SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you have commented from time to time over the last few months that we are moving very quickly through Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not getting to spend much time in some of these texts.
SPEAKER_00: And that is true.
SPEAKER_00: There is so much in Acts that we can't get into a lot of the details in many of these passages.
SPEAKER_00: The goal here is to give us an overview of how God worked in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And to do that, we need to move rather quickly, especially this morning, because I have five sections to cover.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to keep you with me through it all.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we examined the beginning of the first mission trip from a local church.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Barnabas, at the beginning of Acts chapter 13, were sent out from Antioch in Syria to take the good news of Jesus to other locations.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke established the setting of that trip within the boundaries of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We need to understand that first and foremost.
SPEAKER_00: That the mission trip is subordinated underneath the ministry of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts chapter 12, verse 24, Luke recorded for us that the word of God was increasing and multiplying.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul and Barnabas went out and landed on the island of Cyprus, they ministered there to the governmental proconsul Sergius Paulus, who sought to hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: His response was not to this amazing miracle of Paul and Barnabas blinding a false prophet, their response was astonishment at the teaching of the word.
SPEAKER_00: They go on.
SPEAKER_00: They travel on into Asia Minor, where almost the entire city of Antioch in the region of Pisidia gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And now in our text for today, in chapter 13, verse 48, the Gentiles, as they began hearing the word of the Lord and coming to faith in Christ, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that Luke is telling us surrounds the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It is increasing.
SPEAKER_00: People are responding positively to it.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we join this travel story of Paul and Barnabas in chapter 13, verse 48, near the middle of their journey.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel goes first to the Jews, but it's the Gentiles, the non-Jews, who are most likely to respond positively.
SPEAKER_00: We'll look more closely here in a moment at these five units from chapter 13, verse 48, all the way through chapter 14.
SPEAKER_00: But first, we need to notice how Luke shifts his focus ever so slightly.
SPEAKER_00: You see here this statement, the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord, over and over and over again until we get to chapter 14, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 14, verse 3, it says, They remained for a long time speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: And he granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
SPEAKER_00: For some reason, Luke interrupted his flow of the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord, the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And as you get to the end of this section in chapter 15, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: He returns to the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But right here in this section, everything is a little bit different.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: This section is especially connected to the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: So we have to ask the question, what is the word of God's grace?
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you the answer.
SPEAKER_00: First, we need to understand grace.
SPEAKER_00: We need to understand grace.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to answer the question, what is the word of God's grace?
SPEAKER_00: We have to ask, what is grace?
SPEAKER_00: And in our church connections and our church circumstances, we often oversimplify the concept of grace by by saying it's God's unmerited or undeserved favor.
SPEAKER_00: And that's not wrong.
SPEAKER_00: That's not wrong, but it is oversimplified.
SPEAKER_00: At its core, the word grace means gift.
SPEAKER_00: It's something that's given.
SPEAKER_00: So a grace gift, you'll hear me use that term to help us understand what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: A grace gift is not earned.
SPEAKER_00: Although gifts often came with strings attached in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: A grace gift could could come with expectations, much like God's covenants with Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He gave them promises that were unconditional promises, but they came with expectations of obedience and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: In a pagan world, a grace gift held another connotation.
SPEAKER_00: In the pagan world, gifts were given to the deserving.
SPEAKER_00: To the deserving.
SPEAKER_00: So a ruler might come and give gifts to his loyal subjects or supporters.
SPEAKER_00: They were deserving because of their loyalty or because of their efforts done on his behalf.
SPEAKER_00: It was shocking to provide gifts to the undeserving.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke may be hinting at that notion that God gave gifts to the undeserving, overturning the traditional concepts and expectations.
SPEAKER_00: I think, though, that we can narrow Luke's intention even more.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned here that this word of God's grace is found here in chapter 14, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Luke uses it one more time in chapter 20.
SPEAKER_00: Only two times in the book of Acts does he use this phrase, the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 20, Paul is commending the elders at the church of Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: But before he does that, Luke reports what Paul says to those men.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Paul says to those men in Ephesus.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I do not account my life of any value or as precious to myself.
SPEAKER_00: He's learned that after being stoned and shipwrecked and all those nasty things that happened to him.
SPEAKER_00: If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, what is his ministry?
SPEAKER_00: To testify, to bear witness to, to speak about the gospel, the good news of the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: And a few verses after that, in chapter 20, he uses this phrase again: the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the word of God's grace is the good news of eternal life in Christ as found in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is a divine gift given especially to the undeserving.
SPEAKER_00: Luke wants us to see that the good news of Jesus is grounded in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul almost always began his explanation of the good news of Jesus in your Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God, the word of the Lord, from beginning to end is the expression of God's voice.
SPEAKER_00: It's the content of God's good and gracious gift from a good and gracious king.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul grounds the entire mission trip in these chapters, in God's word that God has given to people as a gracious gift of his good news that people receive through the proclamation and the teaching of this word.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why all of that introduction?
SPEAKER_00: Because it colors everything that we see.
SPEAKER_00: We must see, hear, and believe that no power is more effective than the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: No power for God's work, no power for ministry, no power for your speaking to your family or your friends or your neighbors or your coworkers is more powerful, is more effective than the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me then at five effects of God's grace from these five sections.
SPEAKER_00: I told you we can't cover everything.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna hit the high points here to help us see how Luke incorporates this concept of the word of God's grace being effective.
SPEAKER_00: The first that we find in beginning in chapter 13, verse 48 through the end of the chapter, is that the word of God's grace brings God's people to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 48, when the Gentiles heard this, heard what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, going back to verses 46 and 47, that because the Jewish people rejected the gospel, Paul and Barnabas were now going to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And the Gentiles are happy and celebrating about that.
SPEAKER_00: And they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
SPEAKER_00: And so the word of the Lord spread throughout the whole region.
SPEAKER_00: Now, verse 48 here details the shift from Jew to Gentile, being the primary receptor of the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And they receive it with joy.
SPEAKER_00: The reason for that, the reason they're receiving it with joy and glorifying the word is because as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons that I believe that consecutive expository preaching is the best, is because we can't skip sections like this.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I will hear about it from you and you will ask me, why did you skip it?
SPEAKER_00: And I would say, because it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: This is a problematic clause for some people to receive.
SPEAKER_00: So let's take a moment and consider it piece by piece so we can observe what Luke put down and what we need to take away from it.
SPEAKER_00: So the first half of the sentence is, I think, self-explanatory.
SPEAKER_00: The Gentiles heard this shift from the Jew to the Gentile, and they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's the second half of that sentence that we need to grapple with a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: It's that part that can trip us up.
SPEAKER_00: So let's break it down into three parts.
SPEAKER_00: As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
SPEAKER_00: What is that talking about?
SPEAKER_00: It's a little problematic because to make it smoother in our English, translators switch the parts of it around.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the way that Luke wrote it.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of putting the believing at the end, he puts the believing at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: He starts it with, and believed as many as were appointed to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: So believed is the last word in our English translations, but it's the first word after the word and in Luke's Greek.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke wants us to note that the Gentiles responded to the word of God's grace in Antioch.
SPEAKER_00: Some believed and some rejoiced.
SPEAKER_00: How many?
SPEAKER_00: As many as.
SPEAKER_00: That's what comes next in Luke's statement.
SPEAKER_00: How many believed?
SPEAKER_00: As many as.
SPEAKER_00: I need to start employing that answer.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says, not everyone, not all of them, but some.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't give us a specific number, but he suggests that several folks believed.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, who believed?
SPEAKER_00: Those who were appointed to eternal life believed.
SPEAKER_00: From the time of the Greek philosopher Plato, writing in classical Greek to the time of the New Testament in Koine Greek, common Greek, this word for appointed meant to assign someone to a particular classification.
SPEAKER_00: It meant that there's somebody who's determining what kind of class, what kind of group a person is going to belong to.
SPEAKER_00: You see this all throughout many, many centuries of its use.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you some examples.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 13, verse 1 speaks of God assigning the governing authorities of the world to their respective positions.
SPEAKER_00: That we are to listen to them and obey them because God has appointed them.
SPEAKER_00: He's assigned them to their position.
SPEAKER_00: In Luke chapter 4, verse 8, Jesus encounters a centurion.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Okay, I'll come to your house and I'll heal your servant.
SPEAKER_00: And the centurion says, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, don't come.
SPEAKER_00: Just say the word and it will happen.
SPEAKER_00: You're familiar with this.
SPEAKER_00: The centurion says, Because I'm a person who's been appointed to a place of authority, and so I say to somebody, go and he goes, and so on.
SPEAKER_00: He's been assigned to a particular classification within the military of centurion.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke's grammar tells us that God assigned these people to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the classification, that's the category, in eternity past, and the effect upon them in the present is that they believed.
SPEAKER_00: God assigned these people to the category of people inheriting eternal life, and at the proper moment, when they heard the word of God's grace, they believed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, regardless of how you feel about theological presuppositions or theological categories, that's what the text says.
SPEAKER_00: But Luke doesn't get all wrapped up over that.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he wants to notice a reaction.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the opposite response to the word of the Lord in verse 49.
SPEAKER_00: The word spreads throughout the region as people appointed to eternal life believed.
SPEAKER_00: But the unbelieving Jews, beginning in verse 50, cause a commotion.
SPEAKER_00: We can use Barney, right?
SPEAKER_00: Son of encouragement, so we can be friendly with one another.
SPEAKER_00: They start pushing them out of town.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord brought those assigned to eternal life to faith.
SPEAKER_00: They believed.
SPEAKER_00: But it incited hatred and violence in those not appointed to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke summarizes this for us with bookends.
SPEAKER_00: You can look back a little bit before where we started.
SPEAKER_00: His book ends.
SPEAKER_00: In 1345, the Jews saw the crowd, they were filled with jealousy.
SPEAKER_00: So the unbelieving Jews who were not appointed to eternal life who did not believe are incited to jealousy and persecution.
SPEAKER_00: But look at verse 52.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples, those who have believed and have become Christians, were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You see those opposites?
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord causes division.
SPEAKER_00: Now, while the intensity of the reaction might alarm us, we we shouldn't be surprised by the antagonism to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That isn't unusual.
SPEAKER_00: If you were with us long enough and you were patient enough with me, you heard me preach all the way through the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said there, anybody who follows me should expect the same kind of treatment that I got.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Do not be surprised when you're persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: Paul will later say, Everyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the surprise, brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_00: We should expect that.
SPEAKER_00: What is remarkable, what is astounding, is the power of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: It gives eternal life by bringing people out of rebellion and into rejoicing, out of persecution and into joy.
SPEAKER_00: God assigned a particular set of people to a specific end, eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And he determined the means to that end, the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: This is why later Paul would write to the Romans that everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and who calls on his name will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: But he goes on and he says how that should happen.
SPEAKER_00: He says, How will they ever believe in him of whom they've never heard?
SPEAKER_00: How could the people in Antioch ever come to faith in Jesus if they never heard?
SPEAKER_00: They can't.
SPEAKER_00: They need a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: They need Paul and Barnabas to come and proclaim the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, it's not your eloquence that brings people to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I can't tell you how many times I've heard over the decades, I can't witness to people.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to say.
SPEAKER_00: Great, you're the perfect person.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's what God uses.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't take eloquence, it doesn't take wisdom, it doesn't take power, it doesn't take being able to stand up and speak in public.
SPEAKER_00: It's not our vocabulary, it's not our personality, it's the power of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture is God's determined means to bring people to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Eric Beltz does what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He trains pastors to proclaim the word of God because that's the means that God uses to bring people to faith.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot pass by this section of Scripture without being impacted by the power of the Word of God's grace, which brings people to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But we see a second effect in the first section of chapter 14, verses 1 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God's grace, as we've already seen, divides the obedient and the disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: It brings division.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures divide by necessity.
SPEAKER_00: If God uses his word as the effective means to bring people to faith, it is going to divide people.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul and Barney were forced out of Antioch, and they traveled to Iconium next.
SPEAKER_00: As usual, they took the gospel first to the Jews in the synagogues on their regular gatherings, and it tells us that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: So again, we see the effectiveness of the word of God's grace, but it's effective.
SPEAKER_00: Effectiveness is twofold.
SPEAKER_00: It brings some to faith and it spurs others to antagonism.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse two.
SPEAKER_00: But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
SPEAKER_00: So they provoked the Gentiles to think poorly of Paul and Barnabas.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, they remained there for a long time, verse 3, speaking boldly, testifying to the word of God's gift to these people.
SPEAKER_00: And that gift of God's grace was confirmed through miracles that God did.
SPEAKER_00: Now here is where Luke firmly turns to that concept of the word of God's gift, his gracious gift.
SPEAKER_00: A gift that the Jews don't want to receive, but they don't want the Gentiles to have it either.
SPEAKER_00: Luke calls them unbelieving.
SPEAKER_00: But the unbelieving Jews stirred them up.
SPEAKER_00: This word that's translated unbelieving, however, means means disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your normal word for disp for unbelieving.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word to disobey.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke intentionally chose it to connect these unbelieving Jews to the unbelieving Jews in Israel's history.
SPEAKER_00: Because the term is used throughout the Bible to refer to those who disobey God, particularly those within God's chosen people, Israel.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you just a couple of quick passages to show you what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: In Deuteronomy chapter 9, Moses says, When the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea, saying, Go up and take possession of the land that I have given you, then you rebelled.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same word.
SPEAKER_00: Then you disobeyed the command of the Lord your God and did not believe him or obey his voice.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how this term here is connected to the idea of faith, of believing and responding.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 63, verse 10, speaking of the same group of people.
SPEAKER_00: They rebelled, they disobeyed.
SPEAKER_00: Same word that Luke uses in chapter 14 of Acts, and grieved his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, God turned to be their enemy and himself, God himself fought against them.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a kind of disobedience that is related to a lack of faith, to not believing what you ought to believe.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here we have to remember the Lord's words from John chapter 6, verse 29, responding to the Jews who desired to do the work of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus said, This is the work of God.
SPEAKER_00: You want to do the work of God?
SPEAKER_00: Great, wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: Believe on him in whom he has sent.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in me, he says.
SPEAKER_00: So Luke connects those disobeying the gospel in Iconium with those who refuse to believe and trust God in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: This is a disobedience of faith.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Iconium refused to do God's work, which is to trust in the word of his grace about the gift of his son and eternal life in him.
SPEAKER_00: Let me put that in terms for us.
SPEAKER_00: Those who have been given the scriptures throughout life, maybe it's by growing up in church, having been taught the gospel in an accurate way, and understand what God has said and what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: And they grow up and they come to understand a little more fully and a little more clearly about what God has done and who God is and what Christ has done and who Christ is, and yet they refuse to put their trust in Him.
SPEAKER_00: They are disobeying God.
SPEAKER_00: They are disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: Because God has said, here's what you need to do.
SPEAKER_00: Believe in my Son.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, you're disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: So the best way, friends, to lead people to Christ is to lead them to face their eternal reality.
SPEAKER_00: Bring them face to face with their need to receive God's grace gift of eternal life by believing in Christ for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul and Barnabas were doing.
SPEAKER_00: But the Jews refused to believe.
SPEAKER_00: And the result of this division is mistreatment and even attempted stoning in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul and Barnabas heard the plans and fled.
SPEAKER_00: Keeping on, proclaiming the good news of God's gracious gift.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know God's, one of God's ways of making sure that other people hear the good news of God's grace gift?
SPEAKER_00: It's by forcing you to move.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's by losing your job.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's by having to move because of a family member's illness.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's because, like Paul and Barnabas, you get chased out of town.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's grace to make sure that the gospel keeps moving.
SPEAKER_00: So chapter 14, verse 8 brings us to a new location: Lystra.
SPEAKER_00: And in this community, we find a third effect of the word of God's grace, where it restores the broken while also confronting the gods of this world.
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to spend an entire sermon just on this text, but we can't.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Barnabas's entry into this new community mirrors Peter and John's entry into the temple in chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't remember that, Peter and John were going to the temple to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And they saw a lame man by the gate called beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: That lame man was healed by the word of the Lord, and now a lame man, a man lame from birth is healed at the gate of Lystra.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, Paul and Barnabas were commissioned for the work of God's grace, including preaching and teaching and places where the broken would hear.
SPEAKER_00: Now you remember how I said that in the pagan world gifts most often went to the deserving?
SPEAKER_00: But here is a man who has never stood.
SPEAKER_00: He's never used his feet.
SPEAKER_00: He can do nothing deserving.
SPEAKER_00: He's a beggar.
SPEAKER_00: He is entirely dependent on others.
SPEAKER_00: He's reliant on the good graces of others.
SPEAKER_00: He could do nothing deserving.
SPEAKER_00: That makes him the ideal person to hear the word of God's gift.
SPEAKER_00: Is it not?
SPEAKER_00: Upsetting the traditions of cultures.
SPEAKER_00: Luke describes the man as listening intently to Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Not just listening for a few minutes, but listening over a course of time.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul, probably with divine enablement, could tell that the man possessed faith to be made well.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the ESV says.
SPEAKER_00: That's what most translations say, to be made well.
SPEAKER_00: But Luke uses the word here in verse 9 that is saved.
SPEAKER_00: He possessed the faith to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Now the word for saved can be translated many ways.
SPEAKER_00: Its basic sense means to be rescued.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's very natural for translators to say this man was rescued from his natural physical condition.
SPEAKER_00: He'd been in this position since birth, and so he had faith to be rescued from it.
SPEAKER_00: However, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, this term saved often implies something more than physical rescue.
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if this isn't one of those times.
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul is preaching the word of God's grace, a gift of good news in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That good news came to them through special messengers with confirming power.
SPEAKER_00: And I think Paul could tell that this man was believing in the word of God's gracious gift, and he could somehow see that.
SPEAKER_00: He could tell that.
SPEAKER_00: And that faith is then confirmed by God who saves this man from his physical condition.
SPEAKER_00: The man who had never walked because he was lame from birth.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul tells him, hey, dude, stand up.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's either cruel or miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: That's either cruel and devastating or saving.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems to me that both physical and spiritual salvation are happening here.
SPEAKER_00: Paul commands the man to do what he cannot, demonstrating that this is a divine work.
SPEAKER_00: And the confirmation of the healing is essential because the word of God's grace confronts the gods of this world.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals them as vain or worthless, as he says in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: We proclaim good news to you.
SPEAKER_00: This gracious gift from God is good news so that you should turn from these vain things to a living God.
SPEAKER_00: The false gods of Greek and Roman religion could do nothing for this man.
SPEAKER_00: This community was ready to worship Zeus and Hermes at the drop of a hat, and they could do nothing for the man.
SPEAKER_00: But in comes the news of God's gracious gift, and the world is turned upside down.
SPEAKER_00: History records a legend about this region.
SPEAKER_00: Legend has it that Zeus and Hermes once visited the area around Iconium and Lystra.
SPEAKER_00: The legend reports that they wandered around and nobody recognized them.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody recognized them till finally one meager couple realized these are two of our gods.
SPEAKER_00: So the gods then supposedly killed everyone who did not recognize them and made the couple who did recognize them priests to Zeus.
SPEAKER_00: That's the legend.
SPEAKER_00: Enter Paul and Barnabas.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Barnabas enter to tell them about the one true creator, God, and immediately heal a man who is born lame.
SPEAKER_00: And so propelled by fear of not recognizing the gods yet again, the people proclaim them Zeus and Hermes, and the local priest leaps into action to guide the people in worshiping and adoring them because nobody wants to die.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul and Barnabas rightly consider that blasphemous.
SPEAKER_00: So they do everything they can to convince the people not to do it.
SPEAKER_00: But notice in verse 14, Luke calls Paul and Barney apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Apostles.
SPEAKER_00: We saw that same word back in verse 4, in a generic sense without a name attached to it.
SPEAKER_00: But here in verse 14 is the only time, the only time that Luke refers specifically to anyone other than the 12 apostles with the qualification that they are apostles.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first time he calls, the only time he calls Paul an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only time he calls Barnabas an apostle.
SPEAKER_00: We often think that the designation of apostle means someone's been sent.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Greek word for to be sent is apostelo, to be sent.
SPEAKER_00: But Greek scholar Don Carson has rightly shown that that's a root word fallacy.
SPEAKER_00: That means you come to a wrong conclusion by looking at just one thing.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds us that in the New Testament, the term apostle means messenger, specifically a messenger as a unique representative of someone who is greater in authority or power or position.
SPEAKER_00: Now, someone who is a messenger has been sent.
SPEAKER_00: So we can't separate those two things.
SPEAKER_00: But we must remember that someone is an apostle because they represent someone more significant in power or position.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke calls Paul and Barnabas apostles here in Lystra for a very purposeful reason.
SPEAKER_00: They are not gods in the flesh because there is only one God, the Creator God, and they represent him.
SPEAKER_00: They carry his message confirmed by miracles.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, only the Creator God must be worshipped, not the messengers.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul and Barnabas come in and they confront the impotence of the world's gods and prove them to be frauds by the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God's grace brings salvation, the ultimate restoration of God's creatures to Himself.
SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, it confronts the gods of this world and the people who worship them.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to make a difference for Christ in your world?
SPEAKER_00: Talk about the word of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: It will bring some to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: It will highlight the disobedience of others, and it will confront the gods of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Ironically, as Paul and Barnabas entered the city of Lystra, people wanted to sacrifice to them.
SPEAKER_00: In the end, people want to sacrifice them.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
SPEAKER_00: Disciples gather about him, he gets up, he goes into the city, and the next day he went on to Derby.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelieving, disobedient Jews travel 110 or so miles from Antioch and 20 miles from Iconium to turn the people of Lystra against the Word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: That's dedication.
SPEAKER_00: They stoned Paul thinking he was dead, and that leads us to the fourth effect of the word of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: It strengthens and encourages through trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Paul and Barnabas left Antioch and Pisidia, shaking off the dust from their feet in verse 51 of chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 14, verse 6, they fled from Iconium.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul was stoned at Lystra.
SPEAKER_00: We aren't told the extent of Paul's injuries, but they thought he was dead.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps he was hit in the head with a rock and knocked out.
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he was stoned terribly and God restored him to life.
SPEAKER_00: We aren't told.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, something happened because the man who they thought was dead got up and walked into town, and the next day he started on a three-day journey of 60 miles to the city of Derby.
SPEAKER_00: You don't do that if you're half dead.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what happened, but pay close attention to what Luke records in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: They get to Derby when they had preached the gospel in that city and had made many disciples.
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's retrace Paul and Barney's steps.
SPEAKER_00: They're chased out of Antioch because of an unspecified persecution.
SPEAKER_00: They left Iconium because of an attempted stoning.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was stoned at Lystra.
SPEAKER_00: And after making disciples in Derby, they turn around and they go back to each of those communities in which they had been harassed, persecuted, and stoned.
SPEAKER_00: Would you do that?
SPEAKER_00: The answer to that is yes, you would.
SPEAKER_00: God has not given you the grace for that now because he's not called you to that.
SPEAKER_00: But the word of God grace enables you to do exactly what he calls you to do in the moment that he calls you to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so they were able to go back through each of those communities to strengthen the disciples, to encourage them as they return back to where they were sent from.
SPEAKER_00: The more significant the opposition, the bolder Paul and Barnabas seemed to become.
SPEAKER_00: That is because the work of God is to grow us through tribulations and troubles.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: He strengthened the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: He emphasizes it here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, through many hardships, through many troubles, through many trials, that's the path, that's the road that God has designed for us to ultimately reach being with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The pressures and the trials of following Jesus are designed to strengthen and encourage us until we reach the goal of being with our King in whom we have believed.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul ensures that that strengthening and that encouraging will continue because they appoint elders in every city.
SPEAKER_00: There's enough disciples in each place that they appoint some elders to guide them, to strengthen them, to support them, to sustain them, to keep on teaching them.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm out of time, so let me get to our fifth one.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God's grace confirms God's sovereign work.
SPEAKER_00: Beginning in verse 24, they go home.
SPEAKER_00: They've completed their journey.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to make one or two more stops and speak the word, verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: So they pass through Pisidia, that's the region of these areas, and they come down to the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, to Pamphylia.
SPEAKER_00: They speak the word in Perga.
SPEAKER_00: They go down to Italia.
SPEAKER_00: From there they sail back to Antioch and Syria, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: They declared all that God had done, how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: That's Luke's summary.
SPEAKER_00: So chapter 13, verse 2, the Holy Spirit told the church in Antioch and Syria, set apart Paul and Barnabas for me to the work to which I have called them.
SPEAKER_00: They went out, they proclaimed God's gracious gift to the undeserving Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: And God fulfilled his word and his work through them, which the skeptical and the disobedient rejected.
SPEAKER_00: And by returning them home, God confirms it all.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit has done this from beginning to end, confirming his work.
SPEAKER_00: Let me summarize that in one sentence.
SPEAKER_00: When God's people and God's churches rest in the sufficiency of his word for their work and their ministry, the Spirit of God accomplishes all that God intends to do in us and in others to the praise of his glorious grace.
SPEAKER_00: What do we have to worry about?
SPEAKER_00: But to proclaim the word of his grace.
SPEAKER_00: Because God uses that to accomplish his purpose, to bring glory to him both now and forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we thank you that you use broken vessels like us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that you've given us your word, this powerful message of your gift to people.
SPEAKER_00: Would you use your spirit in us to speak of it?
SPEAKER_00: To take advantage of every opportunity to call people to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: May all of us do that today.
SPEAKER_00: May we all in our actions, in our faith, forever be vessels that praise you and your gracious gift to us.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.