The Whys of Want – Acts 11:27-30

If you can remember back 112 messages ago, my overall title for this series of messages was and still is:

“A doctrinal study of the Book of Acts.”

Yes, we are looking at every verse, and yes, we are trying to grasp the general chronology of the book,

But my original design was to take notice of the doctrines that lay behind the events and the sermons.

And in this in some ways the Book of Acts parallels the Book of Genesis.

Both books are about beginnings.

And both books are primarily historical in nature,

But every paragraph and every chapter introduce us to different things about the Lord.

And we might call these things “doctrines.”

These doctrines make up the foundation of who and what we are as believers and as Christians.

The four verses before us this evening are a perfect example of what I am talking about.

I’ve entitled this message “The Whys of Want.”

There were some prophets of God who came to Antioch from Jerusalem, warning that there was a famine on the way.

Okay then, what are the doctrines that involve famine?

What are the doctrines that involve prophets?

And what does the Bible teach about the Christian response to famine?

These things are doctrinal in nature.

Let’s start with the WHY OF FAMINE.

Based upon what the Bible teaches about the Lord, I have to believe that Jehovah governs the weather patterns of the world.

Sure Satan, the Prince of the Power of the Air, may think that a tornado or hurricane might be useful in destroying the building of some little Baptist church and disheartening its members,

But I don’t believe that the Devil can stir the winds without my Lord’s approval.

I know a church in Minnesota that was completely demolished by floods on the Red River a few years ago,

So much so that it had to abandon its property and move to a new location.

I can imagine that there were some members who blamed Satan for that flood,

And that may be true, but the Bible teaches that those floods came through the permission of God.

This being true, that the Lord Jesus permitted the dearth or famine referred to here,

Should or shouldn’t we probe the question: “why”?

Probably for those people who were forced to suffer in the midst of this want, they asked “why?”

If you were an elderly widow living in Jerusalem and this famine forced the price of bread beyond your means to pay, you might ask why God permitted it.

But there are lots of problems in asking “why?”

The primary reason is that it’s very unlikely that the Lord is going to give anyone a clear answer.

And that leaves us with an almost unlimited number of suppositions.

The chewing and re-chewing of all those suppositions has the potential of poisoning the chewer.

Maybe the Lord was punishing the church in Jerusalem for her lack of missions or some other sin.

Maybe instead of using all their earlier income they had invested it against future famines.

Or maybe this dearth was an expression of Satan’s hatred against the church.

Or perhaps some Christian was hiding terrible sins, and there was some kind of Jonah on board.

Maybe the famine was designed to get Claudius Caesar’s attention.

Maybe it was to punish the Jews and had nothing to do with the church or any Christians at all.

Then again, perhaps the famine in Palestine had more of a purpose for the saints in Antioch, Asia and Achaia than for those left in Jerusalem.

As I’ve often said, when things take place in our lives, good or bad, our question should NOT be “why.”

Our question ought to be “What should I do about this?” or “What is the Lord trying to tell me?”

If our apple tree has produced lemons, then this is the year to make lemonade rather than cider.

And if our boat comes in, then we need to ask the Lord what He wants us to do with the profits.

What is the why of this want? I can’t answer that question.

Well then, what about the WHY OF PROPHETS.

“And in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.

And there stood up one of them named Agabus,

And signified by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world:

Which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.”

One of the commentaries that I read on this verse stated that . . .

The word “prophet” speaks about an office with a variety of responsibilities,

The FIRST of which was to forecast the future.

One of the privileges of MY office is that I get to voice my disagreement with people smarter than I am.

I think that the word “prophet” speaks about a Biblical office with a variety of responsibilities,

The first of which is to put a voice to the Word of God.

And in SOME cases, that involves the foretelling of the future.

But the majority of the time it is only preaching what the Lord has already revealed.

When Acts 13:1 says that “there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers,”

That doesn’t necessarily mean any of them were “seers” as the word is used in the Old Testament.

It could only mean that they were preachers of the Word.

Whatever and whoever else there were in Antioch, Agabus and his friends had been given the authority of God to reveal the future.

But that leads us back to the why question.

Why doesn’t God send an angel to tell us that there will be neither rain nor dew for the next 3½ years?

Or why doesn’t He give the same dream to six of us,

Telling us that in seven years from now there will begin a seven year famine

And that not a single crop will survive the heat and drought?

The Lord has done that in the past, hasn’t He?

Why doesn’t the Lord tell the saints today about up-coming disasters?

In both those Biblical cases, as well as in this one, the Lord was teaching some important lessons.

The obvious one was that He controls creation and all its weather.

Then in one case the Lord was pointing out to Ahab that his idolatry was worse than foolishness.

And in the other case He was setting up Joseph as Prime Minister of Egypt.

So why was Agabus sent to Antioch?

In most circumstances, isn’t it better for the saint to live each moment in dependence upon God – not knowing what is going to happen next?

In the midst of prosperity, we need to live thankfully and generously,

Sharing our wealth with others and putting as much as we can into the work of the Lord –

Not knowing whether or not we are going to be laid off next week.

And in the days of adversity, we should be praying, “Our Father, which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Give us this day our daily bread.”

Is it easier to “trust in the Lord and lean not unto our own understanding,” when we are Ignorant of tomorrow or when we know that some disaster is going to fall on us?

In this case the famine wasn’t going to come to Antioch in the immediate future, so this wasn’t a warning to the people of Antioch themselves.

I think that in this case the information was sent in order to enlarge the hearts of these saints towards their brethren in Jerusalem.

This revelation was given by the Lord to teach these people that they had a responsibility to saints less fortunate than they were.

Isn’t this the lesson that we should see here?

Of course we have responsibilities toward the work of world-wide evangelism.

But don’t we also have responsibilities toward other Christians who are starving or struggling?

What other lesson could the Lord be trying to teach us here?

That leads us to the why of FAMINE RELIEF.

The Lord Jesus once said that we will always have poor people in this world.

I wonder if that includes the Millennium when the curse of sin will be removed?

Is poverty a result of the curse or does it have a deeper, broader source?

As we look around us today, I’d have to say that most poverty is directly related to the sins of man, the sins of both the poor man and in some cases the rich man as well.

But sin doesn’t keep the rain from falling.

So I don’t think that we can always blame poverty or want on the sins of men.

Anyway, the Lord said that we’d have the poor with us always, so sending them relief isn’t going to do-away with the problem.

But it is hard to argue that in this case the prophets were not sent by God to enlist the generosity of the wealthy saints of Antioch.

I think that humanly speaking, Agabus came to Antioch because the economy was strong there.

In Antioch there was money and produce available to send to Jerusalem.

So in a sense it was a calculated and practical move on the part of the church in Jerusalem.

And that church, with the growing Gentile membership responded magnificently.

“Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judaea: Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.”

Did the church dip into their deep coffers and simply write a church check to the First Baptist Church of Jerusalem? No.

The disciples, the members of the church freely gave of their own wealth and property to meet this need.

They gave according to the Biblical pattern:

Each man according to his ability and according to the desire that the Lord laid upon his heart.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some people gave sacrificially, while for others it was much easier.

Some might have given in faith, not knowing if they would have enough to make their mortgage for the next month.

Some might have given out of their savings and some might have given out their grocery money.

“And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.”

Why did they give? What prompted them?

Of course it was of the Holy Spirit, but what were the human reasons?

Perhaps they thought that since they had received of Jerusalem’s spiritual wealth, they owed them out of their secular wealth.

“For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.

It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things” – Romans 15.

Perhaps they reasoned that since they were brethren, they were family and family members support one another.

Perhaps they had a genuine love for the brethren, whether or not they had ever met.

Perhaps they felt that they were laying up treasure in heaven.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

Perhaps they reasoned that they were putting deposits into a spiritual bank from which they would probably draw some day when they were in trouble.

“Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.

The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth” – Ps. 41.

The people in Antioch were probably motivated by a variety of reasons, but they were united in what they actually did: they gave, and they gave generously.

Isn’t this the reason that the Lord included this information in His Holy Word?

Isn’t the Lord trying to tell us go and do likewise?

I teased you last week with the possibility of putting a date on this visit of Agabus to Antioch.

The more I read this passage the more convinced that I’m not so sure that we can be dogmatic, but there is some specific and useful information here.

Secular history tells us that Claudius Caesar reigned from 41 to 54 AD.

And we know that there were several famines during his reign.

The 1^st occurred in his first and second years and was primarily felt ln Rome.

A 2^nd famine struck in his fourth year, continuing for several years, greatly afflicting the land of Judea, and the history of that was recorded by Josephus and others.

A 3^rd famine is mentioned by Eusebius, beginning in A.D. 48 affecting Greece & Rome once again.

And then a 4^th famine, which took place in the 11^th year of Claudius, is mentioned by Tacitus.

From this we can be reasonably sure that Jerusalem was hit with this dearth about the year 45 A.D.

In other words, it occurred about fifteen years after the crucifixion of our Lord.

The problem is that this prophesy says that the famine hadn’t occurred as yet,

So we don’t know exactly when Acts 11 actually took place.

And we see that throughout Paul’s missionary journeys he was still collecting support for the impoverished saints in Jerusalem.

How many years passed between the first missionary journey and the third?

We don’t know for sure, so we can’t really be certain about timing of the visit of Agabus.

But this does help us to realize that at least ten years have passed between chapter 1 and chapter 11.

But again, the point of these verses is not to give us a time table, but to encourage us help to meet the needs of other saints besides ourselves.