This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
The good news is a later on there was reconciliation between
Paul and John and so the good news is that they didn't stay
apart from one another forever. And God always wants Christians
and family and one another to be reconciled to one another.
The message of the gospel is reconciliation to God, but how
many of us are waiting for reconciliation to family or
friends or relatives or Co workers or or loved ones that
for whatever reason don't want to be around us or mad at us or
upset about something? Having a little spat with
someone is something we all go through, right?
Even the followers of Jesus had their moments of disagreement
among one another. But things get tricky when you
choose not to make amends. Have you thought about just how
crucial this really is? The Bible focuses on bringing
you and God back together. Hey, what's holding you back
from making amends with your friend?
Today, Pastor Clark shares some thoughts on the power of
reconciliation and the beauty of forgiveness.
Now here's Pastor Clark in the book of Acts Chapter 13 with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
The book of the Acts is a study of the early church and the work
of the Holy Spirit and the lives of those who serve the Lord and
those who have become believers as a result of hearing hearing
the Gospel. Their lives were changed through
the work of the Holy Spirit and the day of Pentecost.
And so today we're going to sort of review a little bit.
It's been a while, like I say, of what I covered last time I
was with you in the book of the Acts, Acts chapter 13.
And we're going to pick things up in the 13th verse as we
continue on in this particular chapter.
Now, this is Paul's first sermon publicly that is recorded in the
Bible. He had had messages up until
this point, but this is the one that he began to develop his
ministry with. And Paul, if you remember, was
present when Stephen, the first martyr, was giving his message
in the book of the Acts, in Acts Chapter 7, where he was
educating the Jewish people on what the Lord had done for the
nation of Israel from the beginning of time.
And Paul was actually there at that time, not as a Christian,
but as someone who persecuted Christians.
He hated the faith of Christianity.
And so he eventually was responsible for having Stephen
stoned and martyred. So it's interesting.
Here's a guy that heard a lot of this before, before he was a
believer. And now he's a believer.
And he's able to also, because of being saved now and being
called by God and having the Holy Spirit in him, he's able
now to communicate this to other people.
And that's what's powerful about the word.
It's a seed that's planted in all of our lives and sometimes
we think, man, I don't really get this or I don't understand
it the way I would like to, but be encouraged because God, when
he plants a seed, he begins to water it and he begins to work
with it. So eventually it brings forth a
harvest in all of our lives. Doesn't matter.
People that you know, you've talked to about the Lord and
given him the word and told him about the Bible and the
Scriptures, and they just like don't think about it or don't
respond to it. Doesn't mean they won't
eventually. So keep praying for the seed
that's planted in the heart of the people.
You sow the word of God into their lives.
We're going to look at the verse 13 through 15 initially and just
work our way through this chapter.
Now, when Paul and his party had set sail from Paphos, they came
to Purga and Pamphylia and John, departing from them, returned to
Jerusalem. So we we spoke briefly about
this fallout between the apostle Paul and John Mark.
John Mark was a cousin of Barnabas.
And for some reason there was some disconnect between these
two guys. We'll learn a little bit more
about it in the 15th chapter. But he was important to them in
this missionary journey. This was the first missionary
journey that the church had begun to do after Pentecost.
Initially it was in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, primarily,
where the gospel had gone and where people had become
Christians. Now it's going into the
uttermost parts of the earth. And so Paul is legitimately and
Barnabas, the first missionary sent out from the church.
They're learning as they go along.
So they have a team. And in any kind of ministry, you
have a team. You cannot do anything by
yourself when you're called by God.
You need Co laborers. You need people that will help
and encourage and pray and have the same vision, the same focus,
or you're just not going to be able to make it.
And so you get discouraged at times in life, You get
discouraged sometimes in the ministry.
And so the need to have brothers and sisters around you when
you're doing what you're doing is it gives you the ability to
keep on doing what you're doing. Because if you aren't having
help and encouragement and prayers, you just fade out.
You just get discouraged. Sometimes you just don't want to
do it. So John Mark, he was important
to them and it doesn't give all the details of why he decided to
back out. It could have been some conflict
because Barnabas used to be sort of the guy that was leading it.
And now Paul is the the primary focus along with Barnabas.
Maybe he was intimidated by what they were going to face.
He just saw some demonic activity with the sorcerer.
They were going into some regions where there was some
real Pagan worship and some danger.
Maybe he was just afraid of getting hurt or something.
We don't know. The good news is a later on
there was reconciliation between Paul and John.
And so the good news is that they didn't stay apart from one
another forever. And God always wants Christians
and family and one another to be reconciled to one another.
The message of the gospel is reconciliation to God.
But how many of us are waiting for reconciliation with family
or friends or relatives or coworkers or or loved ones that
for whatever reason don't want to be around us or mad at us or
upset about something? Don't ever let your heart get
hard because if it gets hard, then God can't do that work of
re establishing friendships and community and love.
And so it continues though after John Mark departed to go back to
Jerusalem, It says that when they departed from Purga, they
came to Antioch and Pasidia and went into the synagogue on the
Sabbath day and sat down. So is as devastating, I'm sure,
as it was for John Mark to leave them.
They didn't say, well, we're going to quit now.
We're not going to do this anymore.
We were a team and the team isn't together like it once was,
and so we can't do this anymore. We're just going to stop doing
it. No, this showed the perseverance
and the calling and the greatness of God upon Paul and
Barnabas's life. I'm sure they were broken
hearted over this, upset, whatever, but they focused on
what they needed to do. And So what was interesting in
those days, you didn't have a lot of churches like you do now
all around the world. There was churches in the
regions where they had planted churches, but they're in a
completely different area now. There is no New Testament church
yet in this particular place of Antioch or Presidia.
This is an Antioch of Syria. This is a different Antioch.
And so where they would go to have fellowship, if you may, or
communion or, you know, talk about the things of God, they
would go to the synagogue. And what was interesting in
those days is if you were a learned person in regard to the
Old Testament, because the New Testament wasn't written yet,
you would be invited to speak within the synagogue if you had
some degree of knowledge and ability to communicate the
things of God. And so they came, This was a
Saturday, the Sabbath day, and they sat down.
And So what they would do in their liturgy as a Jewish
followers of Elohim or Jehovah, they would read the law and the
prophets every every Saturday they would read the law and the
prophets. It was predictable what they
did. They did the same way all the
time. So you think about all these
people that came to synagogue and there was quite a few people
that did. They were hearing the
testimonies of what the law said regarding God's holiness and
man's ability to be righteous unless they followed the law
100%. The other thing was the prophets
were given to foretell and prophecy regarding the coming of
their Messiah. So they were, they weren't
ignorant. They were aware of the
Scriptures. But for some reason what they're
going to hear today in the synagogue is something they
never heard before and it's going to rock their world.
They're going to hear about justification by faith alone, by
grace alone and Christ alone. They had never heard anything
like that before, nor did Paul until he became a believer,
right? And when we heard it and we
became believers, our lives have been completely transformed.
I'll never be the the same again.
So it says after this they read the law and the prophets, the
rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying men and brethren, if
you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.
So they were given the privilege to be able to stand up and
communicate the good news. And what an opportunity.
I'm sure Paul's sitting on the edge of his seat.
I can't wait to tell these people the good news.
They've been hearing bad news their whole life that they got
to be perfect and no one could be perfect.
None of us could be perfect. There's none that are righteous,
is there? There's not one of us that are
righteous apart from the grace of God.
So in verse 16 we go now here then Paul stood up and motioning
with his hand said, men of Israel and you who fear God
listen. So in this group of people there
won't only Jewish people, but there was God fears and this was
the Gentiles. They were proselytes of Judaism
at the time. They were intrigued with
historical truth about the Creator, but they didn't have
all the pieces, nor did the Jewish people.
So Paul's going to begin to put the puzzle together for them.
Verse 17, The God of this people, Israel, chose our
fathers and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in
the land of Egypt. With an uplifted arm, He brought
them out of it. So we know in the beginning when
Moses was chosen to be the deliverer, he was able to be
called by God the raise up his staff to have that Red Sea open
up and for the children of Israel to be delivered from the
bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt. So he, we all know the history,
He brought Israel out through the sea away from the bondage of
Pharaoh in Egypt. And verse 18 now for a time
about 40 years, he put up with their way in the wilderness.
And we know how crazy it was and how they acted.
After all these miracles of what God had done, how they began to
complain and forget about the goodness of God and his miracle
working hand. They began to complain about all
kinds of things. Not enough water, not good food,
whatever. God provided mana, he provided
rock water out of the rock. Miraculously, it still wasn't
good enough for them. And so God was patient. 40
years. He put up with their ways in the
wilderness. And when he had destroyed seven
nations in the land of Canaan, he distributed their land to
them by allotment. So they're being reminded as
Paul's talking about all the things they've heard and been
taught for years in the synagogue through the Torah,
through the law and the prophets.
And so they're probably thinking, well, you know, we
know all this. What's the point here?
Why is he? Why is he telling us this?
Again, He's reviewing to them what God has done.
No man has done any of this. God has done this all himself
for their nation because he loved them. 19 refers obviously
to Joshua when he took over for Moses and went in and took care
of Jericho and set the people free in the nation to be able to
go in and get the land that God had promised them.
Prophetically it says he distributed their land to them
by allotment. So just like Stevens message in
Acts 7, Paul had witnessed these things themselves by being a
Jewish follower of God for years.
He knew the history of the nation of Israel because he was
obviously a Jew. And now he's a born again
Christian. And so we think of the
opportunity that only God can give us to speak His Word.
At any given time. We might have plans to want to
have an opportunity to tell someone about what the Lord's
done for us. But only God can open up the
doors in the perfect timing to give us that opportunity and
that audience to be able to declare the gospel to people.
And we need to pray for the Lord to give U.S.
Open doors so that we might be able to do what it is that God's
called us to do, as Paul and Barnabas are doing here.
And verse 20. After that he continues as to
what God has done. And the brothers who teach on
Wednesday night regarding the Old Testament, we've been
through all these different books of the Bible in the Old
Testament, given the history of Israel.
And it says he gave them judges for about 450 years to sort of
control and keep things on track.
So they didn't get so crazy, but they had good judges and they
had bad judges. And then they did that until
Samuel the prophet was lifted up and he was a good leader.
And after that they asked for king.
So God gave them Saul, who ended up being a bad leader and the
son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.
And when he had removed him, he raised up for them.
David is king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I found
David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who would do
my all my will. David is pictured here in a way
of someone who is beginning to lay the foundations of what it's
going to look like when Christ becomes the ruling king and
reigning king during the millennial Kingdom that we're
all looking forward to that thousand year reign that Christ
will rule and reign on the earth.
David was a prototype in some ways, and his life was
indicative of the Messiah that was to come out of his own seed
and his loins. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, would
eventually be born. And so all this foundation that
God's laying here through Paul's teaching is to remind them that
there's a point to everything God's done since the beginning
of time, and that point was to eventually bring a Savior named
Jesus for the whole world. This is not Jewish people, but
also Gentile people. And so David, we know his
history from when he was a young man and dealt with the giant
Goliath and how he grew up and how he loved God and wrote many
of the Psalms that we also know his downfall and failing with
Bathsheba. And yet God forgave David for
his sin when David repented. And David wrote that beautiful
51st Psalm to remind us of God's goodness, that when we're broken
over the mistakes we've made in our lives or the tragedies of
the difficulties that we've been through.
Bible says that God is near to the broken hearted and those who
have a contrite heart. Aren't you glad he's that way?
People maybe will lose patience with you.
People will perhaps give up on you or walk away from you and
leave you. But Christ promises he will
never leave us or forsake us. And he says if we seek Him with
all of our heart will find him there.
There's no one like the Lord. And that's 51st Psalm in
reference to David's downfall is probably one of the most
beautiful things that you could possibly read on the mercy of
God, where David prayed to the Lord.
Take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of my salvation.
And many of us have been through hard times in life, maybe not
sinning like David, but maybe other things have happened to us
and we've lost our joy. We've lost the sense of God's
intervention in our life and remembering his patience and His
kindness and how he is always willing to come and bring us
back to himself, no matter where we've been or what we've done or
what we've personally gone through there.
There's no one that will be like that to you in this world, in
this life, but Jesus. And so he says to the Lord in
his prayer, create in me a clean heart, O God, which is what we
all need, clean hearts. And we can't create that in
ourselves. That only can be done by the
work of God's Spirit. Creating me a clean heart of God
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Give me this kind of temperament, Lord, that it's
stable. It's not up and down all the
time and praising God and complaining, you know, it's just
like this calm walk of perseverance and trust in God, a
steadfast spirit. And then he says, then I'll
teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted
to you. The work of God through David's
life really became impactful after he had fallen and gotten
right with God again. And so when we study the Bible
and we study these truths of the New Testament, the Old
Testament, each of us have to think, OK, where am I right now
with these teachings I'm hearing?
What does this have to do with my life right now or where I'm
at, or what I'm thinking or what I'm struggling with?
It has everything to do with our own lives.
Because as we read the story of God's love and his redemption,
his mercy, his patience, it should speak to us that if God's
been this way to Israel all these years, he's certainly the
same to us. Even as believers that struggle
at times that get depressed or get discouraged or get hopeless
or make mistakes or do stupid things.
God is not looking for perfect people.
He's always looking for a broken people that he can heal and
restore and renew and give hope to again, over and over and over
again. And then he says in verse 23
from this man's seed. And that's David according to
the promise God raised up for Israel as Savior Jesus.
So the seed that was planted through the relationship that
David had with his wife and carried on down through
generations eventually brought forth this Messiah named Jesus.
It was prophesized and verse 24 after John, this is referring to
John the Baptist had first preached before his coming, the
baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.
And as John was finishing his course, he said, Who do you
think I am? Of course, people were, you
know, adoring John the Baptist. He was a strange guy.
He, he wore like weird clothing. He ate locusts and wild honey.
He was out there man, look like a wild man.
But yet his message was so dynamic and it compelled
countless thousands of people to come and listen to the message
of repentance. So all these people are coming,
they're under conviction and they're repenting of their sin
and they're getting prepared for the Messiah because John was the
one that was to prepare the way of the Lord.
But John had a check here with these people.
He said, who do you think I am? They're lifting them up and
thinking he's great. He says I am not he.
But behold, there comes one after me, the sandals at whose
feet I'm not worthy to lose. So.
So John the Baptist was a very humble man, wasn't he?
Which is what all we should be as servants of the Lord.
Who are we? We're just people that have been
given the privilege to talk about what he's done.
But we're not worthy to lose the sandals of Jesus either, are we?
But he chooses to use us. That's the remarkable thing of
of God's grace. He uses ordinary people.
And so he, he continues in this, this, this, the same emphasis of
Paul that Stephen gave in his message, message that God has
this love and concern and his hand upon the nation of Israel.
To this day. God has not given up on Israel.
There's a remnant there that will be very apparent in the
last days during the Tribulation period, where many Jewish people
will come to recognize that He's Messiah and they'll be martyred
for their faith. And those who are alive at the
second coming, the Bible says they'll see him.
Every eye will see him when he comes back, coming through the
clouds and into the strata of the earth and eventually landing
on the Mount of Olives. It says every eye will see him,
and it says they will look up and see him whom they've
pierced, and it'll break their hearts recognizing that they had
missed him and that He truly is their Messiah.
The focus of these things that we're looking at here are
emphasizing what God's done, the focus on what God does. 11 times
that God chose the fathers. He made the people great.
He led them out of Egypt. He put up with them in the
wilderness. He destined 7 nations in the
land to have their own space in Canaan.
He gave them land as an inheritance.
God gave them judges, he gave them Saul.
He raised up David. God brought Israel a savior
Jesus as he promised and a prophet John who said he wasn't
worthy. This remarkable.
And so we continue in verse 26, men and brethren, this is Paul
again preaching sons of the family of Abraham.
They were proud that they were descendants of Abraham.
And you remember what Paul said, that God could raise up the
stones to give praise to God. There was nothing special in the
sense or entitlement of being a child of Abraham.
It didn't automatically guarantee you salvation unless
you believe so. There was really no distinction
between a Jewish person and a Gentile person in God's eyes.
He came first to his own. The Bible says his own received
him not, but his picture and his vision of humanity was to be a
savior for the whole world and all people.
Thank you for listening to this edition of Living Waters of
Grace. Pastor Clark is teaching us
about the book of Acts in this series.
Acts is a powerful and unique part of Scripture, not just
because it records the spread of the gospel geographically from
Jerusalem to the ends of the earth, but also culturally.
Acts shows us how the message of Jesus moved beyond its Jewish
roots and began to reach the Gentile world.
What started with Peter leading a small group in the Upper Room
became a global movement with Paul taking the gospel to
cities, synagogues, and marketplaces across the Roman
Empire. Acts captures this vital
transition and reminds us that the good news of Jesus is for
all people in every place. May we be inspired to carry that
same gospel boldly into our world today.
Living Waters of Grace comes to you from Calvary Chapel,
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