Good News! - Sermon on Acts 11:19-30

Good morning!

We begin a new series this morning based on our Theme for the year – Back to the Future. Our key text for this theme is Acts 11:19-30, so if you’ll turn there with me in your Bibles...

“Now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When we arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) The disciples each according to his ability decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.”

May God bless to us the reading of his Holy Word.

Let us pray. Father may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable and bring you honour and glory. Thank you for your word to us this morning. In Jesus name Amen.

This text teaches us about a church that is vibrant and growing. A church where there is evidence of the grace of God. A church where there is solid teaching and encouragement during a difficult time. A church that reached out to others, that was generous and trusted God with their best. And all of this began because some men from Cyprus and Cyrene decided that this news about Jesus was so good, they couldn’t keep it in house any longer – they couldn’t only tell the Jews, and so travelling to Antioch they begin telling this news to the Greeks who live there too and a Church grew – a church so dynamic that they were called Christians. Little Christ’s.

And so we will be unpacking this text, and unpacking phrases within this text over the next few weeks to understand what God was doing among them. We have looked at our four words of Worshipping, Missional, Dynamic and Authentic – and now we are starting to look at the different phrases you see on the banner at the back of the Church – the Banner that reads, Called Christians and Remain true and God’s grace, and Believe and turn…

This morning however I want to focus on the phrase “Good news” that was preached to them. Verse 20 reads:

Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.

 The word Gospel is also translated as good news – and throughout the New Testament is used around a hundred times.

We hear of Jesus preaching the Good news of the kingdom, at Jesus birth the angels declare Good news of great joy for all people, Mark begins his gospel by saying that he’s writing the gospel about Jesus Christ the Son of God. And throughout the epistles we are told that the Good news is about peace through Jesus who is Lord of all, and that the Gospel is the power of God to bring salvation to all.

But what is this Gospel? And why is it good news?

Chuck Colson, a Christian writer and man who did incredible work in the prisons of America, wrote that at a convention he was attending, primarily with others in Christian leadership, he asked the question to the table he was sitting at – What is the Gospel? And was shocked that very few of them could actually articulate it. You will often hear stories of missionaries or evangelists who travel somewhere say by plane, and on the journey strike up a conversation with the business man sitting next to them – and share the gospel… And we all smile and say that is wonderful – but have you stopped to consider – what did he actually say? How did he unpack this gospel for the person sitting beside him?

At Emmanuel we have taught this many times. In 2013 we ran the “Just walk across the room” course, which taught a way to explain the Gospel in simple terms, in the new members course and in confirmation we look at the Gospel according to Joe, a cartoon that many of you will know with God offering a relationship and Joe choosing his own way, but then a cross bridging the gap and allowing Joe to come back into that relationship, we’ve also had many children’s addresses that explain using different coloured cardboard or beads for the Gospel.

In Scripture – Paul unpacks the Gospel in 1 Corinthians 15 saying:

Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ² By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

³ For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.

Peter, in his very first sermon preached on Pentecost Sunday – preached the Gospel like this:

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man  accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. ²³ This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men,^[d]put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.³³ Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

And throughout Acts, whenever you read what the disciples spoke of, they speak of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

And so each Sunday, we stand here, and we preach the Gospel. We speak of the cross and why it was important, we speak of the life of Jesus and how he is God, we speak of the resurrection as the central truth to all we hold onto and believe.

And so the good news is that God – the God Almighty, became one of us, to do what we could not do. He made a way for us to know Him and be in relationship with Him – in spite of our sins, in spite of our brokenness, in spite of the filth of the world… he loves us so much, that he took that on to Himself, and all the punishment that deserves. So that we, believing in Him, recognising Him as Lord, might be free from sins power, and from death.

And there are three elements I want to look at this morning just to emphasise why this is really good news, in fact, why this is the best news you will ever hear. I desperately want this to be real in our lives. It can be so easy to say and hear the right words, words like salvation and eternal life and freedom from sin, and yet never actually equate them to how that practically changes my life or my community. How is my Christianity good news for me… How has this good news that I know, impacted those around me?

Firstly it means that God has not forsaken us.

We have not been abandoned. No one in the world has ever been abandoned. God, who created you, who formed you personally in the womb of your mother, God has been with you and will be with you. If you look at the person next to you, God has been with them too. Always.

Our world is on a downward spiral. There is plenty bad news which tends to only get worse. Our country at the moment in fact is in a state of desperation and our leadership is failing. The world news simply carries stories of war and brokenness and heartache.

Where is God?

God has not abandoned us. God is in the midst of us. God suffers with us. God will make it right.

That is some really good news right there. While it may look hopeless – it is not. While it may look dark, there is always light. While the world throws muck and greed and deceit, we can remember that God was born in the muck of a stable, lived as a refugee because of the greed of a King, and was betrayed by the deceit of a friend.

The good news to tell to a lonely and scared world is that God is here. He has not forsaken us. And he has the power to put things right.

The second thing which builds on this concept, the second piece of good news – is that this does not depend on us. This offer of a new way of living, this offer of hope is not because we’ve earned it, or because we ticked the right boxes.

The Bible clearly tells us that it is while we were sinners that Christ died for us. Most Gospel presentations begin with God creating us for relationship with him, but we rejected him and went our own way, Romans 5:8 reads

“But God, demonstrates his own love for us in this, While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

In a world that drills the concept into our heads that everything we get is based on merit and work and achievement. You earn respect you don’t just get it. We have sayings like, ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’, or ‘You get nothing for nothing in this world’.  

And yet here is a love that is offered freely, a gift, because of who God is, not because of who we are.

And so in this world that is pushing us to perfection and getting it right all the time, and achieving the next thing and striving and getting and rushing and going…

Here, in this place, we say No. That’s not what this is about.

Here it is ok to be broken, to fail, to learn, to stumble, to stop striving and to simply be. Here you are loved. Here you are accepted. Here God does the work when we simply trust Him to do it. This is not about improving your self-esteem. This is not a self-help plan. This is coming to the place of admitting, We can’t do it. We can’t get it right. And that’s why Jesus died. That’s why it’s been done.

Take a moment to realise that nothing you can do (or you have done) will ever make God love you less, on the flip side, nothing you can do will make him love you more. You are loved.

And because we are loved we live differently. Our lives change because of what God does in and through us.

The good news is that God has not forsaken us. The good news is that this love isn’t earned, it’s given.

Finally – the Good news is that we now have purpose and meaning in our lives. Good news is made for sharing. The disciples in Acts 4 when brought before the religious leaders respond by saying:

“For we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard”

The men of Cyprus and Cyrene couldn’t keep this good news to themselves – in fact they couldn’t even keep it to the Jews, it was so good it needed to be told. And in doing so it changed an entire community.

The purpose we have, is to live lives of love. To love others enough to tell them Good news. To love others enough to serve them as Jesus did for us. To love others enough to see them as God sees them – and to live as a transformed community.

To finish then, I want to read a quote from John Piper. It just takes us back to the point that all of this is all about Jesus. The Good news is that Jesus came lived, died, and rose again to forgive us and reconcile us back to Him – John Piper simply expands on this and it is, I believe, a beautiful way to end.

"Forgiveness of sins and justification are good news because they remove obstacles to the only lasting, all-satisfying source of joy: Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is not merely the means of our rescue from damnation; he is the goal of our salvation. If he is not satisfying to be with, there is no salvation. He is not merely the rope that pulls us from the threatening waves; he is the solid beach under our feet, and the air in our lungs, and the beat of our heart, and the warm sun on our skin, and the song in our ears, and the arms of our beloved.

The words Jesus will speak when we come to heaven are: "Enter into the joy of your Master" (Matthew 25:21). The prayer he prayed for us ended on this note: "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory" (John 17:24). The glory he wants us to see is the "unsearchable riches of Christ." It is "the immeasurable riches of [God's] grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).

The superlatives "unsearchable" and "immeasurable" mean that there will be no end to our discovery and enjoyment. There will be no boredom. Every day will bring forth new and stunning things about Christ which will cause yesterday's wonder to be seen in new light, so that not only will there be new sights of glory everyday, but the accumulated glory will become more glorious with every new revelation.

The gospel is the good news that the everlasting and ever-increasing joy of the never-boring, ever-satisfying Christ is ours freely and eternally by faith in the sin-forgiving death and hope-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ.

May God give you "strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:18-19)."

I pray that as you go into your week – remember there is Good good news. Don’t keep it to yourselves.

Let us pray.