An Eye Witness Account
Tom Shrader walks through Acts 11, where Peter recounts his vision and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Cornelius's household as evidence that God had welcomed Gentiles into the church. Shrader draws on Barnabas as a model of Spirit-filled, good-natured character that God uses, arguing that integrity and fruit of the Spirit matter more than credentials. The sermon closes with a charge to believers to see themselves as ambassadors of reconciliation, carrying the Christmas message that God initiated and completed the work of reconciling sinners to Himself through Christ.
“God treated Christ at that moment like he was a sinner. He treats us now and forever as though we're righteous.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Acts
Recorded: 1999 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 1 hr 14 min
Themes: reconciliation, Holy Spirit, witnessing, integrity, fruit of the spirit, inclusion, ambassadors, Christmas, new believer, feeling unworthy, navigating conflict, struggling with prejudice, evangelist, mentor, young adult, questioning church tradition
Scripture: Acts 1:8, Acts 11:1-30, Acts 15:5, Deuteronomy 19:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 2 Corinthians 5:20, Philippians 3:20, Galatians 5:22-23
Theological Themes: pneumatology, missiology, gentile inclusion, ecclesiology, outpouring of the spirit, sanctification, biblical authority, atonement
Full Transcript
Introduction: The Book of Acts as a Book of Transition
Acts chapter 11. The verse on the screen is what we have identified as the key verse in the book of Acts: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and then you will be my witnesses" — and here is an outline of the book — "in Jerusalem, all of Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth." That is a perfect outline for the book of Acts.
The book of Acts is the story of what Jesus said would happen. He speaks in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, stating the truth but also, in a sense, prophetically, telling us this is what is going to happen — and indeed it does. The book of Acts records how this transition and this growth took place. We need to continually remember, as we study it, that it is a book of transition and a historical account of the expansion of the church. Consequently, as we come into a text like today's, we need to remember that what we see here is not necessarily the norm for us in all times and all places, but it was used by God in this process of transition.
Peter Confronted in Jerusalem
Acts chapter 11, verse 1: "Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard the Gentiles also had received the word of God." The first church was exclusively Jewish. They seemed to have some understanding that the gospel was to go out to the rest of the world, but as it begins to happen, it presents some difficulties in their thinking. The word comes back that the gospel is indeed on the move and that the Gentiles are hearing the word.
Verse 2: "When Peter came up to Jerusalem" — remember, he had been in Caesarea sharing the gospel with Cornelius and his family and spending some time teaching there — "those who were circumcised took issue with him." These are Jewish Christians. Make sure we understand that. They are Christians, but they are Jewish Christians, and they are upset with him. Here is the issue in verse 3: "You went to the uncircumcised men and you ate with them." You broke the kosher diet. You violated the Jewish rules and regulations.
If you keep your finger there and turn just a couple of chapters to the right, to Acts chapter 15, what you see is the church now having to deal with this very issue. The issue is whether a Gentile needs to become a Jew before becoming a Christian. Look at verse 5: "There were certain ones of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, and they stood up and said, 'It is necessary to circumcise them, to direct them to observe the law of Moses.'" That is exactly what we are seeing. These Jewish believers are saying they have no problem with God taking the gospel out to the world, but they believe the Gentiles need to become Jews first — that the two things cannot be separated, that the Gentiles are different from them and must become like them before the gospel applies to them. That is the core issue, and they confront Peter on it.
Peter's Orderly Account of the Vision
Verse 4: "But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence." Peter begins to share with them exactly what we studied last week. He does it in a logical, orderly sequence — that is the implication of the words used here. Literally, he begins at the beginning and takes these people through a precise, logical, factual explanation of what happened. They say he was down there with those Gentiles, and Peter responds by walking them through it step by step.
Verse 5: "I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, a certain object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky. It came right down to me, and when I had fixed my gaze upon it and was observing it, I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and crawling creatures and the birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying, 'Arise, Peter, kill and eat.'" Verse 8: "But I said, 'By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.' But a voice from heaven answered a second time, 'What God has cleansed no longer consider unholy.' And this happened three times, and everything was drawn back into the sky."
Peter gives these men a full account of this vision. The vision is about the breaking down of the walls and barriers between the Jewish Christians and the Gentiles. God is speaking to Peter specifically because He is going to use him — as we saw last week — in a dramatic way at Caesarea as He reaches out to Cornelius, to his household, and to all those gathered there. Peter becomes the instrument God uses.
The Place of Prayer
Something stands out to me in verse 5, and I do not want to make too much of it, but I do not want to let it pass either. Peter was praying. You get a sense that he was not doing this because it was something special he was seeking. You get a sense that this was simply the norm for him. God is about to use him in a powerful way, and it is interesting that it begins with Peter praying.
We hear different versions of this question from people, but one of the most common questions Christians ask is: how do I know God's will for my life? How do I know how God is going to use me? How do I begin to understand that? And what people generally mean is something very practical — does God want me to work at Intel or Motorola? Does God want me to live in a red house or a white house? Does God want me to go to Bible college, and if so, does He want me to go to Wheaton, or Masters, or Biola, or Southwestern, or ASU where I can be salt and light?
Walking in Obedience While Waiting on God
You are continually in prayer. Then you seek what Scripture has for you to do, and you make sure that you are doing it. You continue to pray, and then you do what you want to do. God is going to put certain desires in your heart. Make sure we understand the context here — that implies that you are complying with God's moral law.
I had a guy not long ago call and want to get together with no agenda. Well, no one calls with no agenda. If he had no agenda, I would say I don't have time just to talk — you must have an agenda. After we do this little ritualistic dance about having no agenda, we get down to the real agenda. He wants to know what God has for him. He wants to be a man of God, to be used in powerful ways, and so on.
As we talk, here is what I discover. He is single. He is living with a woman. That forces me to ask the question: are you sexually active? Yes. And I said, why are you even messing around with me in this meeting? Why would God show you whether He wants you in Bible college or ministry — and I am going with no on that, by the way, right now — until you comply with God's moral law for your life.
God does not want a bunch of people at Bible college who think they are going to be used in a powerful way to teach His Word while they are living with someone outside of marriage. Let me tell you a secret that not a lot of people will tell you: this stuff is not that hard. It is not that complicated. It is not that difficult.
Peter is praying. He does not know what is coming. It is the same thing in your life. You are praying, you are doing what God commands you to do, you are avoiding what God commands you to avoid, and then you live your life. God raises up opportunities, He puts desires in your heart, and you begin to follow them. That is the attitude God has in people's hearts when He uses them.
Peter's Vision and the Breaking Down of Walls
In this magnificent vision, Peter sees the breaking down of walls. It is God saying, "I will determine what is holy and what is not, what is clean and what is not." Verse 10 tells us this happened three times, and then everything went back into the sky.
Then at that moment, three men appeared before the house in which they were staying. They were sent from Caesarea, and the Spirit told Peter to go with them without any misgivings. He took six brothers with him as witnesses, and they entered a man's house.
Here is what Peter is saying to his audience. There was this opportunity. It presented itself. The Spirit told him to go. He went. He took six men with him — and here they are, one, two, three, four, five, six. They are right there in the room. They are witnesses.
In Deuteronomy chapter 19, verse 15, the rule for the nation of Israel reads: "A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any inquiry or any sin which he has committed, but on the evidence of two or three witnesses, a matter shall be confirmed." Egyptian law demanded seven witnesses for a case to be completely proven. Roman law required that seven seals be present on a document to vouch for its authenticity.
Peter says: I went — that is one — and I have these six other men who make seven of us. Here they are. He is in a sense saying to these people, I am not arguing with you, I am not trying to convince you, I am simply telling you what happened, and here are the witnesses. Now listen to us.
Our Faith Is Based on Fact
That is our faith. Our faith is based on fact. These are truths and facts upon which we cannot compromise. We can be very flexible in so many areas. We may even link arms with people with whom we do not agree theologically on a specific issue — take abortion, for example. We may have secular humanists with us, we may have people from other faiths, and we can come together focused on that one issue.
What we cannot do is come together and pretend that all of us believe the same thing under a banner of ecumenicalism. I do not know if you watched the presidential debate the other night, but you would probably know the point I would go to. It is when they asked George Bush which political philosopher had affected him most, and Bush said, Jesus Christ. He said, "He came into my heart, He saved me." The interviewer said he would like to know more than that, and Bush said that unless this has happened to you, you are not really going to understand it, and then he spoke about it.
Now, I can go in many directions with something like this. For one, Jesus is not a philosopher. A philosopher is a seeker of truth. Jesus says, "I am the truth." We are not going to nitpick over the word choice — I understand what Bush was trying to say. But watching the Capital Gang the following day, as they discussed it, one of the commentators said, "Listen, this is so narrow. One of the strengths of our country is our pluralistic view of religion."
I will bet you did not know that. I will bet you did not know that what makes this country strong is that we have hundreds of millions of people who believe in false gods. I never really understood it until that moment, watching that program. No, pluralism is not a strength in that sense. Now, does everyone have every right to believe as they choose? Absolutely. Do we protect that right? Without question. But we believe fact.
The Holy Spirit Falls on the Gentiles
Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and in a sense, you can be like Peter as you share this. You don't have to apologize for it. These are the facts. You may not want to believe them, but they are the facts. They are the truth. Peter shares this, and he reports, in verse 13, that Cornelius speaks and describes how he had seen an angel standing at his house, saying, "Send to Joppa, and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here, and he will speak words to you by which you and your household will be saved." This is what was going to take place.
Then, in verse 15, something extraordinary happens. Peter says, "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, just as He did upon us." This is an important phrase: just as He did upon us at the beginning. Those same signs they saw at Pentecost, they now saw on the Gentiles. And Peter remembered what the Lord had said: "John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Peter says he was in the middle of his talk when he saw the Holy Spirit come upon them. You could not deny it. The signs were the same ones they had seen in their own lives. They were praying in tongues; there may even have been tongues of fire. All of this was happening.
Then Peter asks what you might call the $64,000 question in verse 17: "If God therefore gave to them the same gift He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?" He is saying: here is my problem. I was there, I saw it, and six others saw it and will tell you exactly what happened. How can I then come in and say, "No, you need to be circumcised," or "No, you need to follow this law"? How can I deny them access to the church and deny that they are saved when God has already accepted them? That is a pretty strong argument.
This is why this whole passage is one of transition. We would not look at this today as our norm. We are not to expect in our own lives some subsequent experience like this. This is something God used to kick the walls out, to take the church and to convince these Jews that the Gentiles are Christians — that they are just like them. That is the whole point.
The Church Responds with Praise
Verse 18 records the response: when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God. They began to praise Him and said, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life." They declared that the evidence was overwhelming. They could do nothing but accept it, embrace it, and rejoice in it. They praised God and understood this to be His work.
The Gospel Spreads to Antioch
But the story is not over. Verse 19 tells us that those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose in connection with Stephen — which we saw back in chapter 7, when Stephen was killed and the church scattered — went to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch. Phoenicia was a coastal city; Cyprus was an island about sixty miles offshore; and Antioch lay roughly three hundred miles north of Jerusalem. As this church expanded and these men went out, they began to share their faith, but they shared it exclusively with Jews.
However, there were some among them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks — not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles. We do not have these men's names. We do not know who they were. God used them in a magnificent and powerful way, but for our account they remain anonymous. God used them to carry the gospel, especially at this moment, to Antioch.
Antioch was a magnificent city and the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It was a center of culture, commerce, and sport — their primary sport being chariot racing. If you have read or seen Ben-Hur, you saw that magnificent chariot race depicted in Antioch, and that was the inspiration for all of it. But it was also a filthy, immoral city, full of pagan worship, temples of sexual perversion, and temple prostitutes. It is into that smut and that mess that this church goes, and they reach out for the first time to the Gentiles.
Verse 21 should come as no surprise: "The hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord." That is how God tends to work. These men were simply out there doing it.
Barnabas Sent as a Go-To Man
News about what was happening reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem. They said, in effect, here God goes again, moving now in Antioch. They wanted to understand it, so they decided to send someone down there. They needed a go-to person, and they turned to a man we have already met twice in our study: Barnabas.
Barnabas is the kind of man you send into the middle of something controversial, something significant that needs to be confirmed. The church at Jerusalem looked around for someone that everyone could trust and rally around. It is the way political parties have their go-to figures — someone like George Mitchell, whom the Democrats sent to the Middle East and to Ireland, or Howard Baker, whom the Republicans called in every time the Reagan administration faced a serious problem. The church at Jerusalem needed someone like that, and they sent Barnabas.
Verse 23 tells us that when Barnabas arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage all of them with a resolute heart to remain true to the Lord. Isn't that interesting? He did not arrive and say, "Well, you have made a good start, but you have a lot of learning to do."
Barnabas: A Good Man Filled with the Holy Spirit
He comes to Antioch, and he says this is incredible, that they ought to be encouraged, that they should hang in there and persevere. He begins to rejoice. Evidently, he could walk in and see and hear the truth, and he rejoices with them. Then Luke adds, almost parenthetically, in verse 24, what amounts to Barnabas's resume: he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with faith.
"Good man" means literally not just well-behaved — it means he was easygoing, cheerful, open-hearted, and gracious. We saw him early on as a man who was generous. When Saul is converted and begins to teach and the church will not accept him, Barnabas intervenes and says, "Listen, I was with this guy. I vouch for him." He is continually filled with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control — is evident in him. That is Barnabas.
Barnabas is also called, as you know, the son of encouragement. As I read this, I find that Barnabas ought to be someone we pattern our lives after, at least in some way. I am guessing that everyone who came into contact with Barnabas liked him for these reasons: he was a good man filled with the Holy Spirit, and he was a man of faith — meaning he did not go with his emotion but with what he knew to be true. This time of year, Barnabas would have had invitations to Christmas parties every night. He was just a man that everybody liked.
It strikes me that perhaps we ought to consider whether it would be worthwhile to model our lives after Barnabas. I was meeting with a man not too long ago whose issue was that he had no friends and wanted them. I said I could not be his friend — I did not have time — but as I talked with him, it became very easy to see why he would have no friends. I asked him what he looked for in a friend, and he named four or five things.
I am not a confrontational person, and I am very bad at this kind of conversation, but I asked him: these five things you listed — are they present in your own life? No. This one? No. This one? No. I said, what strikes me as odd is that as desperately as you want friends, what you might think about is becoming a person that people would be attracted to, and using your own definition of a friend to evaluate your own life. That is probably why you do not have any friends.
The Character God Uses
He was a good man. That is exactly what that means — just a good man. If you want to be used by God, that is the kind of person God uses. He uses a good man who is filled with the Holy Spirit, who has the fruit of the Holy Spirit in his life, who believes what is true and follows it. That is Barnabas.
Look at verse 25: he is filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith, and considerable numbers are brought to the Lord. That is what God uses — that kind of person. It does not say anything about how much he knew. It does not say he knew Greek and Hebrew. It does not say he had read all the books. I am not putting any of that down — you know that. What I am saying is the text does not point to his academic credentials. It points to his integrity and his character. That is what God uses.
Barnabas Finds Saul, and the Church Grows
In verse 25, Barnabas is finished in Antioch and leaves for Tarsus to look for Saul. When he finds him, he brings him back to Antioch. It came about that they were there an entire year, meeting with the church and teaching considerable numbers. Luke continually mentions how numerically large this movement is — considerable numbers, lots of people, things happening. That is one way — not the only way, nor a guaranteed way — of recognizing that God is at work.
And it is here that the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. We will come right back to that.
A Prophet Foretells Famine
In verse 27, at that time a prophet named Agabus came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. He stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a famine all over the world, and that famine did indeed take place in the reign of Claudius. In proportion to whatever means each of the disciples had — in other words, as people had money and resources — each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea.
Here was their reasoning: if trouble is coming, we will take our surplus, what we have, and give it to those in need during this time of famine. And they did this, sending it in the care of Barnabas and Saul, who then took this gift and handled it.
First Called Christians
I want to return to verse 26: it was there at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. This was the first time they had been identified this way. We had seen them referred to before, and throughout the
Who Are We? Names and Identities of Believers
Scripture identifies believers in a variety of ways. They have been called disciples, a word similar in root to the word discipline — those who were disciplined, followers of Christ. They have been identified as saints, a word we often misunderstand. When I was a young man, Pope John XXIII announced that before too long he would declare the first saint born in the United States of America. That was a mistake.
When most people hear the word "saint," they picture someone associated with miracles and halos and all of those things. But that is not what a saint is. A saint is a born-again believer — someone who is set apart. This room is filled with saints. There have been hundreds of thousands, millions of saints born in this country long before Pope John XXIII determined to declare one.
They were also called believers — people who believed this body of truth, this doctrine. They were brethren, considering themselves even closer than those with whom they shared a chain of DNA. And they were witnesses: they told others what was going on, speaking the truth about what God was doing.
The Natural Flow of Witnessing
I was having a cup of coffee this week with a guy we meet with regularly. He has been a Christian for two months. I asked him what was going on, how things were going, what God was doing. He told me that the other day he had gone on a long hike with his neighbor, way up into South Mountain. It sounded awful as he described it — all this walking and sweating and everything else.
He said that during the hike he was talking to his neighbor about what God was doing in his life, how Jesus had saved him, and the change it had made. Then he looked at me, smiled, and said, "That's got to be something like witnessing, isn't it?" I said it might be exactly witnessing. He said it was real interesting — he had witnessed, and then he invited his neighbor over to talk more about it. The neighbor never showed up, but he invited him.
I thought, isn't that something? This guy is witnessing and never even realized it. That is how God works. This man has only been a Christian two months, and what God is doing in his life is so exciting to him every day that the most natural thing in the world is to tell the person walking with him about it. When his neighbor asks, "What's new with you?" he says, "I'm glad you asked — let me tell you about Jesus Christ." And it is not forced or stiff. It is just the natural flow of life.
I come back to this point: this is not that hard. It is just the natural flow of life. Some of you have already gone out and seen Toy Story 2. Every person I meet who has seen it says, "Have you seen Toy Story 2? You need to see it — it's not really just a kid's show." I cannot wait to see it. But I wonder — and I do not mean to be offensive — whether many of you, in the last two weeks, have witnessed more for Toy Story 2 than for the Savior of the world. It ought to be a natural thing.
Called Christians: A Name That Started as an Insult
These believers were also called Christians. One author writes this: "It is clear from this brief statement that it was not the Christians themselves, but the people at Antioch who called them this. The word means 'those belonging to Christ,' or 'Christ's men.'" As these Christians talked about Jesus everywhere they went, the Gentiles around them said, "They're Christ's men."
At first it was a contemptuous term, a term of reproach. People looked at them and said, "Look at these crazy people. They come into our city. They don't worship our idols. They don't observe our moral standards. They live entirely differently from us." So contemptuously, they called them "Christ's men" — Christians. But the disciples thought it was so wonderful to be called Christ's men that they adopted the name, and that is why we are called Christians today.
When is the last time somebody looked at you and said, "You know, you remind me of someone — you remind me of Christ. I look at you and I see your Father"? That was the charge against these people at Antioch: "You're just like Christ. You're Christ's men. That's all you talk about. That's all you think about." And though the people of Antioch began by making fun of them, there must have been something attractive about these believers, because the people were still in contact with them. The Christians said, "I can think of no greater compliment than to have someone say I am just like Christ."
Ambassadors and Citizens of Another Kingdom
As we close, let me add one more identifying symbol. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, "Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ." An ambassador from the United States goes and represents this nation, speaks on behalf of this nation. You and I are ambassadors for Christ — as Paul says, as though God were entreating through us: "We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled." We are ambassadors taking to the world the message of reconciliation. As Christians, we have the ministry of reconciliation.
A little later, in Philippians 3, Paul says our citizenship is in heaven. That is an important thing to remember. We are passing through here. I will remind you again: this is not the land of the living going to the land of the dead. This is the land of the dead going to the land of the living. Our citizenship is there.
Funerals and the Reminder of Mortality
There was a lady I knew, along with her husband and their nine-year-old daughter. I had never really met the daughter. The mom was trying to explain that Mr. Schrader is at East Valley Bible Church and does some things there. Somehow the subject came up — I hope the girl asked me and I didn't just volunteer this on my own — but she asked what my favorite thing was about my job. I failed to take into account that she was nine years old, so I missed the appropriate answer entirely. I should have said something like dealing with staff, but instead I said: funerals.
She looked at me as if to say, really? You could just see it on her face. I said, well, weddings are okay too, but I really like funerals. You could see the mom thinking, honey, that's why we don't go to church there. He's a nice man, but we don't want to listen to this every week.
But funerals truly are my favorite thing. When we stand there and that body is present, we are not making prayers for the body. What we understand in that moment is that the person is telling us: I am just a little bit ahead of you, and you are coming to where I am right now.
Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of the burial of George Washington, and I spent a couple of hours watching the anniversary reenactment. I know — that's sad, isn't it? What's really sad is that after the first hour I asked if anybody else had watched it, and Harper raised his hand, and I thought, oh no. My life. What am I doing? But I love it. I can't help it.
If you ever get to Mount Vernon, you ought to see the tomb. George Washington had a cousin who was a Supreme Court justice, and the testimony on his tombstone is incredible. But the pastor at the reenactment gave a sermon essentially saying: this man was the founder of the country, but we need to understand something — he's dead, just like we are going to be. That was the message, and it was terrific. That is what we need to remember over and over again. Our citizenship is not here. We are all dying. This is not our ultimate destiny.
The Message of Reconciliation
For us, we are not left wondering about what happens after death. We have been reconciled to God. Consider the words of the carol you sang — "Hark the Herald Angels Sing": *Glory to the newborn King, peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.* Then the next verse: *Born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.*
You want a Christmas verse? You want the whole idea of Christmas? It cannot get any clearer than 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21: "God made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf." On the cross, it is not that Jesus became a sinner. It is that God treated Him like a sinner and thrust upon Him the weight of our sin.
My favorite observance we hold is about three or four months from now, when the front of the church is all in black for Good Friday. I love that, because it brings us face to face not with baby Jesus making smiles, but with what He actually came to do. You make a gigantic mistake if you leave Him in the manger. He came to die.
On that cross, we speak of the agony — and that is not primarily the physical agony, though there is certainly part of that. Many men died more agonizing physical deaths than Christ. But it was at that moment that God treated Him not like the Son, but like a sinner, and He pays the price. Here is the theological word for it: He is the propitiation. He satisfied God's wrath against us. God treated Christ in that moment like He was a sinner, and now God treats us as though we are righteous — now and forever.
God Initiates and Completes Reconciliation
The ministry of reconciliation — the message of Christmas — is this: God reconciled Himself to man. Man's sin had separated him from God, and man could do nothing in and of himself to reconcile himself to God. But God sent His Son. God initiates reconciliation, and not only does He initiate it, He carries it to completion. He is the one who chooses. He is the one who drives it. Do I choose? Yes, I respond — but only because God has chosen me.
Walter mentioned the baseball clinic yesterday. A big part of that event was obviously to have fun and be well organized, but it was also to allow a couple of the ballplayers the opportunity to share their testimony. When one of the players was speaking, he talked about coming to Christ and about various things, but what struck me most was when he said that God chose him before the foundation of the earth. That is an understanding that God did all of this. God and sinners are reconciled through the initiative and the work of God Himself, not through us. And that is the message of Christmas.
Your Assignment This Week
This is an easy time of year for us to get a little sour about Christmas materialism. Let it go. Give it up. Let somebody else fight that battle. This is a great time for you to have your eyes open and your ears open to the people around you who truly need to hear this message of reconciliation. God and sinners are reconciled. And you are God's ambassador to take that message into the marketplace this week.
All year long that calling is yours, but it is especially easy this week. Here is what I am going to ask you to do: pray that God puts somebody in your life this week that you can share the message of reconciliation with. Then watch — He will do it. At work, somebody is going to call that you have not talked to in a long time. As you talk, you will ask how it is going, and they will say, not very good. And you are going to say, just like that man walking on the road to Emmaus — let me tell you what God is doing.
This man on the road did not see witnessing as a chore. He simply could not believe the news was so good. It was done. He said —
That is a lot like witnessing — it is exactly like witnessing. And that is the privilege God has given us.
Father, we pray that You would allow us to keep our eyes focused on You, on Your Son Jesus. Keep our minds fresh and alive. Let us be like Barnabas — just good people, filled with Your Holy Spirit, who follow You in faith. We do what is right because it is right. God, let us be men and women like that. And then let us rejoice as You begin to work in the lives around us. We pray to You in Jesus' name, amen.