Observations on Grace – Acts 11:22-26

As I said last Wednesday, I believe that Barnabas went to Antioch as a special missionary.

Earlier, there had been saints of God, who had left Jerusalem because of the persecution that was there,

And they had traveled all the way up the Mediterranean coast into the capitol city of Syria.

Despite the persecution against them, they were bubbling over with the gospel of the Lord Jesus,

“And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number” of Syrian Jews “believed, and turned unto the Lord.”

When news of God’s blessings came to the ears of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, Barnabas was ordained to make the 300 mile trip to Antioch to investigate and encourage the Christians there.

Have you been struck with the irony behind this?

Verse 19 says, “Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.”

Then verses 25 & 26 say: “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to seek Saul:

And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch.

And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people.”

If you will remember, the persecution which arose about Stephen and which drove these Christians to Antioch, was spearheaded by the man who is now one of their Bible teachers – Saul of Tarsus.

Isn’t the grace of God marvelous? Isn’t the grace of God miraculous?

The enemy is now a friend; yea, even more than a friend – a helper unto God.

When Barnabas first arrived in Antioch, he found some of his former friends from Jerusalem.

He may have stayed in their homes and began to visit some of their new Syrian acquaintances.

He might have arranged to have some public or private worship or teaching services.

Very quickly he began to see that the rumors heard back in Jerusalem were true –

The grace of God was moving hearts.

There were hundreds of people who hearing and believing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There were multitudes being born again and delivered from their sins.

And when Barnabas saw what was happening in these people, his heart exploded with joy.

The Greek word is “chairo” ( khah’-ee-ro ) which is usually translated “rejoice.”

Barnabas was so overjoyed and felt so at home with these new believers and his old acquaintances that he was in no hurry to return to Jerusalem.

Now we come to our theme for this morning:

Of all the different ways to group the people of the world together – and there are many –

We can group people according to the languages they speak, or the kind of government they have.

We can classify some people as 3^rd world and others as 1^st world.

There are Northern Hemisphere people and Southern Hemisphere people.

We can group people according to religion, or race, or nationality, or ethnicity.

There are urban, suburban and rural people; cultured and barbaric; technical and agrarian.

There are hundreds of different ways to classify the peoples of the world.

But of all the different kinds of people in the world, there is NO BETTER GROUP of people than true Bible-believing, Bible-living, born-again children of God.

True children of God, are saints of God, “sanctified and meet for the Master’s use.”

“Their citizenship is in Heaven, from whence they look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ.”

And that means that they are not as money-grubbing, world-clutching as the rest of humanity.

Christians know the love of the Lord and are therefore loving people themselves.

They are obedient to the command to love their neighbors.

Therefore they are the most kind and generous and gracious people on the face of the earth.

In fact true Christians are commanded to love their neighbors even more than themselves.

And then Christians have an infallible and uncompromising standard of morality,

Which means that their neighbors should know exactly what to expect from each of them.

And they can expect the very best.

Christians don’t lie, cheat or steal, or at least they shouldn’t.

And as they becoming more and more conformed to the image of God’s son,

These people not only know what sin is,

They hate it, shun it and fight against it both in their own hearts and in the world generally.

Real Christians are the salt of the earth and lights in a very dark and dangerous world.

They make the best citizens, best neighbors, best employees and best employers.

When Barnabas arrived in Antioch and saw what the grace of God was doing among the residents there,

He rejoiced and fell in love with them.

And the thing which made these people “rejoiceable” was the grace of Almighty God.

“When he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad.”

Let’s think about what it was that Barnabas observed on this trip to Antioch.

And let’s pray that if that good man visited Post Falls and Calvary Baptist Church that he’d observe the same thing among us.

It was the GRACE OF GOD that Barnabas observed.

By Biblical definition “grace” is something that gives joy, pleasure, and delight.

This is the original idea of the Greek word “charis” ( khah’-ee-ris ) .

For example, in Colossians 4:6 we read:

“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.”

What is this verse saying?

The exhortation of the Word of God is that your speech should always be flavored with joy, peace and kindness, because you are a child of the King.

Of the Lord Jesus it is said that the people “bare him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” – Luke 4:22.

Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”

In other words, speak in such a way that Christian joy is shared with others.

The word “charis” ( khah’-ee-ris ) refers to GOOD-WILL, LOVINGKINDNESS, and favor,

But here in Acts 11 it’s not just general run-of-mill kindness, rather it’s UNDESERVED kindness.

The writers of the New Testament use “charis” ( khah’-ee-ris ) primarily of that kindness by which God bestows His favors even upon ill-deserving sinners.

It is the kindness that grants to sinners pardon for their sin.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith.”

It’s this definition of grace that prompts us to think of it most often as “unmerited favor.”

It is said that there was a woman who wanted to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I.

She was able to sneak into in the queen’s bedroom and hide, carrying with her a knife,

But she didn’t realize that the queen’s servants always searched the room every night.

When the assassin was discovered she was brought before the throne.

Realizing that her situation was hopeless, she dropped to her knees and begged that the queen would have compassion on her.

Elizabeth said, “If I show you grace, what promise will you make for the future?”

The woman looked up and said, “Grace that hath conditions, grace that is fettered by precautions, is not grace at all.”

The queen caught the idea immediately and said, “You are right; I pardon you by my grace; you are free to leave.”

And the would-be-murderer walked out of the palace a free woman.

That is grace; unmerited favor and kindness.

But the grace of God is also a SPIRITUAL STATE OR CONDITION wherein we enjoy God’s unmerited favor.

When Philip and Sarah said, “I do” a couple of weeks ago they entered the state of matrimony.

Similarly, Christians live in a “state of grace.”

Listen to Romans 5:1-2:

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

The scripture says, “He that hath Christ Jesus, the son, hath life; but he that hath not the Son, hath not life, rather the wrath of God abideth on him.”

But in contrast to abiding under God’s wrath, those new Christians in Antioch were abiding in grace.

Have you ever spent a day working outside in really cold weather?

When you got home, you felt miserable, aching and tingling all over.

So you stepped into a really hot shower.

Standing in that shower is a poor illustration of standing in God’s grace.

Grace is also an EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE for God’s unmerited favor.

Listen to Romans 6:15-18:

“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”

The word translated “God be thanked” is “charis” ( khah’-ee-ris ).

Perhaps you can see that this use of the word is more common than you realized.

Paul said, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enable me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.”

The word “thank” in our Bibles is “charis” ( khah’-ee-ris ).

And that is why some people say “grace” before eating their meals.

So what was it that Barnabas saw in Antioch?

It wasn’t that he saw with his natural eye the actual grace of the Lord,

But he could see the outworking of God’s grace.

In some ways grace might be compared to GRAVITY or THE WIND.

It can’t be seen, but it can be felt and experienced.

It can’t be seen, but its effects very definitely CAN be seen.

What was it that Barnabas saw in Antioch?

He saw former ultra-fundamentalist Pharisees whom the Lord had delivered from their pride.

He saw former liberal Sadducees taught to worship the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth.

He saw former enemies serving God together in peace.

He saw people whose old-lives were dominated by a lust for wealth, or sports, or sin,

But who were now in love with the Lord, the Word of God, living in joyful obedience.

He saw people who were filled with thanksgiving for the new lives that they had been given.

He saw people who were sharing the good news of their new lives with others around them.

He saw people who were obviously living in a state of grace under the rule of the Lord Jesus.

He saw people who had abandoned their idols and who were serving the living God.

He saw people who were “living soberly, righteously and godly in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.”

So in some ways GRACE is something which CAN BE SEEN – and BARNABAS SAW IT.

Let’s say that there were two visitors who arrived in Antioch on the same day;

One was a member of the church in Jerusalem and one was a Chinese businessman.

How many of those two men would have recognized the grace of God?

Notice that verse 24 begins with the word “for.”

“For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.”

We could lawfully replace “for” with the word “because” and it would mean exactly the same thing.

Barnabas saw the grace of God in the saints at Antioch, and he exhorted them to cleave unto the Lord,

Because he was a good man and full of faith and the Holy Ghost.

When you were a child and someone picked on you, calling you some name;

When the bully called you “dumb” or “ugly,”

Did you ever reply with the childish standard “It takes one to know one”?

Well, in this case the reply really applies:

Only someone intimately familiar with the grace of God can see the grace of God in others.

That stranger from China, couldn’t recognize God’s grace.

Oh a stranger might recognize a former drug addict who isn’t on drugs any more.

And he might see that someone who is a better more honest and diligent employee than he was.

He might notice that this person is more cheerful than he was in the past.

But that stranger to grace will never perceive that it is because of God’s grace that those changes have occurred.

He will never realize that the new believer is a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Barnabas could see the difference between the chaff and the wheat; the real and the false,

And he knew the reason why.

Some people think that music and sound are only esthetic things; things related to beauty or appeal.

But sound is as much a matter of physics as emotion.

Sounds are created by vibrations or waves, transmitted on a molecular level from atom to atom.

Sounds can be sent through the air and picked up by the ear and other receiving devices.

They can also transmitted through water, wood and even metal.

The other day I stopped at a red light and a fancy little car pulled up beside me with some girls inside.

Someone had obviously invested in an expensive sound-system in that car.

And my car was actually vibrating and shaking to the pulse of the base notes coming from that car.

Perhaps some of you musicians have noticed that when the conditions are right, the plucking of one string on an instrument, can make another string start to vibrate and sing.

That was the sort of thing that Barnabas was experiencing:

His heart was in tune with the Lord,

And when he came to Antioch and heard the vibrations of the saints in that city,

The cords of his own heart started to vibrate.

“When he came, and had seen the grace of God, he was glad.”

BUT, what if he wasn’t as close to Christ as he should have been?

Do you suppose that a lesser man, even if he was another Christian, might have seen something else?

It might depend on whether he was a pessimist or an optimist.

How many Christians were there in that great city of Antioch? 100, 200, 500?

And what was the overall population of that city? 50,000, 100,000, 250,000?

What percentage of the population were Christians?

I suppose that someone might have wept over the relative scarcity of Christians in Antioch.

Then again, here is another more probable possibility:

What sort of doctrinal integrity do you suppose those unchurched, ungrounded Christians had?

Here were a bunch of Christians, but people who knew next to nothing about the Lord’s church, “the pillar and ground of the truth.”

Despite their salvation they might not have understood the doctrines of God’s free grace.

And how many of them were yet pre-tribulational, pre-millennialists?

The Christians in Antioch may have been praying for the gift of tongues, or trying to raise the dead.

How many of them had not yet learned that tobacco and marijuana were sinful and dishonouring to the Lord Who bought them because they destroy the body, the temple of the Holy Spirit?

How many of them still had problems with cursing or listening to ungodly music?

Perhaps I’m stretching the point, but the point is that it is unlikely that those new Christians were approaching doctrinal and moral perfection.

If Barnabas had been more pharisaical would he have been extremely critical with the Christians in Antioch?

So I ask the question: Are YOU a pessimist or an optimist?

Is the glass half empty or half full?

There are a great many, otherwise godly Christians who are much quicker at seeing other people’s problems than they are in spotting their potential or even their salvation.

They are far more quick to criticize people’s sin than to praise the Lord for His saving grace.

They would much rather try to pull the mote out of the other Christian’s eye than to listen to his testimony of the Lord’s salvation.

What was Barnabas looking for when he arrived in Antioch?

If you had been in his shoes what would you have seen?

Do you see opportunities to serve the Lord and glorify His name, or do you see a city hopelessly entrenched in sin?

Do you see doctrinal errors which you may or may not be able to correct, or do you see another brother in Christ with the potential of helping and blessing you?

Perhaps the problem is that you lack the grace of the Lord yourself?

Are you sure that you are a child of God – born again by the grace and omnipotence of the Lord?