Acts 11 - Part B

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And be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content. That's Connect with Skip Heitzig on YouTube. Now, let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. It says in verse 4, Peter explained it to them in order from the beginning.

I was just going to tell them the story that we had read last time. He says, I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, an object descending like a great sheet. It was let down from heaven by four corners, and it came to me.

When I observed it intently and considered, I saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeps or creeping things, and birds of the air. And I heard a voice saying to me, rise, Peter, kill and eat. But I said, not so, Lord.

At least he's honest with them. For nothing common or unclean has at any time entered my mouth. But the voice answered me again from heaven, what God has cleansed, you must not call common.

Now, this was done three times, and all were drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment, three men stood before the house where I was, having been sent to me from Caesarea. Then the Spirit told me to go with them, doubting nothing. Now, he conveniently leaves out the fact that he goes, who are you guys?

Why do you want me to come? His doubting. He just said, the Lord told me not to doubt. Moreover, these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered the man's house. And he told me how he had seen an angel standing in his house, who said to him, send men to Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter.

Now, just a little clarification. Simon is his Hebrew name, Shimon. Shimon means to listen or to hear. Funny that that was his birth name. Because he wasn't really good at listening or hearing.

He was good at talking. He was good at jumping to conclusions, but he didn't really live up to his Hebrew birth name. Jesus renamed him Petros, the Greek word for a small little stone. So, he took his birth name, but gave him a nickname. Jesus-like nickname.

I'm calling you Rocky. So, Shimon, whose surname was Petros, whose surname was Peter, who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved. Now, he's just telling him the story about, here's a guy who wants to be saved. He saw an angel sent for me, and so, yeah, you heard that I went into unclean, uncircumcised Gentiles and ate with them, but let me fill you in on why.

Because an angel spoke to this guy, and a voice from heaven spoke to me. And he says this, as I began to speak, verse 15, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. The beginning being the day of Pentecost, the birth of the church, the Holy Spirit descending, the speaking in tongues, the utterance in tongues, the praising God.

Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Notice in retelling the story to the critics in Jerusalem, he brings three lines of evidence. First of all, in verses 5 through 11, the vision that he saw from God. I got a vision from God.

I didn't just go into somebody's house, I got a vision from God, and a voice spoke to me. Second line of evidence, the witness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was doing something. The Holy Spirit actually came upon them.

They were different people, man, they were powerful people. We heard, we saw. So his own personal experience and his vision from God, the witness of the Spirit, and then finally in verse 16, the witness of the word. This is what Jesus said. John baptized with water, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So Jesus predicted it, the Holy Spirit gave witness to it, and I experienced it. Those are his three lines of evidence that he brings to them. If therefore, verse 17, his conclusion, if therefore God gave them the same gift as he gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?

In other words, look, I know how you feel, guys. I'm Jewish, too. I was reluctant, I was reticent, I was hesitant. I wanted to withstand God. I wasn't into this. I kept saying, this is not cool. I even told the guy, you know, it's unlawful for me to even be in your house or to eat with you. But he said, if the Lord did this, then who am I to fight against what God was doing to withstand God?

Now look at this. When they heard these things, they became silent, and they glorified God, saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. So yes, they were legalistic. Yes, you could say they were narrow-minded. Yes, they were products of their past tradition, but they were reasonable men. In hearing the evidence given by Peter, they go, well, okay.

I didn't think it's possible. But, and this, I've underlined this part, God, verse 18, has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. I wonder if you realize what a shocking admission this is in Jewish history. For a Jewish priest, the hierarchy of the temple, a legalistic, a law Torah-minded Jewish person to say, wow, my admission is I'm now admitting that God has given eternal life to non-Jewish, non-chosen people based on their faith is an incredible and shocking admission.

However, something I mentioned at the beginning of this study, it was God's plan all along. God didn't create the nation of Israel so that they could be closed and just hoard their blessings and just secure themselves in their own little blessing, being under the spout where the glory comes out. But to share it, God said, I've ordained you to be a light to the Gentiles, a light to the world. Way back when God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, he said, leave your family, leave your house, leave your people, leave your country, and go to the land that I'm going to show you, for I'm going to bless you.

I'm going to make you a great nation. And in you, Genesis 12 says, in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. You see, I'm bringing you out of your country, and I'm planting you in a land, and I'm going to make you great, but the purpose for which I am making you great, the purpose for which I am choosing you, Abraham, and then Isaac, and then Jacob, and then 12 tribes, and then the thousands and millions of the people of Israel, the reason I'm doing that is for a greater purpose, so that in you, all the families of the earth, not just your family, not just Jewish families, not just Israeli families, but all the families, all the nations will be blessed. Ultimately, that's a promise that speaks of Jesus, because any person in any family, in any country, with any language, with any background, for the last 2,000 years since the Messiah came, anyone who believes in Jesus will receive the blessing of God. They'll receive the salvation from God, they'll receive the forgiveness of their sins, they'll be given a free ticket to heaven, the whole package, package deal. So in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed.

That was always his intention. Now they're waking up to the reality that this was God's plan all alone. God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. Verse 19, Now those who were scattered, after the persecution that arose over Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word, notice this, to no one but the Jews only. You remember the persecution that we saw back in chapter 8, chapter 7, Stephen preached, he was killed, martyred. Chapter 8, a wave of persecution brought on by Saul of Tarsus, he went up to Damascus, but all those people in Jerusalem were stirred up. And so the theme of the book of Acts is Acts 1, verse 8. You'll be filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth.

That's the theme. But if you decide to practice Acts chapter 1, verse 8, the result in your life will be Acts chapter 8, verse 1, which says at that time a great persecution came against the church, and all who were in Jerusalem were scattered, except the apostles. So if you obey Acts 1, 8, you can expect Acts 8, 1.

That's the formula. All who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer, anybody know it, persecution. That's a promise. You like to underline the promises of God, underline that one. Live godly, suffer the consequences.

Not everybody's going to like it. You'll get persecuted, you'll get laughed at, you'll be marginalized. So that's the persecution that it refers to.

That's the theme. Those who were scattered after the persecution that rose over Stephen, now watch this, they traveled as far as Phoenicia. Now, Phoenicia is the Lebanese coast. Lebanon is ancient Phoenicia.

Cyprus is that island out in the Mediterranean off the coast of Israel, off the coast of ancient Syria and Phoenicia. And Antioch, that's the Antioch of Syria that I just mentioned, that second important city in Christendom, the birthplace of the journeys of Paul. That's Antioch.

So get this. What was at one time a small group of believers in Jerusalem had grown to a little bit larger, but still a small group that went up to Damascus. And Saul of Tarsus thought, I can nip this in the bud. I can stop this movement now. It's early enough, the cancer hasn't spread. I can kill it off in Damascus before it spreads any further. And I'll leave my brothers down here in Jerusalem to do the dirty work here. We can stop this thing. And at one time they thought they could contain it and stop it, but now it's become uncontrollable.

Now it's just like everywhere, all these other places. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, in his Jesus Loves booklets, Pastor Skip Heitzig shows you God's radical love for all people and challenges you to love all people like Jesus did. And when you give a gift of $50 or more today, we'll send you four of these booklets in our Jesus Loves Them bundle. Our thanks for your support to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig. You'll fall more in love with your living Savior as you see just how much He loves all people and calls you to do the same.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your bundle when you give. Now, let's get back to the teaching with Pastor Skip. So here's what's cool. And this is what persecution, this is what happens. Persecution is like a guy trying to stomp out a fire with his foot. Let's say you have a campfire and so it's time for you to go and you just put your foot in and go like this and like a big lug. Well, if you do that, your foot could create a draft and some of those little embers of the fire could be launched upward and outward and other fires could start.

You could start a forest fire by trying to put out a fire the wrong way. So here's Saul of Tarsus trying to stomp out the movement with his foot and so little fires start here and now on fire Christians are everywhere. It's burning bigger.

It's out of control. But notice they preached to no one but the Jews only. He says, but some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who when they had come to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists preaching the Lord Jesus. Now, let me tell you a little bit about Antioch.

And I have to explain this now because later on you could get confused. There wasn't one Antioch. There's another Antioch you're going to read about in a couple chapters. It says Antioch but it's a different Antioch. You go, well, why would people do that? Well, there's a Cuba that's an island off the coast of Florida but if you come here to New Mexico there's a Cuba.

Why'd they do that? Or if you go west to Nevada and you go to Las Vegas, but if you come here you could go to Las Vegas. So it's not unusual to have a couple different places named the same thing. Antioch was a city in Syria named by one of the four generals of Alexander the Great named Seleucus who named it after his father Antiochus.

So it was named after him. Antioch was positioned on a river called the Orontes River which communicated with the ocean so it was a perfect trade route and it ran on a main highway as well that connected ancient kingdoms together as well as the waterways. So it was a very metropolitan cosmopolitan city. The population at the time of Paul was about 500,000 people with a mixed population of Greek, Roman, Jew and some from the Orient. They all lived in Antioch.

It was just a place where it was a melting pot of different cultures. So that's Antioch of Syria. There'll be another Antioch later on called Antioch of Pisidia.

We'll make reference to the difference again. But verse 20 it says, But some from Cyprus and Cyrene who when they had come to Antioch, it says, spoke to the Hellenists preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. Now if you just read through this, you go, yeah, yeah, okay, but there is an in-house debate among believers about the word Hellenists in verse 20. See the word Hellenists? Now the debate is was Luke here referring to Greek-speaking Jews or was he referring to non-Jewish Greeks? You see the word Hellenistos in Greek could refer and has referred in ancient literature to either Greek-speaking Jews or non-Jewish Greeks, just plain Gentiles. It would seem that though Luke has used the word Hellenists before to refer to Greek-speaking Jews in chapter 7, here he uses the term differently to speak of non-Jewish Greeks.

Why? Because of that little word but. Now notice at the end of verse 19, they spoke to no one but the Jews only, but some came from Cyprus and Cyrene when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists. I believe he's speaking to not Greek-speaking Jews but non-Jewish Greeks, just Gentiles, complete unbelievers with no Jewish background whatsoever.

Why do I believe this? For this reason. If the word Hellenists here meant Greek-speaking Jews like it did in chapter 7, it wouldn't be a big deal. So what? That already happened. It happened in Jerusalem with Stephen. Stephen preached in a synagogue of Hellenists.

It wouldn't be that big of a deal to bring up. Number two, they're gonna send investigators from Jerusalem to check what happened out just to make sure these people, whoever they are, are okay. If they were Greek-speaking Jews like in Acts chapter 7, they wouldn't have brought investigators because there were many Greek-speaking Jews in Jerusalem, Hellenistic Jews who were in Jerusalem who were saved.

You'd have to send somebody to check that out. But the fact they sent somebody up there just to make sure these guys are kosher, well, okay, and to nurture them leads me to believe that here's another change. He's not just speaking to Jewish people who have a Greek background but complete pagans, complete Gentiles with no Jewish background at all.

So just keep that in mind as we follow along. Then verse 22, then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad and he encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great many people were added to the Lord. They sent Barnabas all the way up to Syria, all the way up to Antioch. They sent him up there though he was not an apostle. When the gospel went to Samaria, they would send an apostle up to check it out. They sent Barnabas up who was not an apostle, had no apostolic credentials at all but he was a generous, big-hearted believer and you know of him.

I'll just refresh your memory. Back in Acts 4, his name wasn't Barnabas originally. That's a nickname. His name was Josés, J-O-S-E-S, like Joseph but it says the early church named him Barnabas which means the son of encouragement.

Why? Because in Acts 4, he had land. He was a Cypriot. He was from Cyprus.

He had land in Cyprus. He sold the property and gave the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. So he encouraged the church with finances. They called him son of encouragement.

What an encouragement this guy Barney is, man. He sold that land in Cyprus. That's going to really help us out and especially the poor brethren here in Jerusalem. He was in encouragement with his finances, financial encouragement. In Acts 9, he provides encouragement again. By this time, they call him Barnabas, not Josés.

They just refer to him as the new name, Barney. And in Acts 9, he was in encouragement to Saul of Tarsus because you remember Saul of Tarsus, he was saved on the way to Damascus. He was in the city of Damascus. He left Damascus. He went down to Arabia. Three years later, he comes back to Damascus, preaches boldly, gets in trouble. They let him down over a wall in a basket. He goes to Jerusalem, but it says he tried to join to the church, to the brethren in Jerusalem, but they did not believe that he was saved.

They wouldn't let him come into their assembly. But it says Barnabas took Paul and brought him to the apostles and testified how boldly he had proclaimed Yeshua, Jesus, up in Damascus, that he was indeed saved. He stood for him. So he encouraged in chapter 4 with his finances. Now he is encouraging a second time with his friendship. Man, I'm his friend.

I was with him. I'll stand up for him. Now he is encouraging the church with follow-up. He's going to go up there and fellowship with them and follow up on the decision that they've made and make sure that they stay that way. So notice what it says that he told them to do. He encouraged them.

There's that word. That they all with purpose of heart should continue with the Lord. His message was basically don't quit. Don't give up.

You made the right choice. Life's going to get hard around here. It's not going to be easy following Jesus. I just want to warn you now. But don't.

It's sort of like Winston Churchill. Never give up. Never give up.

Never give up. And they needed to hear that because any relationship, even a relationship with the Lord himself, can have issues, can have problems, can be tested, can have difficulties. You know, a relationship with the Lord is sort of like a relationship between a husband and a wife.

At first they're overcome by emotion. It's all feeling and ooh, you know, the sun's brighter and the colors are more awesome. But if you expect to feel exactly the same way that you did on your wedding day, you're in for a surprise.

Am I right? I feel wonderfully toward my wife. I'm more maturely in love with her today, but it's different.

It's better, but it's different. And so if you think that your walk with the Lord is always going to wake up feeling wow, man, and sometimes you see others getting all excited and you go, I don't feel all that excited about the Lord. Don't be surprised by that.

Don't be shocked by that. Don't think that you're less of a believer than that. At first it could just be pure feeling. Wow, this is awesome following Jesus.

This is amazing following Jesus amazing. But you're not always going to have that peak level of emotional output or feeling. That's where you need to hear the commitment message. Stay with it, man. Don't give up. Don't quit.

Thanks so much for being with us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you a copy of the Jesus Loves Them bundle to help you understand God's abounding love for all people. Request your copy when you call and give, 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. Come back next time for more Verse by Verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig.

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