Jesus 4 Everybody: A Movement of Nicknames

Continuing our series in Acts looking at the Holy Spirit. And before we read our passage, I want to give a little bit of an explanation. Some of you have asked me, why are we jumping around? Why aren't we going in order in Acts? Last week we were in chapter 15, this week we're in chapter 11. I'm going to give you two reasons.

One, I think it is helpful in looking at the Holy Spirit because we kind of know the way Acts flows and looking at His work in individual situations in a non-chronological way. One of my favorite movies is Dunkirk. I love it because it's about basically the retreat of the British forces out of the mainland in Europe, leading up to D-Day, this great victory for the Allies as they pushed into Germany. We all know how the story ends. So rather than telling the story in order, the director chose to film different things in different orders so that you focus on the tension that the characters felt in the moment. You don't know how their story is going to end. That's a really powerful and helpful way of telling that story and getting you to focus on those characters.

Here's the other reason: we didn't mean to. There have been circumstances. Matt Newkirk coming into town and his availability to preach caused us to shift things around—he wanted to preach on a different part of Acts than we were at. I was preaching at another church a couple weeks ago, so this passage would have naturally fallen when I was off preaching somewhere else. And obviously, with Jeff's dad in that situation, that's caused us to shift some things around as well. That's the real reason.

Let's look at God's Word together. Let's look at Acts 11:19-30. To put this into context, think back to when we looked at Peter and Cornelius. That has just occurred and Peter has given his explanation for what he feels has gone on with the Holy Spirit to the church back home and everybody is rejoicing over the spread of the gospel to the God-fearing Gentiles. Now we're going to read Acts 11, which picks up there.

Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose. For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year, they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians. Now, in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and one of them named Agabas stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. This took place in the days of Claudius. So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. — Acts 11:19-30

Lord God, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the opportunity to look at it together. We pray that you would illuminate it to our hearts and our minds just as you have inspired Luke, the author, to write it. Lord, would we hear the message that you intend for us to hear and would Jesus be made more beautiful and would we become more like Christ because of our time with your Word? We pray this in His name. Amen.

Presbyterians and the Holy Spirit

I want to say something about Presbyterians and the Holy Spirit. A lot of times, I think Presbyterians like to talk about how we really don't know anything about the Holy Spirit. Have you picked up on that? We're not really considered the foremost authority on that person of the Godhead. And I think that's because a lot of times we have trouble with emotions. I think people kind of associate being filled with the Holy Spirit with an emotional response. And I think that's appropriate—I actually think the Holy Spirit does evoke certain emotions in us. But I want to point this out by way of defending us, if I may. I have been to three separate churches this summer. All of them Presbyterian.

All three of them were doing sermon series on the Holy Spirit. I've also sat in on a lamp seminary class that has been on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. I have listened to countless seminary professors talk about the importance and value of the Holy Spirit. And I've been reading B. B. Warfield who talked about John Calvin as the theologian of the Holy Spirit. So I think there's something about our tradition that historically we've gotten the Holy Spirit and we want to know more about the Holy Spirit. We want to engage with the Holy Spirit.

I think we can be self-deprecating and I think that's appropriate to some degree, but I want to point out that the early church and even Presbyterianism as a tradition has had a rich and beautiful understanding and application of the Holy Spirit. Now, here's where I want to be a little critical. I think we get it but we don't get it and we don't really live it. And I think that's where our self-deprecation about our understanding of the Holy Spirit is appropriate.

I think it's very uncommon for us, for people in our church, for me specifically, to live as though the Holy Spirit is real and alive and active and inside of me. Most of the time, I wake up in the morning and I think about all the things that I'm going to do, all the things I have to do, the challenges I'm facing—not about what the Holy Spirit is doing. I don't tend to think in those categories. And that way of thinking is foreign to the book of Acts. And I hope that as we go through the series, you'll see that and our thinking can start to shift.

The trajectory of the book of Acts as we've looked at is there's this kind of multiple moments of Pentecost, right? Jeff has talked about Acts two and ten. I think you could argue there's another one in eight. I think you could argue there's another one here in chapter 11 where essentially the spirit is being poured out progressively more and more onto more people and in more powerful ways in a way that is spreading the gospel and the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth.

Now, we used to be a part of a group called Acts Twenty-Nine that has fallen under scrutiny because of a lot of misbehavior of leaders within that group, but the concept of that name, Acts 29, was simply this: that Acts didn't end, that it's still going, that the work of the Holy Spirit is still continuing. Did you hear that just a minute ago? Because Maggie and Forrest are experiencing that. At the ends of the earth—as far away from us as you can get. And yet they're seeing the Holy Spirit at work through regular everyday conversations in their life. And that is what's going on with us. And if we shifted our mindset, I think if we could think like that—that when we wake up, what is the Holy Spirit going to do?—I think that would be an incredible change and a powerful change for our church.

Two Focal Points

There's two things that I want to look at in this passage and there's a lot going on. I'm not going to get to all of it. AV Harvey was asking me before the service. He says, how are you going to connect this last part? I'm going to connect it but I'm going to brush over some things. I really want us to focus on two things in this passage. I want to look at Antioch first and then I want to look at Barnabas. Antioch and Barnabas.

Now, obviously, there's a bunch of other things in this passage that we could look at. We could look at Paul. We could talk about him, his role in this. We could talk about Agabas and the prophecy and the collection for the offering of Jerusalem and I'm going to talk about those things briefly, but I really want to focus on Antioch, the place, and Barnabas the person.

Antioch: The Place

So, first of all, Antioch the place. Let's look at how it is that the gospel came to be in Antioch. Did you notice it? In verse 19 at the beginning? It wasn't because James and Peter were sitting around having a strategy session in Jerusalem and they were like, "You know, there's this great city. Let's go get it, Antioch." That's not why. The reason that the gospel first went to Antioch is because the early Christian church was experiencing persecution. It was hardship. It was suffering that led for the gospel to expand.

I want you to think about this for just a minute. Saul has converted. The leader of this great resistance to the early Christian church has become a believer. That's what's happened in the previous chapters of this. It's miraculous. Like, okay, you might think at that point that the early Christians would get some relief, but they don't. And here's the story of church history: they never really do. Attacks from outside of the church or inside of the church continue century after century after century.

The Jewish persecution gives way to a Roman persecution that is very brutal. The Roman persecution gives way to a barbarian persecution that is even more brutal. If we follow the trajectory of history, we see that Christians are attacked again and again and again by the world. But more than that, there are challenges within the church. There are battles and fights within the church about preserving the Orthodox and true belief of the gospel. There are attacks from without. There are attacks from within, and it happens over and over again throughout centuries.

Until we get to our time, right now. The forces of darkness in this world—this present darkness—that's who we fight against. They are active in this world. They are constantly looking. Satan is constantly looking for a way to kick us somewhere where it hurts. Do you feel that?

I was telling a friend recently I said, you know, being in ministry in America used to be a lot of fun. Now it feels like the Bible described that it would be. It is increasingly felt like for me as a gospel minister that things are harder and harder. I'm pushing more and more uphill, and the attacks of this present darkness are becoming more and more clear to me. This summer, man, this summer has been hard for me. There was a sneak attack by Satan on my life that I did not see coming. That has hurt me far more than I think it should have. I thought I was tougher. I thought I could handle it. But he came along and he punched me right where it hurts. It has been a really hard summer.

Have you experienced anything like that? Where you're pushing forward, you're trying to advance the gospel either in your heart or your life or in the world around you, and it's like a battle. Jesus said it would be. That's not wrong or bad.

The Dark Forces Work for God's Purposes

So the first thing that I want you to see in this passage is that those dark forces in this world pushed against the early church, and the Holy Spirit took that push like a judo move and used it for his good purposes. Do you see that? The forces of darkness are at work in this world. They don't know it, but they're actually working for us and for our Lord.

Now let me just say this pastorally. We see time and time again in Scripture—because we're able to look back, and it's easy to look back on the hardships that the people of God have faced—that He has twisted and used them for His good purposes. The ways that Satan has attacked, we can look back at. We can look at the cross even, and see how Satan's attack on Jesus Himself, which he thought was his greatest victory, God turned into his greatest defeat, right? Time and time again, we can look at passages of Scripture like that.

It doesn't make it any easier when you're in the middle of it. Often, when you are suffering, when you're struggling, and you don't see the end of the story, it's like being in the movie Dunkirk. It's like, I don't see how this is going to work out for good. That's what the summer has felt like for me.

And yet, the gospel and the Bible teaches this truth again and again: that we have a confident hope. He who gave up His Son, will He not also give us all things? And so we can walk through hardship with a confident hope—not in knowing what is going to happen, not in knowing specifically the immediate outcomes, but knowing the ultimate end of the story. Knowing ultimately who our God is and what He's doing. Knowing that the Spirit is actually at work in the world and that He hasn't given up or left us. Knowing that Jesus died for us—for us, who are sinners—and that if He did that, He's not going to let us go.

Whatever suffering or hardship we're facing as a church or you as an individual, I want you to be reminded that God is going to use that. I don't know how. I'm not going to pretend that it's easy. But I know that He's at work. And I think a part of engaging with the Holy Spirit is an understanding of that sovereign control over all things and His ability to take every attack of the enemy and use it against him.

The Surprising Crew at Antioch

I also want you to look at Antioch. There's a surprising crew that leads to the conversion of the city. Did you notice that? It's not one of the 12. It literally starts out by talking about these random dudes from Cyprus and Cyrene. They just decided instead of just preaching to the Jewish people in the area, we're going to try preaching to the Hellenists. We're going to try the gospel out on some people that, really, we don't know if that's going to work.

And the thing I want you to understand—I think it's easy to look at Antioch and go, that was a strategic move for the Holy Spirit to move the church in there. And we'll talk about that. It was. But it's also like, that was a really hard place to go if you're going to preach the gospel. Think about that.

When they're preaching the gospel to Jews, they're at least on the same page theologically about who God the Father is. They have a common heritage and a common understanding of good and evil and how morality works in the world. Now, all of a sudden, they're talking to people who worship multiple gods and believe all kinds of wrong things about morality, and they're saying, "Hey, let me tell you about Jesus." And they're like, "Well, is this going to work out?"

I want you to see that this was incredibly unlikely. It's an incredibly unlikely field for a harvest and an incredibly unlikely crew that's doing it. Random dudes from Cyprus and Cyrene just decide to do this. What I want you to see is that the Holy Spirit often works in surprising ways—both in terms of where he goes and who he uses.

There are some of you sitting in this room today thinking, "The Spirit can't use me in that way. I'm broken. I'm really messed up. I'm not trained. I'm not really one of the ones that can do this sort of thing." One of the things I love about the Hoffmans—Forrest and Maggie—is that Forrest graduated and said, "You know what? I got an engineering degree and I'm going to go where I think God's called me to go." I'm not saying everybody should go to China. But Forrest was like, "I don't really know how God's going to use me. I don't have a degree from Reformed Theological Seminary or anything like that, but I've hung out with the church and I've experienced the grace of God, and I want to go somewhere really unlikely, far away, where he can work." And Maggie's like, "I'm going with you. I can't wait."

The Holy Spirit is always pressing people who are unlikely to go out, and he's always pressing them into unlikely places, and he's always at work in those places. Always.

The result of this, of course, is a very strategic move for the church. Antioch, as we will discover as we go through Acts, is probably the most strategic place the church could have gone next. I studied Roman history in college, and one of my Roman history professors was always fond of pointing out the importance of the city of Antioch. It was the third largest city in the empire—Rome, then Alexandria, then Antioch. But Antioch was more important than Alexandria because Alexandria was on the edge of the empire. He would always say, "If all roads led to Rome, most of them went through Antioch on the way." It was a hub, especially in the Eastern part of the empire, and it was an incredibly diverse place with people from all over the world, including Persia, outside of the empire. Strategically, it was the place for the church to go if it was going to reach the ends of the earth. And they didn't figure that out on their own. They went there by suffering with random dudes, and the Holy Spirit worked.

My experience in twenty years at this church is that it has been random people that have shown up that God has used in profound and amazing ways. That is the story of this church. Every day I wake up and think, "This felt mundane back then. This feels mundane now. But I wonder how it will feel in ten years. I wonder what it's going to feel like when Maggie and Forrest come back and tell us about what God's been doing in China." Man, that's exciting, isn't it? Or Matt Newkirk in Japan? Or any of the other people that have gone out from this church to do amazing things?

It didn't feel like a big deal, and it didn't feel like it was really special people. But it was the special work of the Holy Spirit through those people. Every day he's doing something in this church that one day will be revealed, just like Dunkirk. It all comes together in the end for what he was up to.

You notice too the strategic nature of it in terms of Agabus and his prophecy. There was going to be a need in Jerusalem. It wasn't just that the gospel was spreading for the people out there. It was also spreading for the people in the inner circle—the people in Jerusalem, the insiders of the church. There is always a blessing to the gospel going forward, and the Holy Spirit is using all of that.

Barnabas

Now, let's talk about Barnabas. Barnabas is one of my favorite people in the book of Acts. I think he is way underrated. We need to talk about Barnabas way more than we do.

Barnabas, by the way, was not his real name. Did you know that? If you go back to Acts chapter four, his real name is Joseph. The early church was really fond of nicknames. Peter wasn't really Peter—he was Simon. Paul was Saul first. James and John were known as the Sons of Thunder. In fact, I joke with my kids: "Peter, James, and John—I gave you names that will lay the foundation for you to have a career in Christian professional wrestling because they have the nicknames: The Rock, The Sons of Thunder."

Barnabas gets a different nickname, Son of Encouragement. And at first glance, that feels like a wimpy name. But I want you to understand it's not. It is not a wimpy name. The word that Luke uses in chapter four to explain the translation of Barnabas, son of encouragement, is the Greek word parakaleo. Now, we're familiar with that term in this church because we have a parakaleo team, right? The women who come alongside the session and serve the body and come alongside the body. But that's what that word means. Parakaleo means encouragement. It's one of the ways that it gets translated but let's dig a little deeper on the word because there's a play on the word in this passage.

In verse 23, the word exhorted is also the word parakaleo. Exhorted sounds a little bit more Christian wrestler-ish than encouragement, right? Like, son of exhortation, right? So you could translate it that way and the play on words is in 23, it's like the apostle sent the son of encouragement to encourage and he encouraged the church at Antioch, okay? So this is the same word. I just want you to see that. But that word appears in many places in scripture and many important places in scripture that it's important to understand some of the other English words that we've used to translate it.

For example, in John 16, Jesus talks about sending a helper, an advocate, a comforter. Who is that? Say it loudly, we're in a big auditorium. Holy Spirit. Good job, class. The Holy Spirit, the subject of our study, right? So there's a certain sense in which the apostles who heard Jesus say, "I'm going to send the Paraclete," his nickname for the Holy Spirit. They give this nickname to Barnabas, son of the Paraclete, son of the comforter, son of comfort. There's a connection between what they understand to be the work of the Holy Spirit and what they see playing out in Barnabas' life. It's like they're calling him a little spirit. You're a little spirit. You're doing what the spirit does. And so I think that there's something very important for us to see in what Barnabas does and how he operates in his life that is an important part of understanding who the Holy Spirit is.

Barnabas, the son of comfort, okay. So we've talked about the Greek. Now I want to talk about the English. That word comfort and work backwards. Because here's the thing, that word has lost its original meaning for us. Comfort is a different word than it used to be. The Latin root for comfort is cum forte, with strength. With strength. And I want to break that down a little bit because when they talk about Barnabas being the son of comfort and him comforting or exhorting the church at Antioch, I think that's very instructive for how we are to be, how we are to expect that the spirit works in and through us.

The Incarnational Nature of Comfort

And so notice, with the cum part of comfort. With. There is a concept of incarnational ministry that's present here. They didn't send a letter to the church at Antioch. Although later, apostles would do that, right? They always start with a person. Barnabas comes to be with the saints at Antioch, not just to send them a message. It's not just about truth and gospel ministry. The work of the Holy Spirit is never just about delivering a message. It's about connecting people who are surrounded and connected by that message. Do you see that?

And the word with, I want you to understand that. It's less about just being a mere presence but there's also a sense of advocacy, right? The Holy Spirit is called the advocate. Like, it'd be like if I were about to take a hill as a military person. I'm a cavalry person. I don't know. I'm riding up a hill and you all are with me. Are we going to take this hill? Are you with me? Right? There's a sense of force. Barnabas is coming and he is for the church of Antioch. And we see that in Acts 15, our passage from last week, that he and Paul went to advocate for the Gentiles in Antioch. He advocated for Paul. He later advocates for John Mark with Paul. Barnabas is an advocate, a helper who is always for those around him.

Are we, as a church, expecting the Holy Spirit to connect us with other people in ways that make us with and for them? Are we engaging in close personal contact around this gospel message? I'm so thankful for Forrest and Maggie's testimony again because it highlights exactly what that looks like.

In our church, we're about to launch community groups. Community groups are a way in which we are with and for one another. We connect over the message of the gospel. We apply it deeper to our lives. That exhortation that Barnabas is doing in the life of this church is something that we need to do for one another. And it's something that we need to be constantly kind of thinking about—how do we press in to be with other people? Community groups are not just a meeting. They're a group of people who are living communal Christian life together. The way that the church at Antioch did.

The other thing that I see here is the word strength coming out of the word comfort. With strength comes his exhortation to the people to remain steadfast in the Lord. Do you see that?

Barnabas doesn't show up and say, "Hey, guys. I have good news for you. The apostles have sent you Barnabas, the son of comfort, to carry you." He's not giving them his own strength. He's not coming and being with them in his own strength. He's coming and being with them in the strength of the Lord. He's coming and reminding them of the gospel, constantly talking to them about the strength of the Lord Jesus, the power of the gospel that is for salvation—for the salvation of their souls. He's constantly applying that to them.

Do you notice that he's there for a year? It's a long time and a long process of constantly applying and thinking about what are the implications of the gospel message and who our Lord is that apply to our lives.

Now, that's the question that I want to ask you this morning. This is where I really want to press in. Is that gospel seeping into your expectations? Have you been steadfastly encouraged to remain strong in the Lord? Are you coming with your own weaknesses and trusting that the Lord God—that Jesus who was raised from the dead—is at work in and through you in powerful ways? Or are you trying to do the Christian life in your own strength? Are you trying to pull it off?

Years ago, we had a capital campaign because churches do capital campaigns. It was great. We raised a lot of money that ultimately allowed us to buy the building that we now use for office space and midweek ministry space. It allowed us to forward money towards all kinds of different initiatives that we were doing at the time as a church, and some of that money is still being used for those things.

Do you know what we called that capital campaign? We Can't. Because we didn't want to give the impression that we were raising money to do something in our own strength. Everybody told us that was the dumbest name ever. And maybe it was. But that's the beauty of the church. We don't preach ourselves. We don't preach our own strength. We don't talk about what we can accomplish. We show up and are with people, for people, pressing into places that are unexpected because we are unexpected people to be used by God. And our expectation is that somehow in our weakness, his strength will be made perfect.

Is that how you wake up?

The Holy Spirit: With You and For You

I want to shift our gaze just in conclusion, and I'm wrapping up. Shift our gaze off of us and onto the Spirit himself.

I think as I said at the beginning, Barnabas gives us some insight into who the Holy Spirit is. We can think about what he did and say, "Hey, we should be like Barnabas. He's like the Holy Spirit, and we should be like the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit's constantly pointing us to Jesus, and we should be like Jesus. We could talk about all of that and we have. But I also want you to see the beauty of who the Holy Spirit is in this passage.

God sent his Spirit to be with and for you. You don't wake up in the morning and have to face all of the attacks of the enemy yourself. You have the power of God living within you, and every day He is making moves to take the attacks of the enemy and make them for you. Every day He is groaning before the Father for you. He is always with and for you. The Holy Spirit is present in your life. Wake up in the morning and know that you're not alone.

Secondly, He is strong. He is strong. He is the very God of the universe who has been sent to be with and for you. It is not some weak link little guy from Jerusalem. It is not some foolish, bumbling guy that grew up in Miami and Asheville. It is not any human that God has sent to be with and for you. Only He has sent His Spirit who is powerful to accomplish the purposes that you have been called to. Wake up and know that. What a beautiful gift that the Holy Spirit is.

Let me tell you how I have been realizing that, and this is the last thing. I've been battling depression for the last four months. Part of it has been some of the stuff I've been going through this summer. Some of it has been, I think, sadness from COVID times that I just pretended didn't impact me, and now they're catching up. I don't think I have chemical depression. I'm not taking any medicine. But I'm really sad. And I have been really sad for about four months. And it's been really hard to wake up in the morning and face that.

But here's what I've been learning through this. I've been surrounded by people who've been pointing me to passages of Scripture that have reminded me that Jesus himself, when He was in this broken and fallen world, spent a lot of time being sad. Initially, it was really hard for me to admit that I was sad, but someone in this church, a member of my community group, rebuked me. They rebuked their pastor. Can you imagine?

They rebuked me and said, you need to be honest about this because it's not about you. It can never be about you. What a freeing rebuke.

Since then, I've talked openly about this and people have encouraged me. I have received encouragement after encouragement, and I've realized: I'm not the only one who's depressed in this church. Jesus, who was sad over the brokenness of this world, has greeted all of us who are depressed in the place where he is. When he looks at this earth and he sees all the fallenness, he is brokenhearted. The spirit connects us to him and groans on our behalf. When we're sad, we're not alone. The spirit is with us.

As I've spoken about my depression, I've seen God use that. That's probably not surprising—I shouldn't have been surprised by it, but I was. In my weakness, God's strength is made perfect. It wasn't me who did this. I just testified to the sad state of my existence, and the spirit showed up and used that to encourage other people.

Come, Holy Spirit. You're with us, you're for us, and you're strong because you're God. You connect us to our loving Savior Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead and has been given all power and authority over the present darknesses that we face. CTK, be encouraged. The Holy Spirit is alive and at work in this church.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for how you have sent your Spirit, that you didn't leave us alone. Lord, you who were the original comforter sent another comforter to enhance our comfort, to apply it, to make it even greater. Lord, that's how much you loved us. Lord, would you continue to be with us and for us and to strengthen us? Lord, do amazing things through this weak congregation. Do amazing things that when we look at them and consider who's doing them and what weakness they're doing it in, Lord, we can do nothing but sing praise and give honor and glory to you. Lord, as our capital campaign said, we can't, but Lord, you can. So Lord, would you work powerfully through our church? We pray this in your name. Amen.