Through the Bible

mae'r ffocsau'n cael eu gwneud yn y pen draw, mae'r ffocsau'n cofio ei gilydd ohono wiring gyda'r gwaith i gyflawni ar gyfer y gwredid. O'r snaph sydd ar gael ohonom space, ro'n ni'n troi'r gyfed yn y bro fancyddau, ac mae'n mynd i gadarnhau'r gymatridau a fyddwn ni'n cymryd i fod yn gallu eu gwylio

and taken some funds down there, along with John Mark, who was Barnabas' nephew, and they came back to Antioch. Now, as we come to Chapter 13, there were in Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers. And then it lists, but doesn't delineate, so we just assume Barnabas is a teacher, Simeon, we're not sure, who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Mannion, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul. It mentions those specifically.

They could have been both prophets and teachers, or prophets and or teachers. Just a couple of things of interest. Lucius of Cyrene, you wonder how many were touched by Simeon of Cyrene, who ended up carrying Jesus' cross, and what he saw, and if he stayed and was there and was converted during Pentecost and all. And also Mannion, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, in Herod's household, and now is a believer.

And then, of course, Saul, who was a persecutor of the church, who was one of the Pharisees. So you've got quite a combination of individuals there that God's going to use in a mighty way. And the idea is, there's no one individual that makes a good Christian. We're all broken, and we all need fixing, and God's the one who does it. And so there's no perfect,

boy, we ought to have one of those. You know, it's no, we need a basketball star, or we need to get the head cheerleader, or whatever. It seems like the ones the Lord uses the most are the broken down and outers. And we'll see that more and more as we go through. Well, while they were ministering to the Lord, it says in New American Standard, New International says,

while they were worshiping, but King James and New American Standard both say, while they were ministering to the Lord. And I bring that up a lot when we start worship on Sunday mornings, usually. Excuse me for coughing, I'm still carrying this thing around. Those of you listening on CD, I apologize. We're not going to clean that up, we're not going to clean that up,

you're just going to get the full effect. Excuse me. Not just waiting upon the Lord, but ministering to the Lord. And that's when we come together as should be our goal. I mean, we want to receive something from the Lord, we want to get something from His Word. We're looking for that as He speaks to us, but we come to minister to the Lord. And as they were doing that,

well, how did they do that? They were fasting, and obviously praying. It just mentions fasting in verse 2, but it mentions both in verse 3, or verse 4. Well, verse 3, I guess. But fasting is part of it, to really spend time seeking the Lord. That somehow, in the midst of that, we have a chance to minister to the Lord more fully, and through prayer. Anyhow, they were ministering to the Lord,

worshiping the Lord, fasting, and the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Now, how He did that, I'm assuming since they mentioned it in verse 1, that there were prophets, and that's one of the things that the prophets did, specifically. A gift of prophecy, a gift of a word of wisdom, or a word of prophecy, was the Spirit of God speaking through the men of God at that time. And so evidently, the prophets confirmed that Barnabas and Saul should be set apart to go out as missionaries.

Now again, it shouldn't be seen as something that was really mysterious or mystical, because back in chapter 12, they were the ones who effectively began to bring ministry down to Jerusalem. Barnabas and Saul. Bring the word of what was going on back down to Jerusalem. So they're already moving, they're already willing to go, they're already seeing the effects of God working in their lives, and so it's like, okay, let's just lay hands on them and send them out to do that.

That's the proper way that ministry should function. It's not, somebody come up with a good idea, and I don't get as many anymore, because people now around here understand that our philosophy is you come up with it, you do it. But in a lot of churches, people have the idea, well, I'll come up with something for you to do pastor, or for you to do ministry leader. I can come up with lots of good ideas, but I don't want to do it.

Well, here somebody comes up and says, boy, you know what, I think we really need to have here something like this. And we'll say, good idea, you put it together, you start doing it, we'll help supply the needs for it, and you oversee it. And that way, we're not building a box and hoping somebody comes and fills it. God gives you the thing to do it, you do it.

And usually people are already doing something like that, and we see them doing that, we go, that's cool, let us help you supply that, let us help you with that, do you need more help doing that? And again, that's what's happening here. That's what happened, I believe, with Stephen and the other six, Stephen and Philip and the other five in Acts chapter 6, the deacons who ministered to the Hellenistic widows, they were already doing it. Let's affirm that and really commission you further to do that as a deacon.

That's what happened here. So, as we're really seeking the Lord, God will move in ways that are already, there's some activity going, I believe, and He'll just affirm those that are doing it. So, the prophecy came forth to commission Barnabas and Saul, and then verse 3, when they had fasted and prayed some more again. So, it wasn't just, well, we got this emphasis from fasting and God spoke, okay, well, let's fast and pray some more.

And have it re-emphasized just to make sure we're doing the right thing.

we're officially affirming that with the action of the laying on of hands. And it's an act of commission. An act of commissioning. So they did that and they sent them away. In verse 4, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus. If you have a study Bible, you should have a map handy right in there somewhere.

If you don't, I'm sorry. But Antioch is on Jerusalem. Okay, here's your imaginary map. And this is the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is right along here. You go up and then into Syria and then up towards the tip around the... Excuse me. Antioch is up along the coastline north of Israel in what's modern day Syria. They came down to the coast to Seleucia which is down a little bit

and then sailed on out to the island of Cyprus. And when they reached Salamis... Now, Salamis is on... Cyprus is like an elongated island. And Salamis is on the east side of the island. So they landed there and they began, it says, to proclaim the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they also had John, Mark, as their helper. Back to chapter 12, verse 25.

He was with them when they went down to Jerusalem. It was obvious that he was going to go with them. He, again, is Barnabas' nephew. And they began to minister in Salamis proclaiming the Word of God in the synagogues to the Jews. That's where they began. They were commissioned to go to the Jew first and also the Greeks. So they presented the Gospel to the Jews first.

And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus. Now, some of your translations have sorcerer. Either way, the Greek word for that word for magician or sorcerer is the word magos, which is the word we get magi from. So, he was one who had been trained in the mystical arts.

He was Jewish, but he was a false prophet. And his name was Bar-Jesus, of course. Son of Jesus. Of course, there were a lot of Jesus's. Jesus was as familiar and popular a name as John was, so it wasn't any noticeably coincidental name as it is to us as we read this now. But his name was also called Elymas. We'll pick that up down in verse 8. He was with the procouncil Sergius Paulus,

a man of intelligence. He was with the leader of that region, Sergius Paulus. Religious individuals, religious figures will associate and affiliate themselves with the leaders of any area, be it mayors or governors or presidents or kings or procouncils or whatever. There's a strong affiliation between a religious leader and a governmental leader. That's why it's not unusual for us

to see during the time of the Great Tribulation that there will be the Antichrist and the false prophet. An alliance, an allegiance between a governmental leader and a religious leader. Because there's a draw there. Goodness sakes. Yeah, please. So Sergius Paulus had...

This magician is affiliated and advising and really manipulating the opinions of this particular leader. And this man was a man... It says in New American Standard, this man was a man of intelligence. It implies that in all the translations that he was a thinker. He had some intelligence, even though he's being duped by this guy. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul

and sought to hear the Word of God. He was intelligent enough to know that something was going on with these guys and he wanted to hear what they were saying. But Elymas... Now, his name, Elymas, means enlightened one. So, enlightened one. And who knows if he used the name Elymas bar Jesus. So the enlightened one of Jesus, if the Word of God comes around there,

how Satan plays on the particular possibilities, how he could use just his name, you know? The Elymas, the enlightened one, bar Jesus, Son of Jesus. Well, that's his name translated. It says, he was opposing them, seeking to turn the procouncil away from the faith.

as they were trying to travel through the wilderness and all. Moses kept trying to keep them in the Word. The enemy wants to move us away from the Word, always. That's why when you set your heart on having devotions or spending time in the Word of God or listening to a tape or a CD, you will inevitably have interruptions. Something will happen. You can count on it, anticipate it,

because the enemy wants to move you away from the Word. It's only as we're just determined to follow through with that and press on to do it that we'll have victory over it. And in doing that, you'll usually find a blessing and then you'll realize why the enemy was trying to keep you away from it. Anyhow, he's trying to turn the procouncil away from the faith.

But Saul, verse 9, who is also known as Paul. Now here's where Saul's name is changed to Paul in the Scriptures from here on out as he's referenced through the rest of the New Testament, it's Paul. Saul is his Jewish name and it means asked of God. Paul is his Roman name and it means little. And so I don't know that it's necessarily a play on him seeing his position.

He was asked of God and exalted authority as a Pharisee under his name was Saul and he really played on that until he got saved. And now he sees himself as little. He must decrease while God increases. I mean, we could make a whole sermon on that, but whether or not that's the case or whether or not in order because he's commissioned by God to go to the Gentiles, having his Roman name, he'd be more readily accepted in the Gentile world with his Roman name.

He was filled with the Holy Spirit and he fixed his gaze on him, on Elimas. And he said, you who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness. Now he could say that because he could tell he was trying to keep the procouncil away from the word. Will you not cease to make crooked the straight way of the Lord? Now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you,

and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand. Now he's already spiritually blind. That was obvious. Here he's physically blinded, which is just a reflection of his spiritual condition. And he would have been that in front of everybody from the procouncil down,

which would have been God affirming that this guy is a false prophet. Listen to Paul and Barnabas. Well, then the procouncil believed when he saw what had happened and being amazed at the teaching of the Lord. And circle that or underline it because although it was amazing that he watched his religious council go blind at Paul's word, the thing that made him a believer that he was really amazed at was the teaching of the Lord, was hearing the Word of God.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And that's how he came to faith in Christ was hearing the Word. And Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos

They'll tell you everything from he became homesick to he got sick. I kind of think when you go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and read Paul's testimony, well let's do that. Hold your finger here real quick and go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 where Paul affirms his reason for being an apostle, his credentials for being an apostle. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he says, he's really railing on the Corinthians because in verse 20, you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face.

To my shame, I must say that we have been weak by comparison. The Corinthians were following after the Judaizers and all, and actually condemning Paul to a certain extent. And so he says, okay, I'm going to speak foolishness, he says in verse 23, I am just as bold myself. And he goes down, are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Descendants of Abraham?

So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane. I am more so.

from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among the false brethren. Now, let's just stop there. We can go on. But what I wanted to hit was, right there in 26, I've been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea.

I think from the time they left Antioch until they get to Pamphylia, they had gone through

I think he is running into the problems of oppression in the ministry, and he wants to back out. It was one thing to take money down to the poor, starving disciples in Jerusalem and be at avoid and pat it on the back, but to have to go out here and preach the gospel and people not like you and get beat up and get run out by your own countrymen and get accused and meet the devil in a guy, you know, I'm not sure I want to do this very long. And I think at his young age, he just had too much and he leaves them there. And this leaves a sour taste in Paul's mouth.

Just remember this because it comes up later. Verse 14, but going on from Perga, Paul and Barnabas now sailed to Pisidian Antioch, or they arrived at Pisidian Antioch. It's on up inland. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the synagogue officials sent to them saying, brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it.

Now, with the Jews, when Jews would travel to a different synagogue, if they came in and there was an indication that they were, you know, willing to share some things, because that's basically what the Jews did in synagogues, especially if there wasn't a designated rabbi for that synagogue, or even if there was, if there were Jews traveling and they came

Well, Paul stands up, verse 16, and motioning with his hand, he says, Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. So obviously there were the Jews that were there and some possibly Gentile proselytes. So he talks to the brothers and to those who fear God, the Gentiles, which would have been like the centurion and all, and whoever else might have been there that were Gentiles who loved Yahweh. He goes through three points.

He actually presents them a three-point sermon here. And here in point one, he begins, verse 17, point one of his three-point sermon, God's preparation of what's all happening. And notice all the times that he emphasized the fact that God's doing this. The God of this people Israel, he chose our fathers, and I'm just putting these in for emphasis, and he made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

And with an uplifted arm, he led them out from it.

This is what we've done. This is why we do this. This is what our ancestors, the prophets and all, tell us that we should do. And Paul's just taking the same history that they know and emphasizing who's in control of that history. It's not you. You guys went through it, but God's the one that chose you. God's the one that led you. God is the one that made you a people.

He's the one that put up with you. He destroyed the nations in the land of Canaan. He distributed the land as an inheritance, all of that which took about 450 years.

This is what God did from the descendants, verse 23, of this man, according to the promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus. This is what God has done. And after John had proclaimed before his coming a baptism of repentance to all of Israel. And while John was completing this course, he kept saying, what do you suppose that I am?

Because he mentions John in an understandable way that they knew who he was talking about. He didn't have to define who he was. They had an understanding as to who he was. That this John, all of a sudden, presents the fact in baptizing that the Messiah is at hand. I'm not him, but he's at hand. Verse 26, Paul addresses them again as brethren, sons of Abraham's family, but then he also

says, and those among you who fear God. Because he again is the apostle to the Gentiles, but to the Jew first, and to the Gentiles. So he's including them. To us, the message of this salvation has been sent, verse 27, for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, recognizing neither him, Jesus, nor the utterances of the prophets which they read every Sabbath, fulfilled these by condemning him.

So God's done all this, God's brought us, God's presented Jesus as Messiah, and they rejected the very words of God which you just read from Moses and the prophets, from the law and the prophets.

So it's not something unfamiliar to them, the way he's presenting this to them, because he keeps referencing the fact that Yahweh's in control. Yahweh did this, Yahweh made this, Yahweh brought you, Yahweh defended you, Yahweh presented you, Yahweh presented the kings, and now he's presented the Messiah. You rejected him, but God raised him up. God's the one who is doing all of this.

Raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who came up with him

and now it's easy for him to bring the Gospel. All of this has just been eyewitness accounts and the affirmation that Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures. Now here comes the Gospel. Here comes the presentation of the Gospel. Verse 32. We preach to you the good news, there's a word right there, the Gospel of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children, in that he raised

up Jesus as it is also written in the second Psalm. And here he quotes Psalm 27. You are my son, today I have begotten you. And he's referencing that in context right here, Paul is interpreting that Scripture as when Psalm 2, David writes, you are my son, today I have begotten you, it's referencing the resurrection. I have brought you forth from the dead, today.

It's an emphasis on the fact of the resurrection. Verse 34. As for the fact that he raised him up from the dead, no longer to return to decay, he has spoken in this way, and he quotes Isaiah 55. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. He affirmed that he died, he affirmed that he fulfilled the Scriptures in dying, now he's raised from the dead, and now this day I have begotten you, raised from the dead,

I'm giving you the blessings of David. Well, what are the blessings of David? It's the eternal throne, that's what he promised to David. I'll bring a descendant after you who shall sit on your throne forever. Then Isaiah's prophecies of his kingdom there shall be no end. And therefore he also says in another Psalm, verse 35, you will not allow your holy one

to undergo decay or corruption, that's Psalm 16.10.

But he whom God raised, Jesus, did not undergo decay. Therefore, okay, here's the application. He said three points. He said the presentation by God, the fact that God's in absolute control, or the preparation of God, that God's in absolute control. He said, point two, the presentation of the Messiah, and now his closing is the application. Where do we go with this?

Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed from through the law of Moses. So there's the presentation of the gospel, that God has brought him to this point to

It's available to you. It's available to us tonight, to those listening to this who have never come to that point of coming through Jesus for salvation. Then he says, verse 40, Therefore take heed, so that the things spoken of in the prophets may not come upon you. And here he quotes Habakkuk, chapter 1, verse 5. Behold, you scoffers, and marvel and perish!

For I am accomplishing a work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you. That's an interesting application. Because if you go back to Habakkuk, chapter 1, and look at it, go back with me, you remember where Habakkuk is? It's right after Nahum, which is right after Micah. So start in Malachi, and just go backwards, and you'll run into Habakkuk.

Remember initially, in Habakkuk 1, this is an oracle, Which Habakkuk the prophet saw. How long, O Lord, will I call for help, and you do not hear? I cry out to you, violence, yet you do not save. Why do you make me see iniquity? He's asking God, how come you're tolerating the sin of Israel? And in verse 5, verses 5 through 11, God answers him. Look among the nations, observe, and be astonished.

Wonder, because I am doing something in your days you would not believe if you were told. Then in verse 6, he says, For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans. So as you read it through in context in Habakkuk 1, the marvel that Habakkuk marvels at is the fact that God's raising up the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, who are going to come and they're going to smash Israel, and Habakkuk, of course, appeals to God because these guys are ruthless and they're baby eaters and they're awful. How can you let them do that?

And then God says, I'm going to bring judgment on them as well. Now, the reason I brought you there is because now go back to Acts. And behold, you scoffers and marvel and perish, for I'm accomplishing work in your days, a work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you. And here he's applying it to what's happening today, to what's happening at that particular time with the presentation of the gospel.

The same kind of thing in the implication of the application is the people of Israel, when God told them through Habakkuk that the Chaldeans are coming, blew it off. And so Paul is only taking this association with that and saying, don't be like them, because God's doing a work right now which you will never believe. If you blow this one off, it's doom for you. And as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.

And now when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, many of the Jews and of the

So the next Sabbath, verse 44, "...nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming." The only reason they were doing that was because they were jealous. Back up in the verses right before that, it indicates that they were blown away. They were really enamored and blessed by the things that Paul and Barnabas were sharing with them.

And they wanted to hear more. What changed their mind? The crowds. How come we can't get all these people here, to them, on a Saturday? You know, how come we have a visiting pastor here and all these people show up? I've shared before about, you know, I don't think it's wrong that we have all the different churches in the area if we're not competing with each other.

If we're competing with each other, it's wrong. We have a different philosophy of ministry, the way we do ministry, our method, than the other fellowships in town. And that's the only thing that makes us different. We're brothers and sisters in the Lord in every other way. We just carry out the ministry a little bit differently. But I'll be honest with you, every one of us as pastors, I know, has struggled at times

when you see something happen at another church, a revival or something, and crowds turn up. And they say, you know, we had this deal and we had 400 people there or 700 people there or something, you know, for a town our size, that's quite a bit. And you go, wow. And inside it's easy to go, I wish we could do that, instead of going, isn't that awesome that we did that, that the body of Christ did that, that people came and hopefully heard the word of God and didn't just see some dog and pony show.

And how cool it would be to be able to be excited when God's doing things with his church and to be able to interact and do things together. I'll confess something to you. There are a couple in this community that I can do that with. And Pastor Gail is one, I'm Gail Ryder. When we all of a sudden had to uproot and go Monday to Kansas City, and I didn't know

when we'd be back, they told us to plan on being admitted and staying overnight and she may have to have surgery and all that. So I didn't know. I knew that I had a commitment to pray at the commission meeting Tuesday night, and then this was my week, you know, to have an article in to the Traveler for the devotion. And among pastors, that's a nice thing to be able to do because, you know, you get to present the gospel to the circulation of the Traveler and to whoever reads it.

I've always made jest that the only ones who read that are other pastors anyhow, but at least there's an opportunity to present the gospel to the city. So you look forward to that. And because we have so many of us here, and there are a goodly number, even though they don't participate in the Ministerial Alliance maybe, if they're tapped to put an article in the paper, they'll write an article. So you may get a chance to do it twice a year, once in the spring, once in the winter, but sometimes it's just once.

And I knew I was on the schedule for the week before Christmas, and I thought, wow, isn't that cool, you know, the week before Christmas, but it has to be on Wednesday to the Traveler. And so I thought, this is just really cool to have this opportunity to get an article in to the Traveler. When all this came about, I knew I'm not going to have time to get the same thing in. So when I had Gail on the phone, I said, man, can you cover for me Tuesday night at the commission meeting?

Yeah, no problem. I can do that. And I said, and this is my week to put an article in to the Traveler. I'm not going to have an opportunity. Would you do that for me, brother? He was just blessed. And he not only said, yeah, he'd do it, we're still on the way, you know, a few hours later on the way to Kansas City. And I get a phone call from Gail, and he reads me the article that he wrote because he wanted

me to approve it since he was putting it in in my stead. And I said, man, that's awesome, you know, but don't put my name on it. That's from you. You know, that's praise God. Do that. Just put it in. And I hope it touches a lot of people because that's an awesome article. But what a blessing when we can rejoice together, you know, and work together because we're

not competing with each other for people because we're all part of the same body of Christ. And the Jews here were jealous because of the crowd that had come instead of rejoicing that these people were wanting to come and worship God and hear the word of God, which was their responsibility. Remember the Jews were jealous. The Jews are the leaders, the synagogue leaders and all the rulers of the Jews here in this particular synagogue.

They were jealous and they began to contradict the things that they had just agreed with the week before. And when it says they were blaspheming, that means they were condemning the fact that Jesus was God, that Jesus was indeed the Redeemer as presented by God. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.

For so the Lord has commanded us, and he quotes Isaiah 49.6. He says, for I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And, now follow this one, as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Now the Calvinists will make a big deal out of that.

Calvinism is simply the emphasis on the fact that it's all God. The sovereignty of God, God does, God determines, and man has nothing to do with anything. As a matter of fact, a true Calvinist, a pure five-point Calvinist who believes in the five points of Calvinism as put out by John Calvin, believes that evangelism is really unnecessary because those who are predetermined by God to be saved will be saved, and those who are predetermined by God to go to hell will go to hell. So what's the point of evangelism?

Now if you believe that, then you have to tear out a whole lot of scripture in the New Testament because we've been sent out into the world to what? Make disciples, to evangelize. Matthew 28, to present the gospel. Acts chapter 1, go into all the world. I'm going to make you my dynamite witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the innermost parts of the earth.

So this emphasizes God's sovereignty. Those who were determined, who were appointed to eternal life believed. But notice the first part of verse 48. When the Gentiles heard this, they did what? They began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. They believed it, they received it, and those who were appointed believed. So in that one verse, I believe you have the balance between the free will of man and the

election of God balanced because they saw it. The first thing that's mentioned in that verse is they saw it, they heard it, and they rejoiced in it, and they glorified God as a result. And then you see the fact that, well, yeah, God knew. It wasn't God going, oh, look, oh, he came, oh, I never knew, I didn't know he'd do that. God knew that, but man's free will to choose to do that after hearing the gospel is simply

coupled with God's sovereignty in a beautiful way in that verse. Not an emphasis on, it's man's will, not an emphasis on God's sovereignty, but a beautiful combination of the two blended together in that one verse. And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region, but the Jews incited the devout women, circle that, the Jews incited the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district. Now the women of prominence were probably married to most of the leading men of the city.

The men were the heads, and you've heard this before, but the women were the neck that turns the head. And so they got it from both sides. They got the prominent women, the women of prominence, and the men who were the leaders of the city. And they incited them and they instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and they drove them out of their district.

But Paul and Barnabas simply shook the dust off their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium. And the disciples were continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians chapter 5, be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Here you see an example of it. They were continually doing that as they're ministering the gospel and spending time rejoicing in the word.

Now chapter 14 in Iconium, which is about 70 miles east of Antioch, so they've gone about 70 to 80 miles, they entered the synagogue of the Jews together again there and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved again stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Now I don't know how they did that, but it's an interesting read in New American Standard that they stirred up the minds of the Gentiles. I'm assuming that they probably were laying some trips on them about, because the Gentiles wouldn't have known that much about the history of the Jews.

They wouldn't have known that much about the law of Moses. And so I'm sure the Jews probably played games with that. How do you think God could really, you know, they're just leading you on. You guys don't know anything about God and about how God, the history of God, and how God spoke to us and all that. They're just playing with you. They're trying to make fools of you in the front of everyone in town.

They embittered the Gentiles against the brethren. And therefore, and this is wonderful, because here you've got a people that's now embittered towards you. What's the thing to do? Well, let's leave. Let's go somewhere where the people are going to like us, no? Therefore they spent a long time there. Yeah, these guys are mad at us, embittered at us, but that just means we have to work

harder. So they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord. Not upon their training, and how all these prophecies fit together and all that. And boy, I wish I could remember that when I'm talking to you, you know, somebody that you know, your co-worker, your family member. I wish I could remember all the, oh gee, we'd gone through that in the old days, and I just

don't remember. Just rely on the Lord. Just start talking to Him. God will give that to you. It's the Holy Spirit's job to bring that back to remembrance anyhow, and He will. You'll be amazed. I've read that for years. And all of a sudden, there it was. I can't remember exactly where the verse was, but I remember the Word, and that's what they're doing here.

They're trusting the Lord. How are we going to get through these guys? Well, you trust the Lord. And God speaks through you. God works on their hearts. A reliance upon the Lord who was testifying to the Word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. Their emphasis was on spending a long time speaking boldly, teaching the grace of God.

And it's as a result of that that the signs and wonders followed. Why isn't God doing that today? Well, I think it's because we're putting the other way around. Everybody's looking for the signs and wonders. Come to this service tonight because we have so-and-so here who works in the healing and prophecy ministry, the prophetic ministry of whatever. So we're going to watch a show.

I wonder what they'll do. Instead of emphasizing the presenting of the Word, the grace of God, like Paul did with the procouncil on Cyprus. And then he heard and believed. Same thing here. As they do this, then that signs and wonders followed by their hands.

And there they continued to preach the gospel. And so it was discouraging because the resistance arose, but it was just God moving them on like He had promised to do. They were planning on going wherever the Spirit led them anyhow, and they were seeing this as the opportunity that the Spirit was moving them to somewhere else to do that. We need to see that in every area of our existence today.

And so I think that whatever we're doing, if something upsets the apple cart, it's the Spirit of God moving us because we want Him to move us. Well, I really wish He'd put the, you know, one of those really nice scrolly billboard signs out so that I can just sit there and read it for a while and it tells me where I'm supposed to go. But I'd probably sit there after reading it going, is this really you, God? Or is this somebody playing with my mind?

And I still wouldn't go. So God moves us through different circumstances like, well, you need to take your wife and kids five hours away, and then you need to sit in the ER waiting room for another five hours watching people come in that are sick with everything, sitting around you, and they're throwing up over here, and they've got little kids running fevers here, and they've got another little kid that looked like he'd fallen on the concrete like my grandson, and his eyes swollen and scraped over here, and then you've got another guy walking in with, he's holding this finger, and he's got blood all down his hand and arm and all over his shirt. And it's just like a scene from a movie, sitting there watching all these people.

And for a while, when you're sitting there and you've been there for a couple, three hours, I mean, it took me that long to figure out what God was doing, you're sitting there and I'm thinking, the big thing I need to do is just have patience. We just have patience. God's in control. I know that. God's in control. But why did it take me three hours to all of a sudden go, I should be praying for these people?

I was sitting there for three hours wondering, how long is it going to take? And then seeing this person go in and, well, gosh, I think we were here ahead of them, instead of, I don't know what's going on. But pray for the little five-year-old kid whose stepdad was just getting on the mom because the little kid wasn't drinking his little Tylenol thing that they wanted him to drink before they got back there to see the doctor. And the kid didn't want to drink it, and dad was ready to slug the kid, and he was ready to walk out on the mom if she's trying to bribe the kid with buying him a pop or something.

And I just wanted to get up and pound the guy. You know, I'm sitting here going, you just touched that little kid and you're going to be on the floor. And then it's like, aha, okay, I'm there. God moved us here for reasons other than just to have him check in and out. Because we're emissaries, we're missionaries. We are servants of God. And he moves us here through opposition, through persecution, through sickness.

He moves us to where he wants us to be so we can do what he wants us to do where he has us. If he'd have said, Mark, I want you to drive to KU Med Center today and just sit in the emergency room, waiting room there for five hours and pray for those people, I'd have said, oh, come on, God, I got to get ready for Sunday and I got all these kinds of things to do. So God just brings the circumstances about where we have to do that. That's what he did here.

He brought the circumstances about where they had to flee and they go to Lystra or Lystra, about 18 miles southwest of Iconium. And a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man, and this is interesting, this man was listening to Paul as he spoke. Now, the word literally in the Greek, as he spoke, it means conversing.

So he's kind of off to the side, evidently, listening as Paul is conversing. Now, it doesn't say where he's starting off here, it just comes to Lystra or Lystra and they continue to preach the gospel. Now, we assume he was in the synagogue, but I don't know how this guy would have gotten there. And he could have been just outside the synagogue. He could have been in the street asking the guys where the synagogue was.

Who knows? But wherever he is, this guy is listening. He's listening to the conversation. Now, as he's listening to the conversation, Paul turns and looks at him. And when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well. Now, I don't know, the Spirit opened that to Paul and probably because the man had hungry eyes, he's listening to what Paul is saying and is obviously attentive.

But he's like listening to another conversation. That's what I wanted to emphasize with that word, with that Greek word for conversing. People listen to you when you are sharing your faith, when you're sharing with somebody about the gospel, about Christ. You may be talking to this person in your work area, but somebody else over here is listening to you. That's the idea of him, of this guy here.

They're hearing what you say. How much of an effect does God allow us to have on those that we're not directly talking to, but they're hearing the gospel? That's this guy. And Paul sees him, fixes his eyes on him, sees evidently the hunger in his eyes and that he had faith to be made well. And with a loud voice said, stand up on your feet. And he leaped up and began to walk.

And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice saying in the Lyconian language, the gods have become like men and have come down to us. And they began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gate and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. Now, if you have a study Bible, you can read in your footnotes and it talks about the fact

I'm not a UFO wacko, but I have been looking into a lot of this stuff and I, you know, it's interesting. It's interesting to see where Greek mythology, where all of the mythologies come from. I believe that if you go back and you look at all those that died, the Nephilim, Nephilim died in the flood, but you'll find out after Genesis 9 that there were still Nephilim around after the flood. They weren't as prominent, the giants, this group of demonic individuals, they weren't as prominent as before the flood, but they were still around, kind of indicating that there was a similar attempt, but not the widespread, the wide-scale attempt to pollute the land like there was in Genesis chapter 6.

I believe that there were Nephilim still around and they had these powers. They had this strong power.

those individuals. And it did. It was judged by God and sank into the sea, and I think they'll find remnants of that. I think you'll see evidences of that in the different cultures around the world. And they draw the little spaceship type things and all of that, and unfortunately the UFOers today are looking at all that stuff like visitations from other planets or other galaxies. No, I think

it's the demonic attempt to infiltrate like they did back in Genesis chapter 6 and like they will do again, like it was in the days of Noah, so also it will be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. Same type of thing. That's why I think we're seeing all of this UFO activity. It's the same type of thing coming. I think they actually did see these two guys, demonic Nephilim, that came and did some

tremendous things, and it was handed down and handed down and handed down, so when they saw the Word of God and the signs and wonders of God through Paul and Barnabas, they thought the same thing had happened, and they were going to miss out on it this time. And so they came to offer sacrifices to these guys, calling one of them Zeus, Paul Hermes, and Barnabas Zeus. Verse 14, But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, which I think is interesting. We're not gods, and we're not inhabited by anything else. We're of the

same nature as you and preach the gospel to you, the good news that you should

things with difficulty, they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifices to them. So they didn't receive the worship, they pointed the people to God. Don't elevate us, look to the Lord. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, it's fickle people. Crowds are moved by mob, mob rule, the idea of a mob. Ralph Waldo Emerson called a mob, quote, a society of bodies

voluntarily bereaving themselves of reason. A society of bodies voluntarily bereaving themselves of reason. So I normally wouldn't do this, but I'm in the crowd, and the crowd's going, and it's amazing when you're like that, you know. You don't think you're influenced by that until you go to a football game, and everybody's doing a wave. Wave comes by you, go to Promise Keepers. We're at

Promise Keepers, and here comes a wave around at Boulder Stadium. And, you know, everybody wants to do it. Now, you're sitting there in your seat, you come around and go, I don't want to do this. And then you get there and, okay, I gotta do this, because that's what everybody's doing. And it's, you know, you're moved to move according to the crowd. Reason says I don't want to do it, but you move by the crowd, and

that's what happened here. The crowds were moved by the Jews from Iconium and Antioch, and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. Now, I think he was. I think this is a place where 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 is Paul's recitation of, he doesn't know whether he was in the body or out of the body, but at one time he was caught up to the third heaven, and he saw things and heard things that if he repeated it would be unlawful. It was unlawful for him to

try and put into words the things that he saw and heard, but he was caught up to heaven. I think it was during this particular time, and God sent him back and said, no, you got more to do. But he has a glimpse of what's coming. But while the disciples stood around him, he got up, and he entered the city, and the next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. Now, it's very possible, even probable, that

when this happened, when Paul preached and then was stoned and dragged out of the city, and then comes back and gets up and goes back into the city, that one of those listening to him were Timothy and his mother and his grandmother. Because on Paul's next visit, this is where he comes back, he comes back to Lystra, and this is where he picks up Timothy, and Timothy goes on with him on his next journey. So this is probably where Timothy really is exposed to Paul and the strength and the preaching of the gospel. Paul commends his mother and his grandmother later when writing to Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 3. Anyhow, this is probably where he encountered Timothy. They leave there,

and he and Barnabas go to Derbe. And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. And notice what they say, saying, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. No, wait a minute. We're believers in

Jesus. We are king's kids, daughters of the king, sons of the king. We don't have to. We're overcomers. We don't have to go through these tribulations. Well, I'm sorry, you can't tear out a whole lot of scripture here, because here it says again, through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. What we're doing tonight is seeking to strengthen the souls of the disciples, encouraging

us all to continue in the faith, even though we're going through these times of tribulation, philipsis, sufferings. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, there it is again. Want the spirit to move, we need to take times of fasting and prayer, organized and individually. They commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed, and they

you that it is easy to get discouraged in the work. When the pressures come, it's easy to want to quit. And yet, thank you for the examples of Paul and Barnabas, who pressed on. And even in the midst of the persecutions, they trusted you, and they continued to proclaim the word. And when things got difficult, and they were pressed even more, they worked all the harder,

proclaiming more boldly the gospel. Father, may we do so as well. Forgive my laxness yesterday, the day before up there, waiting so long before I started praying for the people. And just help me to be quicker, and help us all to be more quickly adaptable to situations, realizing it's all by your hand. Nothing happens by chance, and we're there by your will and your direction for reasons

that are involving the gospel and the glory of God. So we want to be your missionaries, your emissaries, your light in the midst of this dying world. Help us to do that, and be quick to do that, for your glory. And let us minister to you. Help us to continue to have that vision that Antioch had, to just be willing to minister to you, and bring us more to a time of fasting and prayer,

Lord, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.