Generational Blessings (Acts 18, Jeff Kliewer)

Cornerstone Church

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He's given a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus is

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Lord. We confess here this morning, Jesus, that you are Lord, and we're here as pupils, disciples, students, to sit at your feet,

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Master, and learn from you. So we pray that your scripture would be alive to us and our hearts would be awake.

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Even right now, wake us up, Lord God. To see with spiritual eyes, to not be distracted with the things of this earth, in Jesus' name, amen.

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I distinctly remember a time when I was, I was a missionary in Philadelphia, and we worked at a church.

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It was a big building, built in the 1800s, and very beautiful. On the top level, there was a small room, which became my office, and it had a stained glass window.

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So often, the sun would come through, and it was a really beautiful and quiet place in the midst of a hostile city.

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I remember one time having an encounter with God there that was probably the most profound of the times that I had at that particular phase in my life.

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It was one of those moments where everything becomes clear. Do you know what I mean? There's sometimes when we're going about our day -to -day life and we're occupied with our jobs and with our families and with the responsibilities of life, and we just get distracted a little bit, and our minds are on earthly things much of the time, but this was a moment where I began to contemplate in prayer what really mattered, and it's almost like you kind of just get lifted up to the 30 ,000 -foot view to think about your life and to say, what really matters in this life?

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Well, as I thought about that, I realized that if I gained a legacy, there's a great song by Casting Crowns that says,

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I want, it says, only Jesus, and it says, I'm not really seeking a legacy.

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Look up the words, I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to quote song words, by the way. Look up the words to only

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Jesus by Casting Crowns, and it talks about how this life is not about being remembered and leaving a name for yourself, but only making the name of Jesus known, and as I began to think along those lines,

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I realized what really matters in this life is that my newborn son at the time, and my daughter, that they would grow up to know

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Christ and to walk with Christ, and they would have kids who would also grow up to know Christ, because if my grandkids were lost, that would be just as devastating as losing my kids to the evil one, and what about my grandkids' kids, and I began to think, well, wait a minute.

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I can't control this anymore, especially after even that first generation. I can't control that even, and so I became very sad and very scared, and as I prayed,

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I began to think, Lord, I need you to rescue the next generations until Christ comes, and you know,

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I opened to the book of Isaiah in that time, and this was the moment where I encountered the Lord in such a profound way.

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I want you to encounter him right now through his word. In Isaiah 59, verse 21, it was a passage about judgment.

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As I read through Isaiah 59, I was only a bit more troubled by the wrath of God against sin, knowing that all of us are born into sin, and how can we save ourselves, and how can we save the next generation, but then

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I came across verse 20 that says, "'A Redeemer has come to Zion, "'to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,' "'declares the

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Lord.' "'A Redeemer has come,'' and my eyes began to focus on Jesus Christ, that there is a

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Redeemer for sinners like us, and although I'll fall short as a parent, and I cannot bring my children to faith, there is a

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Redeemer. I began to have hope, and then the Lord gave me verse 21. As I read this, tears began to flow down my eyes, and dripped onto the page.

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I remember them hitting the Bible as I read, because I realized I can claim this as a word for me, to believe, and to animate the rest of my life, to strive, to do whatever

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God calls me to do. Here's what the verse says, "'And as for me, this is my covenant with them,' "'says the

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Lord, my spirit that is upon you, "'and my words that I have put in your mouth, "'shall not depart out of your mouth, "'or out of the mouth of your offspring, "'or out of the mouth of your children's offspring,' "'says the

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Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.'" Peace like a river, joy overflowing, and I realized that this is what

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I wanna live for, that my kids would know the Lord, and as I thought about what was happening outside of that stained glass window,

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I realized that the opposite of a generational blessing was taking place. There seemed to be some kind of generational curse, if that's such a thing, where parents were repeating the mistake of their parents, who repeat the same errors of theirs, and the children that are born to them are repeating the same patterns, patterns of sin that lead to destruction.

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In fact, as I was driving to church this morning, I got a phone call from a young man in the city, and he's locked up again.

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He was calling me from jail, and I say, well, my heart breaks for this kid because I see what his mom was like and what his mom's mom was like, and I know that the fathers were never there, and part of the generational problem that happens in the city is fatherlessness, and the problems of the city, in large measure, boil down to the breakdown of family, which leads to so many other things like drugs and rebellion and crime, and so there was this great juxtaposition of the

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Word of God as He spoke to the generations that come from the godly as we cling to Christ, and He makes us righteous, and the death and destruction that is like a generational curse in the world, but then

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I think of Jesus in Isaiah 53, and He's that lamb who's led to the slaughter.

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We're told in Isaiah 53, who can speak of His generation? Who can speak of His descendants?

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He had none. Jesus fathered no children, and yet, after the suffering of His soul,

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He shall see the light of life and be satisfied, and His offspring shall praise

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Him. His descendants, not physically from the flesh, but adopted children, adopted sons and daughters.

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We, the faithful, as we, this crowd of people gathered here, how many thousands of miles away from Jerusalem, how many thousands of years removed, yet as sons and daughters of King Jesus, we are here as His inheritance, and He divides the spoil with the strong.

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The Apostle Paul says, is it only Barnabas and I that do not take along a believing wife, and yet it's

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Paul who can claim perhaps more than anyone an inheritance of children.

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This morning, I want to remind you of what matters in life, what to live for, what is it that's really worth our time and our energy and our devotion?

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It is to live, to leave an inheritance of disciples, and listen, the joy that we get in this life is to see generation after generation walk with God, and there is power in the blood of Jesus to break every chain, so if you see a generational cycle of destruction, or maybe if the enemy is trying to cut in on a generational blessing where you have raised kids to be godly, but you see them departing, we are a people who can say no in Jesus' name and begin to pray and devote ourselves to that one thing, to bring the prodigal back.

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Knowing that we can't control that, that's why the main work that we do is prayer. The father can draw him back, or her back, and we can go out seeking the lost, even among the broken who have no family relationship to us, to bring them and let them be the starting point of a generational blessing.

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Let's break the curse, let's break the cycle, and let's move forward.

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What I love about Acts chapter 18, which is where we go now, is you get to see not just that mighty hero,

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Paul, who preaches the word of God, but you begin to see a second generation arise,

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Aquila and Priscilla, and as Paul skirts through Ephesus and bounces along to the next place, he hardly ministers there, but Priscilla and Aquila do, and they minister to a third generation, a man named

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Apollos, and he is mighty in the word, and he takes that word to the fourth generation.

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Four generations, Mark 2 Timothy 2 .2. We are told to entrust the word to faithful men, but see,

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Paul was speaking to Timothy, Paul, first generation, Timothy, second generation, entrust the word to faithful men, third generation, who will then be able to teach others, fourth generation.

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Second Timothy 2 .2, four generations in one verse. In Colossians 1 .7,

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we learn that the Colossian church was not planted by Paul, did you know that? Paul went to Philippi early in his second missionary journey, and among the converts there was

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Epaphroditus, Epaphras, a fellow worker, a fellow soldier.

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He then goes and brings the gospel to Colossae, and now we have multiplication.

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The book of Colossians is Paul writing to the Colossians to say, I'm aware of your faith, I've heard of what

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Epaphras has done in bringing you the gospel, and then he writes one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible, Colossians chapter one, exalting

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Christ to them, but Paul had never seen their faces. This is second and third generation believers.

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So Paul's joy in his crown, Philippians 4 .1, is the generation of believers, one generation after another.

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In places like Zanzibar, on the east coast of, I think it's the west coast, of Africa, there are church planting movements where they begin a church, and they will often have four generations of believers before the church is one year old.

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Someone has led someone to Christ, who then has reached somebody else, who has himself become a disciple maker and reached someone else, and the cycle is going in places like India and China, we begin to see these church planting movements where generations of believers are multiplying very quickly.

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That's a beautiful thing. So we know about Paul, what about John? What was the delight of John?

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He writes three epistles after his gospel, and then finally he'll write Revelation, but when you think of second and third

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John, what sticks in your mind? For me, in each case, it's verse four.

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In one case he writes to a beloved woman, in another case, to Gaius, this man that he disciples, but here's what he says in verse four, he tells each of them how he delights to hear that their children are walking in the truth.

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And he says in third John, verse four, he says, I have no greater joy than to know that my children are walking in the truth.

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This is a generational blessing. This is our aim and our pursuit. It's imperfect right now as we sit here, but we pursue it, and I want you to see it in the text.

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So we'll begin in Acts chapter 18, and let's bring up a map, if we could, of where we are on Paul's second missionary journey.

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He began over here on the right side in Antioch, and he's working his way west, and has crossed into Europe, we know the story of Philippi, and everything that happened there, kind of in the topmost part of the map.

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Then he moved on down Thessalonica, Berea, who were more noble than the Thessalonicans, and last week we learned about how coming down the coast of Greece there, he went to Athens, and saw a little fruit, actually, just a few people,

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Dionysius and a few others, a handful of people, believe, and now he might be feeling a little intimidated as he moved into Corinth.

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Corinth here will be his last major stop in Europe. It's 10 times bigger than Athens.

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There are approximately 700 ,000 people living there. 500 ,000 of them are slaves, 200 ,000 citizens.

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Corinth is known for its debauchery. It is known for its sexual immorality and its drunkenness.

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There is a temple to Epaphrodite there with 1 ,000 temple prostitutes. It is a terrible and treacherous place.

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In fact, to be called a Corinthian in the ancient Roman world was tantamount to be called immoral and a drunkard.

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Corinthian was used as an adjective to describe immorality. So this is what

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Paul is walking into. After not experiencing a great deal of success in Athens, he may be discouraged at this point, but he goes in, and let's follow the story.

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Chapter 18, verse one and following. After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, and he found a

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Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife

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Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade.

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And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

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Notice what Paul does for a living while he's there, to make enough money to sustain himself. He works as a tent maker.

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Most likely, this was black goat hair that was woven together to form tents, like the ancient

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Bedouins used. Remember, Abraham was living in tents. And so as a tent maker, it's almost appropriate that Paul makes physical tents as a way of making money.

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This was his trade. Work isn't a distraction from disciple -making.

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It is a tool of our trade. Every one of us who's called to a job of employment to make money, that is not a distraction from the more important work of disciple -making.

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No, that is part and parcel of your trade, the trade of disciple -making. It's a tool in your box.

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Whatever your job is, whatever you've been called to do, you are a tent maker there. You are meeting people that you can share the gospel with.

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You are earning money that you can use to support your family, to support the work of the church. You are a tent maker the way

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Paul was for a time. Notice who he meets. Aquila and Priscilla.

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Why were they there? Did you catch that in the text? This wicked emperor,

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Claudius, had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. Now, sometimes in this life, bad things happen.

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And it seems a lot of bad things happen to the Jews, doesn't it? In 1492, Spain tried to kick all of them out.

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We know what happened with Adolf Hitler in the early 1940s, late 1930s. It's happened in Russia under Stalin.

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The Jews have been the special opponent of the devil. He has sought to drive them out and destroy them.

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And here again, we read in the Bible that Jews were being persecuted. And yet, even in that persecution,

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God has a plan. The same is true in our lives. When bad things happen in your life, do you realize that God may be working something greater than you can imagine?

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There's a purpose in all suffering. So here's Aquila and Priscilla, this husband and wife living peacefully in Rome.

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They're driven out, run out of town, leaving their entire lives behind, everything turned upside down.

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Can you imagine that? What it would be like to be the victim of something like that? And they wind up in Corinth.

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And here they are, making tents, and along comes some strange -looking man. You know,

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Paul was a strange -looking dude, they say. Little bit hunchbacked, very short, and having trouble with his eyes, and having been beaten to an inch of his life over and over again, there probably was hardly a place on his body that wasn't scarred and torn.

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And this man is making tents with them one day, joining together in their business.

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And as they work together, he tells them about the Savior. And he teaches them the deep things of the word of God.

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Little did they know who they were dealing with that day. The great Apostle Paul, not to them.

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At that moment in their life, he's just an ordinary guy, making a disciple, busy doing the work of the

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Lord. As you go about your job, whatever hardship you're suffering at work, don't be discouraged.

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Whatever you're enduring, recognize that your life is for a purpose. And the greater purpose is the making of disciples.

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Notice also that they need a little bit of rest. Is Paul working on the Sabbath, verse four?

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No, he's not making tents on the Sabbath. He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath. That's invigorating work for him.

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That's what energizes him. He works for five days making tents, probably just waiting and anticipating the opportunity to go and preach the gospel in the synagogue on Saturdays.

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We all need Sabbath in our lives. Guys, if you're not taking at least a day off in the week and I need to preach this to myself, you need to rest.

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You were built to have that week cycle where at least one day a week you take time to rest and recover.

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But notice this in verse five, moving on. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the

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Jews that the Christ was Jesus. Now, he was already occupied preaching this, right?

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But most of his work week was spent making tents. In this context, when

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Silas and Timothy catch up with him from Macedonia, he is now freed to be a full -time paid minister.

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Isn't that interesting? They bring a gift. We learn from the book of Philippians and we learn from Acts and other places that Silas and Timothy bring financial help in order for Paul to be full -time devoted to the work of making disciples.

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The work of all supports the occupation of a few. This is maturity in the church.

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Now, I've heard it said sometimes by cultic groups and others that, well, our denomination has no paid employees.

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Ministers work for free. They work their day jobs the way Paul did. Well, if you read 1

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Corinthians chapter nine, Paul boasts that he did not take any money from them.

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And you say, well, okay, he never used his right to receive pay. And the reason for that is because the church was so immature in so many areas that he didn't want them to have a reason of accusing him of having the wrong motives for what he was doing.

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However, if you read Philippians chapter four, you have a mature church that is eager and willing to give a love offering to help

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Paul in his ministry. And Paul actually encourages it, this is Macedonia, the church in Philippi, encourages it and tells them that that's the way that God intended it to be.

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So ironically, the cultic groups and those who mock churches like ours where we have paid ministers, a few that are supported by the many, the mature church was

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Philippi and the immature one was Corinthians. And then, of course, the most famous and most important passage in this regard is 1

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Timothy chapter five, verses 17 to 19, where Paul explains to Timothy that this is

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God's design for his church, that there would be the giving on behalf of the church to support those who preach the gospel, those whose work is in the word and with the word.

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So in verse five, that's what happens. Paul now is receiving pay for the sake of the word.

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And guys, I just wanna take a moment and comment about that. What I do on a

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Sunday morning in preaching the word is only possible because of what each of you do all week long.

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You're working hard, as I work hard in the text, to bring out a sermon on Sunday morning.

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It's in partnership with what you do all week, working really hard, suffering many times, staying up late.

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This is a partnership and this is the body of Christ. And I'm thankful that I'm part of a church that gives so generously.

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This is teamwork and this is why the church is growing. This is why we're seeing people saved. No one person can do this.

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This is the body of Christ. This is maturity, according to 18 .5.

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So let's continue on. Keep up the good work. Great job, church. Verse six, seven, and eight.

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When they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads.

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I am innocent. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And he left there and went to the house of a man named

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Titus Justice, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.

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Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household. And many of the

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Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized. I want you to notice from this text how urgent is the call to discipleship.

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In the work of making disciples in our families and in the church and in our wider spheres of influence, we need to have an urgency.

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Do you see Paul's words? He shakes the dust when they reject what he has to say.

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And he says, your blood be on your own heads. I am innocent. You can tell when

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I wrote my midweek email this week that I was reading this text. I wanted everybody to take the warning that I was offering about cultural

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Marxism. And so I sent an email. And in the email, I said, I am innocent of everyone's blood.

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And someone commented, that was a little dramatic, don't you think? To which I, yeah, that was probably just a tad bit dramatic.

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But why did I say that? Here's why. Because in the city, ministering as we did, the few people that we have seen apostatized from the faith left the faith because of cultural

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Marxism. I want you to go watch that video if you haven't yet. Because I don't want to see the same thing happen to any of you or any of the ones that you love.

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I offer a warning with urgency because I recognize that we are not playing with toys.

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When we deal in the things of God, when we deal with the word of God, there will be those who reject

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God's word to their destruction, to their eternal doom. And there will be those who receive that and grow as disciples in the truth unto eternal life.

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And the difference between sheep and goat, between the right and the left, as Jesus separates them on the last day, is eternal.

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And we need some urgency in making disciples. And so how do we know if someone has stepped into this path of obedience to die to themselves and to be a disciple of the living

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God? According to verse eight, many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed is it in there?

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They believed and were baptized. Baptism doesn't save anyone, but baptism is the outer sign that indicates that a person has obediently come to faith in Christ.

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If you have not obediently gone to the waters of baptism to be crucified with Christ, to rise, to walk in newness of life, then why do you think that you're walking in the path of truth?

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If that first step of obedience is being disobeyed, maybe until now you haven't known, so it hasn't been a willing disobedience, but hearing what the text says, when people believe they were baptized, throughout the book of Acts, it is the first step of obedience.

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If you haven't taken that step, here's the invitation. Be baptized on October 21st, couple weeks from now.

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We're gonna have a baptismal pool right up here, and we're going to be baptizing a number of you. But as you sit here today, if you have not taken that step of obedience, obey the text, be a disciple, obey

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Jesus. Jesus himself was baptized even though he was without sin. Did he need that to be saved?

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No, his baptism was a baptism of blood on the cross. He describes it that way, but he was physically also baptized in water as an example that we should walk in it.

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If Jesus did that to set an example for us, then every one of us who is yet to be baptized needs to make that decision, that step of obedience to go into the water.

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Let me be urgent with this. Let me not pull any punches. If you're unwilling to be baptized, unwilling because you won't humble yourself, your blood be on your own head.

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I can only warn you that the path of discipleship is a path of dying to self and walking in newness of life.

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I cannot offer you assurance of salvation. I cannot tell you that you'll be fine and you'll go to heaven if you're not willing to obey

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Jesus as Lord. I do not believe that baptism is a way to go to heaven. I do not believe that baptism saves anybody. The thief on the cross, he had no way to be baptized as he was dying, yet Jesus said, you'll be with me in paradise.

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It's not baptism that saves you. But if you're unwilling to be baptized, then why do you believe that you're truly a disciple?

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Please be baptized. And to all of those of you who are baptized, recognize the urgency of what we're doing here.

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Be a part of God. Take it seriously. Obey God. Be a disciple and model that discipleship to your children.

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Following on, verse nine. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent.

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This is an interesting passage here where God restrains the evil of men to allow us to do what we're doing here today.

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We're supposed to pray for peace in our land. 1 Timothy chapter two, verse one, that we can live quiet lives.

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I believe in a very real way, God has answered that prayer by preserving constitutional law through the

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Supreme Court of this land. And I'm thanking God right now for that gift of grace.

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But listen, the evil one is intending at all times to stop what we have going in this place.

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What we have, the freedom in this land to worship openly and to preach the gospel, to tell your co -worker about Christ without fear of punishment from the government.

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This is an unusual thing. Our missionaries will tell you that. Not all places have this freedom.

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God granted Paul 18 months in one place to be free and to preach.

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Let's read this. In verse nine, he says, go on speaking, do not be afraid, for I am with you.

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Well, God's always with him, but this is what's different about Corinth. No one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in the city who are my people.

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You see that? The restrainer is going to grant peace enough to gather in whom

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God has chosen. He knows those who are his, he will gather in his chosen. And he will give

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Paul peace to preach until that happens. In verse 11, and he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them.

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18 months of freedom, 18 months to make disciples.

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Here's an example of how God preserved it. Verses 12 to 17. When Galileo was proconsul of Achaia, the

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Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal saying, this man is persuading people to worship

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God contrary to the law. But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Galileo said to the

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Jews, if it were a matter of wrongdoing or vicious crime, oh Jews, I would have reason to accept your complaint.

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But since it is a matter of questions about words and names and your own loss, see to it yourselves.

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I refuse to be a judge of these things. And he drove them from the tribunal. And they all sees

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Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue and beat him in front of the tribunal.

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But Galileo paid no attention to any of this. Interestingly, that tribunal, there was a bima, a judgment seat that has been found by archeologists.

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It's a big blue bima where Galileo used to sit. And he paid no mind to their charge.

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In fact, when Sosthenes got beat up for trying to bring it, he didn't mind that at all either. Plots against God's spokespeople will arise and they will fail.

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Just go on speaking. Notice how God restrains evil. There are evil intentions to stop us from making disciples, but God has opened a door of opportunity for us in this country right now.

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Walk through those as God restrains. Our number of days are limited. However many days we have on earth to make disciples, to influence the next generation are limited.

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Verses 18 to 21, after this, Paul stayed many days longer. Notice that time reference.

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And then took leave of the brothers and set sail for Syria and with him Priscilla and Aquila. At Centuria, he had his hair cut for he was under a vow.

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And they came to Ephesus and he left them there, but he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the

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Jews. So he leaves Aquila and Priscilla, that's who he leaves there. He goes in and reasons. They ask him to stay for a longer period, but he declines.

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Taking leave of them, he said, I will return to you if God wills. And he set sail from Ephesus.

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The number of our days are appointed and they're precious. We have few days. Now look at the end of Paul's second missionary journey.

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When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch.

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Going up to greet the church is that trip to Jerusalem. Wish we could know what he said there and what all took place, but then he goes back to the original sending church and thus concludes

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Paul's second missionary journey. But let me wrap up this sermon with the big idea that you can take from the rest of the text.

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Paul's journey is over, but the disciples that he left behind are still making disciples.

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Let's see the end of this. Verse 22 and following, when he landed at Caesarea, he went up, greeted the church, went down to Antioch.

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Okay, Antioch, he's done, the mission is over. And after spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.

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So he's back to work now, 24. Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus.

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He was an eloquent man, competent in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the

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Lord and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John.

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So he wasn't yet baptized in the triune name of God. He only knew John's baptism, a baptism of repentance.

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He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

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That is the definition of discipleship. When you take someone aside, take someone under your wing and you explain to them the word of God more accurately, you teach them the scriptures, you help them to live out the scriptures, you walk alongside them, you mentor them.

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This is the essence of discipleship. So Aquila and Priscilla are mentoring, they're discipling

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Apollos. And now it goes to the fourth generation. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, they take him aside and explain the word more accurately, and when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him.

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Now we have another missionary on the loose. And when he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed.

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So grace there is not only the ground of the offer, that God graciously will forgive your sin if you'll repent and believe, but it's here, it's the instrument through which they're able to accept the offer.

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Do you see that? He helped those who through grace as the instrument had believed.

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We can't make disciples in and of ourselves, we can teach and disciple, but it's only

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God who makes someone a believer. God makes believers. We can't do that.

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For he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures, there's his tool of his trade, that the

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Christ was Jesus. And so in closing, I ask every believer who you yourself are a disciple to take one to 12 disciples under your wing at all times to disciple them.

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That's how many Jesus chose, right? 12? Maybe some of us can only handle one, and that's okay.

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But you be a disciple maker who's making disciples in turn.

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In other words, teach the person that you're discipling to do the same. So there's a second generation born.

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Make disciples, go and make disciples. I don't wanna leave a legacy.

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I don't care if people remember me. But what drives me in ministry is that the disciples who

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I've taught the word of God would continue and would walk in the truth. You know what

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Paul says about that in Philippians chapter four? Verse one, he says that is how you should stand firm in the

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Lord. He says, you whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown.

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Your joy in this life, the crown on your head is the disciples that you make.

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The Lord uses you in their lives. And as they continue to make more disciples, your joy increases to overflowing as you see in Colossians one.

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And when we get to heaven, we will take those crowns and we will throw them at the feet of our Savior. Casting crowns, that's where their names comes from.

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We will cast our crowns at the feet of the Savior and recognize all of this was wrought by God through the work of his grace.

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We have the privilege for a very short amount of time, a very short amount of time to make disciples.

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And I ask in Jesus' name that you go out from this place today and you contact at least one person to disciple them.

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And you encourage them and you show them the way of God more accurately. And you say, well,

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I'm kind of new in the faith. That's okay, you have the word of God. The person who doesn't have

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God doesn't know God at all. So go evangelize someone and tell them about Christ. Let's be a church that disciples and makes disciples.