Acts 11: Making Jesus Accessible - Linda Bailey
In 2009, Apple spent thirty-six seconds of a two hour product launch talking about accessibility. Most of the reporters in the room missed it. Almost nobody wrote about it the next day. But for people in the blind community, those thirty-six seconds changed everything, because a phone they could buy straight off the shelf would now read the screen out loud to them.
It took years of argument inside the company to get there. It cost time, resources and money to build a feature that only one group of people would ever use. Somebody had to decide that a group who were not asking, and who were not going to show up in the return on investment, were worth the cost anyway.
Linda Bailey opened with that story as we dipped back into our series in the book of Acts, looking at Acts chapter 11. It is a chapter about a church that decided the good news was worth making accessible to people who had never asked for it. You can watch the full message in the video above, or listen to the audio version below.
Thirty-six seconds that changed everything
The idea came from Mike Shebanek, one of Apple's project managers, who argued that screen readers should be built into every Apple device as standard. Phones with buttons could be navigated by touch. A flat pane of glass could not. His conviction was that accessibility should not be a premium add-on or an afterthought.
"We should build it in, and we should just give it away. It should get the same love and care and quality that we give everything else in this company, and it should be on everything we make, always and forever."
Apple is a business. It exists to make money. Every hour and dollar spent on accessibility had to be justified against what it would return. The decision went ahead anyway, and when VoiceOver arrived, people who had previously needed to spend around a thousand dollars on a separate screen reading device could simply buy a phone and use it.
The question underneath the story is the one Linda carried into the whole sermon: what are we willing to spend so that people who are not asking can have access?
Revival in the last place you would expect
To feel the weight of Acts 11, you need to know what Jerusalem meant. For a thousand years it had been the centre of everything for the Jewish people. David established it. Solomon built the temple there. It held the Holy of Holies, the priests, the sacrifices, the festivals that drew people from everywhere. Even in exile, when the Babylonians had flattened the city and carried off its sacred objects, Daniel still turned and prayed three times a day towards Jerusalem, at the risk of his life. When the exiles returned, they rebuilt the city and the temple and gathered there again.
Jerusalem was the religious hub. It was where the leaders of the new church were based. And after Stephen was killed, it was the place believers were scattered from, travelling north through Samaria and Phoenicia and on to Antioch.
Antioch was a different kind of city altogether. It was the third largest city in the Roman Empire, behind Rome and Alexandria, with perhaps half a million people. It sat on the coast at the edge of the desert, a free city with its own autonomy, a hub of trade so central that if your work took you anywhere, you came through Antioch eventually. It was vibrant, wealthy and growing.
It was also notorious. With so many cultures and religions passing through, and the freedom to invent new ones, Antioch became known across the empire for its immorality. The Roman satirist Juvenal, complaining about the moral decline of Rome itself, said that the filth of the Orontes, the river Antioch sat on, had flowed into the Tiber. Antioch was not simply an immoral city. It was the benchmark other cities were measured against.
And it was here, not in Jerusalem, that revival broke out. Not just among Jews, but among Gentiles who had no background in the faith at all.
Cold leads: the people who are not asking
Linda reached for a marketing distinction to explain what shifted. A warm lead is someone who already knows your shop exists and has walked in to look around. The sales assistant still has to greet them and offer help, but the person is already open. A cold lead is someone walking past in the shopping centre, there for a completely different reason, not thinking about you at all. To reach them, you have to leave the shop and go out to where they are.
For the scattered Jewish believers, other Jewish people were the warm leads. They already knew the one true God. They already carried the stories, the history, the anticipation of a coming kingdom. Speaking to them about Jesus made obvious sense.
Then some unnamed men from Cyprus and Cyrene did something nobody had asked them to do. F.F. Bruce puts it this way:
"The idea that the gospel could have any relevance for non-Jews was not one that would naturally occur to them, but in Antioch, some daring spirits among them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, took a momentous step forward. If the gospel was so good for Jews, might it not be good for Gentiles also?"
They could not present Jesus as the Messiah, because the Greek population of Antioch knew nothing of the hope of Israel. That language would have been meaningless. So they used words that already meant something in that world: kyrios, lord, and sōtēr, saviour. People across the eastern Mediterranean were already searching the mystery cults for a divine lord who could guarantee them salvation. The believers in Antioch told them that what they had been looking for was found in the Son of God who had become human, died, and conquered the grave.
They translated. They did the work of making the message land in a language their neighbours already spoke.
Linda was honest that most of the people in her own life are cold leads. Nobody stops her to ask what God is like because she works at a church. Nobody hears Jesus' name used as a swear word and turns to ask what he actually means to her. But she is confident about something else:
"I can guarantee that they are looking for purpose, that they are looking for meaning, that they want something in their life that gives them purpose and meaning, that they want their life to stand for something."
So the question becomes ours. Are we making our faith accessible to people who may not know about Jesus and may not even be asking about him? It might cost money. It might cost time and effort and going out of our way. But if it opens a door for someone to know Jesus the way we have come to know him, that is worth spending.
The blessing was always meant for everyone
What happened in Antioch was not a new idea. It was the oldest one.
In Genesis 12, God calls Abram out of his country and promises to make him into a great nation, to bless him, to make his name great. And then the line that carries the whole thing: all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
The Jewish people knew this. It was the foundation of their faith. Not just your people will be blessed through you, Abraham. All people. Every nation and tongue.
The church in Antioch was not inventing a mission. It was finally doing the one that had been there since the beginning. And Linda's point was that the same call sits on anyone who believes in Jesus today. God has more than enough love and grace and wisdom for all people. If knowing God is the best place for us to be, it is the best place for everyone to be.
The Lord's hand was with them
If that sounds like a heavy weight to carry, Acts 11 puts it somewhere else.
The theologian David Peterson notes that this is the first detailed account in Acts of evangelism by ordinary believers. Everything before it involved apostles or prophetic leaders like Stephen and Philip. These were just people. And yet the text does not credit their skill or their strategy. It says the Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.
It was not what the people said or did that came first. The Lord came first.
Linda turned from there to speak directly to anyone still working out where they stand. You might be new to church. You might only be starting to explore who Jesus is and what his life, death and resurrection mean for you. You might be thinking, you do not know my history, you do not know how little I know of the Bible.
"You're right, I don't. But God does, and he still loves you. He doesn't just hold his hand for the special Christians in the room."
The way to respond, she said, is simple. Thank you, Jesus, for the sacrifice you made for me. Please forgive me for the wrong I have done. Holy Spirit, fill me so that I know how to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. If that is you, talk to Linda after the service, or to the prayer team at the front, or to the person who brought you. Nobody has to do this alone.
They spoke and they gave
For those who settled that question a long time ago, Acts 11 shows two clear things the believers in Antioch did.
They spoke. They talked about Jesus so constantly that outsiders gave them a nickname for it. The believers did not call themselves Christians. They called themselves followers of the way, believers, brothers and sisters. Christian was what other people called them, and it carried a sting, roughly the way God botherer does now. Here they go, talking about Christ again. They spoke about him to people who were not especially interested in hearing about him, and the name stuck because it was accurate.
Sometimes we need to speak. Among friends and family, at work, at school, in the neighbourhood. It can be awkward. It might not be the done thing where you are. It can be as small as letting people know you went to church on Sunday morning, not just that you watched the footy or enjoyed the sunshine. You know your context and your people, so the words are worth praying for.
They gave. Acts 11:29 says the disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. These were people most of them had never met. And if they were that generous towards strangers a long way off, it stands to reason they were generous to the people right in front of them too.
Those two things together are what made them stand out in a city that offered every other option going. They would not stop talking about Jesus, and they backed it up with open hands.
One way to live it out this week
Think of one person. Not a category, a person. Someone in your family, your workplace, your school, your street or your retirement village who is not asking about God but is looking for purpose and meaning like everyone else. Linda called them the Gentile in our Antioch, the unbeliever in Melbourne. Pray for them by name this week, and then do one of the two Antioch things for them. Say something true and small out loud, even just mentioning that church is part of your week. Or be generous towards them with your time or your money in a way that costs you something. You are not responsible for the outcome. The Lord's hand goes first.
A short prayer for your week
Lord God, we are humbled that your hand would be upon our lives,
that you would want a close and meaningful relationship with us.
Our lives are so much better for having you in them.
As we think of the people we meet through our weeks,
we long for them to know you too.
Holy Spirit, give us courage to speak words of love and grace and faith.
Give us words that will reach hardened hearts and speak life into the people around us.
We put these people in your hands, and we ask you to help us do our part.
Amen.
Personal Reflection
Who are the cold leads in your life, the people who are not asking about God but are searching for meaning? Name one of them.
Where have you assumed the good news would not be relevant to someone, the way the early believers assumed it was for Jews only?
What would it cost you to make your faith more accessible to the people around you, and is there something you have been unwilling to spend?
Small Group Discussion
Read Acts 11:19-30 together. What stands out to you about where this revival happens and who it reaches?
Jerusalem was the religious centre and Antioch was notorious for its immorality. Why do you think God moved so powerfully in Antioch rather than Jerusalem?
The believers from Cyprus and Cyrene used words their Greek neighbours already understood, lord and saviour, rather than the language of Messiah. What might the equivalent translation work look like in Melbourne today?
Acts 11:21 says the Lord's hand was with them. How does it change your sense of responsibility to know that God moves first?
This is the first account in Acts of ordinary believers, not apostles, spreading the message. What does that suggest about who this work belongs to?
Genesis 12 promised that all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham. Where do you see the church today narrowing that promise to people who are already like us?
The Antioch believers were known for speaking and for giving. Which of those two comes more naturally to you, and which one do you tend to avoid?
Share the name of one person you want to pray for, then pray for one another, that God would give you the courage and the words this week.