Pentecost & The Purpose of Tongues

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Part two of Lesson # 2 FORERUNNERS OF THE FAITH A Study of #churchhistory w/ Forward by Pastor John MacArthur

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We have the idea today, if you ask the average Christian on the street, what is speaking in tongues?
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What comes to mind is... And I'm not intending to mock
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Pentecostals and Charismatics. I'm just telling you that's what people have in mind of what tongues is.
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The Greek word glossa, that's what it means. It's either the organ in your mouth, your literal tongue, or it means a human language.
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So that was the real purpose of tongues, to spread the gospel to non -Jews.
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It was a sign. So God is not just for the Jews, He loves what?
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Jesus was sent because God loves the whole world.
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So we are continuing lesson number two from Pentecost to Patmos.
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So I think we finished or just about finished section one. And we were talking about the
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Apostolic Age and how the Apostles laid the foundation of the church. So to authenticate their message, it says
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God also gave the Apostles the ability to perform miracles. And it said that is how you know that they were true messengers of God.
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Not that you just have to believe everybody who has a message. But the fact that Peter and James and Paul could work wonders.
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I mean that proved that they were messengers of God. And then it says the Apostolic Period comprises a foundational age in church history,
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Ephesians 2 .20. And when John, the last surviving Apostle died around the year what?
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100. The Apostolic Age came to a close. And it says the
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Apostolic Age was unique and unrepeated period in church history.
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And that's what I said about the book of Acts. Remember it's a transitional book. This is very unique.
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You should not read the book of Acts and say, gee, how come we're not seeing that stuff happening today?
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Well, you wouldn't see it happening today. Just like Jesus isn't going to come back and die on the cross again.
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So you can't read the Bible and automatically assume those same things should be happening right now.
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But that is the way some view the book of Acts. So the recommended reading was that you yourself should read through the book of Acts.
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So some of you have done that. I'm sure some of you haven't. And I'd recommend that you read
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Acts. It's a very easy book to read. Some epistles, some books of the
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Bible are challenging. The book of Acts is very simple because it's history and it's narrative.
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So very simple to read. So let's move on unless somebody has some question or comment about section one.
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We'll move on to section two. All right. This is titled the church is born.
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Acts chapter two in Matthew 16, verse 18. Jesus promised that he would build his church.
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That promise began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Right. Does everyone have that filled in?
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Yes. So the promise began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost in the year.
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What? A .D. 30. You know, some people have said 33
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A .D. There's like a window of four to seven years that scholars debate about. But the book at least says 30
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A .D. Now, you would think, well, wouldn't it be 33? Like if Jesus was born and that's when the time.
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Yeah, but, you know, scholars and their date. So it's three years earlier than what you think it would be.
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But anyways, Acts chapter two records what happened on that dramatic day.
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About how many followers? Yeah, you remember acts tells us there is 120 people in the upper room.
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So about 120 followers of Jesus, including the apostles, were gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem.
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When the Holy Spirit came to indwell and empower them. The coming of the spirit was marked by the appearance of fire and the loud sounding of a rushing wind.
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That's Acts two, one through four. And that type of thing had happened in the past.
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Exodus 19, 16 through 18. First Kings 19, 11 through 12. Now this statement that the
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Holy Spirit came to do two things. What are they? To indwell and to empower.
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So this is new or is it not new? Has this happened before?
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Okay. Yeah. So here's the thing. The Holy Spirit came upon people in the
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Old Testament, right? The Holy Spirit came upon Saul. If you're following along with our
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Wednesday study, you know, the Holy Spirit came upon Saul, came upon David, came upon Samson, right?
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There's all these figures in the Old Testament that were empowered to do these great exploits for God.
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So the Holy Spirit has come upon people before. But what's new is that the spirit came to permanently indwell believers.
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So that's the new ministry of the spirit in the New Testament. That did not happen because, yeah, the
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Holy Spirit came upon Saul, but the Holy Spirit also departed from Saul. The Holy Spirit never departed from David, but he would come and go.
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Samson. I mentioned him. Did the spirit depart from Samson? Yeah. The scripture says that it was because of Samson's sin.
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The Holy Spirit departed from him and he says he knew it not, which is kind of a sad statement.
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But in the New Testament, if you look at Ephesians 4 verse 30, the Holy Spirit comes.
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He comes to indwell us and to seal us for the day of redemption, Paul writes. And that's one of the reasons why we believe that New Testament Christians cannot lose their salvation because of the permanent indwelling of the spirit.
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Now, when somebody is in the church, they have a testimony, they're baptized and you're just certain they were saved and then they fall away and deny
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Christ. And then it eventually comes out that they're an unbeliever. Then, you know, we understand that, that they were never actually indwelt and sealed in the first place.
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But if the spirit comes to indwell us, the New Testament teaching is he never leaves.
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Larry. Just a question about the Holy Spirit is one of the third person of the
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Trinity, almighty God, all powerful. Why do
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I have such a hard time with my flesh? Yeah.
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Not if, but because the Holy Spirit in me, you know,
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I guess that's part of the spiritual warfare going on right within my body.
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Right. In my mind. Well, I mean, as far as why any one individual has a problem with the flesh,
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I don't know that I can speak to why for any one individual. But we're called to mortify the flesh, right?
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To put to death the deeds of the flesh. I think part of it is the way we were brought up.
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I mean, let's just say if somebody lived in rebellion to God for however many years and then they get saved.
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I mean, you still have all that kind of baggage, right? Even though you're forgiven, it's hard to get over some of those things.
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They have long lasting impact. Some of our decisions, bad decisions have long lasting impact.
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So that's one problem. Another problem is the fact that we're living in this sinful world and we're just bombarded by temptation.
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You can't go into the grocery store without, you know, being tempted. And so that's part of just living in this culture.
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And then even as a Christian, when you come out and you want to separate yourself from that, even other
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Christians can be against you. And you get called a legalist because you don't want to indulge in worldly things.
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And we're just up against it, I think. Like some Christians have never faced the problems we're facing.
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Now, that's not an excuse. And then one last thing, just what we're taught.
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Sometimes we were taught the wrong thing. And when you just had bad doctrine just ingrained in you for years and years.
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And I'm not saying that it came from here or there. But this is a problem.
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That it's hard to get over that. You have to unlearn some things. And then there's the, do we really want to mortify the flesh?
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Sometimes the flesh is a little too powerful. Yeah, Aaron. Even Paul struggled with it.
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Right. He didn't get it until he was a wretched man for it. Right. Yeah. And if the Apostle Paul had to deal with the flesh and he viewed himself as a wretch.
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I mean, what does that tell you? Here's another thing. This is maybe bad teaching. Or just sometimes pastors, church leaders, preachers can make
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Christians feel guilty. You have a Christian who's not even really doing anything wrong. And maybe it's not even the pastor who's trying to do it.
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But the way they interpret it, they just beat themselves up. And they feel guilty over every little thing.
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So I think there's a lot of believers who are living a very faithful life. But then the more you grow, the bigger those little sins seem to be.
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And that's a good thing that you recognize that sin is serious. But there's a variety of different reasons.
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But yeah, if you do struggle with the flesh, I mean, don't feel alone. This is what you don't want.
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Someone to feel like, well, yeah, but I have all these temptations. And I sinned yesterday. Well, you know what?
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Probably every person on earth sinned yesterday. Or they had a sinful thought.
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And already this morning. Yeah. And we're not making light of it.
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But people can think, well, there's something wrong with me. When actually, they're probably a lot more faithful than 90 % of believers.
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But a lot of different things you could say. But the spirit of God has come to indwell believers.
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So now we have a choice. We can walk in the spirit or we can allow the flesh to control us.
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And it's a daily decision that we need to make. Pentecost was one of the major feast days celebrated by the
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Jewish people. Deuteronomy 16, 9 through 10. And for that reason, many Jewish pilgrims had traveled to Jerusalem from throughout the
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Roman Empire. These pilgrims lived in many other parts of the Roman Empire. And therefore, spoke native languages other than Aramaic or Greek.
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Which was the primary languages spoke in Jerusalem. So do you see where we're going? We're going to talk about the gift of tongues.
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Which is kind of the big thing that people think about and talk about concerning Pentecost.
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So in Acts chapter 2, it says the Holy Spirit gave the apostles and possibly others with them.
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The miraculous ability to speak in what? You see the book says foreign languages.
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You are expecting it to say gave them the ability to speak in tongues. But here's the thing.
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That's what tongues means. If you look it up in Greek, the word glossa means a dialect, a foreign dialect.
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So it's the same thing. But we have the idea today. If you ask the average Christian on the street, what is speaking in tongues?
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What comes to mind is... And I'm not intending to mock
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Pentecostals and Charismatics. I'm just telling you that's what people have in mind of what tongues is.
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But at least the position of this book, the position of this church, and the biblical position is that tongues is an unknown foreign language.
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So they had never learned. So they had the ability, it says miraculous ability to speak in foreign languages that they had never learned.
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That's why it was miraculous. So if Peter all of a sudden is preaching in whatever foreign dialect, he didn't know that language.
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But now he's preaching. And that's what people hear. They understand him preaching in their own language.
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That was a miraculous thing. So it says, leaving the upper room, they went through Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in these foreign dialects.
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And again, the Greek word glossa, that's what it means. Either the organ in your mouth, your literal tongue, or it means a human language.
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When the pilgrims to Jerusalem heard the apostles speaking fluently in their native tongues, it says they were amazed.
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The miraculous gift is known as the gift of tongues. The Holy Spirit used it on the day of Pentecost, not only to draw a crowd, but also to demonstrate that the gospel of Jesus Christ extends to all nations.
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So that was the real purpose of tongues, to spread the gospel to non -Jews.
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It was a sign. So God is not just for the Jews. He loves what?
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Jesus was sent because God loves the whole world.
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That was the message. Any questions on this? Brad? This is a question that may be more of a moot thing than really anything that matters much.
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What do you think of the idea that people of different languages in the crowd that was listening to Jesus, and I've sort of heard that it may be that even though Jesus was preaching, they heard their own language at the same time.
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Different languages. Yeah, I forget if it's in first Corinthians, but there is a passage that seems to distinguish tongues from the interpretation of tongues.
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So long story short, pastors and Bible teachers disagree on this of whether or not the gift was them speaking or whether the gift was people hearing.
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I don't know. I don't have the perfect answer for that. But it is also true that yes, some people heard them speak in their own language.
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And then there were other people who said, hey, they're drunk because we can't understand what they're saying.
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So some people couldn't hear it, which would, I guess, lend to the view that the gift was actually made or the miracle was in the hearing.
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I can see that going both ways. But, you know, I've never heard a real clear explanation that just settles that for me.
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But what's important is that this is what was happening, that what they were saying was intelligible, that people did hear in their own language.
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Believers did. Unbelievers did not understand it. And they mocked. OK. Any other questions?
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All right. Continuing on, addressing the crowd that had gathered to witness this miracle.
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The Apostle Peter preached a powerful gospel sermon, Acts 2, 14 through 36.
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In response, some 3000 people believed they professed faith in Christ and they were baptized as a symbolic demonstration of their repentance.
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On this incredible day, the church was born. And that's, you know, generally the position
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I would take that the church in the form that we have it now was born on Pentecost.
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But that's another thing. You'll get some people say the church officially was born or started at this point.
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And this point is, you know, there's this. You have to come down on a certain position.
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I think. Why is why is this the birthday of the church? Because this is when the indwelling of the
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Holy Spirit started. The spirit came at this point and he's been here doing this ever since.
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But again, that doesn't mean that, you know, you should expect to come to church and all of a sudden the door swings open and a mighty rushing wind comes in.
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And like that's that that happened back then. That's it's not repeatable because what's the message?
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What's the main point? God's trying to get across that the gospel is for all people.
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And that that has been demonstrated. So there's no need to make that point again, because everyone understands that now.
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So for discussion, it says, read the first list of language groups that were represented on the day of Pentecost.
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In Acts 2, 5 through 12, what did the gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost illustrate about the extent of the gospel?
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Well, I just answered that, didn't I? But how does this correspond to the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 18 through 20?
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Well, it corresponds in this in the way that it just lines up. You're going to preach the gospel in Jerusalem, Samaria, you know, and it's just going to go out from there to the uttermost parts of the earth.
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All right. Everyone understand that? I think it's pretty, pretty basic. So if there's no questions on that.
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All right, good. Nobody's arguing with me about tongues and signs and wonders. But, you know, if you do have a question, that's
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OK. But nobody does. So let's look at number three, the martyrdom of Stephen.
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This is Acts chapter seven. Chapters two through seven of the book of Acts describe the growth of the early church in Jerusalem and Judea.
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So I'm just going to read this part that is not in your book. It says, Acts 2, 42 through 47,
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Luke identifies the primary features of the first community of believers.
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So chapters three through four highlight the bold preaching ministry of Peter, who proclaimed the gospel with undaunted courage.
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Acts five opens with the account of Ananias and Sapphira, a sobering illustration of how serious
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God is about purity and worship. Is everyone familiar with the story of Ananias and Sapphira?
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If someone isn't familiar with it, basically in the early church, they were of one mind and they lived communally.
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I guess you could put it. They all gave their possessions to the apostles and they would distribute them as people had a need.
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So Ananias and Sapphira, they had a property and they sold their property and they took the proceeds.
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And they told the apostles, hey, we're giving you all the money.
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We're giving all the money to the church. But in fact, they lied and they're holding back a portion for themselves, which is totally fine that, you know, they didn't have to give the church the money.
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And they could have held back a portion for themselves. That's totally fine. But what was the issue? They lied.
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And Peter said, you've lied to the Holy Spirit. And then he says, you've lied to God.
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And long story short, God struck Ananias dead and then
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Sapphira or vice versa. And that was quite a shock to people.
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But it was really just sending a message that, you know, the church, because some people have the idea that God in the
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Old Testament was pretty serious and took things seriously. And he was rigid.
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There's the law and you have to obey. But in the New Testament, it's just like free for all. It's just grace and just kind of you're forgiven.
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And now, hey, do what you want to do. Well, God sending a message. No, that's not the way you still need to obey
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God. So he made an example out of them. And again, this is another thing that's not repeated.
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Imagine if every person who told a lie in church was struck dead. I mean,
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I don't know. Congregations be cut in half. Well, maybe not.
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But you get the point. This is not something that is repeated. Acts chapter six.
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The needs of the growing church in Jerusalem reached the point where the apostles select seven helpers to assist the congregation.
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And this is generally understood as the first time where deacons were ordained or chosen.
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And then the first question it gets to. Stephen was the first Christian martyr.
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The word martyr comes from a Greek word meaning what witness.
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Right. Martyrs were witnesses to Jesus Christ, even to the point of death.
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There's that book out in the foyer that we get every month called Voice of the Martyrs.
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And I mean, these people are an amazing witness to Christ that they are faithful when they could be arrested, persecuted.
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They're still faithful. And even up until the point of death, they're faithful. And, Stephen, you say, well, what kind of witness is it when you're dead?
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You can't witness to other people. You can't preach to other people. Well, yeah. But when someone stands for the
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Lord and dies, I mean, that itself is a powerful testimony to all people.
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So Stephen is the first Christian martyr. Does everyone agree with that? Ananias and Sapphira were not martyrs.
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Who is the next Christian martyr? Or at least that we read about. James, I think, would be the next one.
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Is that Acts chapter 12? Is there one before that? I don't think so. That was killed.
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James was killed by the sword, right, with Herod. So it says, as a result of Stephen's martyrdom, this, again, is not in your book,
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I don't think. As a result of Stephen's martyrdom, Christians began to scatter from Jerusalem.
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As they did, they took the gospel with them to places like Samaria, Acts 8, 1 through 5.
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And other regions throughout the Roman Empire, Acts 11, 19 through 20. In this way,
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God used the death of Stephen and the resulting persecution to scatter believers throughout the
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Roman world, thereby beginning to fulfill the Great Commission. Okay, so the discussion question here.
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In the four gospels, the disciples often exhibit faith that is frail and faltering.
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But in the book of Acts, they demonstrate unwavering boldness and resolve.
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How can we explain the dramatic difference? Practically speaking, how should we emulate their conviction and courage in our lives?
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So this is two questions. First of all, when Jesus gave the
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Great Commission to the apostles, did they listen right away? I mean, you could argue that they just stayed in Jerusalem for years when
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Jesus told them to go out. Some have argued they were disobedient. Others don't see it that way.
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But whatever the case, it was persecution that kind of forced everybody out.
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So whether you choose to make the right decision or whether God puts you in a situation where you don't really have much of a choice, in the end,
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God's will is going to be done. So what about this first question? What explains the dramatic change?
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You know, we think of Peter as like the great example. You know, he's always saying, not always, but he's often saying the wrong thing.
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He lacks faith. He denies Jesus. And that's just sort of a pattern through the gospels.
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But then in Acts chapter two, all of a sudden, Peter is bold and courageous. What explains the change?
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Yep. The filling of the Holy Spirit would be the main thing.
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But also seeing Jesus risen from the dead. I mean, that I mean, that that should do it.
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But even people who saw Jesus raised from the dead, it's not like that's all they need.
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No, you need the Holy Spirit for ministry. Yes, Aaron. Also, the book of Acts is about the acts of the apostles.
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It really falls under more of their victories then. Because if you get further in, Paul didn't call out
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Peter for being afraid of the Jews. So they still made mistakes. They still had moments of fear.
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It's just that wasn't the purpose of Acts. It was to show the work of the Holy Spirit in his church.
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Yeah, that's a good point, I suppose. That just because we read about all their victories and all the high points, that's not to say that they didn't still make mistakes because we know
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Peter did. So, yeah, that's a good point. What about the second question?
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Practically speaking, how should we emulate their conviction and courage in our lives?
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How should we emulate that? Yes, Corrine. Well, I think in the world today that people don't stand up because of the bullying and persecution.
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And we need to do that. Jesus wants us to stand up. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of people that they fold.
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They don't stand against it. So you see their boldness. And again, it was because of the power of the spirit.
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We should have that same boldness. We're not going to preach a sermon.
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It's not like every Christian. Again, not repeatable. You don't see Christians preaching sermons where 3000 people get saved.
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Although I guess that's possible. In theory, it could happen, but you should have that same boldness to declare to people.
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This is what I believe, and I'm not ashamed of it. Because when Christians act ashamed or embarrassed about their beliefs,
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I mean, what kind of testimony is that? I don't want to be too hard on people. Because I know we've probably all been in that position where we have acted in a timid manner.
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But when people see that, they wonder, do you even really believe this? Because you're acting like this.
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But speaking of the apostles not always doing the right thing, I'll confess to you this morning.
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Because I don't know, it sort of fits in here. I went to the grocery store yesterday. And I saw these people outside with a petition.
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And I just figured, you know, whenever they're looking for signatures, I'm probably going to disagree with it. You know, it's just typically the way that goes.
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But anyways, I was in the grocery store. And I came out, and they stopped me.
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And they said, sir, will you sign my petition? We're trying to make psilocybin legal in Massachusetts.
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And in case you don't know, that's a drug that causes people to hallucinate.
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Maybe you've heard of magic mushrooms, sort of similar to LSD. And they wanted to make this legal.
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And she said, you know, people just need their medicine, she said. Of course, I'm thinking to myself, yeah, right.
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That's not why you want it legal. But because some people are making an excuse for that, that there is a...
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Anyways, my point is, just an hour earlier, I was studying about witchcraft and the
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Bible, how it calls witchcraft in the New Testament, pharmakia, where drugs that alter your mind are often used in cooperation with witchcraft and occult practices.
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So here I was. I was in prime position to tell her what
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I was just studying. And wherever my mind was, I didn't do it.
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Now, I did express to her why I didn't think this was right. People are going to abuse this, and I don't think that this should be legal and whatever.
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But I thought, as I was driving away, I really messed that up. But that's the type of thing when you're not walking in the spirit, moment by moment, thinking about the things of the
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Lord, looking for those opportunities that can be served up on a silver platter. And so I was a little discouraged yesterday, but that's what happened.
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I should have had more boldness to share with her some statements about witchcraft and how that all ties in.
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But even then, people are reluctant to do that because, I mean, you've seen some of these videos online where people confront others in the street, and the reaction is they're going to freak out on you and scream at you, and sometimes you just don't want to bother with that.
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But anyways, that was just an example of where I could have done better. But that's the type of thing that throughout our daily lives, we are going to have opportunities to share our faith.
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It's just a matter of, am I walking moment by moment in the spirit and looking for these opportunities?
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So God forgive me. And any questions on this before we move on?
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Okay. You forgive me, Larry? This one. Okay, thanks.
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You know, the hard thing is to forgive yourself sometimes. I have a hard time with talking to people.
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I mean, not talking to people, but bringing up, changing the subject or bringing the subject to Christ.
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Yeah. When I leave, then
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I get, oh, I could have said this, or I could have said that. Right. More frequently than actually doing it.
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Yeah. Meg. Can't you kind of apply the message of don't cast your pearls before swine?
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Well, I mean, that's the other thing. Yeah. Yeah, don't cast your pearls before swine.
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Because, I mean, what she's advocating for was, I don't know. Yeah, I thought of that as well.
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But I don't know. What if she were receptive? But then if she did scream at me, then
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I would have thought about that first. And then I would have said, why did I even bother? But it can go either way.
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Yeah, Erin. Well, to go back to how we should emulate the conviction, I think the thing that always stood out to me most is that when
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Peter was questioned at the fireside, you were with him, and he denied it.
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But then later, when he was literally being threatened with punishment, beating, scourging, and death, we must obey
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God rather than men. Right. So we learned that lesson. And I think as God teaches us, I've been in that situation.
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Not Peter, of course. And we can walk away from that and go, okay, well,
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I need to remember to keep my eyes focused on Christ more. And I fail at it regularly, but I think this is what we need to learn.
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The next time somebody says, hey, I want to make this heinous thing legal, well, you know, the
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Lord says, maybe we'll do it better next time. Recognizing that helps.
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Recognizing the spirit. Yeah. Yeah. Let's look at number four, the conversions of Saul and Cornelius.
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So it says one of the primary persecutors of the church was a man named
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Saul. Saul was his what name? Hebrew name.
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Later, he would be known by his Greek name. Paul. A lot of people have the idea that God changed
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Paul's name from Saul to Paul. God didn't do that. God did change people's names.
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Jacob to Israel, for example. Peter. Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter, but this was not an example of God changing it.
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So his Hebrew name is Saul, just like King Saul, both from the tribe of Benjamin, but his
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Greek name. And since he was the apostle to the Gentiles, he went by his
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Greek name, which is Paul. So Saul was instrumental in scattering the church by persecuting
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Christians. Yet the Lord would later use Saul to minister to the scattered church.
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In fact, some of the believers who fled Jerusalem as a result of Stephen's martyrdom would be part of the church in Syrian Antioch, a church that Saul would eventually co -pastor with Barnabas.
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Everyone have Barnabas there? That's Acts 11, 19 through 26.
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So the account, this is not in your book. The account of Saul's conversion is well known.
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His encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus changed not only his life forever, but also the course of church history.
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The last of the apostles, he would help establish numerous churches and write more than half of the
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New Testament. And if you remember when Stephen was martyred, it says that the men, they laid their clothing at the feet of who?
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Saul. So it gives the impression that even though Saul was not throwing rocks to kill
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Stephen, it gives the impression he was the one overseeing it. You might call him the ringleader.
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We don't know that for certain, but that's the way it appears. So going from that, the man who is at least somewhat involved in the first martyrdom to becoming the greatest apostle.
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I mean, wow. Now that is a witness, Larry. And how
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God miraculously came on Saul, you know, on the road to Damascus and he was converted.
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And so he went from being the persecutor to now one of the strongest witnesses to Jesus Christ.
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How God changed him. We need to pray for our president and his cabinet because there's a lot of things that they're trying to do against the church, against believers.
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And just imagine if President Biden or one of his upper echelon in the cabinet,
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I understand they got blinded, but, you know, saw the light of Christ and changed his ways.
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I mean, that would be amazing. Miraculous. People would see that and I don't know what the results would be.
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Sometimes you can fall into the idea that, oh, well, come on, that's never going to happen because 99 % of the times it doesn't.
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Sometimes when celebrities convert to Christ, that's what people think. They can do so much good for the kingdom.
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And then it kind of turns out that that wasn't maybe real. But what you want to know and what you want to remember is that God can convert anybody.
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So those points throughout history where somebody often is somebody like St.
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Augustine, whatever your opinion is of him. You know, he was a guy who was just not interested in anything, serving
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Christ and living the botched lifestyle and all the rest. But then, you know, God got a hold of him and he made a major impact.
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Some people don't like Augustine, but there's been those figures throughout history that they were dead set against it.
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And then they had a change of heart. So just know that that has happened and it can happen.
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Saul is the best example of it. So that's one reason why we should pray for local, state, national leaders, world leaders.
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Because if a world leader was converted to Christ, yeah, it would be amazing.
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So it says in God's perfect plan, a former Pharisee became the apostle to the
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Gentiles. Okay. The next thing in her book to underscore this, it says God sent
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Peter to preach to a Gentile man named who Cornelius.
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The Lord prepared Peter by showing him a vision of what unclean animals.
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So you remember Peter was on the rooftop. He went into a trance.
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The scripture says, and he saw this vision. The sheet came down with all these unclean animals that Jews were not allowed to eat.
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But he heard a voice that said, rise, slay and eat. Not so, Lord. I have never eaten anything that is unclean.
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And then it repeats. And eventually, Peter realizes that what God is trying to tell me is that I should not call anything unclean that God has called clean or made clean.
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And that really wasn't so much about food, although the dietary laws of the Old Testament are no longer in force for believers.
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But it was really about what? People. It was about the Gentiles. Because Peter, as a
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Jewish man, and this is what the mistake Peter made when Paul had to rebuke him.
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Peter and the Jews, they just had fixed in their mind that God only cares about us. It's all about us.
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It's all about the Jews. It's all about Israel. The Gentiles are dogs. If they want to be saved, they need to convert and become
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Jewish. Was that true? No, because God, the Lord, was bringing the gospel to the
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Gentiles. So the Gentiles are now not unclean. So this is more about people than it is food.
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And that's what it says here. And telling him not to regard as unclean what God has cleansed,
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Acts 10, 9 through 16. So again, reading from my book. Normally, the
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Jewish people would not enter the home of a Gentile since doing so rendered a person ceremonially unclean.
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But Peter understood the point of the vision he had received. He entered the house of Cornelius.
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And what did he do? He presented the gospel. Incredibly, Cornelius and the members of his household responded to the gospel in saving faith.
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The Holy Spirit verified the authenticity of their faith by indwelling them in the same way he indwelt the apostles on the day of Pentecost.
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Acts 10, 44 through 47. Because they had believed in Christ and received the
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Holy Spirit, Peter instructed them to be baptized. As a result of this dramatic conversion, the leaders of the church in Jerusalem recognized that the message of salvation was equally available to both
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Jews and Gentiles alike. And if you've read through the book of Acts, you'll notice that this, you know, the spirit falling on people and them speaking with other tongues.
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That actually happens again, doesn't it? It's not just on the day of Pentecost, because when the
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Holy Spirit is given to the Gentiles, it happens again. But that's, again, making that same point that God is now working through and saving the
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Gentiles. Okay, so the last thing we're going to look at, class is almost over.
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The discussion question, what was so significant about the gospel extending beyond the nation of Israel to include people from other ethnic backgrounds?
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What's significant about that? The gospel is for all. Yeah, it's for all people.
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God so loved the world. You ever wonder what that means? God so loved
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Jew, Gentile, American, Chinese, North Korean, Russian.
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You know, God is saving people from every nation, tribe, and tongue.
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And when we use the word tongue, it means what? God is saving people from every nation, tribe, and language.
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And then it says, read Revelation 5. Let's just turn there. We'll close with this. Read Revelation 5, 9 through 10.
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And it says, how does the composition of heaven reflect the inclusion of Gentiles into the church?
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Okay. So we're looking at Revelation 5, 9, and 10.
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We'll close with this. Revelation 5, 9, and 10. I'll give everyone a moment to make sure you're there.
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Okay. I don't hear pages rustling, so I'm going to read it. Revelation 5, 9 and 10.
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It says, and they sang a new song, saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you are slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood.
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Out of what? Every tribe, tongue, and people, and nation.
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And have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth.
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So when we talk about the kingdom, and we've been talking about this a lot going through Matthew in the sermons.
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You know, the kingdom of God, this was a concept that the Jews had, that David was kind of the first prototype of the
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Messiah. He's king. The kingdom is for who? The Jews. Well, guess what?
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The kingdom is actually for Jew and Gentile people from every nation, all who believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Which is why every church, which is, most churches are made up of mostly non -Jews today.
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We're praying, thy kingdom come, because now salvation is available to all men.
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And actually, it was available to all people in Old Testament times. But now, God is making this clear declaration that all men, all over the world, are part of God's family.