and protected person in Christ. The Antioch would claim this like, prestigious religious center for many years in that area filled with all these temples and idols. But we know and they knew that those things were fragile and untrue and that we know that Jesus is the one true holy One. And through him we can be part of this kingdom that far outlasts and is far better and is unshakable. The holiness of Jesus is so much better than anything that any of these temples or any of these actions or these rituals could ever provide. The walls of Antioch may be strong and up high on the mountains, but they're nothing compared to the walls that we have when we were hidden in Christ. They know Jesus is far more autonomous, far more sovereign than Antioch could ever be. They're so proud Antioch of their independence, their local government that was there, the power they had. But the church in Antioch knew that Christ holds so much more as our sovereign king, not just the city, but of all creation, that his rule of justice and peace, of really truly freedom comes only in Him. Remember this in Isaiah, a long time ago as we went through Isaiah, the government shall be upon his shoulders and his kingdom there shall have no end. That is a kingdom and a city that I want to be a part of. And they claim as this they were the capital of the East. Jesus, we know, is not the capital of the east. But we have already heard in the Book of Acts, he is the cornerstone of an unshakable kingdom. He's the head of the Church, truly a city on a hill. He's the one who makes us a new creation. On him all is built and all that stands is built. So. So although Antioch may be this great place, this crown in this jewel in the crown of the Roman Empire at the time, the gospel tells us this really good news, that there's a cornerstone that's far greater. And the people there said yes to him, gathered around him. And everyone said those people are the ones who are people of Christ, the Christ people, because they've chosen him to gather around. That's my encouragement to us. I'm going to welcome our worship team up here so we can worship this good king that we have a couple things I want you to consider as we move to a time of worship. Do you remain true? Do you want to remain true to Jesus with all your heart? Do you believe that he is actually better than all that Antioch can provide? All of our world can provide. What do you need to turn from today? Maybe consider and reflect on that today. What you find yourself turning to? What do you find yourself before you turn to Jesus, you blah. But this, this temple, this thing, this place that I can make some money, this relationship I think is better than gathering around him. What do you need to turn from to continue to turn to him? Who encourages you to follow Jesus? Who puts their arm around you and points you to him? And who could maybe you put an arm around today? Who needs to know this really good news? The world offers lots and Jesus is so, so much better. We like to respond in lots of ways here at Hope, considering these things. We love to take communion. It's where we build our whole service, this moment where we take communion on the hallways here at Hope Heights. Everyone's welcome to do that. We just ask, you're a believer that you follow Jesus, that you are a Christian. And we do that because Jesus commanded us. He said, get together and break bread, drink wine because remind you that I had my bloodshed and my body broken for you so that you could have life. That he went and was heard and was killed and rose from the dead so that we could have life. It's an opportunity to do that and pray with others. We encourage you to do that out in the hallways. You can do that during this time. Singing. We're also going to sing together. There's people who'd love to pray for you. They're in the back of the room. They have a yellow lanyard on. They love to pray for anything. You can even just say, I just need prayer. And they'll pray for you generally. So please take them up on that. It's an opportunity to encourage one another through prayer. And you can always give as a way to join in just in generous hearts with great joy, get to give and help, continue to minister and help more people know Jesus. It's part of what the church has always done and we continue to do. You can do that on our app online. You can do that out. There's a box out on the table. But let me pray for us as we continue to worship together. Lord, you're really kind to us and I can't believe you even come to us and rescue us. Thank you. That a long time ago you moved into the city of Antioch and changed a bunch of people's hearts and lives. That they so built their life around you and on you, that people called them your people. And I pray that was what you would do right here, here with us. That you would help us gather around you and we'd be known as your people so that you would get the glory. We love you, Lord. Thanks for these people in this day that we get to worship you. Amen.