Sermon Notes
- Big Idea: If we identify as a Christian, there should be proof of that identity.
Opening
- Conrad said this was the next to last week of the series through Acts.
- Nicknames can shorten a name or point to a trait, and most of the time someone else gives them to us. Some are kind and some are meant as put-downs. Conrad has long been called "Woz."
- Cheeseheads: After the Chicago Bears won the Super Bowl, Bears fans called Packer fans cheeseheads. Conrad grew up in a Packer household, and for Packer fans the name is now simply a term of identification.
- Yankees: In the 1700s the British called Americans Yankees as a put-down. Today it is just a name for an American.
- Conrad said, "What was once used by outsiders as a put-down now has been adopted by insiders as a part of an identifying nickname, as an identifying language." Acts 11:26 shows a name used for the first time, probably as a put-down, that believers in Jesus now call themselves.
01 · Acts 11:19–21
1. The Scattering Church
- In Acts 1–5 the church was centered in Jerusalem. From Acts 6 on, the gospel began to spread.
- The persecution after Stephen was killed (Acts 7–8) scattered believers to Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch. The church grew under adverse circumstances, and the gospel went with the people who fled.
- Like attracts like: Conrad said "like often attracts like." Some spoke only to Jews, but men of Cyprus and Cyrene spoke to the Hellenists also, people who did not think like them.
- Antioch: About 500,000 people, the third largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria. It sat on trade routes, almost a gateway to Europe, Asia and Africa, so goods, people and cultures passed through it.
- Ventura County: 830,000 people, and 22.2% of them born in another country. "The world is here." At work and on the road we meet the nations of the world, and we can influence people who will take the message of Jesus with them wherever they go.
02 · Acts 11:22–26
2. Barnabas, Saul, and the Name "Christian"
- The report of Antioch's growth reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas. He saw the grace of God, was glad, and urged them all to remain faithful to the Lord. A great many people were added to the Lord.
- Barnabas went to find Saul, also known as Paul, and brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people.
- "And in Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians."
- Conrad believes the believers were marked by that year of teaching, and something set them apart in that trade city, so much that they were given a name.
03 · Acts 11:26
3. Biblical Terms for Believers
- Disciple: A learner, someone who follows and pursues the Lord. In John 15:8 Jesus says bearing much fruit proves we are his disciples.
- Saint: In Romans 1:7 Paul writes to those in Rome "called to be saints." The word is hagios, a holy one. Conrad had the church tell the people beside them, "You're a saint."
- Household: Ephesians 2:19 speaks of the household of God, and Galatians 6:10 of the household of faith. To be in the household is to belong to a family.
- Believer: The believing one. Paul told Timothy to set the believers an example in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity (1 Timothy 4:12).
- Being a Christian means being disciples, growing in holiness (not perfect), belonging to God's family, and believing.
- Christian: The word appears only three times in Scripture: here, in Agrippa's question to Paul (Acts 26:28), and in Peter's words about suffering as a Christian (1 Peter 4:16). Christ is in the name, and Conrad summed it up as "one who ascribes to the ways of Jesus."
- Like cheeseheads and Yankees, the name was probably a put-down from outsiders who labeled the believers because "their conduct, their speech, their way of living is so different than ours."
04 · Acts 11:26
4. The Main Challenge: Proof of Identity
- Main thesis: "If we identify as a Christian, there should be proof of that identity."
- What it is not: This is not proving our worth or devotion to God. "Christ proved his love for us by going to the cross for us." The proof is what flows out of our lives in response to God, so that people can see we are Christians.
- Claims need proof: Saying "I'm a Californian" or "I'm a vegetarian" tells the world something, and the claim needs to match the life. A huge truck with a bumper sticker saying it identifies as a Prius cannot prove it at the pump.
- To call ourselves Christians is to follow Jesus' moral teaching and the Sermon on the Mount, to remember every idle word will be judged, to pick up our cross daily, to walk with integrity, and to raise our children in the instruction of the Lord.
- Take the name seriously: When you introduce yourself as a Christian or someone calls you one, stop and consider the gravity of that name.
- On trial: "If you were put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough proof?" Conrad asked whether his own children would know he is a Christian by the way he speaks to them when he is frustrated, and whether his neighbors would know it from what they hear over the fence.
- The DMV: The DMV asked Conrad for two proofs of identity, and one was not enough. As Christians, "let our words, our deeds, our actions, our thoughts, where we spend our time, reflect who we say we are."
05 · Acts 11:23–24, 27–30
5. Marks of Christian Identity from the Text
- Faithfulness: Barnabas exhorted the church to "remain faithful to the Lord" with steadfast purpose. Our world needs faithful men and women who do not turn to the left when a shiny object appears or to the right when a crisis appears.
- Steadfast purpose: Steadfast purpose speaks about the heart: not surface level, because our conduct flows out of our hearts.
- Goodness: Barnabas was a good man. Our neighborhoods and workplaces need good men and women: upright, honest and honorable.
- Full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: Full of faith means believing that Jesus Christ is Lord. Full of the Holy Spirit shows in the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
- Unity and generosity: When a famine was foretold (verses 27–30), the disciples decided together that each would respond, and they sent relief. Conrad saw unity, generosity and a church living on mission.
- Conrad wants his kids to know he is a Christian not because of what he does on stage but by how he conducts himself on a Monday or a Thursday evening, and the same with his neighbors.
Closing
- Fraternity letters: In college, friends in a fraternity told Conrad no one else could wear their letters. Wearing a group's letters without belonging to it misrepresents the group.
- If we wear the identity of Christian, "let's represent the name of Jesus well."
- Be a city on a hill and a light that is not covered, be salt for a decaying world, and love our neighbors as ourselves rather than putting them down to get what is ours.
- Today we join millions who have called themselves Christian, past, present and future. As disciples, family in the household of faith, saints, believers and Christians, we are to walk in our identity and let others see it.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible, © 2001 by Crossway. Text Edition: 2025. Used by permission. Permissions. Prepared for this small group from the August 16, 2026 sermon; questions and applications are editorial study material.