Shifting Landscapes - Acts 11-13

Good morning. Today I want to start by telling you a little story about this guy (put a picture of the parrot on the screen). This is the St. Lucia Parrot. Beautiful little guy, aint it. It lives exclusively on a little Island down in the caribbean called St. Lucia. But back in the late 70’s, these parrots -  because of habitat destruction and hunters - these beautiful birds were on the very edge of extinction. It was estimated in 1977 there were only 100 of the birds left alive in the world. In walks Paul Butler. He had just finished college, and the head of the St Lucia Forestry service hired him to save the bird. They gave him a couple hundred bucks for a budget, no connections, no political power - bring this bird back from the brink of extinction. At the same time, no one on the island cared about the parrot. They actually hunted it for food - they looked at it the way you and I might look at a chicken. Nobody in Grand Rapids is starting a “save the chicken” campaign - in fact, I have seen this cow on a billboard who has a very different message. [pause].  So Paul Butler got to work. And rather than judge people or guilt them or attack them - he had one message: “here in St Lucia we take care of our own, and this parrot is a part of our identity.” That was what he wanted to teach people - and so he organized public events. He distributed T-shirts, got a local band to write a song about the parrot, convinced hotels to print up bumper stickers, had volunteers dress up like a parrot and go into classrooms teaching them about it. He even asked local pastors to quote relevant scriptures passages about stewardship of the environment. Public support grew, and eventually made it possible to pass a couple laws necessary to protect the parrot. Five years later, the population of the St. Lucia parrot had gone from 100 to 700 - which is an almost unheard of growth for an endangered species. Eventually the parrot was taken off the endangered species list, and the people of St. Lucia celebrated because this parrot was a part of their identity, and they lived up to their reputation as people who take care of their own. That identity change led to behavior change. 

I wonder - what is your Christianity? What does it mean to you? How is it wrapped up in your identity? What does it look like in your life? You see today we are starting a brand new sermon series called “Everyday Influencers” - and for the rest of the month we are going to be talking about Jesus in your context. Those people on St. Lucia - they let that little bird be a part of their identity, and it changed the way they acted and they ended up saving an entire species. And maybe it’s a silly question - but in your life, what is Jesus to you? Is he just this pretty thing in the background of your life that you don’t really pay any attention to? Or is he a part of your identity, that can change your actions and save an entire species? 

Now to get into this, if you want to grab your bible, we are going to jump into Acts, chapter 11. The book of Acts is in the back half of the bible. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it many more times - the books in the bible have the least creative names ever. Acts is called Acts because it literally describes the ACTS of the disciples after Jesus rose from dead. The book opens up with Jesus ascending into heaven, and they all sort of look at one another and go, “huh. What do we do now?” And the whole book covers what happens for the early church. And it sort of covers these two guys - Peter and Paul. Peter eventually sets up shop in Jerusalem, leading the church in the place where Jesus died and rose again. But then there’s this other guy Paul who travels all over the world starting new communities of faith and telling everyone who will listen about how much Jesus loves them, and how he died to save them from their sins. And we start in verse 19 of chapter 11 [read v.19-21]. Alright, there’s kind of a lot in there - but let’s break it down. There’s a pretty famous story about this guy Stephen. Stephen was the very first man to die for his faith in Jesus. He refused to denounce Jesus, and so they killed him for it - and after that there was a persecution, which basically just means the government officials and Jewish temple leaders were working really hard to catch and kill all the christians they could find. So the believers scattered to all these different cities. And mostly these believers were former Jews, who were now following the way of Jesus - and so they would mostly talk to other Jews. However, verse 20 tells us, some of them started talking to the gentiles. It’s sort of like - you ever bump into other church people, like out in the wild? Sometimes I’m at my kids soccer game, or I’m watching the littles climb on the slide at the playground and another parent will see the cross necklace, or they’ll recognize the symbols on my tattoos - and they think, “Aha, this guy is probably another church guy” And so we get to chatting, and it’s like we know the same secret code. We can use all the buzz words like sermon and worship and prayer - stuff that people outside the church world don’t know. And it’s easier to fall into friendship with people like that because we already have so much in common in our faith background. “Where do you worship? Oh, I know your pastor - he’s a great guy, that’s so cool.” Bam - connection. That’s like the Jewish people who follow Jesus talking to other Jewish people. They have this shared background and connection. And gentile, that just means everybody who is not jewish, and so it’s a lot harder to talk to them about stuff like faith and God, because you have no idea what their background might be. But the believers in Antioch, they’re doing it anyways! They’re reaching out to people who are different than them, and verse 21 says the power of the Lord was with them and a large number of these Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord.  

Now, I don’t want you to miss this - for these early Christians, the landscape is changing with forces beyond their control. The world around them is changing, and not for the better. The death of Stephen and the persecution of believers in Jesus has them scattered all over the countryside. And I want to draw a straight line between their world and our world. Could we say that the landscape around us has been changing? You think of politics and religion in this country, or church growth and church styles. When I was growing up there were the worship wars of the 90’s and everything was choir and organ vs guitar and drums. And I loved them both, which was not allowed for some reason. Each generation keeps coming up with their own way to honor and worship Jesus - new songs, new technologies, new methods - the landscape is changing. Even just in our town - I’ve heard some stories from y’all. Byron Center is changing so fast! It used to be sort of a rural community, and there was almost like a gap between Grand Rapids and Byron Center - but then they put in the hospital, and it kind of filled in the gap, and the school and the tangier outlets and the building developments - it’s just been exploding with growth. And maybe you love it or maybe you hate it - but I think we can all agree, the landscape around us is changing with forces beyond our control. 

 So then it says in verse 22. [read v.22-24]. Oh, my man Barnabas! This guy is the best - he’s known as the encourager, he’s all over the book of Acts, and one of his great talents was cheerleading people in the church to do God’s work. He was this incredible church leader with a gift of encouragement. And so the Jerusalem church, Peter, sends Barnabas - and Barnabas shows up, and they’re doing ministry a little different in Antioch. In Jerusalem, it’s all Jewish folk teaching other jewish folk how to follow Jesus (church people talking to church people, right?) - but in Antioch, they’re out there reaching new people in new ways. God was doing something in ways and places that were unfamiliar. And Barnabas - he was here for it. He was thrilled, it says he was, “filled with joy” - and then Barnabas goes and gets his buddy Saul. verse 26 says, [read v.26]. They spend a whole year doing this ministry in Antioch, reaching a brand new group of people who don’t have the same background as they do. And it says many people were brought to the Lord. 

But it’s not all sunshine and roses, the landscape is changing and God is doing new things in new places in new ways and that can kind of freak people out, right? A whole lot of new creates anxiety and confusion in the organization. Nobody likes change! But let me push back on that for a second. We SAY nobody likes change. You hear that all the time, “Ah, people hate change.” But here’s what I’ve found - people don’t hate change. They hate uncertainty. Nobody’s got a problem with change, if we know it’s going to be good. What we don’t like is the unease. Look at it this way, if I told you that tomorrow morning Dunkin Donuts was going to unveil  new donut that not only was the most delicious thing you’ve ever eaten, but also it has zero calories and if you eat it - all your body fat disappears and you have nothing but super ripped muscles. If I announced that, how many of you would come up to me after service and say, “but Pastor JJ, I just don’t like change!” That would be crazy - because it’s not the change we have a problem with. It’s what comes with the change. I never heard a story of somebody who throws out a winning lottery ticket because things might change. Change is not what we are afraid of. It’s the uncertainty. It’s the unknown. It’s the anxiety. Change can create anxiety and confusion in an organization - unless we are feeling confident about the future, and that only comes if we can trust God.

I’m going to fast forward a little bit up to chapter 13, but before I do - at the end of chapter 11 there’s this cool little thing that happens. A prophet warns the people that there’s going to be a great famine coming up (which gets fulfilled during the reign of Claudius) - and so the believers in Antioch take a donation to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea. And this is what I love about the New Testament - so many of the descriptions of the early church, it’s like they’re going through different problems but it’s the same thing. Have y’all seen someone of the stuff churches have done for victims of the Hurricanes? It’s amazing. In verse 29 it says, “everyone giving as much as they could [read v.30]. Then chapter 12 is like a quick scene change to catch us up on what’s going on with Peter in Jerusalem, sort of like “meanwhile in Jerusalem - Herod dies, Peter does a little jail time, Paul and Barnabas drop off the gift and then come back to Antioch” and then we get back to Antioch in chapter 13 - and Paul and Barnabas and a bunch of guys are all hanging out in Antioch and it says in verse 2, [read v.2-3]. So this is the last thing I want to pull out of the text today. When they were in Antioch, and God was working through them and doing this new thing in a new way in a new place - there was this time where all they would do is pray and wait to hear from the Holy Spirit. Prayer and fasting. Literally fasting - they would not eat for that day, and just pray for guidance and any time they had a pang of hunger they would take a moment to pray. Before they send Paul and Barnabas out on this new journey, they take time to ask for guidance from God. And again - this just echoes straight into our lives. If we are going to reach people with the love of Jesus, if we are going to share the good news that we have with the people around us - to new people in new places with new methods - we need to spend time getting guidance from God. There’s a fancy church word for it - discernment. There’s an intentional spending time with God and asking for his guidance in your life. You can sort of break down discernment into the four W’s - Who? What? Where? and When? And then you can add on “how?” in there as well. God, who do you want me to reach with my life? What do you want me to share with them? Where should I do this? When do I reach people? And when I know who and where and when - how do you want me to reach people, Lord? 

Now I can already hear the objections. Wait a minute - I thought you were the pastor. Why are we talking about ME telling people about Jesus? I thought that was YOUR job Pastor - that’s why they pay you the big bucks. And on the one hand - you’re right. As a Christian in this world, that IS my job. But I want you to take a moment right now and think about the people you interact with in your life. Think about your job. Your kid’s sporting event. Your favorite coffee shop barista. The cashier at your favorite store. Your literal neighbors who live next to you. Scroll through the catalog of human beings you interact with in your life. Every single one of them needs to know about Jesus. Every single person on this earth would benefit from knowing about God’s love - but here is the truth, as a pastor, I rarely have access to the people you see every single day. And while I am happy to tell everyone about how incredible the love of Jesus is. I want everyone to know Jesus - but the truth is, even if I was the greatest pastor on the planet (and I’m not), but even if I was, I can’t do it without you. If you don’t tell them about Jesus, who is going to do it? Is your strategy for reaching a co-worker with the love of God just hoping that they bump into ME at a coffee shop? And think about it - even if they DID bump into me. They don’t know me. We don’t have that friendship, that trust, that relationship. God is far more likely to speak through someone who has spent time building a relationship, building a friendship with someone than with a random eloquent speaker on a stage.  

What I really want you to realize - both in this story from thousands of years ago AND in your story that you are living today - is that the Holy Spirit is moving. ANd what’s really cool is that the Holy Spirit is moving THROUGH YOU! Maybe you caught it as we went through it all. At the beginning of the story, in chapter 11 verse 20, when they are realizing that the landscape is changing - look at what it says. [read v.20-21]. The power of the Lord was with them - that’s the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was with them. Then we get to the next section, where Barnabas shows up and he realizes that God is doing something new in ways that are unfamiliar - verse 24, [read v.24]. Full of the Holy Spirit. And then when the church in Antioch was helping the church in Jerusalem because of the famine, verse 28, [read v.28]. Even in the midst of change and anxiety - the Holy Spirit is moving. And then cap it off in chapter 13 - they’re back in Antioch, praying and fasting, verse 2 [read v.2] The power of the Lord was with them, Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaks into their presence. You see it, yes? It’s all over this story, the common thread of this passage is that the Holy Spirit is moving. In new ways. In new places. For new people - the power of the Holy Spirit is moving.

Now, let’s bring it home - for all of you who are in this room today, and joining us online - the people of Center Church in Byron Center Michigan the year of our lord 2024 - Your landscape is changing. God is doing new things in new ways, and that change can bring us anxiety, confusion - it’s stressful - but in the midst of it all, the Holy Spirit is moving in your life too. Let me show you what I mean. I borrowed some slides from a church called Bridgetown that I thought were really helpful. So if you go back 75 years - if you wanted to tell someone about Jesus, it looked a little like this. [put slide up] Most people in the culture had a foundation of the gospel in their life. Most people were sympathetic to the church, sympathetic to the teachings of Jesus - the culture trended towards it. Maybe they had drifted away from their faith, maybe they had drifted away from the church, gotten into some sort of distraction that pulled them away - they get into all sorts of stuff, and then eventually they hear someone say “you need to come back to Jesus” and they’re feeling convicted and and that moment leads them to reflect on their life and that convictional moment was enough and people would come to know Jesus. But then the culture shifted in the 70’s and 80’s, and suddenly there were some barriers to overcome [put up next slide]. We couldn’t rely on pre-existing knowledge. We had a more multi-cultural society, different voices and influences, different options. People started asking “is Jesus the only way to God, how about this fella Mohammad?” And church is boring and it’s not relevant. And so telling people about Jesus took on the burden of proof. It wasn’t just conviction, but we also needed to prove things. And you get books like the case for Christ or the book “More Than A Carpenter” and then there were changes to worship formats and new music to get over those barriers. But hey, guess what? We’re no longer in the 70’s and 80’s - and now, in our modern world, we find ourselves in a drastically different context even from just 30-40 years ago. In our modern cultural moment, there are even MORE barriers. So much so that when people are even considering something spiritual, they’re not considering Jesus at all. Whereas 100 years ago people were trending TOWARDS the church, people are now in a default position of moving AWAY from the church. [put that slide on the screen] When people are looking for spiritual answers in their life, whether it’s because they saw a news story or a documentary on a scandal in some mega church or because of their experiences as a kid sitting through Sunday school that they didn’t like - people start by looking everywhere ELSE. Christianity, Jesus, is the last place they go looking for answers. 

So how do we tell people about Jesus when THIS is our reality? I have two methods that I think will be effective for you in your context. First, be a friend. Be a loving friend to those who don’t know Jesus. Let me say that again, be a loving friend to those who don’t know Jesus. Some of us don’t have that many friends outside the church, because there’s so much amazing stuff inside the church - and so we haven’t carved out the time to make friends with those outside the church. But think about the Jesus followers in Antioch. They reached outside their group, to those who were moving away from Jesus. Jesus was the last thing on their mind, if they’d even ever heard of him. But they reached out in friendship and love. Paul and Barnabas lived and worked alongside these people for over a year. Be a loving friend to those who don’t know Jesus. In fact, be such a loving friend that you’re the first Christian that your friend likes. Be so loving that you change the stereotype of what they thought a Jesus follower was.

Now to do that you actually need to reveal yourself as a Christian. Because you don’t want people to misapply this amazing lifestyle you have to something else in your life. You don’t want people to look at your life and think, “oh man, you love the poor, you’re so forgiving, you love your neighbor, you’re so kind and compassionate - it must be all that hot yoga you do. You’ve got to actually reveal yourself as a Christian! And actually, I was listening to this pastor from Bridgetown church who was talking about this. And he said, “one of the most fun things in the world was to mess with people’s expectations.” Monday morning, he’d be working at his non-church job and people would ask him, “Gary how was your weekend?” and he would sort of mess with them, in a totally honest way. He’d say, “My weekend was epic. Saturday I went for a hike, Sunday morning went to church - church was unbelievable and then we went to the pub with my buddies and watched the football game and just had a great chill out Sunday night.” And his co-workers would say, “hang on, hang on - which bit was unbelievable?” And he’d respond - “Church! I go to church - and it was unbelievable, the worship was incredible. The worship was killer - the sermon was “eh, it was okay” but the worship was killer. And his co-workers didn’t know what to do with that. It was totally authentic, but then they knew, “Oh my word - you actually like the thing. You like church and Jesus and all that” And he would invite them, not just to come to church, but to live our his faith with them. Hey, we’re going to go serve the poor - you should come with us. Hey, we’re going on this mission trip - you should come with us. And it’s building credibility. It’s building trust. This is a quote from Gary, “You’re actually showing them - in a world where people go this is what Christians are “they’re judgy, they’re preachy, they’re offensive, they’re politically.. odd and to say it kindly, this is who Christians are, and then all of the sudden, you’re messing with the stereotype and suddenly you show them actually, no this is what Jesus is really like…do you live out your faith in loving friendships with those who don’t know Jesus?” 

First, be a friend. And second, this is my final challenge for you. As you realize you’re in a shifting landscape, slowly realizing that God is doing something in unfamiliar ways - as we realize that, we need to enter a moment of discernment. The Holy Spirit is moving in all of us, just like he did all those years ago, and so we need to be bringing the Holy Spirit into this process. I want to challenge you this week - put this in your prayer life - I want you to call on the Holy Spirit, Wait for the Holy Spirit and Listen for the Holy Spirit. Enter into a season of discernment - and if you don’t know how to do that, it’s easier than it sounds. I recommend a journal. And it doesn’t have to be a fancy prayer - I think people get intimidated, “Pastor, what are you talking about ‘discernment’” But it doesn’t have to be scary. The prayer can go like this - Hey God, I need some help. Who? What? Where? When? How? And then you wait for an answer. Write down what comes to mind - keep it in your mind all day. Mull it over all week. Sometimes God puts a burden on your mind - like, they just keep coming up in your thoughts over and over. And that’s God just nudging you. That’s why I take notes in my little journal - sometimes I’ll go back and realize, “woah, this person came up every single day this week - I should reach out to them.” 

As we start this series about how to bring Jesus into our context - I hope you realize I’m not trying to ask you to add anything to your calendar or your schedule. Y’all are plenty busy already. What I’m saying - bring Jesus with you into the places you are already going. How does Jesus play into your identity? What does your Christianity look like in your life? Like the people of St. Lucia, with that pretty little bird - a change of identity leads to a change in behavior and who knows - that might just change the world. Let’s pray.