9/7/2025 Remain true to the Lord with all your heart

Acts Sermon 59 Date: 9/7/2025

Title: Remain true to the Lord with all your heart

Scripture: [Acts 11:22-30]

22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. 25 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. 27 During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28 One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) 29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Sermon

In the great city of Antioch, located in modern-day Turkey, Gentiles and Jews formed a community together for the very first time. This was the birth of a church founded not by people of the same culture or national identity, but by those who shared a single, common identity as Christianos—'those who belong to Christ'—regardless of who they were.

When the church in Jerusalem heard this news, they sent Barnabas. He must have been deeply moved when he witnessed this amazing scene. However, after that first impression, the daily reality he had to face was also overwhelming.

Consider the situation of the Antioch church at that time. It would not have been simple for Jews, who believed in the one God Jehovah and lived strictly according to the Law, to form a single community with Gentiles, who worshiped various gods, sought new deities whenever they felt the need, and offered bizarre sacrifices in all sorts of ways. Can you imagine how many awkward situations there must have been, even just sharing a meal together?

So, while seeing this revival brought thankfulness and grace, if I were in Barnabas's position, the responsibility of teaching a church where such different cultures were gathering and building this community into one, a community unlike any seen in the world, would have been an enormous burden.

From the Jews' perspective, they could not get close to the Gentiles who sinned without shame. This was because the books of the Law in the Bible clearly commanded them to live separately from the Gentiles.

Exodus 34:15-16 "Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will lead your sons to do the same."

In the time of Deuteronomy, the command was even more fearsome.

Deuteronomy 7:5 "This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire."

God is unchanging, so why did His will concerning the Gentiles seem to change? One important way to view the Bible is to see humanity as a single person growing from childhood to maturity. God remains the same, but we have continually changed, and God has treated us according to our stage of development. He does this with us individually, and also with humanity as a whole.

And in the process from the Old Testament to the time of Acts, there was a tremendous turning point. That turning point was the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

In the Old Testament, God saw nations so corrupt that there was no other way but to destroy them entirely—wicked people who would even sacrifice their own children to idols! But now, God the Father has opened a way to forgive them through Jesus.

Everyone, that is the magnitude of the grace of the cross. Not only did it save a fallen person like me, who was flailing in sin or even enjoying the mire, but it also washed me clean, gave me new clothes, and called me "my beloved son!" and "my pure daughter!" This great grace is the love of the cross.

That is why anyone—Korean, Chinese, American—who makes Jesus Christ their Lord and becomes His possession, becomes a Christianos! They receive forgiveness for all their sins and are born again with a new, eternal life from heaven!

A unique event, recorded four times in the Bible, shows this change: the scene where Peter refused the unclean animals in the sheet that came down from heaven and was rebuked by the Lord. This invalidated the food laws, sacrificial laws, and social laws that had kept Jews and Gentiles from mixing.

Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a new path to salvation was opened for all humanity. And through that path of salvation, a new kind of people called Christians could emerge.

If that is the case, has the Law now been abolished? Jesus told His disciples that they must obey the Law better than the Pharisees, and He clearly declared that He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.

The "Law" Jesus spoke of here refers to the essence—the spirit—of the Law, represented by the Ten Commandments, which are the foundation of our relationship with God and with one another. It was about absolute loyalty to God and living kindly by caring for and helping one another.

Jesus summarized this into two great commandments: to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. He commanded us to love not just with our actions but with our hearts, because acting with a sincere, loving heart is the fulfillment of the Law. The church in Antioch was proving that this was possible, at least within the church.

The Born-Again Gentile Christians

Now, imagine the transformation the Gentiles in this church must have experienced. Everything, from A to Z, had to change. They had to completely leave behind a life filled with all kinds of idols and build a new foundation from scratch.

When most people come to believe in Jesus, they stop drinking and smoking, which naturally changes the places they go and the friends they meet. Even the times they meet people change. In places like Korea, even their cell phone ringtones change. They experience a change in everything, from the top of their head to the tips of their toes.

Literally, the greatest revolution of their lives takes place. Everyone around them can't help but notice, and most of all, they themselves are acutely aware of the change. They have experienced the world in a completely different way.

Today’s passage especially notes that the church in Antioch, which had a majority of Gentiles, collected an offering to help the church in Jerusalem. This is the first recorded instance in church history of one church helping a sister church.

For those of us familiar with Western civilization, which is based on Christianity, and with church culture, caring for the socially weak and collecting relief offerings might not seem surprising. However, the Gentiles of that time had lived their entire lives in a culture where "might makes right," where forcefully taking another's wife or property was considered justified.

Do you know what entertainment excited the Romans the most? They enjoyed watching the strong kill the weak in the Colosseum, treating it like a game. For these Gentiles who worshiped absolute power, giving away their own property to help the weak was completely unthinkable.

In fact, isn't all idolatry a form of worshiping tangible power, such as money, authority, and popularity? Therefore, unless the Holy Spirit was at work in these people, they would never have been able to voluntarily give an offering to a weaker group of people they didn't even know. It was truly an unimaginable act.

The fact that this happened in the church of Antioch shows that the Gentiles there were not just caught up in the mood. It proves there was a true revival, that they were born again with eternal life from heaven. The evidence of this revival was undeniable, both to outsiders and to themselves.

The Born-Again Jewish Christians

On the other hand, for the diaspora Jews in Antioch, these actions were not much different from what they had always done. In a way, they were similar to the "cradle Christians" in the church today.

They had lived a life of faith their whole lives. Even if they hadn't yet met Jesus personally, been born again through the Holy Spirit, and lived with Jesus as their Lord... they had attended the synagogue since childhood, were familiar with its culture, had memorized scripture, were trained in charity and tithing, knew the songs of praise, and could pray eloquently if asked.

So, even when they did encounter Jesus spiritually and began to feel and experience His living presence within them, what would change dramatically on the outside? They would still go to church, pray, praise, and read the Scriptures. Compared to the Gentiles, their outward changes would be relatively small.

For this very reason, it might not have been as clear to others or even to themselves. They grew up imitating people of faith from a young age, and when they reached the age of 12 or 13, most of their friends in the synagogue were getting baptized or confirmed, so they might have just gone along with the flow. Because the external changes were not significant, it could be less clear, compared to the Gentiles, whether they were truly in spiritual communion with Jesus after meeting Him personally.

One person who well illustrates the state of devout Jews in Jesus' time is Nicodemus. He was a religious leader who prayed daily and studied and taught the Scriptures. He had a firm faith in Jehovah God.

However, he was curious about Jesus, who possessed something he didn't, and came to him at night. When Jesus explained the Holy Spirit to him, this respected Bible scholar could not understand at all.

John 3:10 "Jesus said, 'You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things?'"

When I first came to New York, I attended a language school. In my class, there was a Muslim female student who always wore a hijab, sat in the front, and studied very diligently. She was very bright and a model student whom others often asked for help.

It was my first opportunity to talk with a Muslim, so one day I gathered my courage and asked her, "What kind of conversations do you have with God when you pray?" I can still see the look on her face. She looked at me as if I were pathetic and said, "Prayer is not like that!"

For her, and for Nicodemus, God was an object of worship on a high throne, not a personal being with whom one could meet and converse.

The Bible shows us how the Pharisees prayed through a parable from Jesus.

Luke 18:11-12 "The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’"

In truth, this prayer is quite free-form compared to the fixed, formal prayers that Pharisees of the time typically recited. However, this prayer has a more serious problem than its content. What could it be?

We can understand the problem by looking at the prayer that Jesus praised in contrast.

Luke 18:13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’"

This prayer is still directed toward God in heaven, and with so few words, it barely seems like a prayer at all. This sigh-filled, sorrowful plea is like that of the prodigal son who betrayed his father and then returned. But this prayer has something completely different from the Pharisee's prayer.

The fact that the tax collector cannot lift his head in shame shows that he is meeting God personally, as one would meet a person. The Pharisee's prayer, however, is just a report to a superior, boasting about how well he is following the rules. It is like submitting a one-way report.

Most humans, even atheists, will close their eyes, fold their hands, and pray in a crisis like a disaster. They seek a god. Whether that object is the true God or an idol, to them, their god is a great being outside of themselves.

However, what Christians call being "born again," being born from above, means that God comes to live inside Christians. It means becoming like Jesus, who was the Son of God. Therefore, there must be a huge difference between the prayers of truly born-again Christians and the prayers of people of other religions.

Thinking again about the changes in the Jews at the Antioch church, before and after, the biggest change would have been in their prayer life. They would now pray as if conversing with the Lord living in their hearts, and they would see the world and their own lives together with the Lord inside them.

For the Jewish Christians, though the outward appearance of their faith life didn't change much, the purpose and object of their faith became clear. Their worship was no longer a matter of habit but was filled with a hope and joy that welled up from within as they loved God.

John 4:23 "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks."

The Lord’s words were being fulfilled. What does this imply about how they had been worshiping? Weren't they just showing up physically, worshiping only in action—in falsehood and hypocrisy?

When they were steeped in legalism, the more zealous they were, the emptier they became, and that emptiness only bore the fruit of hypocrisy and condemnation. But when they began to worship in Spirit and in truth, true fruit was finally produced, both internally and externally.

During the revival in Antioch, there must have been clear works of the Holy Spirit, such as healings. However, the record in Acts does not mention such spiritual gifts or miraculous events at all. Instead, it only records the fruit of the Spirit—"goodness."

In Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, the hero was a Samaritan, a person the Israelites didn't even consider human. Yet he helped an Israelite, rescued him from the road, took him to an inn, and even paid the innkeeper in advance, saying, "Look after him, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have."

This man is so good, isn't he? Why did Jesus tell this story? It's because the Lord is moved by such things. This is what it means to love your neighbor. Those born of heavenly life should be like this, and the Lord wants to see this.

Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Paul is saying that a person who bears such fruit lives as if there were no law.

Let's look at the verses that immediately follow this famous passage.

Galatians 5:24-26 "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."

Paul defines the fruit of the devil and sin as passions and desires, warning that they lead to a life of seeking vain glory, provoking anger, and jealousy. The fact that Paul commands the church so strongly about the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of the flesh means that neither happens automatically. In other words, our choices determine the outcome.

We can choose love instead of jealousy, patience instead of anger, and goodness instead of greed! We can do it! He is emphasizing that we should make that choice. The power to overcome sin—that life—is with us! That means we can choose love instead of jealousy!

Barnabas and the Christians in Antioch experienced a true revival because they followed this path of the Spirit. The scripture says that the Lord’s hand, symbolizing blessing and protection, was with them.

The Gentile Christians would have constantly faced the challenge of making choices to completely change their way of life. However, because of that clear transformation, the joy of victory would have been even greater for them.

On the other hand, for the Jewish Christians, besides associating with Gentiles, there wasn't much outward change, was there? The challenge they faced was the temptation to return to their old ways of treating God as an absolute being who is only outside—returning to a formal prayer life that was like submitting a report to a boss about keeping the Law, a prayer life without personal encounter.

That is why their spiritual senior, Barnabas, upon meeting the new Gentile and Jewish disciples in Antioch, gave them an exhortation that was like a command.

23 "When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts."

"Remain true to the Lord with all your heart!" These words from Barnabas are the same as Jesus' words, "Remain in me!" The fact that most of the New Testament consists of commands and exhortations makes it clear that even Christians who are born again by the Spirit do not automatically walk by the Spirit.

However, this is not a process of self-discipline where you fight against yourself with your own strength. That is why Jesus used the image of a branch attached to a vine and said, "Stay attached to me!" Barnabas’s encouragement is also not about "doing" something, but about "remaining" with the Lord.

John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Why did they use this expression? Isn't it because our minds are easily tempted and tend to wander off? That's why simply focusing our attention on the Lord and remaining with Him is a great accomplishment. Just by doing that well, we become good people, and the fruits of the Spirit are produced abundantly.

Whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, or whether you are quietly waiting for the Lord's timing... if your heart remains with the Lord, you will bear fruit. This is because you are a Christian, newly born with heavenly life.

Today’s passage also briefly records another event that became a major turning point in human history: Barnabas brought Paul back into the ministry. Paul, the author of 13 books of the New Testament and the one who systemized Christian doctrine through the book of Romans—and who is considered by historians to be the founder of Christianity—reappears on the scene.

The reason Barnabas went out of his way to find Saul was likely because Paul was also a Hellenistic Jewish diaspora, fluent in Greek, and a Pharisee well-versed in the Law and Scriptures. But beyond all that, it was clearly a move guided by the Holy Spirit.

Although the Bible doesn't record the entire process, Barnabas, because he remained true to the Lord with a steadfast heart, heard and obeyed the Lord's command to go find the secluded Paul. The two of them immediately began to teach as pastors of this explosively growing first church where Jews and Gentiles worshiped together. That church quickly grew to the point of helping other churches in need and became a model of a mature church, even sending out its lead pastors as missionaries.

Though Paul was practically a fugitive at the time, he also had remained true to the Lord with a steadfast heart, so he could immediately answer the call. He was being prepared as the perfect pastor for the needs of the Antioch church.

Through Barnabas, the Lord is speaking to our church today. Are there any among you who are unfamiliar with church culture and find that accepting Jesus as your Lord means everything has to change? If so, remain true to the Lord with all your heart. Those changes may seem burdensome now, but they will ultimately be a blessing to you and the world around you.

Have you been attending church your whole life? Remain true to the Lord with all your heart. A powerful stream of living water will flow into everything you have been doing religiously, and it will blossom and bear true fruit.

When our gaze is on the Lord and our hearts remain with Him... even if it feels like nothing is happening for years, like with Paul in seclusion, beautiful fruit of the Spirit was being produced, and he was being prepared for the church in Antioch.

At times when you feel overwhelmed by a heavy responsibility that has suddenly come your way, like Barnabas, remain true to the Lord with all your heart! You will find the perfect helper that the Lord has already prepared, just like Paul.

And you will hear the Lord's voice echoing warmly within you.

John 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love."