Lechem Panim #171 “The Church Within A Yard of Hell” (Acts 11:19-21) Pastor Cameron Ury

​Hello and welcome to Lechem Panim! You will remember that back in chapter 8 of the book of Acts, following Stephen’s murder there was a great persecution that broke out against the Christian Church. Well, our passage today in chapter 11 describes in further detail what happened in the wake of that persecution. And you’ll also recall that Saul of Tarsus led a monumental persecution against the Church in Jerusalem, causing the fellowship there to be driven out and scattered abroad. And it says in…

Acts 11:19a (ESV)— 19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch,…

The Scattering— Some of them went to Samaria (8:5, 25); some went to Caesarea (8:40; 10:24ff.), and others fled to places like Damascus (9:10), Lydda, Joppa, and Sharon (9:35–36). But while Christians are being driven into those regions, in the north (among the Gentiles) a church was also being established by displaced Jews who made their way to the coastal region of Phoenicia immediately north of Judea. Tyre and Sidon were two cities located in this region. And from here these Jews could take a ship for Cyprus, a major island sixty miles offshore. And from here they could continue up the coast to the city of Antioch, which was about 200 miles north of Sidon. But keep in mind that these Jews do not yet know that the Gospel has been made available to the Gentiles because they had fled Jerusalem before that had happened. And so they are still very nationalistic in their view of salvation, which they still thought was only for the Jew. And so verse 19 says that they were…

Acts 11:19b-20 (ESV)— …speaking the word to no one except Jews. {But all that was about to change, as it says} 20 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.

The First Gentile Church— Now these men of Cyprus and Cyrene were Greek-speaking Jews who were from predominantly Gentile areas. They themselves were Hellenists and were therefore more open to sharing their faith with Gentiles than Palestinian Jews were during that time. And so out of their outreach the first Gentile church was born in Antioch.

Antioch— Now Antioch was a major ancient metropolis in the first century world. The only other two metropolises that were bigger during that time were Rome and Alexandria. And so Antioch was a very significant city; and was noted for its culture and its commerce, because you had many Roman trade routes that passed directly through it. And (as the Roman author Cicero described) it was a place of learned men and liberal studies. However, it was also a despicably evil place, full of pagan worship and sexual immorality, which often is intimately tied to pagan worship. The temple of Daphne was only five miles from there, where open prostitution took place. And so it was a very dark place, certainly not where most people would want to start a Church. But you know, it is the dark places of the world that need the Church the most.

Within A Yard— I love this quote by C.T. Studd. He said “Some want to live within the sound Of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop, Within a yard of hell.”

The Basic Gospel— Now what interests me about that quote is that it assumes the Church/chapel is in the safe place; the place where we in our day and age often want to build our churches; the clean places. But here in the first century, the earliest churches often were those rescue shops built within a yard of hell. And the early Christians were therefore constantly coming into contact with broken, abused, and disenfranchised people; people who (think about it) had no framework for understanding what a Jewish Messiah could have to do with them to begin with. And so these Hellenists who were sharing their faith in this Gentile region had to start with the person of Jesus; His identity as the Son of God, the facts concerning His life, His death and what that meant for them as people in need of a Savior, and His resurrection. Now this is important for us to note because many times we are tempted to think that (because we aren’t great theologians) we are not very well suited to sharing the Gospel. We think “somebody else will get this person because I’m not qualified”; when the reality is that the amount of theology you know (even if you just know the basic tenets of the Gospel) is actually pretty monumental. What little you think you have to offer is actually an abundance to somebody bound to paganism and therefore to a hopeless view of the world. Even just the Christian songs you may have already listened to today probably have enough good theology in them to forever change the lives of people if you are only willing to share it.

Music & Spiritual Warfare— And Satan knows that by the way, which is why anywhere Christian music is played, he tries to interfere. My wife and I know a lady who owned a business that had music playing in the background. And there were always pagan songs playing; and I mean literally pagan songs. But one day one of her employees changed the music to Christian music and immediately this lady reacted and said, “We don’t want to offend people.” And so she switched it right back to her pagan music. Now she never saw the disconnect. It it is pagan, that’s fine. If it praises Buddha, Krishna, or any other pagan deity, that’s fine. But the moment it becomes about Christ, Satan moves in to attack. Because one Christian song has the power to forever change the course of someone’s life. You know enough theology (enough of the Gospel) to bring a revival to your area like nothing you’ve ever seen before. And let me tell you, as scary as those Daphne temples were in that culture; and the dark places here in and around our city are, none of them can even hold a candle to the power of the Gospel.

Paper Tigers— Many years ago Jaci Velasquez (in her very first album) wrote a song called Paper Tigers, the words of which are very moving and powerful. And what she was saying in that song was that the worst Satan had to offer (and what all her worries and fears were based on) were only paper tigers, paper tigers that only looked scary, but which would fold over and fall in a second at a mere puff of the breath of God. And let me tell you, the worst Satan has to offer cannot stand in the face of the power of God at work in you. And there are gates of hell in your city that rattle every time you get up in the morning to brush your teeth; gates that shake as you pull into your place of work; gates that are within a hairs breadth of collapse if only you are willing to walk over and (in the name of Jesus) push them over. Jericho falls every day at the hands of obedient Christians. And that is what we see happening right here in the church at Antioch, as it says in…

Acts 11:21 (ESV)— 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

Spreading Like Wildfire— Now nothing could have prepared the Jerusalem Church for what happened in Antioch. Yes, prior to this you had the conversions of the Ethiopian eunuch and of Cornelius and his household. But here in Antioch the Gospel was spreading on a much larger scale; and it was spreading like a wildfire. And that makes sense; because it is in those areas that are most devoid of the Gospel; those areas that are most pagan that are also those areas that are the most starving and desperate for something more.

A New Diet— I want you to imagine going to a restaurant. Imagine that for all of your life, every time you sat to eat at this (or any) restaurant, you were served only dry, overcooked, taste-less, freezer-burned mystery meat. Now you might not complain, if that is all you ever knew. But what it something new was offered to you one day? Well that’s kind of what it was like in the religious world of Antioch. For these pagan gentiles, hearing the Gospel for the first time was like their sitting at their table in front of a plate of the only thing they had ever eaten; dry mystery meat. And then (out of nowhere) a Christian sits down next to you and when the waiter brings their plate, you see that says it contains a large marinated salisbury steak complete with buttered mashed potatoes and a fried onion blossom. And then the Christian eats it in front of you. And you see all love and joy written on their face. Imagine how the your eyes would widen; how your mouth would water. And then imagine the joy of having the Christian then turn to you half-way through and say, “Hey, my order was bigger than I thought it was going to be. Here, could you help me eat some of this?” and suddenly replace your plate of dry mystery meat with their plate of salisbury steak. Well, that is what it was like for these pagans to first encounter the message of the free gift of salvation offered to them in the name of Jesus. It wasn’t until Christians offered to them the hope of salvation in and through Jesus Christ that they realized that what they had been living on wasn’t even fit for dogs. You might say they were experiencing the fulfillment of…

Psalm 34:8 (NIV)— 8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

The fall of the gods— They had tasted Christ and suddenly knew what they had been missing. And it would not be long before Christianity would spread beyond Antioch and overtake all of the Roman Empire. And the worship of most of these pagan gods would fall to the point where now most of the names of these pagan gods your average Joe doesn’t even recognize; and those names that might be familiar to people tend to be (when you think about it) assigned to their animals rather than to their children (with few exceptions, such as Daphne). But in general, we call our dogs Zeus or Apollos or Hercules, but we call our children Paul, John, Peter, Rebeka, Kristie (Christ), or Jeremiah (or Jeremy), or Michael. You might say that the pagan gods of that time Yahweh not only wiped out, but profanes daily on the collars of our pets. Now God has a sense of humor; I truly believe that. But this joke God meant to be a running joke. And with that in mind, I’d just like to say, “May it be on the collars of the dogs of our children, our grandchildren, and our great-grandchildren that the pagan gods of our time might one day find their proper place as a result of our decision to (in our time) offer hungry souls something infinitely better. That’s what these Jewish Christians did for these gentiles, and the Church therefore began exploding with this huge influx of gentile believers. And may that encourage us to this week share the Good News of the Gospel; the salisbury steak of the Gospel with someone who may be starving for it and not even know it. Bring them then Jesus so that they also may taste and see that the Lord is good. Let’s do so. Amen.