This Message is For You | Acts 13:13-52

Paul steps into the synagogue at Antioch in Pisidia and delivers a sermon that traces the whole story of Israel to its point: Jesus. This message walks through Acts 13:13-52, where Paul makes clear that the good news was never meant to be hoarded — it was always meant to be carried, shared, and responded to. Whether you are hearing this message for the first time or the hundredth, it is for you.

Scripture: Acts 13:13-52
Series: Living by the Spirit, Following the Way

The Way Church KC is a community of misfits & saints in the Rosedale neighborhood of Kansas City following the Way of Jesus & pushing back darkness — together. Join us Sundays or learn more at thewaykc.church.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, the community of listeners and saints in Kansas City, following the way of Jesus and pushing back and darkness together.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Good morning, everybody. Can y'all hear me okay? Hopefully. Maybe. Maybe not. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Um. Yeah, you guys are good. Uh, my name is Madeline. I am going to be doing the reading of the word today. Um, we got a really big chunk today. I feel like whenever I sign up last minute, um I have a big chunk to read. So if you guys will all stand with me, we're gonna be reading Acts 13, 13 through 52. Big chunk. Okay, now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphas and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. And after the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it. So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, said, Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it, and for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All of this took about four hundred and fifty years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified, and said, I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will. Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, What do you suppose that I am? I am not he, no, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him, nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him, and though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus also, as it as also it is written in the second Psalm. You are my son, today I have begotten you. And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore he also says in another psalm, You will not let your holy one see corruption. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers, and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins was proclaimed to you, and by him every one who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you. And as they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath, and after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you, since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, I have made you 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 as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing, and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. This is the reading of the word, you may be seated.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Amen, amen. That was a chunk of text. Thank you, Madeline. I went back and forth on whether we were going to read all that, but I think it'll be cool when we finish this Acts sermon series and we can say, hey, together, collectively, we read and stood for the reading of God's Word throughout all of Acts. And so that's something that I believe in. And uh yeah, it'll be fun. So that's why we did that. Um we'll continue doing that every week. Um if we haven't gotten the chance to meet yet, my name is Zach. I have the privilege of being the pastor here at the Way Church KC. And um yeah, we're a new church plant. We're coming up on two years as a church plant, and um God's been building a really sweet family. Um I know we got we got a handful of people that are like on vacation and in Branson and um where's Geordie in Iowa? Iowa and everything in between. Um Joplin, you know, there's people all over the place. But we have our our friends from Oklahoma um here. We got some friends from uh Putnam City Baptists who are here serving on a mission trip, and then our friends Stacy and Rob from uh Council Road in Oklahoma City who um are our partners and they'll be bringing a team up later this year. So um it's cool to see God's kingdom um work and work together and uh yeah, collaborate for the furthering of his mission. Um this is your first time here, um, welcome. We're glad you're here. Um if you uh want, we have a gift for you, um, and we'd love to um give that to you. So connect with me or one of our team members after service and we'll get you that gift. Um I gotta be honest before we begin. Um I am like fighting some allergies, and I can like even Do I sound nasally, Roman? Okay, I'm fine. Well, I was gonna tell Crystal, I don't know where she went, that I need her feedback today. So when she gets back, Rachel, tell her I need her feedback because I'm feeling it. I feel nasally, I got some allergies. I'm never going on a run outside again. Um, but we're gonna be all good. Um so we're continuing this morning in our sermon series through the book of Acts. We've been walking verse by verse through Acts. The sermon you got me? Yeah, yeah. Alright, cool, cool. Uh the sermon series is entitled Following the Way and Living by the Spirit. And so we've been um in this for a while now. It's been a really sweet um series. Um and so as we begin, uh what I want us to think about is um just kind of want to pose a rhetorical question for you, to you. So think about the last time that you got news that wasn't meant for you. Anybody ever gotten news that was not meant for you? Yeah? Yeah. Uh maybe it was a text that was sent to the wrong number. Any of anybody ever been there? Okay. Maybe it was a letter with someone else's name on it. Like I get I get letters all the time from people who lived in our house, you know, 10, 20, 30 years ago. Um, and I have no idea who they are. It's not for me. I don't open it. Um, you know, think about that moment though. That, oh, that's not for me. That wasn't meant for me. Now, now flip it. Think about good news that feels like it's for someone else. Maybe it's the forgiveness that's meant for someone who's more clean than you. Maybe it's the grace that if you're honest, you're not sure still applies to you. Maybe it's the hope that you feel is reserved for people who have not done what you've done. I think for being honest, many of us can carry that somewhere, maybe deep inside of us. Maybe you you grew up in church and you drifted so far away, you wonder if the door is still open for you to walk back in. Maybe it's for you, it's you've never been in a church in your whole life, and you're in here today wondering what you wandered into. Maybe you you know what it's like to wonder if God's patience has a limit and whether you've found that limit, whether you've reached the end of the road with God. Well, I think the book of Acts, and specifically Acts 13, speaks directly into this. Um there's a verse in this passage that jumps out to me that causes me to pause anytime I read it. Paul, he he stands up in a synagogue full of people, some of them religious insiders and some of them outsiders who had never fully belonged, and he says, To us has been sent the message of salvation. To us has been sent this message of salvation. He's not like segmenting off a certain group of people, not to the perfect, not to the put together, not to the buttoned up, to us. And that's what we're in for this morning. What I want us to see this morning, family, is that this message is for you. This message of the gospel is for you. It's not for just a certain group of people, it is for you. The message of salvation is for you. What we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna continue in Acts, in Acts 13. And this is the heart of Paul's first missionary journey with Barnabas. Um remember last week we talked about how the Holy Spirit had set them apart to be sent out for mission. So they've been through Cyprus, where Paul faced down a sorcerer and a Roman official, then came to faith. And now they've sailed to the mainland, to Pisidian Antioch. And this is a Roman colony in what is now modern-day Turkey. And there's there's one quick note I want us to point out before we dive right in. We we just it's something we can almost skip over if we're not careful. Um we we see uh John Mark, who is traveling with them, he's just left and gone back to Jerusalem. And um it's just you know, like one verse here, but what we'll see as we continue through Acts is it becomes kind of a big deal and causes um Paul and Barnabas to split ways, but we'll get to that down the road. Um Luke doesn't tell us why. Sorry. But if you if you keep reading Acts, this departure it causes a real like falling out between Paul and Barnabas. And that's just uh as an aside, that's a truth for us. Like, ministry is full of unexpected departures. Even good teams lose people. We got an amazing team, nobody's going anywhere, but um you know who knows what the Lord will do over the next ten years. But Paul and Barnabas, they press on, anyways. They arrive in Poseidon Antioch, and on the Sabbath they walk into the synagogue. The law and the prophets are read, and then the synagogue leaders ask if anyone has a word of encouragement. And our missionary Paul, he stands up, and what follows is one of the most full, one of the most clear gospel presentations that we see Luke record in the book of Acts. Luke devotes more space to this sermon than almost anything else in the whole book of Acts. And I really want us to pay attention to us as we look at it. And like we we could split this up over the next month, two months, but we're gonna cover the entirety of Paul's sermon in one Sunday. I think that it's a masterclass, though, in what the gospel actually is. Paul, he does he doesn't start with himself. No, he starts with God. He shows how the whole story of Israel leads to one name. That's the name of Jesus. And with that, there's three truths that we're gonna look at this morning. First, we'll look at how the message of salvation is promised throughout history. Second, we'll look at how the message of salvation is accomplished through Jesus. And then third, we'll look at how the message of salvation cannot be stopped, but it demands a response. I'll pray and then let's dig in. Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us here today to gather together, to worship you, to sing songs of praise. God, I pray that today, as we open your word, that you would be honored, that you would move me out of the way, that you would speak through me. Lord, I thank you for our friends from Oklahoma who are here serving with us, who are here planning trips. Lord, I just praise you for what you're doing in this church and the deep gospel work that you're doing. Lord, I pray that we can be obedient, that we can be faithful, and that we can walk in accordance with your scriptures. Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. We love you, we praise you. And it's in the mighty name of Jesus I pray. Everybody said, Amen. I can't help but smile when my daughter's making cute noises. All right. Point number one this morning: the message of salvation is promised throughout history. Acts chapter 13, verses 13 through 25 speak to this. So Passidion Antioch, where they are, it wasn't just another city. It was a Roman colony that was filled with retired Roman soldiers and their families. So Rome, they planted colonies like this to extend the Roman culture and their loyalty throughout the empire. Everything in that city reinforced allegiance to Rome and to Caesar. So here's a couple things we need to know about Pisidian Antioch, the city where Paul's going to preach the gospel. One of the most impressive structures in Pisidian Antioch was known as the Augustium. It was a grand temple built to honor Caesar Augustus as God and Savior. There were inscriptions everywhere that hailed Augustus Caesar for bringing peace and deliverance. For all intents and purposes, Caesar was their savior. He was their son of God. There were coins, there were monuments, there were public ceremonies, and all of it reinforced the same thing. For the Roman people, Caesar was Lord and Caesar saves. So when Paul walks into Psidian Antioch and begins to preach another savior and another Lord and another son of God, he's not offering them another religious option. No. He is announcing a rival king to the king that is on their throne. And what we know and what we believe is that Jesus Christ is the only Lord, is the only savior, is the only true King. And that's what Paul's doing as he struts his stuff into the city in Antioch. That's the city that Paul is walking into. And if I think we're being real, that's what we're trying to do as well as a local church here in Kansas City. We're preaching a different Savior than what many lost people follow, right? We're preaching the risen Christ. And the thing about our Savior is he holds the keys to life. He offers freedom. He offers joy. He offers peace. That's our Savior. That's the Savior that Paul's preaching about, and that's the savior that we are preaching about today. So as we as we get into it, verse 16, Paul mentions two groups here. He talks about men of Israel and those who fear God, or you who fear God. So the God fearers were Gentiles who believed in the God of Israel and attended synagogue, but had had not yet fully converted to Judaism. They admired Israel's God, they listened to the scriptures, but they were still outsiders. And I think that Luke highlights them for a reason. By the end of this story, what we'll see is they will become primary recipients of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What's so interesting is Paul, he doesn't start with himself. He doesn't start with, like, hey, this is the program we're gonna run at this church. No, he doesn't start with a list of steps. He doesn't, you know, wheel in the the sound, the soundbox to put all the instruments on stage, like none of that. No, he starts with God. He starts with history, he starts with redemptive history. Verse 17 reads, The God of the people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people greats during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with uplifted arm he led them out of it. And then, as I mean, if you want to just look at it where you're sitting, he just keeps going. Paul keeps going all throughout redemptive history as found in the Old Testament. He says that God put up with them in the wilderness. He says that God drove out seven nations. God gave them the lands, God gave them the judges, God gave them a king. And if you read this section carefully, Jeremy, you'll notice that God is the subject of every single verb. God chose, God made great, God let out, God put up with, God gave. The people of Israel, meanwhile, are mostly passive, or worse, what they do is wander. They complain. They demand a king when God was already their king. So Paul's point here is hard to miss. The people throughout redemptive history have not been the heroes of the story. God has been the hero. Israel's history is really God's history. The story of a God who kept showing up for people who kept falling short. And what I want you to hear this morning is that the same is true for us today. I hate to burst your bubble, but you're not the hero of the story. You're not the hero of your story. God is the hero of your story. And that's the story of the Bible. And I think if we're honest, that's your story too. God has been faithful in places where you have not been. You're not walking in freedom because of you, because of anything you've done in your own strength. You are walking in freedom because of God. And the thing is, this is so radically different from the way all other religions work. All the other religions in this world, they say, here's what you need to do to get right with God. Here are the steps, here are the ways that you can climb, that you can ascend to good standing with God. But that's not where Paul starts. Paul starts somewhere else entirely. He shows us a God who has been moving towards his people, who's been choosing, who's been redeeming, who's been sustaining, who's been providing for his people for centuries. For people who did absolutely nothing to deserve it. Then it's Paul, he just like he pumps the brakes, he slows way down. He gets to one name. Verse 22, after removing him, in parentheses it says Saul, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David, the son of Jesse, a man after my heart who will do all my will. So Paul, he's been moving fast, centuries of history in just a few verses. And then when he gets to David, he stops. Why? Because David is the hinge. God has made a covenant with David that from his lineage would come a king whose throne would last forever, a king who would do all of God's will in a way that No one else could or would. And notice what Paul does. He quotes three different Old Testament texts at once. I have found David from Psalm 89, a man after my heart from 1 Samuel 13, and then who will do all my will from Isaiah 44. Where the same phrase is used of Cyrus, who's rebuilding the temple. He's stacking the promises of God. David pointed to someone who would do everything that God willed. And that someone is coming. King David was not the final king promised. David himself sinned deeply. We've studied that a little bit on Tuesday nights. What David was a preview. He was pointing us to King Jesus. Verse 23 says, Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus as He promised. So the whole sweep of Israel's history was building to this. One moment, one person, a savior from the line of David. Every covenant, every single prophet, every single king, every sacrifice, every promise was preparing the stage for one moment when God Himself would step into history. Paul says that that moment in history has a name. And that name is Jesus. Then at the end of this session, Paul adds John the Baptist to kind of close the loop on the story. He says, John wasn't the finale, he was the herald, he was the forerunner for Jesus Christ. He was the voice saying, Someone is coming after me who is so much greater. I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals. So John the Baptist's whole ministry was a massive arrow pointing forward to Jesus. So here's what this means for us. The gospel didn't come out of nowhere. It's not something that Paul invented. Every single prophet, every single psalm, every single covenant promise was building toward the moment when God would send his son to do what the world could never produce on its own: a savior. So, family, when you feel like God has abandoned you, when you feel like the promises have gone dark, what I want us to do is to look at God's track record, look at God's history. This is a God who has kept his word for thousands upon thousands of years. He kept it to Abraham, he kept it to David, and he will keep it to you. The gospel is proof that God finishes what he starts. You believe that?

SPEAKER_02 24:44

Come on.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

So point number one, golly, the message of salvation is promised throughout history. Point number two, the message of salvation is accomplished through Jesus. Roman, I'm moving slow, brother. But we're gonna get through it. Now, Paul, he gets to the center of it in verses 26 through 41. And the first thing out of his mouth is that direct address. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. To us has been sent. Paul, he looks out at this room. Jewish people who had grown up with the Torah, Gentile God fearers who had been drawn to God, to the God of Israel, but had always been on the outside, and he says, This message is for all of you. Not for some of you, not for the Jew only, but to all of you. That's the crux of what Paul is saying. But before he gets to the good news that he's preaching, he tells him something that's pretty uncomfortable. Verse 27, for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him, nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. That's striking. Paul says that these people did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. Their problem, it wasn't lack of information. They had the same, they had scriptures that they read every Sabbath. What it was, what their problem was was spiritual blindness. They could not see. So what that shows us is it's possible to know the Bible and to still miss the Messiah that the Bible points to. Like sit with that. Sit with that this morning. The people who read the prophets every single Sabbath, the most religiously educated people of their generation, were the ones who handed Jesus over to be killed. And in doing so, they fulfilled the prophecies that they were reading. There's a certain irony in that. Isaiah 53 had predicted that this servant king would be rejected. Psalm 118 said the stone would be rejected by the builders, and it would become the cornerstone. The people who should have recognized the Messiah were the ones who missed him entirely. And what Paul's doing, he's holding up a mirror here. Israel's history is a story of missing God's messengers. But here's what Paul will not let go of. Even their rejection was inside God's plan. They carried out all that was written of him. So what looked like catastrophe was the fulfillment of a plan that was drawn up before the world began. Verse 29, Paul intentionally says, tree, and not just cross. In Deuteronomy chapter 21, verse 23, the law says, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. So Paul, what he'll do is later explain in Galatians that Jesus took the curse of the law upon himself, that the Messiah bore the curse so that sinners could receive the blessing. And then we get to verse 30, and that stops everything. But God raised him. But God raised him. But God raised. Christianity, it stands or falls on that very sentence. If Jesus stayed dead, if Jesus didn't walk out of that tomb, then let's be real. None of this matters. But if God raised him, if God raised him from the dead, then everything changes. And that's what we ground our belief in. That we worship a risen Savior. That the tomb was not the ending, that the cross wasn't a defeat, that God raised Jesus from the dead, and that he appeared to many witnesses over the next 40 days after rising. Paul and Barnabas were standing before these people as witnesses to that resurrection. The good news promised to the fathers has been fulfilled for their children. Verse 31, it gives us some language around the witnesses to this resurrection. And Paul, he's saying something testable here. Christianity didn't begin with a private mystical experience. No, it began with public eyewitness testimony. These witnesses were still alive when Acts was written. Paul, he then stacks three scripture texts to prove the resurrection, was not only predicted, but signals something even bigger. You can look at this on your own. Psalm 2, Isaiah 55, and Psalm 16. And what he shows us is that the case holds together. The case for Christ holds together. That Jesus is the forever Davidic King, that the enthroned Son of God, the risen Lord, who has conquered death, reigns now. And because he is alive, because he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, he can offer something that no one else and nothing else in this world can. So verse 38 and 39, this is where Paul is going. Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. So feel the weight of that. Everything. Everything. Paul says that there are some things that you could not be freed from by the law of Moses. The law, yes, it could regulate behavior, it could identify sin. It could prescribe the need for sacrifices. But what the law could not do was change your heart. It could not deal with that guilt that keeps you up at 2 a.m. It could not deal with like religion effort, trying harder, doing better, performing well enough. Like none of that can give you what you need most. But there's good news. Because Jesus can. Jesus can. You believe that? Through Jesus, forgiveness is proclaimed. Through Jesus, everyone who believes is freed. Not some people, everyone. And the one word carrying everything here is believes. Not performs. Not earns. Believes. You receive this. You don't manufacture it. You don't work your way into earning it. That's the thing about Jesus. He doesn't like just he doesn't he doesn't improve your record. He replaces it. So let me ask you a question. What are you carrying that you've never been able to shake? What's that thing that you're holding on to instead of giving it over to Jesus? I think what we see this morning is that the greatest tragedy is not hearing the gospel and rejecting it. The greatest tragedy is hearing it. Maybe hearing it so often that you stop taking it seriously. We should be falling more and more in love with the gospel of Jesus Christ every single day. Not growing callous to it. The gospel still changes, right? This message of salvation is still for us. And point number three, the message of salvation cannot be stopped, but it demands a response. That's where we're going to land today. Paul's sermon ends in verses 42 through 52. The room responds, not with conflict, but with hunger. Verse 42 says, As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told to them the next Sabbath. They couldn't get enough of this. They followed Paul and Barnabas outside, still wanting more. Something had happened in them. And word spread. Then the following Sabbath, verse 44, almost the whole city, the whole city of Poseidon Antioch, gathered to hear the word of the Lord. The whole city, right? Jews, Gentiles, skeptics, seekers, all crowded in one place to hear about this Jesus. I don't know. Like, how wild would that be? The whole city of Kansas City gathered to hear about this Jesus. Or maybe just the whole neighborhood of Rosedale gathered to hear about this Jesus. That'd be wild. And then verse 45. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. So it's jealousy, not skepticism, not like honest theological pushback, not anything like that. It's jealousy that the Jewish people have. The Jewish leaders in Pisidian Antioch, they look out at the crowds, including people they would have considered outsiders, and something ugly rose up within them. They worked hard to maintain their religious standing. And now this grace was being handed out freely to people who hadn't earned it in their eyes, to Gentiles who hadn't kept the Torah, to people who were on the margins. And I think like, like maybe we're sitting here thinking, hey, like, yeah, there's there's some people, there's some Christians that are like that, but that's not us. What I want us to be honest about is in the same way like that the gospel is available to all of us, that jealousy response is something we can all be susceptible to. Like if you've been following Jesus for a long time, for any length of time, for any amount of days, I think there's a really, real temptation to want a more exclusive gospel. To want some sort of reservation on the grace you received. Like when grace lands on someone that you didn't expect it to. Maybe it's someone with a messier story. Maybe it's someone whose life didn't look the way you thought it would. Like when the gospel reaches that person, what's your reaction? Are you glad? Are you joyous? Are you celebrating with them? Or does something stir in us, like verse 45? Are we filled with jealousy or are we filled with joy? Paul and Barnabas, they respond with boldness. That that word keeps appearing in Acts whenever the Spirit's at work. Verse 46, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. Then they quote Isaiah 49, 6, and this is a massive moment. It was Isaiah 49 was God's promise to his servant that his mission wouldn't stop at restoring Israel, but would extend to the whole earth. And so Paul and Barnabas, they're claiming that mission. And the reach of the gospel, the reach of God's mission is expanding, it's exploding. Opposition comes, but God's mission blasts right through those doors of opposition. Verse 48, the Gentiles, they they rejoiced and they glorified the word of the Lord, and as many were as were appointed to earn eternal life, believed. So they rejoice. These were people who had spent their lives on the outside, drawn to the God of Israel, but with no full place at the table. And now they're told this message was sent to you, and they receive it with joy. So the word of the Lord spreads through the whole region, not despite the opposition, but alongside it. The mission of Jesus does not depend on ideal conditions, it depends on the power of the Holy Spirit. Then the persecution comes. The Jewish leaders stir up the prominent citizens, and Paul and Barnabas are driven out of the district. They shake the dust off their feet. This is a symbolic act of judgment. This is a declaration that the responsibility lies with those who rejected the message, and they move on to Iconium. Now, Jewish teachers, they sometimes shook dust off their feet when leaving Gentile territory to symbolize separation from uncleanness. So, Paul and Barnabas, what they're doing is they're saying something shocking. If you reject the gospel, you place yourself outside God's people. Verse 52, swore will land. Everybody read it carefully, listen to it carefully. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Doesn't talk about Paul and Barnabas. They've been expelled, they've been kicked out of the city, the disciples, the people who were left behind in Poseidon and Antioch. The people who would one day receive a letter from Paul. This brand new community of faith who just watched their pastors get kicked out of town. They're filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. And Luke, he loves pairing these two things together: joy and the Holy Spirit. Because the Spirit does not only empower mission, the Spirit produces joy in the middle of hardship. The gospel, it creates a kind of joy that persecution cannot destroy. That's just what the gospel does, Crystal. It doesn't need a preacher to stay around to survive. It doesn't need ideal conditions or cultural approval. No, it takes root in ordinary people who receive it. And that's what's happened here in Poseidon Antioch. Those people became carriers of the Holy Spirit's joy, especially when things were hard. That's the thing. Like the church in Acts, we should, like, by the time we're at Acts 13, we're about to start 14 next week. Like, we should have an idea of what the early church looked like and functioned like now. They never treated the gospel like something to keep, like something to hoard. They always treated it like something to carry and something to share. Because here's the thing: the message that reached Poseidon Antioch eventually reached us. And now we are the ones responsible to carry it forward. Because here's the thing: the word of God, it cannot be stopped. The word of God cannot be stopped, but it requires a response. So here's where we land. Paul, he walked into a city where Augustus was being worshipped as Savior. He walked into a synagogue full of people who had heard the scriptures all their lives without ever connecting them to the name of Jesus. And Paul, he preached a gospel that's rooted in history, that's centered on the cross and the resurrection, and it's offered freely to everyone in the room. We're not that different from ancient Rome. Our culture has its own saviors. Success promises us salvation, a false sense of salvation. Money promises us security. Identity promises us meaning. Achievement, it promises approval. Maybe you're wrestling with one of those. What I want you to hear. None of those things can forgive sin or defeat death. So this morning, March 2026, Kansas City, Kansas, this morning, the same message is being preached. The gospel is still rooted in God's story. God has been working and promising and keeping his word for thousands of years. That hadn't changed. The resurrection of Jesus is reality. It's truth. We base everything we do on that reality. So if you're sitting here this morning and you're wondering whether God can be trusted with your life, look at his track record. Look at God's track record. He's never broken a promise. The gospel it offers what nothing else can. It offers forgiveness, it offers freedom. And through Jesus, every person who believes is freed. Not because of what you've done, but because of what he has done. So remember that opening image that we painted? Getting a message, getting some news that wasn't meant for you. The gospel is the opposite of that. The message was always meant for you. The message of the gospel was always meant for you. But it requires a response from you. Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you need to believe for the first time. Maybe you're sitting there this morning and you need to come back to the center of the gospel. Maybe you're sitting here this morning and you need to start carrying the message to someone else. Whatever that is, my hope is that you respond today. No one hears this message of salvation without needing to respond. Not responding in a performance, not responding in a cleaned up life, but just responding with maybe it's a willingness to receive this message of salvation. Or maybe it's a willingness to share this message of salvation. Because to us has been sent the message of this salvation. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we love you, we praise you, we thank you for sending your Son Jesus to this earth to live out this message of salvation. God, I pray if there's anyone here who does not yet know you. That you would bring them to saving faith this morning, God, that you would preach this message of salvation in their heart and in their mind right now. God, we love you, we praise you. It's in the mighty name of Jesus. And every side, amen.

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