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It is my joy to minister the word to you this morning. Will you take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 11 as we continue to make our way verse by verse through Luke's historical account of the early church.

Before we examine the text of this morning as we come to yet another fascinating passage of Scripture, I might say that while this text is rather straightforward and will not require a great deal of very careful attention exegetically, we must nevertheless be careful not to gloss over, especially a historical narrative. And that tends to be what we do. We kind of read the story and say, OK, well now what's next here?

There are rich lessons to be learned here. Divine truths that are applicable to each and every child of God. And in chapter 11, what is actually going to happen here is Luke is going to take us back to the martyrdom of Stephen and under the aegis of Saul and the persecution of the church that arose thereafter. That time when the saints were scattered, spreading the gospel to the Samaritans and to Judea and to other Gentiles.

And here we are going to witness the enormous impact of just a few saints, especially in the Gentile city of Antioch. Antioch, next to Rome and Alexander, was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It was a city of great commerce, of academia, a city of immorality because just down the road a few miles was the temple of Daphne, notorious for its prostitution and its sexual orgies.

And Antioch will later become the headquarters for missionary outreach. It will be from Antioch where, in particular, Saul, who will later become Paul, and Barnabas are sent forth. And this is the church that is formed in a Gentile area that will also play a major role in refuting the errors of the Judaizers in the Council of Jerusalem that we'll read about in Acts 15.

They will also be a church that gives financial aid to other suffering saints in Judea. And soon we will see the gospel spread from this place even to Rome, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentiles. So like a mighty army, the gospel marches forward, invincible, unstoppable, sweeping across the world. And as I think about it, eventually it reached even my ancestors in Scotland and England and your ancestors wherever they might be. And beloved, please hear this. The vast majority of these soldiers of the cross were ordinary people just like you and me, unnamed heroes of the faith, men and women, boys and girls; young people despised by the world, yet empowered by Almighty God, who has now rewarded them beyond our ability to even conceive.

Now they stand in the presence of His glory, blameless, with great joy. And as I thought about these brave warriors of the faith and many millions like them down through redemptive history, I think, my, how different we all are from the rest of the world. And the world will even admit that.

In fact, Peter, remember, calls us aliens. I think that's a fitting term. We're citizens of another kingdom. We are counterculture Christians, soldiers of the cross. And I have named my discourse to you this morning “Counter Culture Christians,” for indeed, that's what we see here in this text. You know, I grow weary of the herd mentality that we see in our culture, people that believe whatever the media, whatever the politicians tell them. And like dumb sheep, foolish people are led to the slaughter politically, economically, militarily, educationally, medically and in ways, in terms of what I'm referring to there is just all of the crazy things, all the pills and things they would have us take and on and on it goes. And worst of all, people are deceived spiritually.

And as I think about it, were not for the grace of God, we would be equally as deceived. And sometimes despite the enormous privileges and resources that we as Christians have, we still get sucked up into the world. But as we examine Acts 11, I want you to keep in mind that there are some very important applications in this text relevant to our lives here today.

And also keep in mind that this is the only infallible record of what actually happened during those early days of the nascent church, of the developing church. We're going to focus this morning on four very intriguing themes that help us understand what God was up to as he was continuing to work in the lives and train these counterculture Christians, as we also should be.

And each of these themes has direct implication in our lives and in our ministry today. Let me give them to you. First of all, we're going to see the rebuke of prejudice. Secondly, we will see the gift of repentance. Thirdly, the priority of discipleship. And finally, the sacrifice of love.

First, let's focus on the rebuke of prejudice that we see in the text here, for this was a major issue of that day and continues to be in many ways today, beginning in verse one of Acts 11.

“Now, the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

“And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him,

“saying, ‘You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.’”

Now, again, you must remember the context here. These who are complaining would be Jews that are now Christians - converted believers that insisted that Christianity must be subordinate to Judaism; if you are a Gentile, you become a Christian, you must be circumcised, you must obey the law and those types of things.

But as we have studied before, God gave the Jews the law to humble them, to drive them to grace, to teach them about holiness and the importance of being separate, but not severed from the world, but tragically, they perverted God's intentions into a system of self-effort that replaced grace. And in their pride - even those living object lessons with respect to items, especially in ceremonies and diet that were considered clean and unclean - they even perverted those things, leading them to a false conclusion that Gentiles themselves were unclean. So you need to stay away from those nasty, dirty people. So their self-righteous legalism resulted in a virulent strain of prejudice, a wicked distortion of God's intentions.

And as a result, Jews that became Christians still hated the Gentiles. Now, this is a huge problem if you're going to spread the gospel; they felt superior to them, they couldn't imagine Gentiles being recipients of salvation and becoming part of their church.

Now, some of the apostles and other brethren have heard what Peter has done and they're furious, and so they call him on the carpet. That's basically what's happening here. And now he is going to kindly, but forthrightly, defend what he did and rebuke their prejudice.

Notice in verse four, we continue on,

“But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying,

“’I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, a certain object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came right down to me.

“’and when I had fixed my gaze upon it and was observing it I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the air.

“’And I also heard a voice saying to me, “Arise, Peter, kill and eat.”

“’But I said, “By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.”

“’But a voice from heaven answered a second time, “What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.”

“’And this happened three times and everything was drawn back up into the sky.

“’And behold, at that moment, three men appeared before the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea.

“’And the Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings and these six brethren also went with me and we entered the man's house.

“’And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, “Send the Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here;

“’and he shall speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.”

“’And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them and just as He did upon us at the beginning,

“’And I remember the word of the Lord, how He used to say, “John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

“’If God therefore gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?’

“And when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well, then God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.’”

What a kind, but compelling, rebuke. Who is going to argue with what God has done? And I'll not take time to explain all that happened in this vision and so on, we studied that last week; and if you want the details of that, you'll just need to listen to the discourse of last week. But at this point, I would want to caution us a bit. You know, we all must guard ourselves against prejudice, feelings of superiority to other people. And I find it interesting how in many ways the tables have kind of turned in the day in which we live.

Back in the first century, Jewish believers felt superior to both saved and unsaved Gentiles. But I would submit to you today that the Gentile church feels superior to saved and unsaved Jews. Historically, this has been the legacy of Roman Catholic eschatology, an eschatology that was first introduced by Augustine in the fourth century, a man who in many ways loved the Lord and began to understand the glorious doctrines of grace, but a man whose faulty exegesis and anti-Judaic prejudice sparked a legacy of error pertaining to the future of national ethnic Israel and the Jews.

This is commonly called replacement theology or amillennialism, supersessionism, as it's sometimes called. And these dear folks will emphatically assert that the church has permanently replaced Israel in God's plan of redemption. Therefore, ethnic, national and territorial Israel is all absorbed in the universal church - the universal Christian church - thus eliminating Israel's national identity completely.

Therefore, they would argue that the church has superseded, or fulfilled, the Old Testament people of God. And as you read their arguments down through history, I find it amazing to see the exegetical gymnastics that people will use to avoid the obvious meaning of scripture pertaining to God's eschatological promises of a regenerated Israel serving their Messiah in the land that she was promised in the Abrahamic covenant.

By the way, I would encourage you, there is a new book out that we're studying in our Men's Shepherds in Training course written by Dr. Barry Horner. It's entitled Future Israel. It's a new scholarly treatment of this very issue that is creating quite a stir in Reformed circles where this errant view is popular. As some have said, this is the end of the argument, and I would have to agree. In fact, I cannot imagine anyone, after reading that book - that handles this issue so carefully and so precisely and so compellingly - to still hold to the view of replacement theology.

Well, as a result of this error, the treatment of the Jews both explicitly and implicitly has been deplorable over history's time, and much of this has been fueled by the tone of replacement theology that is often unchristian and certainly unloving. And sadly, many of the Reformers adopted Augustinian eschatology. One, for example, would have been Martin Luther. In fact, just before his death in the days of the Reformation, Martin Luther preached a message of hate, saying that all Jews should be expelled from Germany. History is filled with documents of our brothers in Christ who have held this view, who have really spoken very, very critically and hatefully towards the Jews. Anti-Judaic rhetoric, especially among Amillennial theologians. And of course, with all of this, especially with Luther in Germany, this really made it easy for Hitler to perpetrate his wickedness upon the Jews while the church in Germany, as well as the church in America, stood silently by.

Let me give you an example of how this prejudice manifests itself today. Prize winning, Oxford trained British journalist Melanie Phillips recently authored a book called Londonistan, exposing London to be a new hub of radical Islam. And in it, she comments on something that surprised her in trying to understand the Christian church's antipathy towards the state of Israel, especially in favor of the Palestinians. And here's what she wrote, and I quote,

“It was one of those sickening moments when an illusion is shattered and an ominous reality laid bare. I was among a group of Jews and Christians who met recently to discuss the church's increasing public hostility to Israel. The Jews were braced for a difficult encounter. After all, many British Jews, of whom I am one, are themselves appalled by the destruction of Palestinian villages, targeted assassinations and other apparent Israeli over reactions to the Middle East conflict. But this debate never took place, for the Christians said that the church's hostility had nothing to do with Israel's behavior towards the Palestinians. This was merely an excuse. The real reason for the growing antipathy, according to the Christians at that meeting, was the ancient hatred of Jews rooted deep in Christian theology and now on widespread display. Once again,”

she went on to say,

“a doctrine going back to the early church fathers suppressed after the Holocaust had been revived under the influence of the Middle East conflict. This doctrine is called replacement theology. In essence, it says that the Jews have been replaced by the Christians in God's favor. And so all God's promises to the Jews, including the land of Israel, have been inherited by Christianity. Some evangelicals, by contrast, are Christian Zionists who passionately support the state of Israel as the fulfillment of God's biblical promise to the Jews. But to the majority who have absorbed replacement theology, Zionism is racism and the Jewish state is illegitimate.”

Do I make my case? The tables have turned in many sectors of Christendom.

May I also remind you, as a footnote, we can read in Romans nine of Israel's election. We can read in Romans 10 of her defection; we can read in Romans 11 of her salvation. In fact, in Romans 11, beginning in verses 17 through 21, Paul instructs Gentile believers that they were a wild olive branch that God graciously grafted in among them and became partakers with them of the rich root of the olive tree. So he says, “do not be arrogant toward the branches…” you Gentiles toward the Jews, “…but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.”

And then he goes on to say that because of their unbelief, the Jewish cultivated branches were broken off so that Gentile Christians might be grafted in. Therefore, Gentiles have no place for arrogance.

Then he continues in verses 23 through 25 of Romans 11 to promise that that God will graft the Jews back into the olive tree of covenant blessing that was theirs originally, as well as permanently, when, according to verse 25, “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and thus all Israel will be saved.”

Now, I'll fight the temptation to try to explain how anybody can replace the word “Israel” with the word “church”; for, indeed, how you can say “…and thus the church will be saved…” makes no sense whatsoever, because the church is the church, because it is saved.

Then in verses 30 and 31, Paul caps off his admonition to Christians, reminding them, as Horner puts it, quote, “To be compassionate toward the Jews while dispersed, notwithstanding their entrenched unbelief. So while in verse 30, the Gentile believer has received gospel mercy at the expense of national Israel's unbelief, now, verse 31, the Gentile Christian is to show gospel mercy to unbelieving national Israel. However,” Horner goes on to say, “the context of verses 17 through 21 suggests that not only the primacy of evangelistic proclamation toward the Jews is involved, but also a comprehensive loving attitude.” End quote.

Now, beloved, while I am convinced that replacement theology cannot be successfully defended exegetically, theologically or even ethically - and certainly eschatology is not a test of orthodoxy - we should never break fellowship over it. However, I would humbly caution any of you that hold to that position; to guard yourself against Jewish prejudice, because that is the undeniable legacy of Amillennialism. We must remember that we as Gentiles have received mercy at the expense of their unbelief and we should show compassion towards unbelieving Israel in the manner of Cornelius in Acts 10, remember, who had sympathy for their plight and according to verse two, gave many alms to the Jewish people.

So first we read here in Acts 11, the rebuke of prejudice, and this was crucial now for these countercultural Christians in their revolution to move on with the gospel message. So, as Jesus promised in Acts one, their Spirit empowered ministries would spread the gospel to the remotest part of the earth. But I want you to notice what else God wanted them to understand. And that is secondly, the gift of repentance.

Notice in verse 18,

“And when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God is granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

“Quieted down” in the original language means literally they became silent after hearing all of this. Who wouldn't? Suddenly their opposition ceased and their praise began. My goodness, look, God has granted the same gift of repentance to them that he gave to us.

It's interesting that the very first word that Jesus spoke when he began preaching was the word “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17), and likewise at the end of his ministry, just before he ascended into heaven, we read how he opened up the minds of his disciples so that they could understand the fullness of his person and of his work according to the Old Testament scriptures. According to Luke 24:46, that the Christ, he said, should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations.

Repentance - the gift of repentance - in the original language is a term that means to change one's mind and purpose and deliberately change one's direction in life. This is the key, by the way, to entering through the narrow gate that leads to life. The one that very few, the Lord said in Matthew 7, will even find, much less choose to enter, preferring the other option, which is the wide gate that frankly requires no repentance that everybody tends to kind of wander through. This is the key to the narrow gate.

In a book that I'm writing on the doctrine of sin, I describe repentance. May I quote this to you?

“This is more than the voice of conscience bringing our sins to remembrance and causing us to feel ashamed. Repentance is more than trembling with fear when contemplating the penalty of sin in eternal hell. It is more than a man attaching himself to some religious system and depending upon obedience to that system to earn his way to heaven. It is more than tearfully confessing long lists of sins and temporarily renouncing them only to return to them again like a dog returns to its vomit. Instead, true repentance is a God induced hatred of sin, a turning from sin and a Spirit empowered forsaking of sin.

While repentance should not be considered a condition of salvation, for there are no conditions to grace, it is a crucial element of the gift of grace (Ephesians 2:8). It is produced within us by the author of life who gives the repentance that leads to life (Acts 11:18) when by His regenerating power, He gives us the gift of faith, the grace to believe. And we, according to James 1:21 in humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save our souls.

And dear friends, where does this unnatural commitment to hate sin, to turn from sin and to forsake sin come from? The answer is the author of life, God himself; the Author and the Finisher of our faith. He is the one who grants us, as we read here in Acts 11:18, “the repentance that leads to life.”

And may I remind you; our repentance is never perfect. If it were, I would be standing before at least a few sinless saints, and I don't think I see any of those. And if you think you are sinless, let me talk for about three minutes to somebody who knows you best, and then I would imagine I would be able to refute your claim quite compellingly.

Beloved, from the very first moment of conversion until our final breath, a Christian is always examining his heart, 1 John 1:9, there's a constant repentance that goes on. And as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, we understand more fully the depth and the breadth of our sin. And as a result, we don't necessarily walk around moaning and groaning, but instead we just thank God for his grace. We praise him for his mercy. We praise him that our salvation is an objective truth.

It is not a subjective emotion. Because if it were, over and over again, when we sin, we would feel as though we have lost our salvation, a topic I will preach on tonight. And as long as we continue to mortify sin, as long as we continue to deal with indwelling sin, we will experience the ache of conviction. There are times where we will experience the misery of our guilt, even as David did in Psalm 32, Psalm 51. Remember how utterly miserable he was until he finally repented of his sins?

So the good news here is that God has granted all of us the repentance that leads to life. Oh, child of God, how we should all rejoice in such a gift, for without it, we would all perish in our sins. So now they're convinced that God has even granted this to the Gentiles. But we see yet a third theme in this historical account; a third topic that helps us understand God's priorities and purposes in developing these countercultural Christian soldiers of the cross. And that is the priority of discipleship.

Notice in verse 19,

“So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.

“But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.”

I believe it is safe to conclude that the Hellenistic Jews were the ones that carried the gospel primarily to the Gentiles; some of the native Hebrews in Jerusalem were still very reluctant to do that, as we will see later on in Acts, and it is estimated that the church at Antioch was established approximately seven years after Pentecost.

So that's kind of where we are historically. And you've got to be careful in Acts, Luke is not necessarily taking us through everything chronologically. There are times where he goes back and reiterates various historical accounts. So, it was about seven years, and I don't want to start a new denomination on this because we're not exactly sure, but somewhere around seven years after Pentecost, Antioch is established. And I find it interesting, you know, seven is the number of completion in the Bible.

As you think about it, it's going to take now about seven years for God to deal with the prejudice in these Jewish converts and to mature the apostles as well as the other saints to effectively spread the gospel in all of its doctrinal purity. There's nothing worse than untrained missionaries and untrained pastors and untrained teachers.

Now, notice what happens here in verse twenty-one.

“And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believe turned to the Lord.” “Epistrephō” in the original language. It is a word similar to “metanoia,” the term for repentance. And it literally means here to change your mind or your course of action.

And so we see that a large number believe and turn to the Lord. “And the news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch.” Isn't this great? Barnabas would have been a Cypriot Jew. He would have felt comfortable with these Gentiles. Barnabas, by the way, means “son of encouragement,” and that's exactly what we see happening here.

Verse 23, we go on to read,

“Then when he had come and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all…” he's living up to his name here….”encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord, for he was a good man and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith and considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.”

Now notice verse 25, “And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul.”

“Look for” in the original language has the idea of an arduous search, a difficult search; because you must remember now it's been about eight or nine years since Saul fled from Jerusalem. And we know, according to his testimony in Philippians 3:8, that he suffered loss of all things, so he's not allowed basically in his own town of Tarsus. His family has rejected him. He's lost his means of income as a rabbi and so forth. And now he's somewhere kind of on the outskirts. Trying to make a living, and so Barnabas has a bit of a difficult time looking for Saul.

But notice verse 26,

“…and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came about that for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”

Christians means of the party of Christ. It was a term of derision in those days, and it is becoming increasingly so in our culture. So very interesting here, Barnabas goes, he finds Saul, brings him now to Antioch, and they basically have a yearlong Bible study or a Bible seminar with all of these things. Wouldn't it have been great to be a part of that? So much for sending people out untrained.

You know, as I think about it, Satan hates educated, trained, discerning Christians. He hates that. I might also add that false teachers hate that. Entrepreneurial pastors hate that. Most, not all, Christian publishing companies hate that. Most, not all, contemporary Christian music people hate that I've been involved in that heavily over the years, how well I know. You see, so many people prefer Christians to be basically a blank slate so that they can write on their minds all manner of deceptions.

You know, we see that in politics as well. Let's just keep everybody dumb and tell them what we want them to hear and hopefully they'll believe it. You know, this is why Bible teaching is so important. And we see it right here in this text in the early church. It's interesting that after the apostles begin to fade from the scene, God gives the church, according to Ephesians, for pastor teachers, literally teaching shepherds to equip the saints, to build them up in knowledge. And as a result of that, according to Ephesians 4:14, we are “no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ.”

So this is what is happening here with these early saints. Friends, might I just add here, discipleship is absolutely crucial for evangelism and for the equipping of the saints in ministry. In fact, you will recall that Jesus rebuked Martha for having the wrong priorities, telling her that the number one priority in the Christian life is to submit to the teaching of the word of God. And might I add, and I really want you to hear this, 50 minutes on Sunday morning won't cut it when the rest of the week you're bombarded. By Satan's world system, that's why James tells us in James 1:19 to be “quick to hear.” Literally means you are to pursue every opportunity to be instructed. You are to run with great earnest to wherever the word of God is being taught.

Here at Calvary Bible Church, it is our passion to give many opportunities for in-depth, doctrinally sound Bible study, and it's up to you to avail yourself of it. If not, you're going to forfeit blessing in your life, you're going to lack discernment. You're certainly going to lack power.

It's sad to see - and I have to confess, we don't see a lot of that here at this church, even though there's some of it - but I know in many places, many Christians couldn't beat their way out of a wet paper sack theologically. Once you get past Noah and the ark and Jonah in the whale and Jesus on the cross, they're pretty much lost. False teachers come along that know error better than they know truth. And these people absolutely get fleeced of their money as well as their spiritual blessing. God tells us in 2 Timothy 2:15 through the inspired Apostle Paul, “be diligent to present yourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth.” Psalm 119:11, “Thy word, I have treasured” or literally hid, “in my heart that I may not sin against Thee.” The idea there is to embed the word of God so deeply within you that no one can take it away. Even as parents, we are, according to Ephesians 6:4 to bring up our children “in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord.” So we see this priority here in God's discipleship training of these new believers.

And finally, we see in this text what it all results in - the consequences of this kind of maturity - notice in verse twenty seven.

“Now, at this time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.

“And one of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius.

“And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea.

“And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.”

Here we read of Agabus, who was a New Testament prophet - it's better to understand that basically as a preacher. This isn't the same type of prophet as the Old Testament prophets, these New Testament prophets or preachers coexisted with the apostles during this period of time. In fact, all apostles were prophets, but not all prophets were apostles because they did not meet the qualification of the apostles. This was a foundational gift in the early church, men that were gifted by God to expound upon revelation that was already in existence, that had already been given, and occasionally even to speak new revelation, new messages.

And their ministry, as we study them, is basically confined to local churches, whereas the apostles had a much broader ministry. And upon completion of the New Testament canon, all that was necessary for the edification of the body of Christ was final. And so the prophets, like the apostles, disappeared and they were replaced by pastor, teachers and evangelists.

In fact, in Revelation 22:18, we read that there is a severe penalty pronounced on anyone who claims that he or she is adding to God's revelation. So, any alleged prophecy subsequent to John's final revelation must be considered spurious, and those prophet or prophetesses false.

But we know that Agabus's Spirit inspired prophecy pertaining to a great famine was true. It was validated by ancient historians, especially in Israel in 45 to 46 A.D. And think about this now as we close this morning, what an exciting turn of events. These once despised Gentiles in Antioch - who are now part of the church, who are equally recipients of grace, just like the Jewish believers - are now giving financial aid to their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ in Judea. My, isn't God amazing? I mean, when he wants to make a point, he can really make a point. He humbled these Jewish converts and now they see, my goodness, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who are who are sacrificially giving to help us in a time of need. So the Gentile saints in Antioch trust Barnabas and Saul with their contributions, and they go and distribute them.

Well, my friends, what an incredible era of history to have lived in in those days. Counterculture Christians who experienced the rebuke of prejudice, who also learned about the gift of repentance that we all have in Christ, who also experienced God's priority of training them in discipleship and sending people to them that could help them grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ.

And of course, all of their growth is really measured by how they live. And we see that manifested in their sacrifice of love and material giving to other saints in need. So may I challenge each of you this morning to measure your life against these divine truths that we, like our early brothers and sisters in Christ, might be counterculture Christians carrying the banner of the cross first to our families and then our friends and our communities and ultimately to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for these truths. We pray that you will cause them to resonate within our hearts and to change the way we live. We praise you for the power of the gospel. And we rejoice knowing that you have given us a living hope, you have given us an inheritance that will not fade away, one that is incorruptible and undefiled and is protected by the very power of God. And in this we rejoice with rejoicing and joy that is inexpressible. Speak to us, I pray, especially to those who do not know you as savior, overwhelm them with conviction, conviction, cause them to run to the foot of the cross and plead for the mercy that can be theirs. We pray this for your sake and for your glory in Jesus’ name. Amen.