This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Waffer, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland, County
of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
They go to another place, preach God saving people, and churches
are being planted. They go back to the places they
were just at because they need to do some stuff.
Now you don't just give the gospel to someone, say have a
nice life, I'll see an eternity. The job of the person who leads
someone to crisis, to disciple them so they get strong in the
Lord, to teach them the Word so they can be able to stand on
their two feet trusting in God. And that requires teaching and
spiral study. Hiring someone and thinking
they'll hit the ground running without any bumps along the way
is a bit unrealistic. It's also like that with someone
who's just starting to believe in Jesus.
It's not realistic to think they'll jump right into working
with God as soon as they find salvation.
In today's message, Pastor Clark shares some great reasons for
encouraging new believers dive into the Bible and join in on
those engaging Bible studies. Getting to know God's Word can
really boost their spiritual growth.
Now here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts chapter 14 as he
continues his message called persecution.
When your heart and mind submits to the issues in our life,
whether we like them or not, and we say, Lord, I'm not real happy
with this right now, but I trust you and what you're doing in my
life and my heart wants to be soft towards you and I want to
be open and willing to accept what it is you're doing in my
life and I want to praise you in it.
Count it all joy when you follow the diverse trials and
temptations. The Bible says that the trying
of your faith works. Patience.
I want to be, and I'm sure you do too.
The kind of person that I'm not complaining or I'm not groaning
and moaning. That I accept God's sovereign
hand in my life and say, God, you have a plan in this and I
want to praise you because in the power of praise there is
deliverance and you're passing the test when you praise God for
what it is you're going through. If you're moaning and groaning,
the Lord's OK, we got to go through this for a while now
you're still not getting it, are you?
You're still not praising me in spite of the storm.
And so these guys are in the midst of it, but they are filled
because their hearts are open to God and they're filled with joy
by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now in verse 14, the adjourned
and he starts in these other regions.
Now it happened in Iconium and this is the area of Galatia at
the time, it's the Roman Empire. A lot of pagans in these
countries are going to no church yet until the gospel gets there
and Paul and Barnabas are used by the Lord to see people become
believers and churches are established.
They went together to the synagogue.
So the beauty of this thing is they had a place to go to get
people to hear when they couldn't find a synagogue, they
preached in the streets. But because of Paul and Barnabas
being Jewish people, they were accepted in the system of
Judaism because they had knowledge of the Old Testament.
So they were given the opportunity to speak.
I'm sure after they spoke, the Jews were upset.
Like we should never let these guys say anything.
It's ruining our ministry, right?
People are leaving and following them, but that's what happens,
right? So they, they spoke to a great
multitude, both of the Jews and the Greeks believe, but the
unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their
minds against the brother. This is the work of the devil.
Whenever you're anywhere where the truth of God is going forth,
people can say things about whoever the teacher is.
They can say, well, they're hypocrites or they're this or
they're that. If we're honest, we all have
areas of hypocrisy in our life, right?
Is anybody perfect here today? If you tell me guys, you're
perfect, I'll just ask your wife or I'll ask your husband, right?
But you know, this is the patience of God, right?
And he chooses to use weak and foolish things that confound the
what God never looks at the vessel and says, well, boy, I'm
going to pick you because like you're like no one I've ever
created. And boy, people are going to be
blown away with your homiletic skills and your preaching
ability. God's like, forget that.
Let me fill you and let me speak through you because I don't want
you getting in the way of what it is I want to say.
But all the time someone will come to someone and say, you
know, with this person, you know, I saw them, you know, say
this or they acted this way or whatever.
And so people seem to have a tendency to want to judge you
instead of judging themselves. And the enemy wants to pull the
church down and destroy it and destroy the people that minister
in the church through slander and hatred and unbelief and
criticism. That's why it says in Ephesians,
let all bitterness and wrath and clamor and evil speaking be put
away from you, and be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
So this continual, habitual need to forgive, right?
And when we forgive, we're to move on and keep going on
looking toward the Lord. That's something we can't do
without the grace of God in our lives.
You have bitterness in your heart.
You want to slander people. You, you want to get even with
them. You want to be vindictive toward
them. You got to like, say, Lord, this
is not you. Help me to forgive.
Well, how many times do we forgive?
Jesus says 70 * 7. That's 490 times for the same
offense. That's the picture of you keep
forgiven, right? So what happens is they're
trying to poison the mind of these people.
Therefore, they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in
the Lord. Those guys knew what people were
saying. They felt that they experienced
it, but they didn't say, you know, get thin skin and then
say, well, this isn't fair. We're just trying to do what God
wants us to do. We're not going to do this
anymore. It's hurting our feelings or
whatever. No, they just kept being
faithful. It says they spoke boldly in the
Lord who is bearing witness to the word of his grace, granting
signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
So this Apostolic authority ability, sometimes God showed up
in signs and wonders and they did miracles.
Lots of times there was no miracles.
It wasn't anything. And Paul in and of himself, it
was a special anointing that came at times and in seasons for
God to be glorified in the midst of a situation where people
would get their attention taken by some miraculous situation.
So the multitude of the city in verse 4 was divided, part sided
with the Jews and part with the apostles.
So like in in our world today, you have a group of people who
are followers of Christ and then you have a group of people who
are against Christ, right? It's always that way, even
sometimes, unfortunately, in churches.
And when this issue happened, this violent attempt was made by
both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to abuse and
stone them. They became aware of it, and
they fled the Lystra and Derby cities of Iconia into the
surrounding region. And they were reaching the
gospel there. So they understood the attempt
to take them out, to kill them, basically to assassinate them.
They were smart enough to know that they needed to get out of
that town and move to next place.
But the stoning never stopped. Paul remembers when Stephen was
stoned, he was part of that group that had Stephen Stone,
the first martyr in the book of the Acts of New Testament
Church. So now Paul's going to
experience some of the same things that those have gone
before him. So now they go to Lystra, verse
8. And in Lystra, a certain man
without strength in his feet was sitting a cripple from his
mother's womb. So this guy didn't have a
temporary paralysis. This didn't happen after he was
born. He was born with the inability
to walk. He had never walked.
This man heard Paul speaking. He heard the gospel.
You heard the message, Paul observing him intently.
And so you have an audience. You're speaking.
I see your eyes, you see mine. Sometimes I get fixated on
someone in the room because I sense there's a heavy burden in
their lives. There's something going on.
I don't know what it is, but the Lord does.
And I just say, Lord, you know, speak to them, whatever it is
you need to say to them. And sometimes I see people who
who are eager to want to follow Jesus deeper and I pray and I
said, Lord help cultivate that in their lives.
Help them to sense that and want to follow you.
And if I can be of any help, show me how myself or the elders
can be of help and the others in the church that are wanting to
serve people. So he's looking intently and he
sees that he had faith to be healed.
He's looking at this man and he says he has faith to be healed.
Now this is interesting because God does all things according to
counsel of his own will. And some of these faith
churches, they'll teach, well, the reason you're not healed is
you don't have enough faith, right?
You hear that? But there's this element too,
that when we come to God, we have to pray believing, and
that's where we struggle. I believe, Lord, help my
unbelief. But God honors belief, simple
belief. And so this man is hungry for
the Lord, but he also has something happening in his
spirit that Paul recognized that this guy can believe God for
anything right now in his life. And that's rare.
That doesn't happen all the time, but he senses that
something can happen here. The Holy Spirit obviously was
speaking to Paul about this. So Paul, think about this.
I mean, sometimes like people came for healing.
They didn't get healed. Other times they got healed.
And I'm sure at times Paul's like, God, I don't know how this
works. Why can't it work all the time,
you know? But it doesn't.
And probably the reason it doesn't is, is that we would
think we had something to do with it, right?
Do you ever pray and really believe and you see God do
something and touch someone and you're like, wow, you know, I'm
going to do this all the time. And then the next time you pray
and it doesn't happen and you're like, why did it happen the one
time and why didn't it happen the other time?
That's the mystery of God and his plan, his sovereign plan.
So he says to this guy, and this would take some real faith on
Paul's part. Stand up straight on your feet.
And he leaped and he walked. Now, what if Paul would have
said, stand up straight on your feet and then nothing happened?
That would be somewhat like embarrassing, I guess.
And they say, well, why did you say that?
I don't know why I said that. I just was hoping or maybe, but
somehow, you know, again, God's sovereignty, there was such an
complete evidence that something miraculous was going to happen
here, that God did something miraculous.
Now, when the people saw what Paul had done and they think
it's what Paul did, it's what the Lord did, right?
They raise their voices saying in the Laconian language, the
gods have come down to us and the likeness of men.
So these people are into Pagan worship.
They're Pagan worship of false deities and idols, and Barnabas
they called Zeus and Paul they called Hermes.
So this Greek mythology, these people believe that these false
gods would provide rain and crops and prosperity and all
these things. This is what they worship.
This is what they called out to. And somehow they're conveying
this fact that the miracle happened because Paul and
Barnabas are actually Incarnate Zeus and Hermes, these
mythological gods. And they say Hermes about Paul
because he was the chief speaker.
Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their
city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending the
sacrifice of the multitude. Big celebration here, Miracle.
So let's get the leader of this cult and bring these fancy, you
know, kind of flower things, garlands, whatever they were
putting around their necks to bring down and pay homage to
these false gods. And they wanted to sacrifice
with all these people. Now, these people were hearing
the gospel. They saw the miracle.
Some of them, I'm sure, became true believers.
And a lot of them are just caught up in the atmosphere.
So it says in verse 14, when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard
this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude
crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things?
We also are men with the same nature as you and preach you
that you should turn from these useless things to the living God
who made heaven, the earth, the sea and all things that are in
them. So right away there's humility.
Could Paul and Barnabas like faked it for a while?
They would these guys really think we're special.
So maybe because they think we're something we're not, we
can like get them focused on their need to believe using
humanistic technologies, you know, or kind of improvisation
of making something that isn't right look like it's right when
it's actually wrong. And that's what happens in the
false teaching churches. People set themselves up as
gurus. People look at these people like
they're really something. They're manipulated.
And their whole agenda is to have people lift them up and not
the Lord be lifted up. And so people's faith is not in
the living God, it's in some man.
And that's idolatry. And so what's happening here
immediately, Paul and Barnabas know what they got to do.
This element of tearing their clothes apart was this evidence
of their brokenness, their desperation, crying out and
saying, why are you doing this? This is an abomination.
We're men that's like you. We have the same nature.
We have the same struggles. We have the same fears.
We have the same doubts. We have the same unbelief.
We have the same struggles in life.
We're nothing. God is everything.
Christ alone is the healer. He's the king.
He's the Lord. He's the savior.
We're just messengers of what it is we're called to do.
And you need to turn from these useless things.
They didn't beat around the Bush.
What you're worshiping, what you're following is absolute
nonsense. It has no power and no ability.
We need Paul's teaching that we need to look to the God.
So God can't work in these guys through Old Testament
Scriptures. They knew nothing of it, these
people. So he used creation.
And the Bible tells us in Romans that even by creation, every man
knows that there's a creator. Even the unbelievers, the worst
Pagan person, when they look up at the stars at night, they know
in their conscience that there's a God, but they refused to
acknowledge Him because of their sin.
So He's appealing to them. Look, the heaven, the earth, the
sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations
allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.
Nevertheless, He did not leave himself without witness.
In that He did good. He gave us rain from heaven and
fruitful seasons. So God, in his grace, even in
the midst of all people and people that hate him and reject
him, God allows the creation to be a blessing to all humankind.
You know, because of the rain, we have crops and it feeds all
of us throughout the earth, throughout the world.
And he does this, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
And with these sayings, they could scarcely restrain the
multitudes from sacrifice to them.
These people were still blind and not listening, and they
wanted to pay homage and glorify these people, Paul and Barnabas,
like they're something they're not.
So then it says in verse 19, the Jews from Antioch and Iconium
came there to this place. And having persuaded the
multitudes, and these are all the people out there that are in
this midst of this group right now, they stone Paul and drag
them out of the city, supposing him to be dead.
So the persecution gets more than just some words.
Now their lives are being placed in jeopardy, and I don't know
how many of us would continue if we knew our lives were in
jeopardy. Only the grace of God would keep
Paul going, or you or me or anyone else.
You get stoned by a group of people, you start saying, well,
I think my ministry is ending now.
I'm going to let someone else take over, right?
But the Lord is like, no, Paul, you're going to keep going on.
You're going to eventually be martyred one day, but this isn't
the day you're going to be martyred.
And it says, however, in verse 20, when the disciples gathered
around him, he rose up and went in the city.
Some people think he was dead and somehow they prayed and he
was resurrected. The scriptures don't indicate
that, but he was probably close to death.
And the fact that he was able to get up from the severe stoning
shows that the Lord supernaturally did something in
his body because the next day he got up with Barnabas and they
went to another place to continue preaching in Derby in
verse 21. And when they had preached the
gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to
Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. So they go to another place,
preach God saving people and churches are being planted.
They go back to the places they were just at because they need
to do some stuff. Now.
You don't just give the gospel to someone, say have a nice
life, I'll see an eternity. The job of the person who leads
someone to crisis, to disciple them so they get strong in the
Lord, to teach them the Word so they can be able to stand on
their two feet trusting in God. And that requires teaching in
spiral study, learning to pray. Many of you are disciples.
You are growing more and more every day.
You're digging into the word, you're listening.
Many of you are teaching the word.
You're discipling other people. And so they went back to
strengthen the soul of the disciples, exhorting them to
continue in the faith. Don't give up no matter what
happens in a persecution. And boy do they have it back in
those days in the church like some place in in the world right
now in third world countries. If you become a believer and
they find and out in somebody's 1040 window areas like India,
Malaysia, Pakistan, you're martyred many times, you're
rejected by your family and it'll cost you your very life.
It's hard to believe that China, other places like that.
He said to them, we must through many tribulations enter the
Kingdom of God. He didn't candy coat being a
believer. Being a believer is a challenge.
You're going to have adversity from the places you never
dreamed, and sometimes it'll come from the people that you
love the most. You just don't understand.
But it happens. And he said we must, through
many tribulations, enter the Kingdom of God.
So our pilgrimage toward the heavenly city will be at times
challenged by very deep trials and tribulations.
If he didn't tell them that and they started going through this
and they didn't know that this is part of the Christian
experience, they would have wanted to quit.
And you and I would too. Thank God that the Bible covers
everything that we could possibly go through in our human
life and says in verse 23. So then when they had appointed
elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they
commended them to the Lord and whom they had believed.
So the foundation of a New Testament church is plurality of
leadership. It is not a one man show.
I don't lead this church alone. I lead it with George and Lewis
and John. They're elders, and we're
accountable to God, first of all, for what it is we do, and
we're accountable to you. We need to be doing what it is
that God's told us to do to equip the Saints for the work in
the ministry. You're the Saints, and the
purpose of being here today is to just not be entertained.
Go home and do my thing. But somehow something from the
Word will come to you today and you'll use this in your life
with whoever you are meeting with during the week and your
job, your home, your neighborhood, your community,
the Bible studies you might have.
You're learning to grow in the grace and in all these you've
got. And God uses the elders and
others in the church to be able to teach and equip the people
and strengthen them. And every church there should be
elders. And that's the way the church
started the day. There's too many churches that
are being led by one person. And when that person begins to
crack and to fail, there's no one to hold him up and to help
him. And then he crashes and burns.
I'm thankful that whenever I go through trials and struggles, I
have people that can help me when I need a break.
I can have other guys do what it is I'm called to do to get re
energized, you know, and spend time with the Lord in prayer and
have them teach me what I need to know in some seasons of my
life. That's what I'm so grateful for
this church and the men who are learning to teach the word of
God. It makes the church more strong,
it makes it more powerful, it makes it more healthy.
The women who are teaching the women, the men who are teaching
the studies, the one-on-one ministries, all these things,
the small groups, the youth groups, everything is happening.
The women's groups, God is using this to make you stronger in the
Lord. And whenever the church ignores
the foundation of what the New Testament said about how the
leadership is to be established, it begins to become powerless.
After this, it says the Lord commended them to the Lord.
He commended these people, the churches, the elders and whom
they had believed. And after they had passed
through Pasidia, they came to Panfilia.
Now when they had preached the word in Purga, they went down to
Italia. From there they sailed to
Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God
for the work which they had completed.
So they go and all these regions now and what's exciting, they're
going home, right? This is the first missions
conference. They're coming back to the
church that prayed for them, that supported them, that sent
them out, and they're going to give a report to the church on
what the Lord has done in verse 27.
And now when they had come and gathered the church together,
they reported all that God had done with them and that he had
opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
So they stayed there a long time with the disciples.
So we have missionaries we support.
We committed this to be a Church of missions and outreach.
We support crew in different parts of the world working on
college campuses. We support the mission in Spain
for sports ministry. We support Lifeway crisis
pregnancy center in the area, these people that we support in
the mission. And so we are grateful when they
come and they give us an update on what it is they're doing.
And so part of the budget and you're giving goes toward these
missionaries and supporting them.
But the purpose of the gospel right now, through Grace Radio
and through our own lives wherever we go out and the
people we rub shoulders with, get people coming to hear the
Word of God. Because when people hear the
Word of God, that's how God saves them.
Without the preaching, there is no message.
And so we're all called to be able to share this wonderful
message of the gospel. We're so glad you joined us
today on this edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Clark is teaching through the book of Acts, which is the
only book that chronicles the history of the early church
immediately after Jesus's ascension.
It gives us a front row seat to how the Gospel began to move
outward, starting in Jerusalem and reaching into the heart of
the Roman Empire. In just three decades, a small
group of frightened ordinary believers became a bold, spirit
empowered movement that transformed the known world.
Acts is not just a history lesson.
It's a reminder of what God can do when His people are
surrendered, obedient, and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Their perseverance still inspires us today.
May we follow their example and live faithfully for Christ in
our own time. We hope today's message
encouraged you. Living Waters of Grace is a
ministry of Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
If you're in the Greensburg, PA area, we'd love to have you join
us in person. Our Sunday service begins at
10:30 AM at 400 E Pittsburgh St. Unit 6B.
Be sure to visit calvarychapelonline.com to
confirm times and learn more. If you are in the Greensburg
area, you can listen to Grace FM on the new 91.7 frequency.
Please pray about supporting this outreach.
Gifts can be sent to Grace FMPO, Box 716, Greensburg, PA 15601.
Stay connected through Facebook, YouTube, or our Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland app. Join our e-mail list, submit
prayer requests, and give online all at calvarychapelonline.com.
Thank you for tuning in and spending this time in God's
Word. Be sure to join us again for
Living Waters of Grace.