Acts: A Christian Reputation

Well, good morning. It's good to see you all this morning. Glad

that you're here. If you have your bible's turning with me to Acts chapter

eleven, Acts Chapter eleven. This morning. We're going to start in verse

nineteen in just a few moments. The title of my sermon today is a

Christian reputation, a Christian reputation. Now, throughout life, people gain reputations,

and probably some may may not be as maybe well known as today.

This week, most of us have heard that O. J. Simpson passed

away. And if you think about O. J. Simpson, you probably

instantly think about a reputation. You know. O J. Simpson, did

you know was the first rush I mean running back to rush for over two

thousand yards from scrimmage, first running back ever. You know. He also

was inducted to the Hall of Fame. He had such success on the football

field, had a huge reputation for being a great player, was in movies

and different things. But in nineteen ninety four, after the murder of Nicole

Brown and Ron Goldman, his reputation would always be marred by the death of

those two. No matter how good of a reputation he had as a football

player, his reputation would always be scarred by the trial in nineteen ninety five

that went on and was such a public thing, and even today as we

come to his death just this week, it is all the articles you still

see. We'll talk about the controversy of that trial, right, And so

here is someone who was so successful, but that is overshadowed by the death

of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown. And so today, as we come to

this passage of Scripture, I wants to think about what is our Christian reputation?

What is your reputation as individual? What will you be known for?

What is your reputation today? What is it among your peers, what is

among the people in the community, what is it among your family members?

What is your reputation? And do we have a Christian reputation? Are we

known for not something we've done bad, but who we are in Christ?

As we come to this passage of scripture. In chapter chapter eleven of Acts,

last week we looked at how the Gospel had gone to the Gentiles and

how Paul I mean Peter went to the church in Jerusalem and explained how the

Gospel came to the Gentiles, and how he explained how God brought salvation to

the Gentiles, and Scripture tells us that the church rejoiced. They rejoiced about

seeing how salvation had gone to this new group the Gentiles. As we come

to chapter eleven, a new church organically grows in Syria. We're gonna look

at that in just a minute. And Scripture says that this church that grows

in Syria becomes a vibrant church, and the reputation of that church makes its

way all the way from Syria back to Jerusalem, just kind of like the

report of the salvation come to the Gentiles, and the Bible says of this

early church, It says, in this church they were first called Christians.

He said, this morning, I want to look at what was the reputation

of a Christian then, And I want us to examine how do we as

they do did, how do we gain a Christian reputation? So let's look

at God's word together, where you stand with me in Acts chapter eleven,

and we're going to start in verse nineteen. We'll read all the way to

verse twenty thirty. This morning, and the Bible says, now those were

scattered because of the persecution that rose over Stephen traveled as far as Venetia and

Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except the Jews. But

there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Sirene, who coming to

Antiox, spoke to the Hellinus, also preaching the Lord Jesus. And the

hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned

to the Lord. And the report came of this to the ears of the

Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. And when they came,

they saw the grace of God, and he was glad, and he

exhorted them to all remain faithful to the Lord with still fast purpose, if

he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and the faith,

and if great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to

Tarsus and to look for Saw and when he had found him, he brought

him to Antioch. And for a whole year they met with the Church and

taught a great many people, And then antioch disciples were first called Christians.

Now these now in the days of the Prophets, came from Jerusalem to Antioch.

One of them was named Agabus, and he stood up and foretold by

this spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. And

this took place in the days of Claudius. So the disciples determined everyone according

to their ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they

did so, sending you by the elders, by the hand of Barnabas and

Saul. Let's pray together, Father, we thank you Lord for this morning.

God, I thank you for our great crowd has come here in person

and me are watching online on TV today. And Lord, we believe that

today is no mistake that you have us in this room for this purpose and

for this message. And so God, I pray that Lord, you know

what you've led me to study and prepare this week. And Lord, I

pray today that Lord, I would rightly divide your word, and Lord,

your spirit would feel. Lord your word today, Lord, feel it in

me and pour me out. Father, I pray that you would use your

spirit to speak the hearts of people today, and today would be a place

that we would take some time Lord, just to listen to you. Father,

So speak today in your name, we pray, and then you may

be seated. So how to gain a Christian reputation so we first look at

how to gain a Christian reputation. We gain a Christian reputation number one by

our faithful witness. It's interesting as we watched this passage unfold in chapter in

chapter seven, if you go back, and we've been working through the Book

of Acts for some time, but if you go to chapter seven, you

see there rise of persecution of the church. It kind of started slow,

but it eventually rises to place that we see the first Christian martyred, his

name Stephen. And after Stephen is martyred, the Bible says that Paul or

saw at that time, he would go house to house and it was ravaging

the church. He was going house to house looking for Christians. And as

a result, the Christians that were living in Jerusalem, they scattered. They

left Jerusalem, and they scattered all over the world in all different places.

In this passage kind of flashbacks two chapter seven and showing that the ones who

scattered and were sent all about. This is the area that they went to.

You see verse nineteen. Now, those who were scattered because of the

persecution, persecution there, it's persecution of Saul that arose over. Stephen traveled

as far as Venetia, Cyprus, and Antioch. I think I have a

map here that we're going to pop up. And this just shows you at

the very bottom of that little line, the red purple line is Jerusalem,

and they traveled as far up you see the first areas of Venicia there.

Phoenicia was kind of the north north western part of Israel, and there were

two cities to attire in Sidon, and so they went that far. And

then it's just giving you the imagery. This is how far the Christians in

Jerusalem when persecutions, how far they traveled. They left Jerusalem, any of

them, to the areas of Phoenicia, and then they kept going. You

see above there's another country called Syria, and at the very northeastern I mean

western part you see any there, and then across in the kind of island

there Cyprus. And that gives you kind of the area the imagery of how

far these Christians travel, And that's what Luke wants you to see. Man

persecution came and they scattered, they went all over the world. Well,

then this passage wants you to see what did they do when they scattered?

Well, scripture says in verse twenty, I mean verse nineteen, and as

they were scattered, they speaking the word to no one except the Jews.

Or they speaking, they were telling about Jesus. There's telling about their faith

in Christ, and they began witnessing. But scripture is very clear that as

they first begin witnessing again, as I said to last week, they believe

Jews believed the only salvation would go to the Jews. So when they first

against sharing the Gospel, they were only sharing the other Jews. But look

what happens in verse twenty. It's really an amazing passage versus scripture because the

Bible says that, but there were some of them, and it tells us

who these men are. They're from Cyprus and Sirene, and so that's from

the island that we just looked at. And some of the men, some

of the Jewish Christians from this area. Look what happens. We don't know

their names, we just know where they're from. It says, who coming

from Antioch spoke to the Helenus. The Hellenis. There are not Helenis Jews

or Helenis Christians. The Hellenis there are Greeks. These are unbelievers, these

are gentiles. And so you have to understand in the context of what's happening.

In chapter eleven, we have seen how Peter, through the hand of

the Lord, took the Gospel to the Gentiles in Corneus's house, but at

the same time, in Antioch, in a place way farther than cesarea,

farther north, in a whole nother country, there was these men and they

were not apostles, and they just believed, you know what, we've been

sharing the Gospel with these Jews. But you know what, the Gentiles,

the Greeks that are living in this city, they're just as lost as the

Jews. And there's just some that got passionate about, you know what,

maybe we should share Jesus to them. And so there was these brave souls

who said, you know what, as we go, let's just see what

happens. And the Bible says, look what happens they begin sharing the gospel

was very powerful. They didn't know what happened with Peter, they didn't know

about the vision that Peter saw. They just believe the Spirit of God was

in there. Passionate about sharing the Gospel. They're passionate about seeing people come

to know Jesus because what Jesus has done for them, and so they begin

sharing the Gospel with the Gentiles, with the Greeks, and the Bible says,

and also preaching the Lord Jesus. The word preaching, there is a

word where we get evangelism, and it actually means to proclaim good news.

When you see this word, and this is why I bring this out.

When you hear word preaching, you think of this. You think of what

I'm doing a pastor and a Sunday morning with a dressed up and proclaiming and

preaching God's word. The word preaching here means it's very simple to proclaim good

news. They weren't preaching sermons. They were just telling people about the good

news of Jesus. And the Bible says, look at what happens here in

this verse, it says, preaching the Lord Jesus, and look at what

happens. And the hand of the Lord was with them. The hand of

the Lord was with them. You know, in the Old Testament the hand

of the Lord is seen in two different ways. In Deuteronomy two fifteen,

the hand of the Lord is seen, for indeed, the hand of the

Lord was against them to destroy them from the camp the hand of the Lord.

There is seen as a hand of the Lord and judgment, and it's

seen as God's power and judgment. But also in the Old Testament, the

hand of the Lord is seen as God's power blessing. In numbers and Neemiah

two eighteen, it says I told them that I told them of the hand

of my God that had been upon me for good. You know, if

you think about the hand of the Lord, he said, man, the

hand of the Lord is on that person's life. You know, most of

the time we see that the power of God's in that person, in God's

blessing them. I want to ask you today, and you think about a

Christian reputation, and you say, you know, a pastor I want to

be I want to have a Christian reputation. But how many of us in

this room we say, you know what, Pastor, I don't want a

reputation of a Christian, a Christian reputation, but Pastor, I want to

be known as someone that has the hand of the Lord upon them. You

know, as we come to this pastor of scripture, what these two came

together. The hand of the Lord was upon those who were faithfully witnessing and

share in the Gospel. You know why, I believe many times have we

don't see maybe the power of God in our life, and we don't see

the hand of blessing upon our life because we're not faithfully witnessing. We're not

faithfully sharing the word of God with others, We're not faithfully telling others about

the good News of Jesus, and therefore the power of God is absence from

our life. Heard a story on CA Love only if you listen to Christian

radio, Kay Love there. You know sometimes I've testimony. Was someone call

in one day I was listening to and there was a man He said,

you know, he traveled a lot for his job, and every day he

would stop at a restaurant, particularly he liked McDonald's, and he said every

time he went at McDonald's, he sat down before when he prayed over his

meal. Every time he'd said, Lord, or bring someone in my path

today to share Jesus with. And he explained that by doing that faithfully every

day, it just seemed like God always put someone in his path that needed

to hear. He talked about the power of God being in his life and

the Lord blessing him. I want you to think about something with me.

Just quickly. Imagine today, there's one hundred plus in this room today.

Imagine if one hundred of you would say, today, you know what,

Pastor, I believe, I really believe. If I want to have a

Christian reputation that starts with me faithfully witnessing, faithfully sharing about Jesus, it's

say one hundreds you left here today and this next Over the next six days,

you share Jesus just like this man, did you share Jesus with someone?

And let's just say that every one of those hundred you brought someone with

you. Then next week we'd have over two hundred in this place. Well,

okay, you said, well, Pastor, you know that that's not

always the percentage. As you share, they're not gonna come and so maybe

so maybe let's just be conservative. Let's just say that twenty percent responded.

So next week we'd have twenty more people here. Now, if we did

that every week for entire year, we would have one thousand and forty people

here at church. I promise you this. If that happened, the reputation

of it does a w be something, wouldn't it? Man? They would

say, you know what, the hand of the Lord's upon that church.

I tell you, if we want a Christian reputation, it starts with a

faithful witness. You know. Scripture says that the hand of the Lord was

upon them. Look back with me at the verse. Scripture says, and

they were in verse end of twenty preaching Lord Jesus, and the handle Lord

was with them. And this is what the result was of the hand of

the Lord of the blessing of God. The results of that was this.

Listen what scripture says, and a great number and hand Lord was with them,

and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The blessing that

was in the hand of the Lord being upon them is People's lives were saved,

people's lives were changed, people were joined in the church. It was

growing. And the Bible says, look what happens in verse twenty two.

And the report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem.

If you go back to my map, if you will just throw that up

up there, you see all the way in Antioch this happened. And from

Antioch all the way back to Jerusalem. The people hurt. Just like I

said that if this happened to Bethesda in a year that people in the community

who would hear you will probably hear about In Oxford, you might hear about

it. In Creemore, you might hear about it. In Roxburgh, they

might hear about it. In all different places in North Carolina. People would

hear about the hand of the Lord being upon a bethesda. I tell you

that's what happened in the early Church, people again faithfully witnessing and said,

you know, I want to share with jeople. I love like the people

in my family, but I want to share with the people at McDonald's,

in that walmart, and at a grocery store. And how that would expand

and exchange our church. That's what happened here in the report of that left

all the way in Antioch and went all the way back to Jerusalem. You

see, when we're faithfully witnessing, listen, it changes our reputation. Now,

I ask you today, you said, pastor, I want a Christian

reputation, Then what is your whip irritation as a witness for Jesus Christ.

Are you known as a faithful witness or are you known as a silent Christian?

Today? If we want a Christian reputation. If we want to gain

that, it starts with by our faithful witness. Secondly, it starts with

our faithful devotion. Scripture says in verse twenty three, they in verse twenty

two, the report came, and just like happened at Peter's time, they

believe, Hey, we've got to find out what's going on in this church.

And so they sent someone from the church in Jerusalem who was an apostles

names Barnabas. They told Barnabas, Barnabas, you got to go up to

any I can see what's going on. We hear that there's a church that's

blowing up up there and people are getting saved, and we need to see

what's really happening. Barnabas, by the way, was from Cyprus. Where

did I tell you these men were from that were sharing the gospel to the

Greeks. They were from Cyprus. So I really believe that. The church

says that who would be better to find out about who these men are and

what God's doing in this church than send one of them. So they sent

barn of Us up and Scripture says, look what happens in verse twenty three.

It says, and when he came, he saw the grace of God,

and he was glad. And the Bible says, when Barnabas got there,

he saw the man that these gentiles were getting saved, these Greeks were

getting saved, And the Bible says, he's glad. That word there in

the Greek is actually means to rejoice. He rejoiced. You know, a

few weeks ago, about a month or so ago, we had six baptisms

in our church, and this place was full. Man, there was rejoicing,

even rejoicing to find people in getting baptized, rejoicing in our church.

And that's what happened. Barnabus saw the grace of God and people, and

he rejoiced. But Scripture says not only did he rejoice, but the Bible

said he exhorted them. This wordort comes from the word that we get parcleo,

I think is the It means to urge an employ or encourage. It's

actually also used in First Stetsonians two twelve. It says we exhort each of

you and encourage you and charge you in a way that in a manner worthy

of God. So this idea is is the ideas there he's trying to give

them. He's trying to encourage them. He's really trying to encourage them as

new believers, as new Christians. And what does he tell them? Look

at what he says in this passage, how does he encourage them, exhort

them, come to give them like some teaching for new believers. This is

what he says. He says, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful

to the Lord with stepfast purpose. He tells them, Hey, you new

believers, you knew Greeks, this new church is growing, and hey,

you really want to be a Christian? Happened through faithful witness that the next

part. If you really want to be a Christians, then you really need

to be faithful in your devotion. You see in this area did you know

as you come to this area of Antioch, it was the third largest city

in the world at the time. It would be like our New York City

in our world, and therefore it was known as one of the most evil

cities in all the world. The city was it was known as a wicked

city, only really second to Karnt at the time, and it was it

was elaborate. It had the main street that went throughout Antioch was four miles

long, and it was actually made our marble, had education cities, education

centers in there. But it was really known for its elaborate worship the gods.

There was the gods of Zeus, Apollos, Pysidon, all they were

worshiped there and it was known as like an abode of gods, is what

some would describe it at the time. One of the big things with Antioch

and many other Greek cultures is they really believed that you should worship everybody should

worship, and you shouldn't just worship one god, you should worship many gods.

So it was okay to have a little bit of Jesus, but you

don't want a little bit of Jesus, you want to wash the worship a

little bit of Zeus and Apolus or whatever else was outgoing in the time.

So much so that just four to five miles from Antioch was a temple to

It was called Temple to daf Ene, and it was known to worship at

that temple to Armentis and Apollos and a sarte, and there you were involved

in worship. Was prostitution. There, there was baths and brothels, and

in that garden, it was ten miles long, and it was populated by

prostitutes. And you went into the garden to worship, and you indulge yourself

in sexual morality. And that was that was a lifestyle of those in Antioch.

So you can imagine as he's going, these Greeks who just got saved,

their whole life had been you know, Yeah, I worshiped Apaulus,

and I worship at the Temple of Daphene, and I've worshiped all these Zeus

and all these other gods. And so they've worshiped used to worshiping many different

things. And now listen, Barnabas says, you want to be a Christian,

you've got to solely devote yourself to the Lord. You can't devote yourself

to all Right, I'm gonna have Jesus plus Zeus. I'm gonna have Jesus,

but I'll also go go to the Temple of Daphene once a week.

No, no, no, If you want to be a Christian, you

have to be faithfully devoted to the Lord. And I tell you that because

there was actually a Pew Research Center that does statistics and surveys in twenty nineteen,

it did a study about what a Christian's view about sex outside of marriages.

They did this study and in the study it said half of Christians listen

to this. Half of Christians says that casual sex is okay, sex outside

of marriage even They went into the survey and this the survey says that sex

between two people who were not even committed in a relationship is okay over fifty

percent. Sixty two percent Catholics said it's okay. They don't have to be

committed, just casual sex is okay. Fifty four percent of Protestants and thirty

six percent of Evangelicals. Can I tell you there was. They also did

this survey says how about people who were in a committed relationship, And in

that statistics, fifty seven percent of Christians say it's okay if they're committed and

they can have sex outside of marriage, it's okay, sixty seven percent of

Partistans, sixty four percent of Catholics. And I tell you that because what

what was happening in the time of Antioch. In the time of Antioch,

the Greeks were saying, yes, you can go have sex in the temple

in the temple or in this garden, and you can still be a Christian.

You can have both. You can just worship a bunch of different gods.

And I tell you that to say today in America in twenty nineteen,

among evangelicals and people who say they're Christians, they're saying, hey, yes,

you can be a Christian and you can still live in sexual morality.

It's okay. And can I tell you listen to me. I'm telling you

today our world is no different than it was in the time of Antioch.

Our world constantly tells you, yes you can. You can live sexual moral

and still be a Christian. Yes, you can be a lover of money

and you can still be a Christian. You can still strug, you can

you can live at homosexual homosexual life and still be a Christian. You can

be all you want to be is still just as long as you have a

little bit of Jesus, You're okay. And can I tell you Parnabas said

in this passive scripture, if you want to be a Christian, then you

must be fully devoted to the Lord. Look at the word he says here,

Listen to the words he says. He exhorted them all to listener,

remain faithful to the Lord with step a purpose. Remain faithful. Listen.

I know that you're going to see the prostitutes. I know you're going to

see these things as you go out of church. I know you can be

tempted to be drawn into those different things. Remain faithful to the Lord and

be stepfast in this can I say to you today, you today, as

you're listening to this sermon, I promise today that end this room. You

know people who are bad reputations. You know people in the community. You

know people you went to school with, people that you work with, and

you know some that have bad reputations. You know some person that's known for

bad jokes, dirty jokes. You know some person that has is known for

running around on his wife. You know someone who's known for being a drunk.

You know someone that's known from being hooked on drugs, and we can

go on and on. You know someone that's known for being a gossip.

Now, you would never look at that person says well, that's a there's

a gossip Christian or that's a drunk Christian. No, because in your mind

you don't put something that sin attach it to Jesus and said that's okay,

right, And I'm saying to you today, what are you known for?

And at the end of your life, you don't want to have an adjective

attached to you being a Christian. You want to be known as that is,

an individual that is known as being a faithful Christian because they were fully

devoted to only their Lord. Amen. Scripture says, not only if we're

going to gain a Christian reputation, we gain a Christian reputation by a faithful

witness, by our faithful devotion, but also by our faithful teaching. The

Bible says that, man, this church is growing. And as you look

at this passion of Scripture, the Bible says it even tells about Barnabas and

his faithful reputation of a devoted to the Lord. It says he was good

man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith tells you of his reputation.

He's not telling them to be steadfast and devoted in him, not live it

himself. No, he told them to be remain faithful to the Lord,

and he was one who demonstrated that. But the Bible says in verse twenty

five, so Barnabas I'm sorry. Go back to the end of twenty four

and the Bible says, in a great many people were added to the Lord.

This church was growing, barnabs was sharing, they were witnessing, and

the church continued to expand. In verse twenty five, you see that Barnabas

kind of comes to a place where we realize this he cannot handle this growth.

And the Bible says the verse twenty five that Barnabaus goes to Tarsus.

We know that as we studied through the book, after Paul or Saul went

to Jerusalem, they created some turmoil and the community and people are trying to

kill Saul. So they sent him back to Tarsus, where he's from,

and he stayed there for a few years. The Bible says, as Barnabas

is growing this church, and as he's working, he decides, I need

to go get some help, and so he goes to Tarsus. He searches

for Tarsus, I mean searches for Tarch, searches for Saul, finds Saul,

and he brings him back to Antioch. And the Bible says, look

at verse twenty five. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul in

verse twenty six. And when he found him, he brought him to anyone

and listen to this. And for a whole year they met with the church

and taught a great many people, and the disciples were first called Christians.

So he goes and gets Saul, brings him back, and for a whole

year the Bible says, they teach and listen to what the Bible says,

and they met with the church. The word church, there is the word

we understand church. But the way they would in the Greek this actually means

assembly. And why I tell you that is it's very important that you see

in this passive scripture that the early Church came together. They came regularly together.

And what do they come together for? For the teaching of God's Word.

Do you know what's so foundational? If you want to grow as a

Christian, that you're committed to gather and to be a part of regular teaching.

You know your attendants on Sunday morning, your tendants at church is so

important. Why because you and I are grown. We grow as Christians by

hearing the teaching of the Word of God. The early Church understood that for

a year they committed together to come together for the teaching of God's words.

Can I say, if you're a new Christian here, what you need to

grow as a believer is to grow in God's Word through the faithful participation in

teaching. And why you would say, pastor, why why is this so

important for me? Well, Paul understood this, and Paul teaching the young

Timothy was a young pastor. He says, Then you, my child,

be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ. Jesus says, you heard

from Me in the presence of many witnesses and trusted faithful men who will be

able to teach others. This is what Paul understood. I am a pastor.

I'm faithful to teach others so that they also may want teach others.

You know what's so important for you to be here and you to be if

you want to be a faithful Christian to grow in your witnessing, to grow

and your teaching. And the reason why that's so important. It's because you

here to grow an understanding God's Word that you might teach others. Can I

tell you parents, Deuteronomy six says, as you lead your children as they

sit down, when they rise up, teaching them these things. The primary

role the discipleship of your children is you. I love Pastor Devon and Tanner

and what they're doing in our children's children in student ministry. But the primary

disciples of the children are the home. Can't I tell your husband? And

Second Corinthians or First Corinthians fourteen, The Bible says if your wife has any

questions about the Bible, she should first ask her husband at home. You

know what that means. Men, you need a know the Word of God

so you can lead your wife and lead your family. And so that's why

it's important. Listen, it's important for you to be at church. Why

because you have a responsibility to teach others, your wife, your children,

and others. So if we want a faithful reputation of a Christian, it

starts with us a faithful witness. It continues with faithful devotion, but also

by faithful our faithful teaching. So I'm going to be committed to teaching,

but I'm also gonna be committed to teach others. Yeah, I'll tell you

a quick story. I don't know if I've ever told you the story.

But when I was a young man. My parents separated one of us fourteen,

and really struggled with that for some time. And finally, at about

sixteen, I was going to my home church growing up, and my tennis

coach, actually I paid tennis and I'm probad. I have told you this

before, but she was her family was unbeliever. She was only Christian.

And she came to me one day tennis practice and said, would you come

see me get baptized. She says, I have nobody in my family that's

a Christian. You're only a Christian. I know you come watch me get

baptized. And so I went to with her to see her get baptized,

and in that when I came to that church, I realized that God was

leading me to go to that church to move my membership. So at sixteen

years old, listen to this. At sixteen years old, God radically changed.

I was a Christian. I got saved when I was fourteen, but

I'd really just run from the Lord after my parents divorced, and for two

years I just ran. And at sixteen, God got to hold my heart

and said, Jonathan, you need to stop faking it. You need to

really surrender. And I did a sixteen I really surrendered my life to Lord.

I'm going to live for you, and I started going to that church.

And that's a pivotal thing. But you know, from sixteen to the

time I went to college, I went to church by myself. My parents

did not go to church with me. My sisters didn't go to church with

me. So Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Sunday school,

I got up out of bed. I was probably late, but I got

up out of bed and I drove myself to church. And I sat in

church by myself, sometimes with my friends, sometimes by myself. And I

was under faithful teaching. And so I'll be honest with you. Sometimes I

don't have a lot of sympathy for people who say I can't do it.

I was a sixteen year old boy, and I got up and I got

up to church, and I went to church by myself. And you know

why, because I believe God was having doing something in my life, and

I knew I needed to hear the word of God. So can I encourage

you? If we want to have faith a Christian reputation, it's through our

by our faithful teaching, being under teaching and being growing that we might teach

others. Lastly, it's through our faithful giving, the Bible says in this

passive scripture, And I'm running out of time, so I want to summarize.

The Bible says that for a whole year they met with them. In

verse twenty seven, it says they sent prophets, and that we know in

early church time there was prophets. Ephesians four tells us about this, and

there was a prophet named Agabus, and Agabus comes to Antioch and Agabus tells

about a famine that's coming, and it's really going to hurt the church.

And look at what the Bible says in verse twenty nine. So the disciples

determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers and living in

Judea. So they came together as a church, and they saw this family

was coming. Listen to this, and they decided, as a church,

you know what, we need to do something about this. And the Bible

says, so they took up an offering. Now, who participated in the

offering. The Bible says everyone, everyone according to his ability to send relief

to the brothers living in Judea. So they took up this offering, and

everyone in the church says, you know what God's given me, this ability

to give, and I'm going to give out of what ability God's given me.

And they took up this offering. Now listen to me. When the

Early Church started an Antioch, you remember the reputation of that church had made

it all the way down to Jerusalem. Jeusalm wasn't sure about this, right,

so they said, we need to send Barnabas and see if this is

really legit. So they sent Barnabas in and here are these Greek gentile Christians

that you got to think the Early Church is like, I just don't know

about this, if this is really good or not. But listen to this.

These new believers hear about a famine that's happening, and listen, they're

concerned for their brothers. They're concerned for the Jews, their Jewish brothers in

Jerusalem, and they decide to take up an offering for the for that church

in Jerusalem. Everybody contributes and they give send out all friend Scripture says they

send it by Barnabas and Saul. They take it to the brothers and can

you imagine what a reputation. What impact that made man? These these believers

are legit. They're real. Man. We've looked at them, we've maybe

not sure about them. But listen, they really are what they say they

are. And how did they demonstrate that through their giving? You know,

Scripture says, and I don't have time to do it today or look at

it this morning. But in Second Corinthians, Paul says, listen in this

in verse seven of Second Corinthians eight, Hey, you, as believers,

you've excelled a lot in a lot of different ways in your faith. You're

growing in disciplines of your faith. You're you're growing in your faith, You're

growing in your speech, You're growing in your knowledge, you're growing growing in

your earnestness, You're growing in your love. But listen, I encourage you

grow in the grace of giving. You know, many times a little hay,

pastor yeah, I'll grow in kindness, I'll grow in earnestness. I'm

good with growing in faith. But how are you growing in your giving?

I want to give the demonstrate my love for and devotion to the Lord.

You know, as you come to the end. The Bible says that these

early Christians this is the first place that they were known as Christians. In

verse twenty six and in any the disciples were first called Christians. You know,

the word Christian there is like the Party of Christ. It was actually

a term. It's derogatory term. It was not used in a good fashion.

Actually, if you remember when Agrippa had Paul there before Rome, he

says, are you're going to persuade me to be a Christian? Essentially derogatory.

You're you're You're of the party of Christ. You're one of the ones

who follow Christ. It's not a good term. It was a bad term.

But yet this early church took something that was supposed to be looked upon

as looked down upon someone and made it into something that was wonderful. I

wonder today, how will you be known as a Christian? What is your

reputation? You know, at the end of your life. I think one

thing we see today this week with O. J. Simpson, at the

end of your life, your reputation will follow you the end of your life.

You're going to be known for your things or what you've done in this

life. And I don't know about you, but the end of my life

I want to be known as a Christian, as a follower of Jesus.

And Polycarp was a martyr, and the magistrate came before him. He was

about to die. It's kind of his last words. The magistrate came to

Polycarp was trying to get him to deny Jesus. Swear, he says,

Swear and I'll release you revolve Christ. And Paulycarps said, four score six

years I've been serving him and he's done me no wrong. How then can

I blasphem my king who saved me? The magistrate said again, swear by

the genius of Caesar. And Parlycarp says, if you vainly supposed I swear

by the genius of Caesar, as you say, you'll be ignorant of who

I am. Hear me plainly, I am a Christian. May our last

word to be I am a Christian, And may others know that we are

a Christian by our faithful witness, by our faithful teaching, by our faithful

devotion, and by our faithful giving. You pray with me, Lord,

We love you. We thank you Lord for your word today or our pray

that you lead us in a time of response. Now just be a time

that Lord, we surrender Lord, our will and our way to you.

Lord. So Lord, we thank you, Lord for this word. Lead

us now in time or response. In your name we pray Amen, Jesus,

pain and all to