Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder
Be With Me is a daily 7 minute chronological walk through the New Testament hosted by Michael Smith. It is for everyone who is curious about what Jesus actually said and did in the gospels. Most episodes will leave you with at least one good thought to chew on for the rest of the day. We start with the Bible and hopefully end with Awe. We are walking through the chronological events of Jesus' life and then thoughtfully considering them. It is meant to spur the devotional life of the Christian and the not-yet-Christian. We occasionally venture into the Old Testament when it helps our understanding of the New Testament events. Everybody has 7 minutes. Everybody needs to wonder. Be With Me is hosted by Michael Smith who has absolutely no special qualifications to do a podcast. He is not a pastor. He has not been to seminary. He does not lead a mega-church. He is not a professional and he has no more credentials than you do. He does, however, follow a great God with an observant eye and a curious heart. Each day, he starts with a study bible and aims for astonishment. ‘be with him’ for 7 minutes as he sets out daily to discover the God who invites us to ‘Be With Me.’
Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder
1st Missionary Journey Is Barnabas’6th s5e81Acts 13:1
"Paul's First Missionary Journey".
Actually it was Saul
Actually it was Saul and BARNABAS
It was their 4th and 6th journeys in the service of the Lord, respectively
They were sent from ANTIOCH and not Jerusalem
This was 14 YEARS after Jesus' death and resurrection
The founding church and Peter were a little slow on the uptake of the idea of GENTILES in the church. It only took 7 visions and 2 congressional investigations to get them to agree with God
Actually it was the HOLY SPIRIT that called them to this work.
God continually amazes me in all of this. Please subscribe to help make this a habit and a practice in your mornings at bewithme.us or apple, Spotify, google, Deezer, or Podcast Addict podcast directories.
Good morning, my brothers and sisters, welcome to episode 81 of be with me, we're in the book of Acts, and today we're going to learn about what's called the first missionary journey. And the first thing I want to say about it is it's not the first missionary journey. It's actually Paul's fourth missionary journey. And it's Barnabas his sixth missionary journey, which is kind of fun. Here it is. It's from Acts chapter 13. It's kind of what we've been waiting for is the messages going out in a formal way to the Gentiles. Acts 13 Chapter, Chapter 13 verse one. Now there were in the church at Antioch, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger lucilius of Sirene, meaning a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch. And saw, while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they'd laid their hands on them, and sent them off on this first missionary journey. Journey. So the year is 46. Edie, the Lord has been seasoning Paul training Barnabas training the church at Antioch. And up to this point, and forgive me for saying this. There's been a little bit of, I don't know, has to haphazard, disorganized, maybe inefficient, I, you know, I'm sure God's gonna correct me on this when I get to heaven, a way of spreading the gospel specifically to the Gentiles. Really, he's going to tell me, Hey, wait, these were faithful men and women, under persecutions under peril, under travail who were scattered, and then shared their faith. So let me just start with a few observations on the so called first missionary journey from for Paul, or for Saul and Barnabas. First of all, it was sent not from Jerusalem. It was sent from Antioch. So Jerusalem has been do the Christians, the Jewish Christians who were in Jerusalem, Jerusalem, were scattered because of persecution. And it's almost as if God did not want the church to be led in Jerusalem, to emphasize this decentralization geographically and de emphasizing Jerusalem so as you can emphasize the new reality, which is God's everywhere, he's not just in Jerusalem. And not only is he not just in Jerusalem, he's actually in dwelling believers. So there's this decentralized indwelling word God used to be geographically oriented towards Judaism and Jerusalem, and to a place more so and now he's been decentralized geographically and into believers. Alright, so the year is 46 or so a DD there's been a little bit of a slow uptake towards the Gentiles. It took Peter seven visions to sort of get the message to to have the light bulb turn on for him that the Gentiles were to be preached to maybe it took Saul 14 years of seasoning and tarsis in his hometown area. But there has been some heroes and these unnamed preachers that went to Antioch and chapter 11. They they preach to Antioch, the Gospel goes to Antioch. And then there's this suspicions from the Jerusalem church. And that's actually what sends Barnabas on his first missionary journey, if you will, that is the Jerusalem Jews, send him to an app to find out what the heck is going on 462 miles, and he finds Hey, the Holy Spirit's in Antioch. Isn't this a wonderful thing that he goes from ENIAC to Tarsus to go fetch Paul? Saul, another 150 miles, then he brings him back to Aniak, another 150 miles, then the Ania Jew Church, which is now made up of Jews and Gentiles. They hear about the famine from Jerusalem, and they send Saul and Barnabas on a trip of 462 miles to Jerusalem to bring them some cash so they can survive the famine. And then finally, in chapter 12, the these guys Saul and Barnabas come back to Antioch. So Barnabas has been on five missionary trips, five trips at the head at the behest of the Lord. Now Salisbury Audrey had been on three, he was saved in Damascus. Then he goes to Arabia. And I'm not even counting that because I'm think that's this is true seasoning time. But we know from the get go, he preached he preached in Damascus. And then he went when he went to Jerusalem, which I'm going to count this as first missionary journey. He preached there. So he went 209 miles to get from Damascus to Jerusalem. Then he goes up to his hometown area to Syria and Cilicia and Tarsus. And he preaches the faith there for maybe even 10 years, why that it's being season. And finally, his third missionary journey, if you would, would be from Tarsus, back to Aniak. To get ready to launch, so this missionary journey that Saul goes on is his fourth. And it's Barnabas is sixth. And we see a couple of neat things in the church we see giftedness we see prophets, teachers, elders, and people with those specific gifts. Then we see people who are givers. That's 100% of the people. And I love what what happens in the church today is they're worshipping and fasting, then the Holy Spirit tells them to set apart Barnabas and Saul. And then they fast and they pray afterwards. So they're, they're like, in no hurry. They're doing multiple episodes of fasting. And then they lay hands and they're sent off on this first missionary journey. Okay, so a couple of, you know, maybe teaching points or take home points. Fasting, maybe we should skip a meal to pray, maybe skip a meal to worship, enjoy and revel in the church. They refer to that the church and this is where the first Christians are named. And we see giftedness, prophets, teachers, elders can givers being utilized in Antioch. And we see this, this sending now which Barnabas has already been on five trips Saul has been on three trips. So the Lord is spreading his gospel out, and specifically into the Gentile world. And then we see the church 100% of people doing stuff, some of it behind the scenes and faithfulness in some of it not in behind the scenes faithfulness, and that's especially what we're going to see when we follow Barnabas and Saul as they go on this first missionary journey in 46 ad can't wait to go see you tomorrow.