The Foundation | Holy Disruption

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: Brew City Church
Episode: The Foundation | Holy Disruption
Date: June 21, 2026

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Overview of the Episode's Theme

This episode explores the Book of Acts through the lens of radical inclusion, disruption, and discipleship in the early church. The Lead Pastor unpacks how the Spirit of God continually disrupts religious boundaries and calls the church into formative practices that resist the world's divisive narratives. The heart of the message centers on being a community that continually opens its doors wider and deepens its roots in Jesus—living out a more profound, world-transforming way.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Embracing Silence and Gratitude (00:17–03:34)

• The Lead Pastor opens by inviting the congregation into a moment of silence for grounding and presence.
• Expresses gratefulness for:
  • Communion as a reminder of inclusion and divine embrace.
  • The church’s rhythm of gathering.
  • The enduring scriptures that continually challenge and inspire.

2. Acts as a “Wild Ride” — The Disruptive Work of the Spirit (03:34–13:53)

• Uses a roller coaster metaphor for Acts: “The first kind of seven chapters are tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, right? And then we get to the top, and in Acts 8, we just go for this wild ride.” (05:30, Lead Pastor)
• Key storyline transitions:
  • Acts 6–7: Greek widows marginalized; church’s first internal crisis of exclusion.
  • Stephen—a layperson—operates in God’s power and is murdered by his own community (07:12–08:00).
  • The scattering (diaspora) after Stephen’s death sets in motion a greater inclusion.
  • Acts 8: The Ethiopian eunuch—a person marginalized due to ethnicity and gender/sexual status—is included.
  • Acts 9: Saul, persecutor of Christians, is called to lead and bridge divides.
  • Acts 10–11: Peter, taught by scripture to exclude, is supernaturally told by God to break those boundaries.

“God tells you to disobey your sacred text in order to include the excluded. Like, tell me that’s not so beautiful and rich and challenging and transformative.” (13:23, Lead Pastor)

3. The Spirit’s Relentless Inclusion — Modern Parallels (14:31–16:31)

• Draws a provocative comparison: If today's church followed Acts' example, it would include the most marginalized (e.g., a Black trans woman, a white Christian nationalist), and not just include, but empower them in leadership and reconciliation.
• Challenges the congregation to see that the gospel’s inclusion is “all are included and all are being made one in Jesus.” (16:09, Lead Pastor)

4. Moving from Evangelistic Revolution to "Boring" Discipleship (16:32–18:23)

• Evangelistic excitement gives way to “foundational, formational, kind of boring stuff,” meaning discipleship.
• Encourages honest reflection on emotional reactions to “discipleship”—from spiritual growth to apprehension about performative faith.

5. Redefining Discipleship: Not a Checklist, but a Life Shaped Like Jesus (18:23–23:28)

• Community input:
  • Discipleship as “lifelong learning, growth, and evolution.” (19:59)
  • Ancient wisdom: “We fall and get up. We fall and get up. We fall and get up again as we walk.” (20:07, quoted by a congregant)
  • Discipleship contrasted: Not a checklist, but “trying to make my life look like Jesus’s life, which is wildly inconvenient.” (21:03–21:50, Megan, congregation member)
• Pastor’s illustration: Routine checklists feel satisfying and efficient, but real spiritual transformation is more complex and lived.

6. Dissecting Acts 11:19–30 — The Church at Antioch (23:28–33:17)

• Explains Antioch's historical and spiritual significance (third-largest city, a “melting pot” labeled as "sin city" but fertile for new spiritual movements).
• Highlights “nameless, unimportant” believers who broke the rules to include Gentiles without waiting for permission: “People like you and me just decide Jesus has changed the way I see everything, including who my religious tradition has told me is included.” (29:46, Lead Pastor)
• Barnabas is sent as a “hall monitor” to check the Gentile inclusion, but becomes the bridge and translator between the old and new of God’s movement.

7. Bridging What's Old and New — The Church's Ongoing Call (32:18–33:52)

“What if we as a church are called to be the bridge between the old stuff that God was doing and the new stuff now that God wants to do?” (32:51, Lead Pastor)

• Emphasizes the perpetual newness of God's work—never static, always inviting to new ways of inclusion and growth.

8. The Antioch Model: Generosity Across Disagreement (34:34–35:54)

• Antioch supports the Jerusalem church during famine, despite likely being regarded as “illegitimate” by the Jerusalem leadership.
• Generosity flows even toward those who judge or exclude—evidence of the Spirit's transforming work: “It’s not all anger and bitterness…. They just see the world and see people differently.” (35:54, Lead Pastor)

9. Why Discipleship Matters Now More Than Ever (37:43–44:04)

• Contrasts the divisive and self-centered “normal” of US (and global) culture—power, greed, bitterness, rage—with discipleship as a lifelong, sometimes tedious, but transformative resistance.
• Laments how youth have no memory of a more civil era; underscores the need for a different, Jesus-shaped narrative.

“Discipleship is just another way of saying there’s a better way to live.” (40:43, Lead Pastor)

10. Discipleship Practice: Rhythms, Rituals, and Embodied Life (41:19–43:39)

• Calls for rooting life in worship, scripture, Eucharist—"practices that make a different life plausible."
• But especially, embodying the life of Jesus so children and others “see me trying over and over again to embody Jesus to the world around me.” (43:26, Lead Pastor)

“When you’re truly following the Spirit of God, a spirit of humility and honor just becomes the normal way.” (35:54, Lead Pastor)

11. The Way of the Slaughtered Lamb (44:52–47:09)

• Prayer closes reflecting on Jesus as the slain lamb in Revelation: “The way of self-sacrificial, unconditional love of others actually is the thing that overcomes.” (45:45, Lead Pastor)
• The song to follow is reframed as a song of discipleship, pledging allegiance to the radical, inclusive, nonviolent way of the Lamb.
• Emphasizes all-inclusion: “All are included, even the ones you’re going to get in trouble when you include them.” (46:53, Associate Pastor)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Exclusion & Rule-Breaking:
  “God tells you to disobey your sacred text in order to include the excluded.” (13:23, Lead Pastor)
• Modern Parallel:
  “It’s as if there’s a black trans woman over on this side and the Holy Spirit says, ‘I want you to include her … I died for her.’” (15:03, Lead Pastor)
• On True Discipleship:
  “Checklist are easy … But actually having a life that’s shaped in the image of Jesus, that’s more complicated, that’s more challenging.” (22:01–22:05, Lead Pastor)
• On Generosity Beyond Agreement:
  “When you’re truly following the Spirit of God … even the ones who say, maybe you shouldn’t be included, they’re saying, we want to bless them.” (35:54, Lead Pastor)
• Final Blessing:
  “That is the way that I want to be discipled into. The way of the Lamb that gives up everything for his enemies and breathes words, prayers of forgiveness over them.” (46:42–46:44, Lead Pastor)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:17 – Silence, gratitude, and communion
• 03:34–13:53 – Overview of Acts as a story of disruption and inclusion
• 14:31–16:31 – Radical inclusion: modern analogies for Acts’ disruptive calling
• 18:23–23:28 – Community voices: Re-imagining discipleship from checklist to lived formation
• 23:28–33:17 – Exegesis of Acts 11 and the “church at Antioch moment”
• 34:34–35:54 – Antioch’s generosity to Jerusalem, despite being labeled illegitimate
• 37:43–44:04 – Discipleship as urgent resistance to cultural division and bitterness
• 44:52–47:09 – Closing prayer: The church’s allegiance to the way of the Lamb

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Summary Takeaways

• The Spirit’s disruptive work is to continually invite more people into God’s family, even those religious institutions teach us to exclude.
• Discipleship is not about perfection or efficiency, but about lifelong learning, resilience, and embodying Jesus’s way.
• True formation is tested in times of division and disagreement—generosity, humility, and inclusivity are marks of the Spirit’s work.
• The church’s call is to be a bridge between old and new, rooted in practices and rhythms that make another life possible, pointing beyond the culture’s normal to the world-changing way of Jesus, the Lamb.

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“All are included, even the ones you’re going to get in trouble when you include them.”
(46:53, Associate Pastor)

This episode will especially resonate with listeners wrestling with faith, inclusion, tradition, and what discipleship really means in a divided and hurting world.

Transcript

[Podcast Host]

Welcome to the Brew City Church Podcast. We are a Christian church following in the way of Jesus and located in the heart of downtown Milwaukee. We're glad you've joined us and we hope you enjoy this week's message.

[Lead Pastor]

Good morning, friends. Good morning. Sometimes I like to take a. Just a. When I say moment of silence, I always feel like we're mourning someone's death. I don't mean it that way. I just mean I would like some silence and some quiet to just quiet myself. I need that occasionally, regularly, I would say, and I'll bet you do too. So let's just enjoy 30 seconds or so of just silence to calm ourselves, to be present with God and to be present with one another. To just breathe in the gift that is life. God. This morning, I'm grateful for all sorts of things, but the communion liturgy, the prayer that we all spoke together, particularly at the end of communion, just grateful for and want to remember that through this mysterious table, this bread in this cup, we've been reminded of our inclusion and the life that we've been given in you, Jesus. The embrace that we've been held in by you, Spirit of God, the dream of Father to include all sons and daughters, to bring home the far off sons and daughters. This music that gives us, creates an imagination within us, that gives us a bigger vision and viewpoint of the world around us, calling us into the beauty and the goodness of creation that sings praises. I'm just grateful to be reminded of these things. I'm grateful for this rhythm of gathering that we get to be here together in. And I'm grateful for your scriptures. I'm grateful for this word that has endured for thousands, several thousand years. What an incredible thing. And here we are today, gathering around it and wanting to understand it and be challenged by it and wrestle with it and motivated and moved forward by it. So come, Holy Spirit and do that. Amen.

[Associate Pastor]

If you're.

[Lead Pastor]

If this is your first time, you're new around here, first of all, welcome. So glad you're here. We've been walking through the Book of Acts for pretty much this whole year, I think, right about there. Right. And recently Acts has been kind of a situation. I mean, recently Axe has been particularly wild and crazy. I was at Noah's Ark a couple weeks ago with my youngest, his eighth grade, kind of like class field trip. At the end of all the field trips, I just chaperoned our last field trip for our kids. He's heading into high school now, our youngest as Father's Day. It's kind of A sad thing, but as we go off these rides and they're all mini rides at Great America, which is perfect for me because the older I get, the less interested I am in these wild and crazy rides. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, thanks, but no thanks. As a matter of fact, I think I blame my children because I was fine with these wild and crazy rides until I had kids. And then I was like, I'm just imagining all the 14 million ways that we can all die on this. Don't like it.

[Associate Pastor]

And there's that part of the ride

[Lead Pastor]

that always happens where it's like the

[Associate Pastor]

ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Right?

[Lead Pastor]

You know what I'm talking about when you're going up, I swear they, like, we have better technology than those. We don't have to hear that noise anymore. Like oil, the stinking chain. Because I swear they make it intentional. So you feel this, like, your anxiety just starts ratcheting it up with every tink, tink, tink, you know, and then you're at the top and you're just

[Associate Pastor]

kind of sitting there, but then you're at Noah's Ark.

[Lead Pastor]

So it's not that wild and crazy, and it's all good and fun and it's a good time. But the Book of Acts we've been on, it's like we've. The whole first kind of seven chapters

[Associate Pastor]

are tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, right?

[Lead Pastor]

And then we get to the top, and in Acts 8, we just go for this wild ride. And so for the last probably couple of months, we've been in these stories

[Associate Pastor]

that are kind of shocking stories for a religious tradition to root themselves around. They're shocking stories to have in a

[Lead Pastor]

sacred text, to be honest with you.

[Associate Pastor]

It's a spirit of God, including and inviting people you would never imagine would be part of this religious tradition. First thing that happens in Acts 8, well, really, the wild and crazy ride begins in Acts 6, where you see these Hellenistic, these Greek Christians kind of being passed over, marginalized, forgotten, pushed to the side to such an extent where these Greek widows, these most vulnerable in

[Lead Pastor]

all of society, are kind of being passed over for the daily food distribution. In other words, they're kind of being starved, just treated like less than human, dehumanized.

[Associate Pastor]

In the Apostles, the church appoints seven guys.

[Lead Pastor]

Seven is not.

[Associate Pastor]

Should not be a surprising number, but seven guys who are Hellenistic, who are Greek, to kind of provide for these Greek widows, but they're appointed to serve Food, but what one of them does,

[Lead Pastor]

and a couple of them, actually, but

[Associate Pastor]

one of them in particular named Stephen, is he goes far beyond actually just distributing food and waiting and serving on tables. He starts just kind of in the power of the God, performing miracles and signs and wonders. He's preaching the gospel, going way beyond the role that he was given by the church. And when this normal dude operates in the presence of God, in the power

[Lead Pastor]

of God, and starts doing this stuff, the world around him recognizes it and sees it, and he gets murdered for it by his own religious tradition. This is how seriously we religious people take our religion. And I don't mean that as a compliment. This is often what religion can devolve into, is killing our own because we have disagreements about beliefs. I could preach a whole sermon right here, like, off the cuff, pretty much. But.

[Associate Pastor]

But just if you want to know

[Lead Pastor]

how ugly religion can get. Acts 8, the beginning of it, Acts 7, murdering someone because we don't agree with the evolution and the change in the growth in their belief in where they are spiritually. Stephen gets murdered. But see, what happens is as a result of this murder, the Christians, these

[Associate Pastor]

new followers of Jesus, scatter all over

[Lead Pastor]

the place because they're being persecuted by their religious brothers and sisters. They're being hunted down by their religious brothers and sisters because of these different beliefs.

[Associate Pastor]

And so the church scatters.

[Lead Pastor]

But see, that becomes the spark that ignites the flame that is this radical movement of inclusion that it seems as if the spirit of God had been waiting the whole time to start doing. Many religious people, I think, would probably say within our tradition, would say that maybe this. This martyrdom of Stephen, this murdering of this faithful person, was maybe in God's plan.

[Associate Pastor]

Maybe God made that happen so that the spark of the diaspora, the scattering of the church, could happen and that

[Lead Pastor]

all these people could be included. I don't really think that, personally, I don't think God makes people be murdered. But I do think, like it says in Romans 8, 28, that God can use situations like that, really ugly, nasty, sinful, evil situations, and God can actually redeem them. And God can actually use dead things to bring life in the world. Do you know what I'm talking about? This is one of the things that we. It's kind of the stuff that we sing worship songs about. This is what God does. And so God uses this persecution and diaspora, this scattering, to include people you'd never imagine. Because very next story we get in Acts 8 is the inclusion of this Ethiopian eunuch. In other words, A brown skinned sexual and gender minority. That's not some progressive agenda, that's just biblical exegesis. A brown skinned religious kind of, you're not welcome and included because of where you're from, how you look, who you are, the fact that you're a eunuch.

[Associate Pastor]

We don't really know your gender and we're really uncertain and uncomfortable with you and who you are in general.

[Lead Pastor]

The Spirit of God takes Philip, this

[Associate Pastor]

disciple, this apostle, and says, I want

[Lead Pastor]

you to go and meet this Ethiopian

[Associate Pastor]

eunuch, this guy, this person who you'd never imagine a follower of Jesus approaching

[Lead Pastor]

and encountering the Spirit of God, puts this meeting together and this Ethiopian eunuch is saved that day.

[Associate Pastor]

Then in Acts 9, if that's not crazy enough, one of the people, as a matter of fact maybe the chief person who's of this religious tradition, who's trying to persecute and torture and make these Christians lives a living hell. The person who's chiefly responsible for this movement of persecution against the movement of Jesus, Jesus encounters and says, I want

[Lead Pastor]

you to be one of the leaders of my movement,

[Associate Pastor]

one of the people who's trying to end the Jesus movement. Jesus says, I want you, I want

[Lead Pastor]

you to actually lead my people.

[Associate Pastor]

I want you to be the one

[Lead Pastor]

who kind of includes all the excluded.

[Associate Pastor]

I want you to be the bridge between these two worlds.

[Lead Pastor]

No one would ever expect that. See, we know who Paul is and it's really no big deal. But in these, like in this story, it's outlandish.

[Associate Pastor]

And then in Acts 9 or Acts 10 and 11, which we've just been studying, we find that the real leader at this moment of the church, of the Jesus movement, who has been discipled and trained by the Bible, the same Bible that we use today, half of

[Lead Pastor]

it, at least in the same Bible

[Associate Pastor]

that says you should not associate with Gentiles, you should not associate with people who are unclean, who haven't done the religious ceremonies to purify themselves and cleanse themselves, don't even step foot into their house.

[Lead Pastor]

The Spirit of God gives this supernatural encounter to Peter and says, those people that you've been trained to hate and to exclude and, and to stay away

[Associate Pastor]

from and to not touch and keep yourself clean and pure by distancing yourself from them.

[Lead Pastor]

I want you to actually include them. Now I'm including them. And I want you to actually break the rules that I've given you in the scriptures.

[Associate Pastor]

I want you to disobey the scriptures

[Lead Pastor]

for the sake of this people group, for the sake of this Man,

[Associate Pastor]

I

[Lead Pastor]

mean, this is why we're still reading the Bible 2,000 years later, because it's got wild and scandalous, revolting stories like this, where God tells you to disobey your sacred text in order to include the excluded. Like, tell me that's not so beautiful and rich and challenging and transformative.

[Associate Pastor]

In other words, what I'm trying to tell you, friends, is that this wild. On this wild ride of Acts, the people that we're finding, that God's including and God's inviting, and by the way, it is God's doing. The Holy Spirit is the one who told Philip, go and walk down this road and kind of teleported him in and out of the situation. The Spirit of God is the one who gave. He has to give Peter a vision that because he wouldn't literally step foot in this person's house, God has to give him a vision, so he would step foot in this person's house to have this whole revolutionary movement of inclusion happening. It's all because of God.

[Lead Pastor]

And it's as if between this Ethiopian

[Associate Pastor]

eunuch and Cornelius the gentile Roman centurion, and Saul, the one who's persecuting the church, it says, if in our world, this would be like God. God's saying, I want you to invite that black trans woman

[Lead Pastor]

who might be the most marginalized person you can imagine in our world today, that the church

[Associate Pastor]

wants nothing to do with. If a black trans woman showed up in almost any church in America today,

[Lead Pastor]

people would stay away. Usually people would keep their distance. People would start wondering, is that who I think it is? It's as if there's a black trans woman over on this side and the Holy Spirit says, I want you to include her and invite her to this table because it's hers, right? Like I died for her.

[Associate Pastor]

And then on the other side, in the very next chapter, it's as if God says, hey, that guy, who's that white Christian nationalist who wants to make sure that all those other people, the black trans woman and those like her and those who believe that she's okay, they want to keep her as far away, outside these doors as possible.

[Lead Pastor]

He's included, too, and not even included, but he's going to be one that

[Associate Pastor]

brings people like her in who would ever think of this story?

[Lead Pastor]

But this is what we've been finding in this wild story of the book of Acts, of the church, is that all are included and all are being made one in Jesus. Friends, like, sermon over. Right? I'm just joking.

[Associate Pastor]

It's been Wild.

[Lead Pastor]

It's been crazy.

[Associate Pastor]

It's been kind of like, this is the stuff that preachers love.

[Lead Pastor]

I gotta tell you, I've been waiting for this moment where we go, ding, ding, ding. And now we're on the.

[Associate Pastor]

Like the Ethiopian eunuch. Yes, Jesus, gentiles are included. And then. Saul, make it make sense. But I love trying to make it make sense. It's a good time. We're in the hands up part of the ride, right?

[Lead Pastor]

Like, it's good times, because I know I have pit stains. I don't care. But see, now we're in that part of the ride where it gets a little bit less hands in the air and a little like, more like, when's the next drop? You know, I'm talking about, like, it's. It just becomes this more ho, hum, normal kind of story. In particular, what I'm talking about. See, we get. We've had this wild, crazy evangelistic movement

[Associate Pastor]

of the gospel where the spirit of

[Lead Pastor]

God is including people you'd never think of including that. I think when we talk about evangelism is part of what. A huge part of what evangelism looks like, by the way.

[Associate Pastor]

But now we get to more.

[Lead Pastor]

Way more foundational, formational, kind of boring stuff. And by that I mean discipleship. We've moved from this, like, this wide

[Associate Pastor]

net, incredible, crazy, beautiful stuff to, like,

[Lead Pastor]

now how do we live? Which is never as fun kind of boring.

[Associate Pastor]

So when I say, usually I begin

[Lead Pastor]

our time by having some conversation, but

[Associate Pastor]

when I say the word discipleship, when

[Lead Pastor]

you see the word discipleship, what do you.

[Associate Pastor]

What, what.

[Lead Pastor]

What do you feel? What do you think about? Do you.

[Associate Pastor]

When you see the word discipleship, do

[Lead Pastor]

you think, finally, Randy's talking about something that's important? Like, this is really. In other words, discipleship is really foundational, formational stuff.

[Associate Pastor]

It's the stuff that I'm here for.

[Lead Pastor]

It's the stuff that I love. Maybe some of you think that I'd love to hear from you. Maybe some of you think, I see the word discipleship and it conjures up a spirituality of morality that I don't really love. It makes me feel like I need to step into this performative kind of spirituality where people are watching how I live in such a way to see if I, like, look like Jesus enough. And that kind of puts pressure on me. Maybe we have the spectrum here of I love discipleship, or I'm a little bit leery of it. What are your thoughts when we talk about when it comes to discipleship? Marianne, Lifelong learning Growth and evolution. Now, you say that with a half smile on your face, and you say it in a way, with words that makes me think, you love this process of discipleship or you love this concept of the way you see it. Is that right? Lifelong learning. Lifelong learning. Say it again. Growth and evolution is what discipleship can be. Now, that's better than I heard. Lifelong learning, growth and evolution. What else do you think about when you think about the word or idea of discipleship?

[Podcast Host]

There's a quote from a desert father says, we fall and get up. We fall and get up. We fall and get up again as we walk.

[Lead Pastor]

Do you know who that was? Okay. One of the desert fathers said, you fall and get up, you fall and get up, you fall and get up, you fall and get up. And that's what discipleship looks like. That's what this journey of following Jesus is. I love that, Janan. You fall and get up. You try and you fail. You try and you fail. You try and you fail. And that's what it looks like to follow Jesus. And along that way of lifelong learning, you evolve and you grow, and the Spirit takes roots. Other thoughts about discipleship? Any other thoughts about discipleship? Megan?

[Congregation Member]

The version of discipleship that was like, here are these boxes you have to check. You pray in the morning and you have your quiet time and you do the things. And the way I understand it now is the much more complicated act of actually trying to have my life look

[Lead Pastor]

like Jesus, which is wildly inconvenient. Okay, okay. So Megan said the way I was given or thought about discipleship, whether this was taught or not, is that kind of discipleship is like a checklist, right? This sounds familiar to me. Discipleship is like a checklist. And at the checklist is like, you have to read the Bible and you

[Associate Pastor]

gotta pray every day.

[Lead Pastor]

You gotta have your quiet time. You gotta give at church. Right? You gotta go to Bible study and

[Associate Pastor]

go to church and you gotta do all these things.

[Lead Pastor]

And Megan said, kind of the way I see it now is more of a say it again for me, trying

[Congregation Member]

to make my life look like Jesus life.

[Lead Pastor]

Now Megan says discipleship looks like making my life look like Jesus life a little bit more, which is way more complicated, kind of a lot more messy.

[Associate Pastor]

Checklists are easy.

[Lead Pastor]

Like, they're very efficient.

[Associate Pastor]

There's a reason why we were given. Like, there's a reason why when you

[Lead Pastor]

go to a church website and you

[Associate Pastor]

want to see what that church believes, there's bullet points. Usually I don't like them, but they're convenience. It's a really efficient way of saying what a church believes. Same thing with discipleship. When you have checklists, give me. I like to do lists, man. Like, what I don't like is when my wife.

[Lead Pastor]

Sorry, sir.

[Associate Pastor]

What's more difficult for me is when my wife says something to do and. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'll totally do that.

[Lead Pastor]

And then I like totally don't. You know what I'm talking about? Like, just completely forget. I like it.

[Associate Pastor]

I started out hating it.

[Lead Pastor]

I actually love it when she has this to do list on a post it note on the kitchen counter with boxes by it that says, this is

[Associate Pastor]

Randy's to do list. Don't tell my wife.

[Lead Pastor]

I actually like it because I see that and it's like motivation for me. And then it feels so good to check those boxes, right? This is kind of like discipleship for me. It's easy to check those boxes. But actually having a life that's shaped in the image of Jesus, that's more complicated, that's more challenging, that's more kind of abstract. But also it sounds like the spirituality that I want to inhabit. When we think of discipleship, we think of all sorts of things, but I

[Associate Pastor]

want to go through this story.

[Lead Pastor]

And we're running out of time. So let's read in Acts, Acts 12 together. I'm sorry, Acts 11, the second half of Acts 11, Peter explained his actions and his reasons for doing breaking the Scriptures and breaking the religious rules and kind of wanting to change the religious rules. Scandalous stuff. And then Luke gives us this snapshot of the wider church.

[Associate Pastor]

And we don't know if these are sequential order, by the way, or if

[Lead Pastor]

they're kind of happening at the same time. And Luke's kind of trying to paint this full picture. We don't know.

[Associate Pastor]

But it said now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke

[Lead Pastor]

out when Stephen was killed. So in other words, this story begins at the Diaspora when Stephen was martyred. They traveled all over the place, and as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch,

[Associate Pastor]

spreading the word only among the Jews,

[Lead Pastor]

because that's what they were thought they were supposed to do. Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks, also telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them. Imagine that.

[Associate Pastor]

And a great number of people believed

[Lead Pastor]

and turned to the Lord.

[Associate Pastor]

News of this reached the church in

[Lead Pastor]

Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. And when he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done. Do you see that? This is God's doing. Even though these people were evangelizing, 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. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. And a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

[Associate Pastor]

Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him,

[Lead Pastor]

he brought him to Antioch.

[Associate Pastor]

So for a whole year, Barnabas and

[Lead Pastor]

Saul met with the church and taught

[Associate Pastor]

great numbers of people.

[Lead Pastor]

The discipleship part. The disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.

[Associate Pastor]

Slaves of Christ.

[Lead Pastor]

During that time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit, predicted that a

[Associate Pastor]

severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. We know at least three severe famines

[Lead Pastor]

that happened during this time. This happened during the reign of Claudius. The disciples, as each one was able in Antioch, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. This they did, sending their gifts to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. They sent them out to give them these gifts.

[Associate Pastor]

Now, I want to just walk through

[Lead Pastor]

this text just a little bit and point out just a couple of noteworthy things about the story. First of all, we're in Antioch. The scene has changed from Jerusalem to

[Associate Pastor]

then kind of diaspora, all over the place to now Antioch. And if you're. If you've been in and around the church for a decent amount of time

[Lead Pastor]

and are paying attention, Antioch is kind

[Associate Pastor]

of a noteworthy place in the church. We have churches named Antioch Church. We have training programs and Bible schools named after the church in Antioch. The church in Antioch is a big deal for people who love the Bible like me. But the city of Antioch, just a little background on Antioch. The city of Antioch at this point is the third biggest city in the Roman Empire.

[Lead Pastor]

That's noteworthy after only Rome and Alexandria in northern Africa. At this point, Antioch is the third biggest city in the Roman Empire.

[Associate Pastor]

There's about a half million people there, which in the ancient world is humongous. Antioch was a part of Syria. Now it's part of Turkey, like the southern. It's a weird part of Turkey that I'd love to know why.

[Lead Pastor]

I'm sure it's because of war that they own.

[Associate Pastor]

They have this now, but it's part of Turkey now. It used to be part of Syria. It's right on the coast. It was kind of known as a melting pot. There was a good amount of Jewish People there, there was a good Jewish population. They had this really beautiful, extravagant synagogue which attracted a bunch of pagan people, which a bunch of then really devout religious Jewish people frowned on and said,

[Lead Pastor]

don't go to that synagogue.

[Associate Pastor]

In other words, Antioch was a place of huge plurality and it's kind of

[Lead Pastor]

seen as like a sin city in its world. But see, biblical scholars will tell us the, the advantage of that is that there was this, it seemed like this profound openness to new movements of the spirit, spiritual things. We see a city in a place that's kind of known for being evil or sinful. And maybe the Spirit of God sees a place that's ready to be invited and included into this movement of Jesus. Right. So Antioch is noteworthy place. Then it says this, this interesting thing.

[Associate Pastor]

They, they spread the word only among Jews.

[Lead Pastor]

It says in verse 19, but in

[Associate Pastor]

verse 20 it says some of them,

[Lead Pastor]

however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks, also telling them about the good news of the Lord Jesus. In other words, they're breaking the rules

[Associate Pastor]

talking to people they shouldn't have been talking to people that their scriptures said you shouldn't be talking to people that they're, they're, they knew that their religious tradition would get them in trouble because they're talking to them and they just decided to do it. Most scholars would say there was no, there's no evidence of any impetus of these people sharing the gospel with people they shouldn't have been. See, up until this point, as I've said over and over again, the Spirit of God is the one to blame for these, for these dirty, marginalized, excluded Gentiles joining the movement of Jesus. It's the spirit of God who's the one to blame. It's the spirit of God who's doing the inviting and the moving. All of this is because of God.

[Lead Pastor]

But this is the first time in the story we get these nameless,

[Associate Pastor]

unimportant

[Lead Pastor]

people in the story who just decide. I think it's the way of Jesus to include everybody.

[Associate Pastor]

As far as we can tell, they

[Lead Pastor]

don't wait for or ask for permission. It's just a bunch of normal people who start spreading the gospel of Jesus and this church takes shape. Do you hear what's happening? In other words, people like you and me just decide Jesus has changed the way I see everything, including who my religious tradition has told me is included.

[Associate Pastor]

And I don't care if this gets me into trouble.

[Lead Pastor]

I'm going to start sharing Jesus and sharing my life and living My life among these people, who my religious people tells me is dangerous people, this is just what starts to happen. I think when you really take the call of Jesus seriously, sometimes it means disobeying the rules that you've been told for the sake of the gospel. Sometimes you're going to have people to answer to when you follow the spirit of God into these dangerous places. And then sometimes the church is born because of it. Let's keep moving here.

[Associate Pastor]

Then we find in verse 22, news of this reached the church in Jerusalem

[Lead Pastor]

and they send Barnabas to Antioch. This is kind of like sending a, a hall monitor to make sure that everything's going okay.

[Associate Pastor]

This is not like, most likely. This is not like, hey, this is amazing. All these Gentiles are turning to Jesus in this really awful city. Praise God, let's send Barnabas because he's really awesome. And this is an awesome thing.

[Lead Pastor]

This is most likely them saying, this is dangerous. Who wants to go?

[Associate Pastor]

And I'm imagining when they asked for volunteers of who wanted to go to

[Lead Pastor]

Antioch to monitor what's going on in the church, to be the hall monitor in the church. I don't think there were many, very many hands raised.

[Associate Pastor]

But what we find is just like

[Lead Pastor]

Peter was friends in the story from last week, Barnabas becomes the bridge between the old thing that God was doing and now the new thing that God is doing. Do you remember how Peter in his

[Associate Pastor]

body becomes the bridge between? Barnabas in this story becomes the in between sight between what God was doing and did do among us and what God wants to do and is now doing. Barnabas becomes kind of the translator for it.

[Lead Pastor]

Are you with me? God's doing something new in the world and God needs translators to translate what's

[Associate Pastor]

happening and to say, this isn't something to be afraid of. This isn't something to burn people at the stake because of. This is something to celebrate. Barnabas gets there and he starts celebrating

[Lead Pastor]

what the spirit of God is actually doing. And as I said it last week, I'm gonna say it again this week

[Associate Pastor]

in just a real brief point.

[Lead Pastor]

What if we are called to be like Peter last week in Barnabas, this week.

[Associate Pastor]

What if we as a church are

[Lead Pastor]

called to be the bridge between the

[Associate Pastor]

old stuff that God was doing and

[Lead Pastor]

the new stuff now that God wants to do.

[Associate Pastor]

See, because I don't think God is ever done doing new things in the world. I don't think we got to the point where the book of Acts is written, the scriptures, the canon is closed, and now we just Keep on keeping on.

[Lead Pastor]

I actually think God is always wanting to include the excluded. I actually think God is always wanting to do new things from the old. I think God is always wanting to call us into this spirituality of lifelong

[Associate Pastor]

learning, evolution and growth.

[Lead Pastor]

And what if we at this moment in time, friends, I mean this and this is. There's some seriousness when I say this. What if we are one of those groups of followers of Jesus who are literally embodying are the in between sight

[Associate Pastor]

are the bridge between the old and the new.

[Lead Pastor]

And saying God's doing something fresh and new. Come and see this church stuff I think is important. Being the church, being being willing to be that bridge, be that sight of the in between. Like I think the Spirit's calling us into. That's a holy calling, I think. Let's keep moving. Last couple of things here. This kind of little add on that Luke puts here in the verse 27 through the end of the the the text. During this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a

[Associate Pastor]

severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world.

[Lead Pastor]

This happened during the reign of Claudius. The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide to help the brothers and sisters living in Judea. They did this sent their gifts to the church in Jerusalem. Now what's interesting about this to me

[Associate Pastor]

is that it's highly likely that the church in Antioch at this point knew

[Lead Pastor]

how the church in Jerusalem felt about them. It's highly likely that the church in

[Associate Pastor]

Antioch knew that there were people, a significant amount of people, maybe even some leaders within the people in the church

[Lead Pastor]

in Jerusalem who thought the church in Antioch is an illegitimate church. They got a bunch of people who the Scriptures clearly tell us should not be part of the church among them. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like this happens today, friends?

[Associate Pastor]

Like there are churches.

[Lead Pastor]

Ours is one of them who many Christians look at and say oh, they lost their way. They love those people. They love the ones that the Bible says you can't love.

[Associate Pastor]

Or they include the ones the Bible

[Lead Pastor]

says you can't include. Or they wink and nod at sin, right? Like I hear this. I'm willing to bet the church in

[Associate Pastor]

Antioch heard this from the church in Jerusalem.

[Lead Pastor]

And guess what they did when they were in need. They said they are our brothers and sisters. Let's self sacrificially give from the little that we have to provide for our brothers and sisters who might not even believe that we should be in the church. And All I want to point out, friends, is I think this is the kind of thing that happens when you're really following the Spirit of God. How you can tell sometimes when a person in a group is following the Spirit of God is it's not all anger and bitterness and jadedness and revenge that's motivating them. It's actually that they've been discipled in such a way that they just see the world and see people differently. And even the ones who say, maybe you shouldn't be included, they're saying, we want to bless them. See, when you're truly following the Spirit of God, a spirit of humility and honor just becomes the normal way. Even for people who think that you maybe shouldn't exist. That challenges me a lot. And then we get to this last little thing in here. Not last in the text, but the last thing I'm highlighting. Where Barnabas goes to Tarsus, gets Saul, when he finds him, he brings him to Antioch. And for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were first called to church there. In other words, the project of discipleship starts happening.

[Associate Pastor]

We move in this story from the sensational hands in the air, really fun on the roller coaster ride, from evangelizing all the dirty, rotten, marginalized, excluded people. We love those stories in this church. I do.

[Lead Pastor]

To the boring, traditional formational stuff of discipleship, the unsexy, unromantic, unspectacular stuff that we've heard about so many times. And here's where, just as we finish talking and thinking about discipleship, I want to tell you, I think discipleship, now this is a quote that you'll hear from preachers and people like me a lot. But I really think it's true. I think discipleship has never been more important than right now in our cultural time and moment we find ourselves in right now. Friends see, and the reason I say that is our world, and I can say the whole world, but our world as Americans is led by and moved forward by people who are convinced and trying to convince us that the ways

[Associate Pastor]

to get forward in this world are

[Lead Pastor]

through greed, through grabbing power in any

[Associate Pastor]

way possible, through lies, through deceit, through division, through bitterness, through anger, through selfishness, self absorption is just that. When the leaders of our world and the people, the talking heads, this is what we hear in the air non stop. It begins to scare me.

[Lead Pastor]

And see, it scares me because I got four kids

[Associate Pastor]

who are really in

[Lead Pastor]

their formational years and I look around

[Associate Pastor]

our church And I see other youth

[Lead Pastor]

and young adults, and what worries me is that they think that this is normal. Like my kids can't remember a more sane time

[Associate Pastor]

this has been for the

[Lead Pastor]

last decade or so. More than that, that this division and ugliness and in your face, violence and ugliness has been overwhelming the airwaves. But see, here's why I think discipleship is so important, friends. Because discipleship is just another way of saying there's a better way to live. And praise God for this idea of discipleship, of trying and failing, of trying and failing, of lifelong learning.

[Associate Pastor]

Because what we get to say when

[Lead Pastor]

we're committed to the.

[Associate Pastor]

To the way of Jesus and being discipled and reshaped and reformed into the

[Lead Pastor]

way of Jesus is we're saying that's not the only choice. This way of bitterness and violence and

[Associate Pastor]

anger and retribution in being torn apart and being told here that the legitimate reasons why you shouldn't be with people and like people and support people and be in their camp, this is what we're being discipled into.

[Lead Pastor]

But the way of Jesus is saying there's a better way, way to live. There's a better story that my kids can hear. And this is why I think it's

[Associate Pastor]

so important for us to root ourselves around these rhythms and practice, even like Sunday mornings. This is why it encourages me to read Paul saying things like, don't give up, gathering together, meeting with one another, don't do it, because 2000 years ago it must have been a problem, right? But this is why I think it's important for us to root ourselves around these practices, even just starting with Sunday morning, rooting ourselves in this table, in the Eucharist every single week, to remind ourselves of the life that we have, who it's because of, and what this life is all about is Jesus and the person of Christ. To root ourselves in the places of worship, to change the way our inner men and women reorient our inner men and women to worshiping the spirit of God in the spirit of God. Worshiping God. To root ourselves in the scriptures on a normal basis, to make that normal. To give ourselves a different vision and viewpoint of what it looks like to be human in the world. This is what we're doing when we

[Lead Pastor]

talk about discipleship, friends.

[Associate Pastor]

And it's more than even just these rhythms. I want my kids in my church to love the Scriptures and to be in prayer and to be doing these things that cultivate the richness of the life and the Spirit, to remind ourselves that there's A better way of living. And here's the deal. You know what will remind my kids that there's a better way of living even more than these spiritual practices?

[Lead Pastor]

Having parents who actually embody this different way of living, this way of Jesus. Because see, that's what discipleship looks like. It's me taking Jesus seriously in reorienting and reforming my life to match what Jesus looks like, right? In such a way that my kids see me living. Not just preaching sermons, but man, I hope and pray they see me living

[Associate Pastor]

in some way, shape or form, even though I try and fail, and I try and fail, and I try and fail.

[Lead Pastor]

Maybe they see me trying over and over again to embody Jesus to the world around me. Because that's what discipleship looks like. It looks like me walking with Jesus

[Associate Pastor]

in such a way that I've reshaped and reformed and reoriented my life. And the people around me start to

[Lead Pastor]

notice there's a different option for how to show up in the world. It's not that this way our leaders are showing us is the new normal, that there is a better, more beautiful way to live. See, this is my picture of this discipleship, friends. It's boring. It isn't the sexy stories of all

[Associate Pastor]

these crazy people being included and what

[Lead Pastor]

a party the kingdom of God is going to be. It's about the way we live, about the way we see the people around us, about the way we navigate in the world, about the way you show up at your workplace tomorrow, but the

[Associate Pastor]

way you show up at Summerfest and the things you see when you're there,

[Lead Pastor]

it's a whole different way of operating and navigating this world. And this is what we're called into when we talk about discipleship. If you're able, friends, let's stand together. And I just want to tell you, Jesus, that as I reflect on this reality of what we're told by the world, that is the way of victory, in the way of power, the way

[Associate Pastor]

of life

[Lead Pastor]

that is fueled by self absorption and bitterness and anger and hatred and separation. I'm reminded of you, Jesus, who shows up in the Book of Revelation as a lamb, and not just any lamb, but a slaughtered lamb who the powers of this world thought they overcame with violence, with hatred, with bitterness, with self absorption, they thought they overcame this lamb when they slaughtered it. But what we find is that this way of self sacrifice, this way of

[Associate Pastor]

love, self sacrificial, unconditional love of others

[Lead Pastor]

actually is the thing that overcomes. And so Jesus, as we're about to sing this last song. I just want to say this is a song of discipleship. When we say that's my King, Jesus.

[Associate Pastor]

As I read, as I watch the news and watch these video shorts of the way our world feels like it's

[Lead Pastor]

falling apart at the seams, the way

[Associate Pastor]

it feels like the fuel that's combustible in moving our world forward is anger

[Lead Pastor]

and bitterness in hatred, in violence.

[Associate Pastor]

I want to say, when I look at the Lamb, the Slaughtered Lamb in the Book of Revelation, I want to say, that's my king. That is the way of life, self

[Lead Pastor]

sacrificial, unconditional forgiving love.

[Associate Pastor]

That is the way that I want

[Lead Pastor]

to be discipled into. I want to be discipled into the way of the Lamb that gives up everything for his enemies and breathes words, prayers of forgiveness over them.

[Associate Pastor]

That's my King. I want to be moved forward by this one who says, all are included, even the ones you're going to get in trouble when you include them.

[Podcast Host]

You.

[Associate Pastor]

That's my King.

[Lead Pastor]

Jesus.

[Associate Pastor]

Would you continue this work of transforming

[Lead Pastor]

and reorienting and reshaping the way we

[Associate Pastor]

see this world and the way we

[Lead Pastor]

show up in it around you, Jesus. So let's sing together one more time. Church.

[Podcast Host]

Thank you again for being with us. We would love to have you join us if you are ever in the Milwaukee area. And we hope you have a healthy place to gather wherever you are from.