Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Englewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. Well, good morning, Englewood.
The first service, I said that in a different language and
everybody just stared at me. So I'm just going to go English
with you. So it's good to see you this
morning. Take your Bibles if you have one
and turn to Acts chapter 13. If you don't have a Bible, the
verses will show on the screen. You'll be fine.
Thank you so much for being here.
We're so appreciative of you. If you're a guest, maybe you
came to see family member baptized this morning.
We're so thankful for that. Let me share just a couple of
words before we dive into Acts 13.
So it's also been nice. We have a couple of our our
overseas units back home visiting with us.
So we're very thankful for that. On that subject matter, Many of
you know that we've been praying for another one of our overseas
friends who has been in trouble, been in in prison.
And if you weren't here Wednesday night, you hadn't
haven't heard the word yet. They did that.
They did make bail. They're all at their homes there
awaiting. Sure you can clap, awaiting.
It's going to be about a two-month investigation.
There's a High Court meeting on November 10th, which would be
something to pray about. We'll talk a whole lot more
about this on Wednesday night at midweek, but but to just
continue to pray for them. It's not over, but at least
they're out of where they were, which was a which is a great
thing. Also just want to remind you
that toward the end of the month, we're going to have some
special guests preaching. You'll enjoy those weeks.
I won't be preaching. They'll be great.
You'll love it. So be back for that.
And then another serious note, we are watching as many of you
are the news about several things happening in our country
right now. Some of them, some of them are
affecting families. And some of those are going to
affect some families within our church and certainly our
community with some of the benefits that some people get
who need them to feed their families.
And we've had some of you as in our small groups and some of you
that individuals say what we're going to do about that.
If you all will let us do this, we're going to give it about 24
to 48 hours to see what happens. And the next day or so,
hopefully some changes will take place.
But we're also then going to send out an e-mail or some kind
of flyer to everybody to let you know if you want to give toward
our benevolence, we can do that. And we can steer that toward
ministries in town that will actually help people with food
and, and basic necessities that all make sense.
You good. All right, So just watch for
that. So when I preached earlier this
year from Acts chapter, chapters one through 13, I, I preached
this series called Come Join the King's Mission, where we learned
about why, who and what a biblical church and biblical
church member are supposed to be.
Then we, we, we started learning how to be more like Christ over
these last several weeks where we talked about come live, the
church's vision, the seven essentials of a disciple.
And, and these were just key foundational blocks that we were
laying down to going to give us a foundation we can now build
upon. We're going to keep building on
those 7 as as I've warned you before, we're going to do that
in all of our meetings at midweek.
For example, we have hundreds of people are showing up every
Wednesday night at 6:30 right in here.
And we're framing out two of those essentials. 1 is abiding
in prayer with dependence and anticipation.
And then the other one, which is a major part of what I'm
teaching now on Wednesday nights, is living out evangelism
with boldness and love. And so you really do want to
come back this Wednesday I'm going to teach us in a pre
evangelism method. How do I actually pray for my
lost friends and family? How do I lift them up before the
Lord? And how do I naturally
authentically develop a relationship with them to where
I can have a dialogue with them about spiritual things?
We don't want this to be fake, we want it to be real.
And so how can I have a real relationship with my lost
friend, my lost family member, my lost neighbor, classmate,
etcetera and eventually lead that conversation to Christ?
So you come back Wednesday night.
We're going to be talking a lot about that.
Then during our missions month in November, on Sunday mornings,
we're going to continue frame out last week's essential, which
is participating in missions with urgency and sacrifice.
We're returning to Acts Chapter 13 and following for the next
couple of weeks. It's a very short series.
Then we're going to have our special guest come in.
We'll also be promoting some of our our missions offerings,
etcetera, down the road that we do every year.
And so if you remember you be ready for that.
And we're calling this little miniseries Go fulfill the Great
Commission very simply because we need, we need this focus
right now because of the huge number of unchurched and unsaved
people all around us. And who recognizes you?
Look back at the history of this church, like almost every
church, frankly, I've dealt with hundreds of churches, as you
know. And so if you look back at the
history of this church, people have left for various reasons.
People do that. Sometimes they've leftover what
we would have to call a church split.
Sometimes they leftover planting a new church.
And sometimes those two things were the same thing.
And so and so people leave for various reasons.
And then we also still have several inactive church members,
some of them who've been inactive for a very long time.
So what we're going to do at the end of this month, through our
reach strategy and our connect groups, we're going to have what
we call an H week where everybody works together.
So what percentage of participation am I looking for?
Yeah, that was just, that was so exciting.
So, 100% so, yeah. So everybody, we're going to
work together and we're going to reach out to all of our inactive
members just to touch base with them.
This isn't a mean thing. This is a loving thing.
We're just praying for you. We miss you.
Some of them are probably going to other churches.
We need to figure that out so we can leave them alone if we need
to, that all that kind of stuff. But we're also going to try to
reach out to everybody who's visited a special event at
Inglewood for the past two years.
There are a lot of those folks who've never really been
followed up on well, so we're going to do that.
So we need every hand on deck as we try to reach out to our
community. You'll hear a lot more about
that over the next few weeks. So you'll be ready for all that.
But we should not simply hope that they all come back or or
show up. So we're also going to have to
reach a lot of new people. And so evangelism and missions
have to be a key strategies for our proper disciple making path
forward. So I'm glad that you're here.
So the book of Acts has already taught us, if you have been here
at all. If not, don't worry.
The book of Acts has already taught us that there was a
series of what we would call power engagements between the
Holy Spirit and Satan who were fighting over the first church,
fighting over the spread of the gospel.
The devil doesn't want lost people to be saved.
The devil doesn't want inactive members restored.
He, he doesn't want visitors to be visited and he wants to
squash us, frankly. And he wants, maybe he wants to
squash you and he wants to just stop the spread of the gospel.
And so these are important things.
He's tried that here in the past and he'll try again, but just as
he has, even as as we've walked with some of our friends
overseas. But but God has a different plan
and God always overcomes. And so we pray for the new
church that is started in a prison overseas.
Now, one of the prayer requests we have from our friends is to
pray for a brand new church started in a prison.
Pray that some of those new believers will rise up and be
leaders of that new church. And it'll be fascinating one day
in a throne room with Jesus to hear about the story of how that
gospel spread because of what's just happened there.
So it's amazing stuff, but but church, nothing will happen here
until we desperately depend upon and are empowered by the Holy
Spirit. So we want to watch him move us
forward. And I just want to share as we
move into global impact, as we talk about the first missionary
journeys ever taken with Saul and today with Saul and
Barnabas. And over the next two weeks,
we're just going to look at these very quickly.
And then we're going to have a special missions time toward the
end of the month. So verse 1 of chapter 13, here
we go. Now there were in the church at
Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas Simeon, who was called
Niger, Lucius of Serene Manny and her lifelong friend of Herod
the Tetrarch and Saul. While they were worshiping the
Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me
Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them.
Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them
and sent them off. So being sent out by the Holy
Spirit and then the verse. We'll look at the rest of it in
a minute. So I've got a simple 5 point
outline for you. It'll it shouldn't last more
than about 2 1/2 hours. So a good five point outline,
it's not that bad. If you're a guest, you're OK,
get you out in time for the buffet.
So the first thing I just wanted to see is that we're sent out.
We are sent out and, and, and that's something we need to see.
Paul and Barnabas were sent out. It was no small thing for that
to happen either. You really do need to
understand, slow down a minute and recognize the ramifications
of Saul and Barnabas being sent. These were the leaders of the
church. These were the primary leaders
who had helped start the church, had helped lead a lot of people,
the Lord who'd who'd been there to teach and to disciple.
And now the church was actually sending out the best of the best
to go reach the World to be illustrations of the teaching
that they had been conducting all this time.
So this is a really powerful moment, sacrificial moment for
the church because we can talk about discipleship, we can talk
about being a Christian, we can talk about living for the Lord.
But in the end, we need to live it out in a practical way.
So we need to be examples of what it means to be a true
disciple and staying within the walls of a church, even going to
get it done. We got to get out.
We got to go share. We've got to go minister.
We got to go love. So they were sent to impact
their world by their church and by the Holy Spirit.
That's the same thing that needs to happen here diligently to
seek the will and the power of the Holy Spirit, considering
what your destination needs to be, who you need to be reaching,
who you need to share the gospel with, what lost person you know.
I'm very thankful that last Sunday night we had our Global
Missions night and we introduced, had a good great
crowd, introduced our mission trips for 2026.
This church does a lot of mission trips for those of you
who are guests and we had over 150 interest forms filled out
for those mission trips. Now, those mission trip
opportunities are still out in the larynx, the narthex, the
vestibule, the lobby, the place you come into out there.
And you can still sign up. You can still check one of those
QR codes. If you don't know how to do AQR
code, just stop by the office. And you're not, you're not,
you're not committing yourself to anything.
You're just saying I'm interested in more information
about this trip and the dates of specific dates of the trips are
coming out. A lot of them will come out this
week. So I hope that you'll do that.
I hope that you'll be interested to see those tables.
Acts 134B. They went down to Seleucia and
from there they sailed to Cyprus.
When they arrived at Solomon's, they proclaimed the word of God
in the synagogue of the Jews, and they had John to assist
them. Don't miss that last part.
And so not only are we sent, but we're sent to share.
We're sent for reasons. There's reasons we go.
We're, we're not just sent haphazardly.
We're sent to share. They travel basically to
Barnabas's home. That's where they are.
They're at Barnabas's hometown and they preach the word of God
in the synagogue. Don't miss the context.
So they're preaching the Bible to Jewish people in their
synagogue and they knew how they could bridge the Old Testament
to to lead to Christ, to lead to the gospel as part of what we
call the meta or grand narrative.
So they knew how to do that. And and that because the whole
story of the Bible, believe it or not, is about Jesus.
It really is from about Genesis 3 on, we see where there's a
Messiah or Redeemer who's going to come.
This is, even though it's written over by many authors and
over many years and different languages from different places,
it really is a unified story all the way through.
And they knew that. So they were actually helping
them to understand how the whole Old Testament pointed to Christ.
And we're going to talk more about that on Wednesday nights
as well. How do I, how do I actually take
the Bible and lead people? How do I build bridges with
people of commonality, of common understanding so that it's we
can have a natural way to talk about gospel?
So how do I find common bridges and then lead that conversation
to Christ? So we share God's word with
others just like they did. And we also need to take others
with us when we do that, just like they did.
They had John Mark with him. Now, John Mark, don't miss him
because he's going to be important in a minute.
John Marks. John Mark is Barnabas's cousin
who lives in Jerusalem, and he comes along, there's a Greek
word describing him as a helper. He's kind of the rookie.
He's a young man. He's a rookie.
Acts 13, six. Let's dive into this.
So when they had gone through the whole island as far as
pathos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet
named Bar Jesus. He was with the proconsul
Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence who summoned
Barnabas in Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
But Elemus the magician, same guy, for that is the meaning of
his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from
the faith. But Saul, who was also called
Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him
and said, You son of the devil. And it's nothing like a subtle
message, you son of the devil, you enemy of all, all
righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy.
Will you not stop making crooked the straight pass of the Lord?
And and now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you
will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.
Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about
seeking people to lead him by the hand.
Then the proconsul believed when he saw what he what had
occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
So the third thing, not only we sent, not only sent to share,
but we're sent to stand. Sometimes we're going to face
opposition. Not everybody appreciates us
trying to talk to them about Jesus.
I know that's shocking to you, but that's the truth.
So we must not just talk about God's Word.
We need to also live it. So Saul, notice what he's called
now, Paul. It's just a more Greek name.
So because of where they are, because of where they're going,
he's now called Paul and he engages a Jewish Magos.
It might sound like the word magi.
It should. So you see this Jewish sorcerer
who's basically becomes a advisor.
They were very popular with the Romans.
The Romans like these guys because they were mystical
spiritual advisors to these Roman leaders.
So they they like to keep them around.
And so that's what he was doing, probably making good money.
And you need to contrast Paul, who's filled with the Holy
Spirit, and Bar Jesus, who's full of deceit and fraud.
In fact, the word deceit in the original Greek language is the
Greek word for con artist. So this is a con artist.
This is a false prophet. There's no question about the
person's character. It's interesting too, because
it's like a bad joke. Bar Jesus means son of salvation
and Ellamus, his other name means wise.
So he's like the wise son of salvation.
I mean, this just kind of a twisted, almost a twisted joke
here. And so this proconsul, this
Roman who reported to the Senate ruled over the whole area.
This is a big wig. This is a powerful guy.
This is a real leader. And and he's listening.
You wanted to learn. But the false prophet stands in
the way to know the truth. But God's gospel forces a stand
to take place. Truth forces a stand.
Paul, the sent one stands firm in the Holy Spirit.
So don't miss the irony of what happened next.
So here's the evil sorcerer who's supposed to be a prophet
who stands against the word of God.
He's now blind, and the spiritually blind Pagan Roman
leader now can see spiritually, sees the light, and is saved.
The Bible says that he believes when he saw what had occurred,
for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Sometimes I wonder when people are going to be astonished at
the teaching of the Lord. So don't give up.
Even if somebody doesn't believe, even if somebody tries
to stand in the way, don't give up.
Don't give up on this broken world.
Don't give up on your family. Don't give up on your lost
friend. Don't give in to your depression
and anxiety and fear in this world.
Take a stand. Stand firm in the Holy Spirit
and believe. In fact, turn to somebody and
say, stand firm and believe. Be astonished at the teaching of
the Lord because there might even be a lost spiritually blind
leader out there, maybe even a leader who's waiting for you to
take a stand and tell them the truth right now.
Maybe that's who you are this morning.
Maybe you're here and you don't know the truth or you don't
believe the truth. You're just kind of enduring
this and you don't understand what the truth of the word of
God is. Will you hang in there?
You hang in there because you have an opportunity.
You're not here by chance. You're not here by accident.
God's LED you to this. Listen to this.
So I pray that that God would show blind eyes, the light of
truth, and that we would watch Him work just like we saw
overseas with our friends, that we would see God work here.
Look at verse 13. Now Paul and his companion set
sail from Paphos and came to Purga and Pamphylia and now
here. This is important.
And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, but they went on
from Purga and came to Antioch. This isn't the same Antioch that
came from this is a different Antioch in Pasidia.
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 word to them saying, brothers, if you
have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.
So John Mark couldn't, couldn't keep standing with them.
He left and went home. Now we know more about this
story because later the difficulty that John Mark had
led to Paul and Barnabas actually separating, disagreeing
with one another and going different ways.
So even though we don't know why he left right here because of
Paul's reaction, we know it wasn't something positive.
So either it was too difficult or he didn't want to keep going.
And it was a hard journey over over tough and mountainous
terrain. Teresa and I have been there.
We've seen this. As we drove along, I commented
on the fact that how difficult that would have been to walk
that all that way. A friend of mine from another
seminary where I once taught wrote a New Testament
commentary, John Paul Hill, and he said this.
The area was so notorious for bandits, the Romans had
difficulty bringing it under control.
So this is a hard, dangerous, difficult journey.
But, but, but they couldn't be stopped.
So, so my challenge is, is what's stopping us?
What's stopping you? What are the what are the lost
people around us worth? What are the unreached peoples
of this world worth? What is one more person going to
heaven worth to you, your family member, your neighbor, your Co
worker, your classmate, what are they worth?
We are all on mission, we are all sent.
So this is a whole body responsibility for all of us and
and why God has brought us to this place at this time.
Believe that with all my heart. So they end up in Galatia in
their synagogue and the student of the great Rabbi Gamilia Paul
is asked to speak. I imagine that happened a lot
because they would have known who he was.
Because of his teacher, because of his mentor before he became a
Christian. And so it's interesting how God
uses everything for his glory. Even old resumes sometimes kick
in verse 16. So Paul stood up and motioning
with his hand said, men of Israel and you who fear God,
listen. And now for the next several
verses. What he does is he preaches a
long, contextualized sermon connecting the Old Testament to
Jesus Christ and the gospel, because again, it's just one
story, and he's doing that skillfully.
But let's pick it up in verse 28.
And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they
asked Pilate to have him executed.
Of course, he's speaking about Jesus now.
And when they 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 that what God promised to the fathers.
And then, and then let's hear the beginning of his conclusion.
Go to verse 38. 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 he basically preaches the gospel to them.
The gospel Jesus is God Incarnate.
Jesus dies on the cross to pay for our sins because he's the
only one qualified to do it. That's one of the separations
between truth and untruth. Jesus is the only one qualified
to pay the price. So he has to die on the cross to
pay for my sin. Then he rises from the dead to
take care of death for us. He takes care of my sin problem,
takes care of my death problem. He shares the gospel with him
and you and he says to them, listen, the law couldn't do that
for you. He goes, grace is now on the
scene. So then check out what happens
during the invitation. Check out what happens after the
service. They're not just going by the
pastor in the foyer, the larynx, the the narthex, the lobby.
Good pastor, good, good sermon, pastor, nice sermon.
Thank you. Nice sermon.
They're not just doing that. See what really happens.
Verse 42, That's my invitation of all of you, by the way, no.
Verse 42 As they went out, the people begged that these things
might be towed to 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. They begged them, When's Rocky
Mount going to beg for the word of God?
When will this community beg that the Word of God be preached
even more? And notice what happens.
Many didn't just follow them physically, but they were
following spiritually. He could, they could urge them
to continue in the grace of God. In other words, they were
converting. They were believing, They were
trusting in the grace of God. And those who had only known the
law, this legalism, this tradition, we're now being
challenged to enter the faith by grace.
But Paul and Barnabas weren't done.
Word spread. People wanted to hear more.
So look at verse 44. The next Sabbath, almost the
whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
But but when the Jews saw the crowds, there's going to be a
lot of butts in these passages coming up.
But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with
jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul,
reviling him. I mean, I want you to catch
this. Almost the whole city gathered
to hear the word of the Lord. What will it take for the people
of the Rocky Mount air area to hunger for the Word of God like
this, to gather and to experience spiritual awakening?
When will the Rocky Mount harvest begin?
Who is he going to use to do that?
My prayers that as we reach out to hundreds of people at the end
of this month, that that we'll spend all of December with a
packed house with no empty chair in here.
That's my prayer as we celebrate the birth of Christ, as we honor
him and glorify him, that the city would recognize their need
to do this. But be warned, whenever the
gospel is successful, whenever somebody gets baptized and
testifies like they did today, there's always going to be
opposition. Somebody's always going to
refuse to believe that wasn't real.
That's not for me. I don't need that.
We'll hear that. And the religious in this story
didn't want to change. They despised and were jealous
of the new. They just wanted to complain and
argue. They didn't want God to work in
a way beyond their normalcy. They didn't want God to work in
a way beyond their control. And maybe you're here and you
don't think you need this. Maybe you're here and you don't
want to give God control. Maybe you spent your whole life
refusing to give God control. Well, you better be careful
because preferences and traditions that often fight new
are often fighting God himself. So Paul and Barnabas must have
just quit, right? I mean, that's what happened,
right? They just gave up.
This is too hard. People don't like us.
People don't agree with us. We're just going to quit.
Let's just give up. We can chase after John Mark.
I bet we can catch him. Let's just run home because
somebody doesn't like me. Somebody didn't agree with me.
Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me.
I'm just going to eat some worms.
I didn't like what they did. I didn't like what they said or
I didn't like what they didn't say exactly the way I thought
they should have. I didn't like how they looked at
me or I didn't like the fact that they didn't look at me.
I didn't like the temperature. I didn't like the song or I
didn't like something. So I just quit.
I want to fight. I'm going to withhold there are
people like that out there. How fragile is your faith
connection to the body of Christ?
How? How fragile is your relationship
to the body to one another? Look at verse 46.
And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly.
Did they give up? Did they run away?
Did they say that's it, nobody likes us, we're going to quit?
No, they spoke out even more boldly, saying it was necessary
that the word of God be spoken first to you.
But now listen to this. This is hard, this is dark,
since you thrusted 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. So they didn't quit.
They spoke even more about, they stood, they took a stand and
spoke even more boldly. They quote Scripture, they obey
God. And those who rejected the
gospel here, who thrusted aside, who judged themselves unworthy
of eternal life, you got to understand there's some strong
language here. What it means in the original
Greek language is they made a conscious, willful decision to
reject this. This isn't just, I don't think
so. This is a willful rejection of
the gospel. I've known folks who acted that
way. Some of them I've seen God give
another chance to That's always a blessing.
Sometimes not. And and so some will respond to
our invitation, some won't. So when we reach out to this
community, some folks are going to be eager and excited and
thankful and others are going to reject it.
And I pray, if you're here today and you need the gospel, don't.
You willfully reject it today because one day you will be
reminded of this moment. I promise you, in judgment, you
were given a chance. You were given a moment and
appointed time. So Paul and Barnabas share of a
fulfilled prophecy from, frankly, the prophet of Isaiah.
Who, who, who talks about how the Hebrews were supposed to be
a light to the Gentiles. They weren't supposed to seek to
control access to God. They were supposed to be
examples and testimonies to the entire world.
And Gentiles were being saved now.
And look at what it says. And the word of the Lord was
spreading throughout the whole region.
So now it's not, it's not just almost the whole city, it's the
entire region. Think of what I need you to
understand. I pray for this every single day
with all my heart that this entire region would experience
spiritual awakening. It's one of the reasons why I
believe I stand here and I was called here to leave what I was
doing to be a part of you. I hope you understand.
I want us to reach thousands of people with the gospel here and
around the world. And I believe with all my heart
we're supposed to do that. But listen, God's plan will
happen with or without us. He doesn't need us.
I believe you'd love to use this, but God has created this
appointment for these people to believe.
And God will create that same appointment for us.
He's created it for you. If you're here today and you
don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, accept his
invitation. You're not here by chance.
You're not here by luck. God has brought you to this
place at this moment to hear this.
In fact, this word appointed indicates something that
happened in the past, but it continues now into the present
and future. So in other words, I was saved,
I am saved, I will be saved, I'm saved.
I know exactly what's going to happen to me the second I die.
My prayer, much to Teresa's chagrin, is that I drop dead in
a pulpit someplace. I always thought I would blow up
in a in in one of my travels. Spontaneous combustion has
always been my prayer. But, but, but, but that I would
just drop dead in a pulpit one day.
I thought it'd be dramatic, a dramatic point, you know, if I
did that. Guess not today.
So if that's the case, here we go.
So not now the whole city that everybody's coming.
And I'm praying for that. But listen, God has a plan and
he wants to use this. So God wasn't surprised by this.
God's not caught up off guard by this.
He's orchestrating this from before time.
He knows exactly what this is. But I told you that word
appears. Look at verse 50.
Very first word. But when the gospel is
successful, be ready for the enemy.
When you stand with the sender, and lost people are saved.
Satan's not going to tolerate it well.
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 the district.
What a shame the whole region is getting saved and these people
drive them out. Are we ready to do enough for
God? Are we ready to do enough for
the gospel that it causes opposition from Satan and the
lost world? Does the enemy even know our
name or care? Surely being expelled stop them.
Surely that was enough. Paul and Barter's, that must
have been enough. We got kicked out of town that
that's where our reputations run.
I don't, I've lost followers online.
I'm not the influencer I once was.
I don't know if anybody's going to listen to my podcast anymore.
I'm not sure if my TikTok videos are going to be viewed anymore.
I just surely we're done. Got to be over with.
Surely they quit and gave up this time.
World doesn't like me, so all must be lost.
Look at verse 51. What's the first word?
But. 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. Are you all crazy?
They were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit because #4 we're
also sent to sacrifice and to serve.
We're not just sent. We're not just sent to share.
We're not just sent to stand. We're sent to sacrifice.
We're sent to serve. So they moved on and focused on
those who wanted to hear. Listen, there were plenty to go
around. There were new churches that
needed to be started. The gospel needed to be shared.
It needed to be spread. We have plenty to go around here
too. More than enough to fill this
house. We won't have enough chairs.
We won't have enough seats. We'll have three worship
services, 4 worship services. You think parking's an
interesting thing now? And they were kicked out of town
and they were still filled with joy.
Peter talked about this in First Peter 314.
He said, but even if you should suffer for righteousness's sake,
you will be blessed. Have No Fear of them nor be
troubled. Listen my friends, one of the
greatest reasons people never share their faith.
In fact, statistically a lot of surveys are done.
You know, I, I taught this for a living.
So a lot of surveys done. Number one reason people don't
share is fear. And so we got to be careful or
we're going to drift off into idolatry here to where I'm more
afraid of a lost person than I am of God.
We need to be careful. Will we stand and be filled with
joy and the Holy Spirit even in the face of opposition, even in
the face of lostness? Think of our friends overseas
and what they've just been through.
Wait till you hear the testimonies of my friends who
are going to come and share with you these last two Sundays.
One of them testified before the United Nations just in powerful
people that God has used dramatically around the world.
You, I can't wait. One of them is in his 90s.
I can't wait for you to hear them.
Are you full of faith or you're full of fear?
God has a plan. He wants to use us.
How will you serve? What trip are you going to join
around the state, around the nation, around the world?
In what ministry are you going to commit to serve in this
church? Look at Acts 14, verse one.
We're getting close to being done.
It'll be all right now at Iconium, they entered together
into the Jewish synagogue. Don't miss that.
And spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and
Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred
up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the
brothers. So they remained for a long time
speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of
His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their
hands. But the people of the city were
divided. Some sided with the Jews and
some of the apostles. When an attempt was made by both
Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to
stone them, they learned of it and fled the Lister in Derby
cities of Laconia and to the surrounding country.
And there they continued to preach the gospel.
So even though they had been persecuted in a synagogue, look
where they went, right back to preach in another place.
So you see God's people obeying God's word, shared people being
saved as God works, and the enemy striking.
Don't, don't miss the pattern. In fact, my challenge to you is
to to serve and to stand in such a firm way that you purposely
seek to 'cause this pattern to happen.
Tim Keller once wrote this. He said the greater the
effectiveness of a ministry, the greater the resistance and
opposition. So.
So they get opposition. So again, it must be time.
Well, I can't do this. I can't stand this.
Somebody doesn't like me, I can't stand it.
It's time to give up. It's time to quit.
It's hard. I got to stop.
Instead it said they remained there for a long time, speaking
boldly for the Lord. So they stayed for the proper
time. They endured.
They taught, they saw miracles take place, and then finally the
time came for them to move on so that they would be able to
continue their ministry elsewhere.
And then they the Bible says, and they continued to preach the
gospel there. Look at verse 8.
Now at Lister there was a man sitting who could not use his
feet. He was crippled from birth and
had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking and
Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be
made well, said in a loud voice. Stand upright on your feet.
And he sprang up and began walking.
So Paul again shares the gospel. He recognizes authentic faith
when he sees it, and he heals this lame man.
He tells him to stand. But he didn't just stand.
He springs up. He's walking in new life and his
new faith. And listen, friends, we can
either sit and be unused. We can sit idly and be unused.
Or we can believe in faith and we can spring up and we can walk
in a new way as Jesus uses us. But this also caused a response.
Look at verse 11 and when the crowd saw what Paul had done,
they lifted up their voice saying and Laconian, I was going
to do this in my best Laconian accent, but I don't know what
that is. So we'll do Oklahoman instead.
The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.
Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the
chief speaker and the priest of Zeus who is whose temple was at
the interest into the city, brought oxen and garland's to
the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.
This interesting passage for me. I'm actually trying to write a
book about this. Sometimes I'm afraid that we're
guilty of idolatry in a different way.
Sometimes I'm afraid we're guilty of idolatry when we focus
more on the person doing God's work than God himself.
I'm always amazed, disappointed, amazed, perplexed.
Those are the nice verbs I can say when people choose or deny
their relationship, even to a church, and the way they're
going to obey or disobey God based on some human personality
rather than upon God himself. It's always interesting to me.
I'm also amazed at church leaders who appear to love that
spotlight a little too much. We need to make sure we're
following the right person. Thomas Constable, this a great
line. Listen to this carefully.
He says if Satan cannot derail Christian witness with
persecution, he'll try praise. They lifted Paul and Barnabas up
as gods to honor them. Now, you got to remember there's
a whole context behind this. This area had a legend where two
Greek gods would visit them and that's why they built that local
temple. I mean, it's an amazing thing
that God's orchestrating here. And so This is why the Pagan
priest even shows up to make a sacrifice.
They, they thought this was the fulfillment of the legend,
right? So look at verse 14.
But when the apostles, Paul, Barnabas and Paul heard of it,
they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying
out, men, why are you doing these things?
We also are men of like nature with you.
And we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain
things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the
sea and all that is in them. Then look at verse 18.
Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people
from offering sacrifices to them.
So Barnabas and and Paul reacted strongly.
They rebuked them because they knew to whom glory and honour
was due, and it certainly wasn't them.
And my concern is that many church leaders and members today
seem to seek to be winners of some popularity contest.
Paul and Barnabas would have lost that contest.
They would never take credit for what God does.
So look at verse 19. We're getting close to the end.
So, but the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having
persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul.
Not just a threat this time, they stoned Paul and dragged him
out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and
entered the city. And on the next day he went on
with Barnabas to Derby. So the enemy wasn't done.
The enemy never gives up that easily.
Remember, Satan never sleeps. Satan never relents.
Satan never gives up. And he's not done with us here
at Inglewood either, Friends, the the crowd is so easily
twisted from praise to condemnation.
It's amazing how quickly that can happen.
But the Holy Spirit also never sleeps.
The Holy Spirit also never gives up.
The Holy Spirit also never relents.
And here's the key. The Holy Spirit always wins.
So God spared Paul, but man, I bet he was sore the next day.
He actually describes these experiences in his letter to the
Corinthians, Second Corinthians 11.
Listen to this verse 24. He says five times I've received
at the hand hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less 1/3 times I
was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I
was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea on
frequent journeys. And dangers from rivers, dangers
from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from
Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger
at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship
through many a sleepless night. And hunger and thirst, often
without food and cold and exposure.
How faithful, how tough, how tenacious will your faith be?
Think of our friends again overseas.
Wait until you hear the testimonies of these coming to
meet you in a few weeks. Is the gospel worth it?
Are the lost worth it? Is one person you know being
saved who's lost right now worth it?
What will you do? What will you sacrifice?
What price will you pay? The disciples surrounded him.
They think he's dead. The people who stoned him, they
thought he was dead. Everybody thought he was dead.
He hops up and goes to the next city the next day.
Look at verse 21, when they had preached the gospel to that city
and had made many disciples. And see, there's so many stories
like, who are these people? I want to meet these people.
They returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.
Notice where they go back to the very places where they were
persecuted, strengthening of 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.
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church,
with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in
whom they had believed. The last thing we see is that
we're also sent to strengthen. They saw God save many and then
they go back to the churches to visit these new converts.
And so these trips weren't just about evangelism.
These trips weren't just about church planting.
They were also about discipleship.
They were also about leadership development and church
development. Tony Marita, Pastor Marita
writes in his commentary, Paul wasn't interested in getting
decisions for Christ. He was interested in making
disciples for Christ. So risking the danger of
persecution, they, they knew the follow up was just too
important. So they taught, they prayed,
they fasted, they organized leaders.
So what are we willing to do to make real disciples?
When and where will Inglewood plant its next new church?
Which one of you will lead it? Who's going to serve as our new
deacons? Men, when you're asked, instead
of saying no, why aren't you saying yes?
Who's going to lead our next connect group?
Who's going to serve in our preschool and children's
ministry? Who's going to step up?
Verse 24. Then they passed through
Presidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the
word in Perga, they went down to Italia, and from there they
sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace
of God for the work that they had fulfilled.
And when they arrived and gathered the church together,
they declared all that God had done with them, and now He had
opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, and they remained no
little time with the disciples. They went home sharing the
gospel all the way, making disciples, helping people all,
all along the way. They go home to report to their
Sending Mother Church. Healthy missions will always
strengthen the sending church. Always.
So they carefully give credit to God for His work.
This was all a testimony to Him, not to them.
So they participated in missions with urgency and sacrifice.
It, it reminds me sometimes I often think about this when I
see these tragic, scary news stories.
A child's missing, maybe missing in the forest or the wilderness
or in the mountains. Every now and then somebody, you
know, some kid wanders off and you have a search party and, and
everybody, all the first responders, praise the Lord for
them all the first responder, but the entire community turns
out, it seems like and, and they'll form these search lines.
People will walk the fields together where they can see one
another. And as one line, they walk
together, search for the lost person.
And I often think when I see those stories that that's that
ought to be the church. Somebody's missing, somebody's
lost, somebody's in trouble. What are we going to do about
it? How frantic are we, How urgent
are we about the search? Or are we just checking off the
boxes of religion? Just checking off the boxes of
church about what will we frantically search?
An army sent out to help rescue the lost in the hurting.
Sign up to learn more about a trip, Surrender to full time
mission service. And maybe that's what somebody
here needs to do. Maybe somebody here is being
called out to be a missionary, to serve full time overseas
someplace or as a North American church plant.
Or maybe that's who you are. You need to surrender to that.
There's a harvest that's waiting.
Join us in in H week. Join us at the end of the month
to reach out to hundreds of people.
Be here a midweek to learn how to share the gospel with your
friend. Join the rescue team.
The harvest is waiting for us. It's it's already started with
people being baptized like we've seen today, like we'll see next
week. We need to trust in the one who
sins because the sender seeks to send and he wants to send us.
So I pray we'll surrender to him.
Father, thank you that you have a purpose for us.
Father, I often talk with people who don't know you, Lord, and we
talk about peace. We talk about purpose.
We talk about the reason we exist.
We, we, we talk about why we're here.
We talk about hope. We, we talk about assurance,
faith, strength, all these things, Father, and the source
of all that truth is you. So Father, I pray if there's
somebody here this morning in this room right now are
listening online who does not know you, they've never trusted
in Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
Maybe they've heard this story. Maybe they've rejected this
story. Maybe they've ignored this
story. Maybe they've been bothered by
this story. I Remember Me too.
I hated hearing it until I knew it was true.
And then you saved me. So Father, right now I pray
you'll Pierce the soul of that person.
That Father, they will know in their heart of hearts that you
are real, that you love them. You have a plan for them.
That you sent your son to die on the cross to pay for our sin
because he's the only one who could.
And the Father arose again to defeat death, to show us, to
prove to us who he was, and to show us our own victory over
death, that we might have eternal life with you.
That starts here in a relationship with you, where we
walk with you and serve you, honor you and glorify you and
worship you as a disciple. So, Father, I pray if there's
somebody here who needs to learn more about that, that as soon as
we begin to sing, they'd come and take a pastor by the hand or
they'd go to our next steps room and talk to someone.
Father, I pray they won't willfully reject this moment for
others here. They recognize I need to be
baptized. I need to join the church.
Maybe that's what I need to do. That's that's that's what the
Lord's leading me to do. I pray that they would come.
Others need to come and fill these steps as an altar of
prayer. Praying for lost friends, family
members by name, praying for the future of this church, praying
for the Rocky Mount area area that that the harvest would
begin. Whatever we need to do, we
surrender. Father, Lord, send us, move in
our hearts as we honor you and we respond to you in Christ's
name, Amen. I'm going to ask you to stand.
Our worship team is going to lead us.
There'll be pastors here. You can come talk to one of us.
You can come pray at these steps, or you can go right into
that room over there, the next steps room, and have a private,
discreet conversation with somebody who loves you, would
love to pray with you and help you to understand what God is
saying to you right now. Whatever you need to do, you
move as soon as we begin to sing.
Thank you so much for listening today, and I also hope that
you'll go to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com
as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless
you and your families. Thank you once again.