Through The Bible - Acts 11-12 - Part 1

Brett Meador: I love Micah chapter 7. The old prophet there said, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador and the promise of victory over sin. We've all fallen short. The enemy wants to accuse you day and night and remind you of all your wretched, miserable, stinking sins, but good news: the Lord is able to forgive. He's good at that. Despite the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem, Acts chapter 11 tells of the gospel spreading rapidly to the Jews and Gentiles of Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. As Pastor Brett Meador continues our verse-by-verse study of the book of Acts on today's word, we learn along with Peter how receiving the word of the Lord cleanses sin for both Jew and Gentile alike.
Brett Meador: Years and years ago, when Brooke was in kindergarten, my daughter, she had the most intense responsibility to bring home from school the classroom chick. It was a little yellow, cute little peeping chick. It was great. Deb and I were pretty excited. The kids were being able to see a chicken. I had chickens on our farm, so I grew up with that kind of stuff. It was kind of cool to see my kids see what a little baby chick was like. But Deb and I, you know how it is when you turn around just for a half a second when you're a parent and you have a three-year-old. Sure enough, we turned around and suddenly the chick's gone, and we're wondering where it is. We're wondering what happened. See, Joey at three years old, he had these little John Deere boots. They were rubber boots like garden boots, and he walked around in basically a diaper and those. That was his costume. We come outside and, sure enough, there's Joey with the baby chick. He found a nice, soft, squishy mud puddle. As we looked at it, we saw him taking the chick and splatting it, and he splattered it in the mud puddle. Then he picked it up again and splattered it. We ran out there and grabbed the little baby chick. "Joey, you've got to be kind to animals." Debby's horrified. She runs in and she starts running the hot water in the sink and starts rinsing off this little chick. It becomes just filthy with mud. It's really hard to get mud out of a little baby chick's fluffy little yellow fur. But Debbie did it. She just scrubbed that little chick and shampooed it all up. It didn't seem to enjoy that process, if you know what I mean. I remember the chick was alive and everything, and it just stood there, but it looked off into space and it never chirped ever again. It just stared off into space. Some of you have tried to clean up your act in this life. You've tried to scrub and clean your sins, but you can't clean your own sins. Only God can declare one of us unclean or clean. God is the one who says you're clean. "Now you are clean," Jesus said, "by the word that I have spoken unto you." This is something that the Lord Jesus does. We're a dirty bunch with sin. The Jews now in our text here in our story, they're realizing that something they thought was unclean to the bone, the Gentile people—no hope, no help, no chance of ever being declared clean—this is where we've been learning in Acts where God's trying to show the Jews, starting with Peter, don't call unclean that which I have made clean. He's making the Gentile people clean by accepting the work of Jesus Christ. The Jewish Christians are now learning that God was going to do a great work with the Gentiles, and this is going to take some work. We saw in chapter 10, Peter with his vision of the sheet coming down, "Arise, Peter, kill and eat." We went through that all. Now we come to chapter 11, and this is where Peter's already kind of seen Cornelius get saved in chapter 10 and some of his household. So now what? Well, the Jews are a little skeptical. In fact, let's pick it up in verse one of chapter 11. It says, "And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision [the Jews] contended with him, saying, 'Thou wentest into men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.' But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order unto them, saying..." Before we read this, another round of the same story that we saw in chapter 10. We're going to read the same story, but it's Peter telling the Jews. Why is the Bible sometimes redundant? They say repetition is the mother of all learning, but also, one of the things when the Bible says something twice or tells the same story twice, it really might be perceived as an exclamation point, like this is a big deal. That's why I think we're about to read basically the same story, with a few little nuance differences, from chapter 10. Whenever something's repeated in the Bible, it's time to sit up, take note, and ask the question: what's the Lord really want to show us in this? So let's read it again, verse five. So Peter speaking to the Jews that are criticizing, he says, verse five, "I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, a certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even unto me: upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. "And I heard a voice saying unto me, 'Arise, Peter; slay and eat.' But I said, 'Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.' But the voice answered me again from heaven, 'What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.' And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven. "And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me. And the spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man's house: and he showed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, 'Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.' "And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, 'John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.' Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?" When they heard these things—Peter's little dissertation there—they held their peace and glorified God, saying, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." Verses 1 through 18 here is where the Jews are accepting. They're being told and reminded to accept the Gentiles. The accepting of the Gentiles is something that would take a long time, and we're going to see even later on in the book of Acts more Gentiles saved and more Jews criticized. It's not going to be good and done now. But we're definitely seeing a lot more Jews come around and realize this is part of God's plan. Remember, this is the idea "clean," meaning forgiven, washed, cleansed of your sins. This is something the Jews were used to in the Old Testament where you had to go to the temple and sacrifice an animal and be declared righteous, and you had to wait for the Day of Atonement. The idea of someone just being cleansed was really hard. I've noticed that's still hard for a lot of people today. Some people are sort of sanctimonious. Maybe you're an old-timer Christian and you know what's right and wrong, and then you see someone who's doing something sinful and wrong and it's easy to sort of condemn and be judgmental. There's a difference between identification of sin versus being critical or judgmental about our sin. We have to be careful not to call unclean what God has called clean. It's like what I mentioned earlier in John 15:3. Now Jesus said, "You are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." Psalm 119:9 talks about "how shall a young man cleanse his way? Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." Ephesians chapter 5, verse 26, how Christ washes his bride, the church, in the water of the Word. The Word is that which cleanses. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God and became flesh and dwelt among us. We're talking about the work of Jesus. It's so unusual to the Jews, this idea of being cleansed without going through all the Judaism, all the practices of the temple and the priesthood. This was so foreign to them. It's hard for them to imagine, but you've got to like these Jews in verse 18 when they say, "Well, then God has also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." This is a big admission for them to say that as they repent of their sins, then the Lord gives them life because they're forgiven. This isn't new, even to the Old Testament. I love Micah chapter 7, verse 18. The old prophet there said, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." I love those verses because how we desperately need that. All of us are sinners. We've all fallen short. The enemy wants to accuse you day and night and remind you of all your wretched, miserable, stinking sins, but good news: the Lord is able to forgive. He's good at that. He'll turn his anger to compassion. He'll subdue—that means have victory over—our iniquities and cast our sins in the depths of the sea. The depths of the sea was the most horrifying thing you could ever think of. The Jews, even to this day, really don't like the sea, the ocean. Their navy is pretty small because they're just not really into that. But the depths of the sea, when Jesus said the one who offends a little child, it's better to have a millstone tied around his neck and cast into the sea, that was the scariest thing you could have said to Jewish people. Being thrown into the sea in the water would have been horrifying. But I love that for the forgiven sinner, your sins are thrown into the depths of the sea and the implication is nobody can dig them up. Nobody can fish them out, which is kind of important. So salvation, anyone who would accept the work of Jesus Christ, the work of the cross—that he died, that he rose again—they will be saved. This is what the Jews are having to learn. So the first thing we see is the Jewish Christians were accepting the Gentiles. That's number one, verses 1 through 18. But now we come to the second section of this chapter. Now, evangelism for the Gentiles starts in verse 19. It says, "Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord." Remember the Great Commission. Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel. Remember the challenge that he gave to the apostles in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter 1, verse 8, where he said, "But you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." This is what Jesus was saying as he then ascended into heaven. This is kind of the last big thing Jesus told us about. You're going to have power of the Holy Spirit. Oh, how I pray that we can have that power as we share the gospel and power of the Holy Ghost to come with us and upon us as we preach the gospel. That's why we want to be filled with the spirit, that we might have power so that we can be witnesses unto all of the great uttermost parts of the earth, including Portland, Oregon. We need that desperately. The cool thing is this is 10 years after Stephen was martyred there in Acts chapter 7, if you recall. Now we're 10 years later and Christianity's spread over Judea, all over Judea. But now we're starting to see even to the uttermost parts of the earth, and this is where we start seeing that happen. That's why this section is called evangelism for the Gentiles. How far has it spread thus far? For example, in verse 19, it says that the gospel had traveled as far as Phoenice. That's the first place. What's Phoenice? It's a northern section of the coast there by Israel, north of Israel. Some people believe it includes part of Israel, but there's debate. But the Phoenicia, the land of the palm trees, territory of province of Syria, the northern part of Mediterranean, including part of Lebanon today. So the gospel had reached all the way from Jerusalem up to Phoenice, and then, shockingly, it made it out to the island of Cyprus right here. Cyprus is kind of a cool story because Christianity was like the first place outside of Judea was Cyprus, and it became very Christian and many people got saved there. Then the next area is Antioch, number three. So we have Phoenice, Cyprus, and Antioch. I'll get back to Antioch in a second, but then the third mention there is that place where the Cyrenians were from. Remember Simon the Cyrenian who carried the cross of Christ? This is where he was from, which is really just modern-day Libya, the north coast of Africa. This is where the gospel of Christ has already reached within the first 10 years of the gospel. This is a big chunk of area. Now, Paul's going to make it spread even more fast than anything we see with Peter and the gang. Paul's going to make it to Rome, and then from there it's going to go all over the world. But the key here in our discussion is this idea of Antioch, and this becomes a real epicenter of Christianity. By the way, what made Christianity spread? Was it because the disciples were so faithful to go and become missionaries? No, not yet. The reason Christianity spread, it tells us here in verse 19, is because of the persecution. That's why they left Jerusalem. Jewish Christians were fleeing Jerusalem because people were being killed because they became Christians. The Jewish Christians were fleeing, and one of the places they fled was Antioch, and that's why Antioch really becomes sort of an epicenter of Christianity, maybe even more than Jerusalem, some people say. So what are they doing there while they're there? It's interesting, it tells us in our text, verse 20, it says they were there preaching the Lord Jesus there in Antioch. I love that they were preaching that. They weren't preaching anti-woke sentiments. They weren't preaching how to balance your checkbook. They weren't preaching against Antiochians. They were actually just preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of Christ. So that's really the key for us: to be able to say, what are we preaching? I hope we're preaching Christ and him crucified. Paul said, "I have determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified." So it's not about financial health, prosperity, all about community, no. It's actually all about preaching Jesus Christ and reading the word of God, preaching the word. We'll see that as we get a little further into this. A healthy church is preaching Jesus, studying the word, and that's what's going to happen. One thing I would say, one of my goals is always to have Jesus be a part of every sermon, even when we're in the book of Numbers. We're constantly looking for Jesus. "Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me." That's the Lord Jesus. He's in all the pages of the Bible, and you miss important stuff if you don't see that Jesus is in the Bible cover to cover. So keeping Jesus the main focus. But Antioch now is sort of the epicenter of Christianity, and you'll see why as Paul is going to come over here pretty soon to Antioch. So this is kind of the deal: evangelism now is going to reach the Gentiles. Let's keep reading here in verse 22. It says, "Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem." What's that? These bunch of people getting saved up in Antioch and Gentiles of all the craziness. Verse 21, I skipped. "The hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch." This is kind of our getting-to-know-Barnabas moment. His name means "Son of Consolation." We'll talk more about him in a second. Verse 23, "Who [Barnabas], when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul: and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." A lot of things going on here. Barnabas is sent by the Jews in Jerusalem. Hey, there's a bunch of stuff going on. They're saying Gentiles are being saved up there in Antioch of all places. Antioch was like the Las Vegas of the biblical world. It was a sin city, but it was a wealthy city, wealthy because of its paganism and its goddesses and gods and the money that was brought to Antioch. For the Jews to hear a bunch of people coming to Christ, they said Barnabas, you've got to go up there and inspect and see what's happening. So he goes up there and I love this because this is where we first hear the term Christian. We've talked about this before. They were first called Christians in Antioch. Question: what were they called before they were called Christians? The Way, or followers of Jesus, or followers of the Way. Those were the names given to Christianity up to this point. But the Antiochians meant it as an insult. You're little Christians, little Christs. The word Christian, Christianos in the Greek, it's kind of like two words: Christos, which is the anointed one, the Messiah, and then ianos in the Greek, that suffix is to belong to. So to belong to the anointed one, but it's also meant derogatorily as sort of like little miniature Jesuses or Messiahs. The Christians said, "Yep, that's what we want to be: little miniature versions of Jesus. If you're mistaking us for Jesus, then we're doing something right." And so they sort of adopted that term. So they sent Barnabas, and his name means "Son of Rest" or "Son of Consolation," Barnabas in the Greek, which is kind of fun. Consolation means comfort received after like a disappointment or a loss. We're going to see Barnabas is going to be that guy in the whole story. He's always going to be the guy comforting and encouraging. That was his gift. I love Barnabas. He's called some pretty amazing things. I mean, if you get any ink in the Bible, what would the Bible say about you? Yeah, some of us would think, "Never mind, I don't want to be in the Bible." You think about some of the people, like when David has to say in the Psalms, "I have loathsome disease in my loins." Like, that's embarrassing. David had to talk about that. He murdered a guy and committed adultery. The Bible doesn't pull its—these Bible characters are not stained-glass, pristine people that are perfect. They're very messed up, but good news: the Lord is into fixing messed up people. While the Lord doesn't pull punches on his description of people, Barnabas, he gets some pretty good ink right here from the Lord, if you ask me. What does it say? It says right here, verse 24, "For he [Barnabas] was a good man." Wow, the Bible called him a good man. Do you understand how big that is? He's a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. That's the little description of old Barney. Barnabas was the dude called a good man by the Lord, by the Holy Spirit. That's really something because we know, technically, there's no one that's able to be called good. No one's righteous, but isn't it interesting that Barnabas gets this sort of delineation in the Bible?
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador pausing in a verse-by-verse look into Acts chapter 11, noting God's use of imperfect people to accomplish his perfect will. And I hope you can be along for more of our study next time on Today's Word. And there's also much more to come as Pastor Brett will join me here in just a moment to share a word of encouragement he received when he was young. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador. He's the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church, just outside of Portland, Oregon. Brett's been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. If you missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages by going to todayswordradio.com. All right, Pastor Brett is with me now. I've heard your story of how you got started preaching God's word, but can you tell us about when you were in eighth grade and someone spoke a word of truth about you that has actually come true?
Brett Meador: Yeah, it's a great story because I was just an eighth-grade kid who snuck into a high school youth group retreat. I wasn't old enough technically to be there, but long story short, the pastor was praying over each of us in this high school retreat around a certain circle. When he came to me, he just put a hand on my shoulder and he said, "Brett, I really sense the Lord is calling you to teach the Bible and do the work of an evangelist as well." By the way, I liked the Bible teaching part. Even as an eighth-grade kid, I thought, "Oh, I could do that. I like that." But the evangelism part totally freaked me out. All I could picture was me standing in front of a stadium like Billy Graham and preaching the gospel to tens of thousands of people. I thought, "Uh, no, I'm not going to do that." So I've been teaching the Bible ever since. I started with first graders. When I was just a young twelve-year-old kid, I taught first graders, and then sixth graders, and then I became a children's pastor and high school, and then about 30 years ago, I became a senior pastor where I teach verse-by-verse. As a pastor, I've been privileged to lead many people to Christ. So I thought maybe that's checking the evangelist part. But I think the Lord has a sense of humor. In 2025, I found myself at the Moda Center in Portland and preaching to 35,000 people in three services. 3,200 people made decisions, and I realized, "Wow, God put me right where he said he would back in eighth grade," doing something I thought I would never have imagined. So that's maybe a good word for people out there that might be thinking, "What can God really do through me?" Don't ever sell short what God is able to do. He uses the weak and the foolish things of the world, and I qualify for that.
Guest (Male): I do as well, Brett. And it is great to see how an encouraging word from that pastor actually turned out to be true. God certainly can use us if we're willing. Thank you, Pastor Brett. I want to mention again that if you'd like more information about Pastor Brett Meador or Today's Word, just go to todayswordradio.com. Well, next time, Pastor Brett will continue looking at Barnabas, revealing the character of a godly servant committed to building up and encouraging fellow believers. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.