Paul's Mission Trip - [Acts 13-14]

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Dear God our Heavenly Father, we thank you a lot for this morning. We thank you for Your word we thank you for your son
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And we thank you that your spirit this morning has enabled us to gather together
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To hear your word and to exalt you in the midst of your people
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Lord even then at this hour as we study your word We pray that your spirit would illumine our hearts and our minds that we would understand
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What your word says about the truth and Lord? We also pray that you would quicken our hearts that we would be people who?
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Do the word and not just be hearers only in Christ name. We pray amen
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Okay having seen this Map I think many of you probably know what today's subject is going to be
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Acts that's a good Answer and it is true Let me begin with a question because before we get into the text
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I want you to have certain thoughts in your mind as we open up God's Word How many of you?
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considered the ministry of being a missionary either this morning or in the recent past I See a few hands
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It Was my pleasure and my privilege in the last four to six months to be able to teach some of your children in a wanna
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We as you know about ten of us had gone to Mozambique in South Africa close to South Africa And we had been as short -term missionaries, and when we came back
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We were just overwhelmed with what God had done through us feeble creatures to the people who had not
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Known Christ and it was our desire for you as a body who had sent us to know what
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God had done through us and One aspect in which we wanted to communicate that urgent Ministry of missions was to communicate it to the children so they can know what happened so I had about four opportunities to teach the children at council time and I normally taught them through the
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Gospel of Mark, but gave them a lot of examples of what happened in Mozambique What did the
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Lord do? How was he exalted and how did the people receive this great news and?
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Today I want to use that same pattern, but instead of using our
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Experience in Mozambique. I want to use Paul's experience as a missionary in his first missionary journey in Particular we're going to be looking at acts 13 and 14
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We'll go over it a few times to look at what happened, and then what we learn from it And what we ought to do?
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but the thought that I want you to have throughout this time is What must
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I? do in the Bible you know you Every single one of us is called to proclaim the name of Christ wherever we are some of us are called to do it
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Right where we are because God has done such a great wonderful thing in our lives It is impossible for us to keep quiet We want to let everyone know what a good thing it is to know who
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Jesus is and that's why it's called the gospel or The good news God has done something phenomenal Incredible unbelievable in our lives, and we know it through the word and we want everybody to know and we either do it right where we are or Some of us are called to go out and many a time
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I think the reason we do not consider missions is not because we have considered the calling of God and said you know this is
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Not a gift that I have or this is not a specific call that I have But rather that I'm just too comfortable where I am and today my goal is to shake that comfort and make you reconsider
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What missions really is and whether the Lord would be calling you to go out into the mission field?
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So to begin with you can open up to Acts chapter 13 We'll be looking at 13 and 14 today and We'll begin by looking at what happened in Acts in the background, and then we will look at the specific
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Events that occurred in the in the book of Acts chapter 13 and 14 So for those of you who are familiar with the book of Acts you know that the book of Acts breaks into Two maybe three sections in Acts 1 8 actually let me read that first Jesus says to the disciples
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You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all
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Judea and Samaria and Even to the remotest part of the earth we see how the disciples were faithful in communicating the truth of the gospel in Jerusalem right where they were and then we see how
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Peter in Acts 1 through 12 takes this out into all of Judea and Samaria, so I don't have a very good map of that here, so Jerusalem if you're thinking of Israel as this area
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Jerusalem is here Judea and Samaria is the region around it And then we have the ends of the world the known
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Roman world at that time and we see in Chapters 12 through the end of the book of Acts how the gospel goes from this local region into the rest of the
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Roman world But this is just the first missionary journey We will be looking at that as you know in Acts.
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We have three missionary journeys done by Paul and He would go back and extend and finally the third mission
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His last journey will go all the way to the center of Rome where he will proclaim the truth And in Acts chapter 13
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We begin this mission that goes out from Judea and Samaria now into the ends of the world
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Let me once again point out what actually happens in this event
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So we have the missionary journey start in Antioch. Can anyone remember what
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Antioch was famous for? From the Bible you know what do we read about Antioch in the
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Bible? There is a council yes, there is some controversies that get discussed there, and then they come down to Jerusalem That's a good event that happens yes
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That's very true that was what I was looking for this is the first place where the Believers were called
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Christians in fact that was a derogatory term people were saying those are those Christians, but the
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Antiochian said you know what that's a great badge I'm gonna be called a Christian And we are all called
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Christians today, and that's recorded in the book of Acts and this group of this early church in Antioch This is
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Syria as you can see written Vertically so you have Israel you have
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Syria, and there's a church in Antioch In Syria, and that's where we begin the church in Antioch the
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Holy Spirit is now saying you know you need to do something And Paul and Barnabas are our two first missionaries, and they're going to go out from Antioch Let's let's
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I'll just point you a few verses Just to lay this out, and then we'll come back and read 13 and 14 in in more detail
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In verse 1 there was a church in Antioch and in verse 3 Verse 2 you see
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Barnabas and Saul or Paul as he is called in the Roman world And then in verse 3 they are sent off and in verse 4
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We are told that they came to Cilicia. There was actually a river connecting Cilicia and Antioch So they probably took a boat and sailed to the coast and from Cilicia.
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They go to this Country of Cyprus. It's a it's an island. It's the third biggest island in the
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Mediterranean and they go over there from Acts 4 we know that Cyprus was the hometown of Barnabas so they go to a logically big place
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Cyprus was Also a center of a large Jewish community. It was a very popular place.
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It was like our Caribbean you know people like to go there a lot.
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It was an it was called an island of happiness There were some problems that we will see as we study the text
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But this was a fun place for people to go and there was a lot of people there that you'd come from different countries
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And it was also the hometown of Barnabas. So they they start off there There are two names in Cyprus that I mentioned the first one is in the northwest corner called
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Salamis and that's we see that in verse 5 and They proclaim the truth there among the
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Jews and in verse 6 We see that they go through all the island so they start preaching there and then they walk and they continue to preach throughout the island of Cyprus until they come to Paphos and we read in Paphos that there was
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Pro council Sergius Paulus and this man actually here so much of what's happening in Cyprus This this guy called
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Paul and Barnabas teaching something Different and everybody in this place is listening and believing
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So he calls and he wants to hear and we see here Paul proclaiming the gospel to Sergius Paulus We'll study that in detail.
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So that's that's where it goes and then This whole town is about a hundred miles wide and then the journey from here to there is about 200 miles
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So then they go down into their focus is Antioch. Antioch is the big city. This is
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It's called the Pisidian Antioch the region here was called Pisidia as different than Syria and their focus is to go there
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It's a big town and they want to it's like, you know, New York City We want to go there and preach the news and so they're saying, you know
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We want to go there and preach the gospel and they take this route to get there And also as you know,
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Paul is from Tarsus this region. So he's going to start to also go to his Home as you will although he will do that more in the second journey here
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He would just go to the Pisidian region. So they take the boat and then we read in Verse 13 they set sail from Paphos and come to Perga and they stop here in this port city of Perga There is some problem
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Paul and Barnabas don't really preach the gospel in Extensive time in Perga, but they stop there and then they move inland towards Antioch You know
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Paul and Barnabas Paul actually talks about how he was in danger of robbers and in journeys and seaways
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We know some of the sea journeys when you think of robbers you want to think of this path. There's a very mountainous curvy
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Road that goes up heavy threats from thieves even the it was true in the time of Paul and even the
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Roman Emperors had trouble in those pathways that were very steep climbing up and Inhabited by thieves and one specific event happens here.
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We look at that again John Mark departs from them We read that in verse 13 Why he left we don't know was he intimidated by the robbers maybe but Paul and Barnabas didn't care about that.
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They wanted to proclaim the news go through this dangerous highway and High way and they go down to Antioch in Antioch, we see in verse 14 that they reach there and in fact in verses 16 through 43
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We have the longest recorded sermon of Paul You know
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What did Paul preach when he went to these places and we read that in this big section of what?
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Paul actually taught and we'll see the pattern of Paul's teaching how he goes to the Jews first and then to the
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Gentiles But he begins there. He we have a fully Not complete but of complete outline of what
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Paul actually preached in Antioch He's received well first and as will be the pattern the next time he meets
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He is going to get kicked out of Antioch And so the Jewish people in Antioch will reject him
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He will go to the Gentiles in Antioch and then in verse 51 of chapter 13 at the very end
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Paul and bonus Barnabas received so much opposition that they have to shake the dust off their feet and then move on to the next town
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So as I said Antioch is the major city in this area. That was their focus
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They wanted to get the word there and they get it there and then When they are kicked out they find the next big town that they need to go to which is
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Iconium Iconium is a very historically rich place. It's a very ancient place
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It is a melting pot. In fact in that aspect, it would be more like New York than Antioch there's a lot of people with various cultures who are here in in Iconium and Paul and one it's about 80 90 miles from Antioch and they now go there and they're going to preach the word in Antioch In Iconium in Acts chapter 14 verse 1 through 7 and again, they have a good reception in the beginning and then they run into problems and then they are made to leave and When they are once again kicked out of Iconium, they go to these two towns of Lystra and Derby Lystra hometown of to be later
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Timothy who will whom Paul will mentor as a pastor and Derby is another small town both
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Lystra and Derby are much smaller places rural There's probably not even a synagogue in this area
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There are synagogues in Antioch and Iconium where the Jewish people who have spread out have established communities where Paul first goes to So he goes to Lystra and in Lystra we see in Acts 14 8
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Paul does a miracle of raising a man who was crippled from birth
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Remarkable the people think that these are the gods come to visit them. Paul has to teach them again and as is with fickle
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Humanity they almost get a Paul gets stoned and almost killed But the Lord preserves his life for ministry and they go back into Lystra And then they will go to Derby where they will preach the word and then once they have finished preaching the word in Derby they now come back all the way to Lystra Iconium Antioch and Perga and establishing and and This new churches that they have founded they just strengthen them when they come back and we will look at that role of a missionary in strengthening the church and this time when it comes to Perga and Atalia they will actually
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Preach there and the Lord will grant them much success and when they finish
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Preaching in Perga and Atalia and they come back to Antioch through Cilicia and then they report what
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God has done for them God has done through them in this first missions trip
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This whole journey takes about two to three years it's an 80 47 and And you want to think about something as you consider this missions trip for us 2 ,000 years
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Hence we see like wow that happened so early Do you know when Jesus Christ?
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Was resurrected and ascended into heaven Date wise roughly you take a guess you can't be wrong
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Roughly 33. Yes 33 34 80 so it was
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About 14 years before this missions trip that Christ has gone up into heaven
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He has given them the command in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, you know, you will receive power and you need to do this
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Matthew 28 18 to 20 has told them, you know, go make disciples and all that 50 days after Christ was resurrected, you know, you we have the
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Pentecost where they did receive power But it took 14 years
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Before we have this going out into all the world in fact in Acts 12
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You will start to see something that the Lord does to kind of get the people off their backs and into the world
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There was persecution other people had to leave
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Jerusalem the Jerusalem only the leadership at this point could stay they had to stay because they had to keep the
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Encourage the church there, but the Christians were now moving out of Jerusalem they were going out into the rest of the
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World where they would not be persecuted to the extent where they were in Jerusalem and the Lord Moves his people to where they need to go
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So today as we consider as we now go step by step through this Book, you want to think about what call the
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Lord has upon your own life? Are you faithfully fulfilling it where you are?
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Maybe you are maybe like Peter you need to stay in in Jerusalem and Keep preaching the word where you are called to do it or maybe
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Like some of the others are we just too comfortable where we are and we need to move on So let's now go back all the way to Acts chapter 13 verse 1 and we will look at what happened that prompted this missions trip
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Can someone read for me verses 1 through 3, please Loudly.
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Yes Bruce. We see here that There is a sense in which at the end of verse 3 it is the church at Antioch that sends them
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But who do you think gave Paul and or Saul and Barnabas the calling to be missionaries?
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It was a Holy Spirit. It was God himself who calls those who need to go out into the mission field
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It is not you know the leadership at BBC. We just say okay Daniel you're going to Virginia Bob you're going to Mozambique, no,
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I mean it is not the responsibility of others or to an extent not even yourself to Call yourself and be a missionary, but it is
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God and when you think about the call to mission ministry You might have heard this before how does anyone become an elder or a pastor or or go into full -time full -time ministry
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You wait upon the Lord and the Lord Impresses upon you the urgency of Preaching he has gifted you with certain gifts spiritual gifts to be a pastor.
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You need to be able to teach And then he he calls you to the point where like Paul you can or like Jeremiah You you basically cannot keep that word inside you anymore.
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You you are constrained You are To discharge the duty that God has called you to do and you know that God has has
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Called you into ministry and it is a Holy Spirit that calls specifically called Saul and Barnabas and And it doesn't mean that everybody who just suddenly feels an impulse to you know
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Be a missionary or a pastor just goes here You see how the church could both recognize the gift that God has given
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Saul and Barnabas they pray They affirm the gift and the calling that God has already called upon Saul and Barnabas So when one of you has a desire to go as a missionary
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It is the responsibility of us as a church to both Recognize the gift that God has called called given to you and also as we fast and pray and that just shows the sincerity with Which we commit to you in unity of mind
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Recognizing what God has called you and then send you forth into the world So that's that's the sense in which the missions first starts
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It begins as you pray and wait upon the Lord and ask the Lord to say, you know Is this something that I'm called to do and again, it doesn't happen in a vacuum
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You know, you don't just wake up one day and say well, I think the Lord is calling me What do you think
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Saul and Barnabas were doing until this happened? They were they were preaching they were serving they were leaders in the local church
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They I mean, you know what happens to Saul he gets converted and then he immediately goes and preaches in the synagogue I mean he was faithfully fulfilling the ministry that God had called to him until then
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He was studying. He was diligent. He he was He was serving God in the way that God had called him until then.
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In fact, if you think of the church in Antioch Saul and Barnabas were probably the last people they would want to leave
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Antioch, right? It's like us telling pastor Mike, please Go to you know Timbuktu.
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It's we want pastor Mike to preach to us And Saul was a powerful teacher and if they had their will they probably would have kept him in Antioch But God had called this person and he had sent him but God the
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Lord was also preparing them During this time when the time was right for them to go out
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So that's the beginning of the missions in Antioch and they set forth from there and as we saw their desk their first destination is in Cyprus And they go through Cyprus.
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Let's now look at this section from verses 4 And 5
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Can someone read it again a loudly, please Daniel? We see in verse 4 sent out by the
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Holy Spirit, in fact missionary the Translation of the word it comes from Latin missio and the goal is to it means to be sent
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You know the translation for Apostles is also one who is sent the
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Apostles in the Bible you will see is used in two ways one is in a more official way where you have the
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Apostles of the twelve Apostles and Paul being the One who joins late, but he is still an
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Apostle of Christ because he has seen the resurrected Christ But you also have Apostles used in a more general way where you will see later in I think acts 14 where Barnabas is also called as an
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Apostle because he is also one who is sent in a general way it He is one who sent the missionaries are ones who are sent and primarily they are sent by the
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Holy Spirit although in a more Practical way it is a church who affirms and sends them out and now they go out to Salamis Which is the closest port on?
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Cyprus it's a big town and we hear that that they proclaimed the Word of God in the synagogue of the of the
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Jews and When we think of missionaries, sometimes we can get the wrong impression of what a missionary does
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Especially there are missions agencies in the world today that focus more on other things besides preaching
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God's Word There is one primary purpose for a missionary. He is sent out so that he can proclaim
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Caruso preach Shout it out. You know you are a messenger of God the king of King and your responsibility here is to to Loudly announce as an ambassador what the king has called you to do and that's what?
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Saul and Barnabas do it and they do it. You will see we will see it when they get to Antioch They begin always by going to a synagogue and preaching to the
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Jews first And here there is a small footnote that they had
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John to assist them this is John Mark the nephew of Barnabas and verse 13 will will look at him a little more closely
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Barnabas probably just called him along to serve and then in our verses 6 through 12
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We have an event. I Think all of you would be probably familiar with this So I'll just recount the event instead of reading them and and then we will study what what really happens there
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I mentioned earlier Paul has and Barnabas have come to Salamis.
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They preach the word there and And then now they have gone through the land of Cyprus.
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They are preaching as they go along They are proclaiming the truth to the people of Cyprus and they come to pay for us
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One other note about Cyprus. I mentioned that it is a it's a good destination a destination of pleasure and it is also a
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Home to a large Jewish community, you know a logical starting point for Paul to preach but it also has other problems
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It is also a center of evil in that ancient world. It was The the goddess that they worshipped there was
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Aphrodite or Venus there was a lot of sin that was rampant in in this in this island and But it is also a
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Roman community. It is it is a That's why you have a pro -council Sergius Paulus who represents
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Rome was responsible for Cyprus and he hears about all these things that are happening in his town
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He calls Saul and Barnabas and says I need to know what you guys are doing.
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What do you teach and and And let me tell you the story and then we'll look at this in a bit.
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So Sergius Paulus has Counselors advisors people who would tell him or give him counsel and he has a man called a bar
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Jesus bar son of Jesus Salvation called son of salvation, but anything but we will find in this story
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He is a Jewish man. He's got the Jewish culture the background behind him. That's probably why in this particular instance
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He is counseling Sergius. However We read that his name in the
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Greek is translated Elema's and Elema's is not really the Greek meaning of son of salvation, but he was like a
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Magician a guy who would know the ancient astrology astronomy history
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Knowledgeable wise man who is going to instruct this leader and Elema's as we will see is not of the
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Lord, but he is of the devil and He will give wrong counsel to Sergius Paulus and try to distract
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Sergius from Hearing the truth and believing the truth to the point where? Paul will have to rebuke
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Elema's and in fact, he will Make him blind for a season
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Paul calls upon the Lord and he's and and Elema's is blinded physically just as he is actually blinded spiritually and when
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Sergius Paulus sees this Miracle happen a negative one in terms of Elema's loses losing his sight
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But more importantly we will see of hearing the truth that Paul has said Sergius Paulus himself comes to faith in the
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Lord the leader of this island comes to faith and Historically, we have a record of his daughter and his grandchildren possibly being
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Christians also is Daniel I don't know the answer to that.
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The question is is this the only place where? The hand of the Lord is done in negative way of taking away sight
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Anybody know the answer? Is there any other place? I can't hear you
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That's true in the Old Testament Sodom and Gomorrah when they were trying to attack lots Home when the angels were there the site was taken away for us
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Before they were destroyed. Yes lost his feet
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Right. That was yeah more of a rebuke for not believing what they okay.
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Yeah in the New Testament Yeah in the church discipline in 1st
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Corinthians 5 and 2nd Corinthians 3 but again, I don't think there was a This was just sending the person out of the church in order that they may be disciplined
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I don't know. Maybe this is the only recorded event we have Yes.
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Oh, that's very true. So acts 6 or 5 we have judgment of the
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Lord, you know bringing death and that that is Believers and here it's unbelievers, but there there was a judgment church discipline to the extreme
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Oh, you know, you'd rather die then bring reproach to the name of Christ good example.
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Thank you So now let's look at the what really happens behind this and I want to give you a principle
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So I don't take this too far You've heard this over and over again from us here at BBC The epistles have commands that are to be obeyed by all believers when you look at a narrative passage a
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Story or an event that is recounted in the in the scriptures You want to be careful about how you interpret the application for you today?
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Just because something happened in the Bible doesn't necessarily mean that it has to happen to you today we will see certain elements which were specific to the
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New Testament Church as The Apostles the original Apostles went out and proclaimed the truth and as a word of God was being authenticated by certain specific acts
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So my point to you is don't just read something in the in the book of Acts and say this has to happen to me
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But on the other hand there are truths that we have to study from the book of Acts many of these would be also
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Augmented by the rest of Scripture that you know very clearly that all believers must obey and act in similar patterns and those
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Principles are what I want to point out to you as we move from here, so let's look at what happens in Cyprus Or specifically in in Paphos where Paul is talking to Sergius Paulus So he has already ministered the gospel to the people of Cyprus The truth has been proclaimed and now he's coming to the end of his ministry at Cyprus And now he has the opportunity to speak to high official.
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I mean some of us who went to some Mozambique you know this you need to get permission from the head of that village so you can actually speak there and some we were looking to see if we can actually meet the guy because how wonderful it would be if the head man came to faith in the
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Lord and The opportunities that that would give for the gospel to go more freely in the in the land and here the
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Lord actually Makes Sergius Paulus call Paul into his front and then proclaim the truth so great opportunity
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Paul and Barnabas are there to faithfully proclaim or give the good news and as with all of of evangelism as with all of missions as God Sends forth his light you will find
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Spiritual opposition you will find the enemy wanting to keep the people in darkness bound under his
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Under his chains and not wanting to be saved. Let's read what Paul actually says
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Before we get there. So what what happens is the agent of the devil is Elema's he comes here with an express purpose to prevent
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Sergius Paulus from both hearing and believing in what Paul has to say and we read in verse 7
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Paulus Sergius Paulus was a man of intelligence and He summoned them in order to hear the
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Word of God but Elema's the magician opposed them and his desire was to turn them away from the faith and This is what we learned from Saul also called
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Paul filled with the Holy Spirit looked intently at him and said
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You son not of the salvation but of the devil you are an enemy of all righteousness
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Although you were a Jewish person here. You are against what is right? You are full of deceit and villainy.
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You are using your words to Cover the truth deceitfully and you are a villain in the sense that as an advisor we see this in politicians today
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You take some data and then you turn it in a way that is more suitable for yourself Rather than use it as it should be used.
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You're you're a villain you are You are perverting the right truth. And then he says will you not stop?
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Making crooked the straight paths of the Lord He confronts
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This enemy this agent of the devil Boldly because he was full of the spirit
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He was under a clear conviction of what was happening here and he had no fear right before Sergius Paulus this was the advisor of the leader and he boldly confronts him with the truth and then he
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Demonstrates what God would want him to do and he says behold the land hand of the Lord is upon you and you will be blind and unable to see the
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Sun for a time and We see a mighty manifestation of God's power in Closing this man's eyes immediately mist and darkness fell upon him and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand and What I want you to look carefully is in verse 12 the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred so he saw this man being blind and What was he astonished at?
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For he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord It is not the miracles that astonish the people and you will see this through 13 and 14
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Paul had already taught them and now he is teaching or he is He's rebuking elements and then there is a powerful miracle that happens.
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But what brings about Salvation is not miracles. It is about what is proclaimed the
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Word of God, which if you go back to verse 7 that was what he was seeking to hear and that was what he was taught
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So, let's now stop here and move on any questions on what we've covered so far
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Okay. So now we have the ministry completed here in Cyprus Paul and Barnabas are now going to purgah
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Along a journey 200 days and 200 miles. I think they said it's about two days of journey to get here
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So maybe it was four days from here to purgah. But in purgah, it's a lowland and Something happens we we believe that Paul actually was sick when he was here.
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There's some Cross references why we think he was sick. It was a
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But but the point I want to make here is John leaving in the end of verse 13 We see John left them and returned to Jerusalem John was a very young man
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John Mark. This is Mark the author of the Gospel of Mark He later goes and ministers with the
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Peter the Apostle and what he hears from Peter He faithfully recounts in the
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Gospel of Mark, but at this time of his of his travel with his uncle Barnabas He's a young man.
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His mother we here was a woman of prominence in Jerusalem. So in the early church She was very response.
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I mean she had a her homes open and people were probably worshiping So it was a important young kid
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Barnabas who was a leader a son of encouragement saw this faith in this young man and he said let's go on a mission strip and and Barnabas Mark was probably excited as most missionaries are when they get out of the
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Town and say new land new things. Let me see what the Lord will do and I don't know if he was terrified when he met the elements and What else he experienced in the island of Cyprus but coming to Pergamon for whatever reason
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I don't know if did he miss his mom Was he terrified of the robbers that were there in the path that Antioch part that Paul had set up was
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Saul getting the ascendancy over Barnabas. So he just feels that you know, I'm not no longer with Barnabas But this strange guy
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Paul who blinds people whatever it was that he was afraid of He is he doesn't want to go any further he has come thus far and he goes back and This is why it's important for us as well as missionaries to always examine the call in Acts chapter 13 verse 1 verse 2 we see that Paul and Barnabas were explicitly called by the
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Holy Spirit we do not know if John actually did have the call to ministry.
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We are not told whether he did or not and therefore when you go out as a missionary's you want to be sure of the calling that you have
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Two missions because missions is not going to be easy. There's going to be opposition We already saw the opposition that all met and pay for us, but being sent out by the
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Holy Spirit he was filled by the Holy Spirit and he was able to meet those challenges by the
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Spirit of God and proclaim the truth and break down the powers of darkness in the power of God and so when when
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John comes here, that's that's just an it's illustrative of The calling that you and I need to consider before we go out and likewise even with with encouraging
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I mean, I've talked to some of you about considering missions and you will never find me saying, you know God told me you need to go and be a missionary
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Because I don't know did Barnabas just say hey, you got to come along. I'm going to show you what's happening maybe that's what happened, but You got to be careful in how you encourage and exhort
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I mean My desire is that every single one of you here will receive the call and go out into different parts of the world and be missionaries, maybe that's what
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God will do but We are to wait upon the Lord and have him call you and move you forth into missions
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Now let's now look at what happens in Antioch we won't have time to look at the
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The Message that Paul preaches there. We will look at that another time
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But I want to just look at a pattern that Paul establishes in his missions.
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We can see that very clearly from From his ministry in Antioch and you will see that repeated elsewhere also so typically
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Paul finds the large town the center of that region where he's going to minister to so in this particular case, it's
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Antioch, which is The center where there's a lot of people Buzzling town and he goes there and he wants to proclaim the truth right in the center
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That's why eventually he says I need to go to Rome I need to go preach the gospel in Rome and he does and the gospel goes out from there and and And so that that's the first thing he begins to he finds the big place the place where the gospel needs to be preached and then
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And then sends it forth from there and in a minute We will look at what we do which would be a little different in the context today
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And then what he does let's look at verse 14
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Came to Antioch in Pisidia and on the Sabbath day. They went into the synagogue and sat down now
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The pattern of Paul's ministry was first to go to the Jews We we see that pattern through the
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Gospels and the early part of Acts Jesus mentioned in the Gospels, you know, the message needs to come to the
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Jews and then to the Gentiles the gospel that is proclaimed by the Apostles need to be in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and then to the ends of the world and there is a the
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Jews who are in the Diaspora the dispersion who are in the Roman world where Paul first goes to teaches to them first and Once they hear the word then he goes on to preach the gospel to the
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Gentiles If you think of Peter as the Apostle to the Jews, we always see Paul as the Apostle to the
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Gentiles but he begins with this pattern of first going to the Jews and then to the Gentiles one of the reasons could be if he
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Goes to the Gentiles first The Jews probably wouldn't have him back in the synagogue to preach the word but the pattern that is established that he uses first is you know, you are the chosen people of God you need to hear the word of God first and Those of you who believe will believe and then the rest of you will kick us out.
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So he goes first there and then preaches and as a pattern if you look at verse 44 and 45 of chapter 13
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Inevitably those who will not believe will kick them out In verse 45 we read
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Jews saw the crowd they were filled with jealousy began to contradict what was spoken by Paul reviling him and here
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You know the first day they have reception and then the next week when
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Paul goes back to teach they are so Jealous of the crowds that are coming after Paul and Barnabas and you see that there there was no true conversion in some of these
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Jews who now start to oppose Paul and they want to kick them out and this would be a pattern in many of the places where Paul would go and One thing he would do it's not explicitly stated here is he would establish
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Churches in the places where he has teach he has taught The extent of his stay in each of these places would vary sometimes would be very quick because he goes there
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He preaches he gets stoned and thrown out of the town and he has to leave in other times He would stay there for an extended period of time if you look at a fish
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Ephesus he actually stays there for three and a half years Establishing the church preaching and teaching before he moves on and in this particular case in the end of verse chapter 14 we will see that he comes back and establishes leaders in the church, but Once he has finished teaching and he has done and he does the teaching
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Soundly that there can be a church established before he moves from there when he comes back on his return trip
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He will actually establish leaders in the church So some men who understood the truth well enough to be able to lead the church when
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Paul is no longer there So there is an there's a local independent church established in each of these places and he also established he the the
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Lord calls of the leaders, but Paul and Barnabas will will pray for them commit them and have them lead the church before they move forward from there and that's part of the role of a missionary is not
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There's that's a difference between a pastor and a missionary there the missionary goes there and and establishes these churches, but then the
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Lord raises up from within those people men who can lead and Lead the church as as shepherds under shepherds and then
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I want to point out one more thing if you look at verses 49 to 52 and The Word of the
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Lord was spreading throughout the whole region How do you think that was happening? We are told that Paul and Barnabas had already gone to I think
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Iconium or no from Iconium this is so to Lystra, but The Word of the
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Lord was Word of God was spreading from that region where Paul had just preached and established a church It is that local church that has been established that then goes on to proclaim the truth in the region around it
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Paul finds that Center of the town he goes that preaches there and then the church that is established then takes the responsibility of evangelizing the region around us and a region around them and that's that's the pattern when he goes he teaches and then those people would then go out and then finally in Chapter 14 verses 21 and 22
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You will see Paul following up with this church.
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I mean those of us who went to Samaria Samaria There we go
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I don't know why I was thinking of S Samaria as Mozambique Okay, so those of us who went there we
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Can think of this young believers those who came to faith in the Lord the heart that you have for them praying for them
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Just desiring that you know, it would not be just a momentary faith, but a true genuine conversion that will grow
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I mean we were desirous for their church That was the small mason church that we have leaders come and support and uphold them and I try to talk to Amos who is now our missionary in terms of you know, finding out how he is doing, you know
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Is he growing in the Lord is there struggles that they're going through that we can pray and exhort and help them and likewise
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Paul does the same if we know the reason we have nearly half of the New Testament is because of the letters that Paul writes to these churches exhorting them teaching them and And praying for them and here again in the in the return trip when he comes his goal is to encourage and to strengthen
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This young church that has been planted and that's a pattern that you will see throughout the
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New Testament especially in the book of Acts as Paul does this ministry of missions
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I'm sorry, we ran out of time We will probably pick this up another time to complete what happens in the rest of the first missions trip
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Any questions here before we come to a close? Or any thoughts comments?
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okay, I There is a difference between teaching and preaching if I had to do the same thing as a sermon it would have been different because part of preaching is to apply the text directly our
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Message will come as application with the Word of God and the and the and the content and the truth of God behind it
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And when you do this teaching sessions our goal is to you know spend a little more time on the Explanation of what actually happened, and then we still want to apply the truth, and I began this time by saying you know consider
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Consider What calling the Lord has upon you? All of us know
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Right here. We have a huge mission field in New England in Worcester County in West Boyles There is a lot of people who do not know the truth and many of us are calling will be to preach
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The word where we are as faithful to the gospel that God has given us
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But there may be some of you who God is calling to go out in fact our
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Missionary of the month next month is going to be Bob Bowman, and he works for new tribes mission
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His responsibility is to go to churches talk to people explain with the need for missionaries in places where the gospel hasn't been proclaimed where the language is there is no
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Bible where you have to go and Establish contact with new people and then proclaim the truth so we are going to be praying for Bob next month as that God would raise those types of missionaries and and what
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I want you to do is Examine whether you are where you are because you're just comfortable or whether you need to be
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Going out into the field And while you are praying about these things just as Paul and Barnabas.
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I would exhort you to be faithful where you are right now Because all in Barnabas was serving the
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Lord faithfully in their current calling until the Lord called them forth into missions
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Yes If you read acts 9 8 9 and 10 you see the burning fire that is in Paul He was he to the extent that he was willing to be
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Accursed for the sake of his brother that that the Jews would come to faith in Christ Instead of rejecting and and walking.
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I mean Romans. He writes later in his ministry, but But that should be the passion that motivates each of us
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We have received much and we need to freely give off that which we have received and we need to be in love with the
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Lord and we need to be just as passionately in love with the people around us that none would perish
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Let's close with the word of prayer dear
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God our Heavenly Father we thank you Lord for what you did These centuries ago in taking the truth that You committed to these apostles and then spreading it around all the world
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Lord every single most of us here are Changed Transformed regenerated saved
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Because of this faithful ministry of these men These thousands of years ago and Lord I pray this morning that you would impress upon us that urgency continuing that gospel
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Ministry of Teaching and preaching whether we are right here in New England and also
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Lord that you would indeed call forth your people To go out into the world In Christ name we pray.