Sunday, April 7, 2024 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank

You for Your many blessings, chief of which is the gift of Your only begotten

Son. You have given us Your Son. How will

You not also with Him freely give us all things, as You work all things together for the good of those who love

You and who are called according to Your purpose? We thank

You for the assurance that we have of Your love for us and the gift of Your Son.

We thank You that You have not left us orphans, but that in exalting Your Son to Your right hand to reign forever as our

King, You have also given us Your Spirit to indwell us that we may commune with You and know

You as our Heavenly Father. I pray that You would help us today as we read

Your Word together, as we bow the knee to this scepter of Jesus Christ, that we would rejoice in Your truth.

Only You can give us the grace to make this Word a warm amen in our hearts.

You alone, by Your power and in Your grace, through the special work of Your Holy Spirit, only

You can write Christ upon us. And we ask that You would do so, and that You would give us confidence and boldness in the

Spirit to proclaim Your truth, that we would not be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We pray these things in His name. Amen. I invite you to open your

Bibles and turn with me to Acts 13. We will be reading Acts 13 beginning in verse 49 and read through verse 7 of chapter 14.

We are in the middle of a story about Paul.

The Apostle Paul and his good friend, his good brother, Barnabas.

They together have been sent away from the homeland, away from the area they knew well, away from Jerusalem and Antioch.

And they have been sent across the Mediterranean Sea to the island of Cyprus where they preached the gospel through the whole island.

They set sail again. And they made the coast of Galatia.

And now they have been going through and preaching the gospel there.

And they are in another city, a Roman colony by the name of Antioch, in the region known as Pisidia.

They have been preaching the gospel there. Many Jews were excited to hear about the

Messiah having come, having died upon the cross for their sins as the Lamb of God and having been raised from the dead the third day and ascended to the right hand of the

Father where He reigns in fulfillment of God's promises to Israel. Many Jews were excited to hear that.

They believed, rejoiced in the truth. And even more Gentiles were excited to hear that this

Savior was not for the Jews only but also for the nations. And they too believed.

And there was a great commotion and a great excitement as many began to believe in this good news of Jesus Christ.

It wasn't the good news of the politics of the day. It wasn't the good news of the philosophers of the day.

It was the good news of Jesus Christ, King of kings, Lord of lords.

And all this commotion and this great crowd has stirred up a lot of envy and jealousy in the

Jews who did not believe, who felt they had a better handle on the

Scriptures than Paul and Barnabas, who felt like what they were preaching was a betrayal of everything that they had ever been taught.

They felt the need to oppose these two men and they considered this good news of Jesus Christ to be falsehood.

And they began to work energetically and deviously to oppose the gospel.

This is not the first time that there's been opposition to the good news of Jesus in the book of Acts.

In chapter 4, Peter and John had gone to the temple in Jerusalem and they had preached for hours, much to the delight of the crowds, preached for hours about Jesus of Nazareth being the

Christ, the Son of the living God, until the guards of the temple were sent by the ruling

Sadducees to arrest Peter and John, after which they put them on trial, threatened them severely, told them they ought not to preach this anymore, to which

Peter and John said, whether we ought to obey God or man, we'll let you decide what the best thing would be to do here.

And, of course, they obeyed God and then they gathered together with the church afterwards and they prayed to God and asked that the

Lord would give them boldness to continue preaching the gospel, and He did by the grace and the power of the

Holy Spirit. And then in chapter 5, the apostles are arrested again and this time they are beaten and they rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer for their

Savior, Jesus Christ. And then in Acts 7 and 8, we find the good brother

Stephen stoned to death because he preached Jesus, because he declared the good news of Jesus Christ.

And that this persecution that began with Stephen expanded to the rest of the church. And that one man named

Saul of Tarsus, breathing threats and murder against the church, was even going into homes with guards and dragging people out of their homes and throwing them into prison and bringing them to execution because they believed and proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ.

And the church scattered. And they began to spread not only through Judea, but also in Samaria and even beyond to other regions of the known world.

Then in chapter 12, we read that Herod, wanting to please the Jews, knowing their animosity against this movement called the

Way, killed James, the brother of John, the disciple of Jesus.

Seeing that pleased the crowd, he also arrested Peter and was planning to do the same thing with him.

But God intervened and busted Peter out of prison. And Peter survived.

The Gospel survived. The church survived. And Herod did not survive.

As we think about the variety of persecution in the book of Acts, it's all very similar in that what the church is declaring and proclaiming is a rival authority to that which has already been put into place.

The Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, the religious authorities, the cultural authorities, even the political authorities like Herod and Pilate.

This was a threat to preach that Christ is

King. To preach that Jesus is King. To preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ was a direct threat to the reigning, local, cultural, religious, political authorities.

They saw nothing but problems, nothing but trouble, nothing but threat from these

Christians. They were concerned that perhaps, if this was allowed to continue, it might just turn the world upside down.

But as the church responds, they confront wicked rulers. They affirm

God's authority. They pray for Holy Spirit power. They bury their martyrs.

They run for safety. They witness to their enemies. They run.

They pray. They preach. They stay. But this variety of responses are all united in the wisdom of Christ.

Something we're going to see in this passage this morning. I invite you to stand with me as we read

God's Word. Acts 13, beginning in verse 49. This is the word of the

Lord. And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.

But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.

But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and came to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the

Holy Spirit. Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke that a great multitude, both of the

Jews and of the Greeks, believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren.

Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

But the multitude of the city was divided, part sided with the Jews and part with the apostles. And when a violent attempt was made by both the

Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to abuse and stone them, they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia and to the surrounding region, and they were preaching the gospel there.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Have you ever had a real smooth, calm, flawless, evangelistic experience?

I haven't. I haven't. When you watch videos, when

I watch videos from places like Apologia Church in Phoenix or Abolitionists Rising here in Oklahoma, as they contend with cultists and as they contend with supporters of infant murder preaching the gospel to them,

I often see, most often I see commotion. I see rancor.

I see confusion. I see people getting mad and yelling. I see people where it's difficult for them to try to put their words together in coherent sentences.

People who don't know how to develop an argument to express really what it is that they believe.

I look at my brothers and sisters in Christ as they try to defend the

Scriptures, and often you can see the stress on their faces.

The weariness. The concern. And often this is the way it is.

It reminds me of the sloppy, muddy chaos of a demolition derby. You know, there's the races that go real smooth.

Everything just precision. And then there's the kinds of things that happen that are just chaos.

Stuff is happening. Things are going wrong. And that's the way

I think it's always been. Personal evangelism,

I don't remember a single conversation where I'm trying to declare the gospel to a sinner and compel them to repent of their sins and to trust in Christ alone for their salvation.

I don't remember a single one of those conversations going real smooth. It's like riding a bucking bronco trying to stay on track.

Trying to talk about what's important. Trying to compel them to hear and savor and consider this most vital, important information, and we can't hardly go 15 seconds without something going wrong in the conversation.

One of the most stressful things to do. The same with experiences.

If you've ever preached in the open square. I've never had a smooth experience preaching in the public square to people.

I've never had a smooth, flawless experience doing missions work where everything was just perfect.

Things are always going wrong. Always under stress. All of it, confessing

Christ before men, all of it has this unsettling, messy feel to it.

You watch people respond in ways you'd rather them not. Ask you questions you didn't think about answering.

Trying to get the conversation back where it needs to be while not appearing to be a jerk.

How do you do this? Listen, this derby feel to it, this demolition derby feel to it is not a bug.

It's a feature. It's not an anomaly. It's the norm.

But it can be concerning. Walking away from those encounters, walking away from that experience, what is a question often that we ask ourselves?

Did I do something wrong? I think I may have said something wrong. For hours after trying to share the

Gospel with someone, the only thing I can think about is all the things I could have said. Did something go wrong?

And maybe we have witnessed some bad examples. Like, oh, I don't want to be like that. I don't want that to happen.

But when we read the book of Acts, we see that although by the grace of God there are positive responses to the

Gospel and many people are being saved, there is also angry, embittered, focused opposition to the

Gospel. But we must not fear.

We must not be anxious. Our Savior teaches us and provides for us all that we need to respond to Gospel opposition.

And there's going to be a variety of things that happen. And I think this passage is really helpful for us in teaching us how to get kicked out with joy, how to stick it out with faith, and how to bail out with hope.

First of all, how to get kicked out with joy. And that's in the very last part of Acts 13.

Let's read those verses again, beginning in verse 49. And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.

But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region.

But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and came to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the

Holy Spirit. Now we're not talking about how to get kicked out on purpose.

We're talking about how to get kicked out with joy when it does happen. But while we're on the subject, how do you get kicked out?

What does it take to get kicked out of a restaurant? No shirt, no shoes, no service, right?

We all know that one. Or just stay really late past closing time and you'll get kicked out.

How do you get kicked out of a gun safety class? It's not hard.

It's not hard. Just point that pistol anywhere other than downrange. You'll get kicked out of gun safety class.

How do you get kicked out of a movie theater? Just make yourself the center of attention rather than the screen.

You'll get kicked out. In all those examples, what's going on is that somebody getting kicked out of each one of those situations is asserting an alien set of standards.

I'm going to live by my rules in somebody else's restaurant. No, you're not. I'm going to do my own thing at the gun safety course.

No, you're not. I'm going to be the entertainer at the movie theater, not the film.

No, you're not. Anytime an alien set of standards is put upon a situation, it's forcing an authority conflict, and that's why

Christians get kicked out. It's why

Christians get kicked out of communist countries. It's why

Christians get kicked out of state universities. It's why

Christians get kicked out of large corporate jobs. It's why

Paul and Barnabas get kicked out of the city of Antioch and the region of Pisidia because we can't go anywhere without asserting that Christ is

Lord. Throughout the book of Acts, the confession is

Jesus is Lord. From the beginning to the end, that is the confession.

Jesus is Lord. But the slogan of the day, the bumper stickers on the backside of every donkey said

Caesar is Lord. Every guild, the ancient form of a union, had their patron god or goddess to which they made their perfunctory sacrifices, and they also had to drop that pinch of incense to Caesar and give a nod to his deity saying

Caesar is Lord, otherwise you didn't get to be a part of the guild, which means you didn't get to have a job.

That's the way the ancient world worked. Caesar is Lord, Caesar is Lord, Caesar is Lord. The more we say it, the more we spread it, the more bountiful our lives will be, the safer we will be if we will just say

Caesar is Lord. And yet, throughout the book of Acts, we have the Christians time and again saying Jesus is

Lord, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord, and they just get kicked out of this place and kicked out of that place.

And that is the way it is today. For those who are not ashamed of Christ, but affirm

His authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, there are some places that are going to say, no thank you to this alien set of standards, this strange kind of authority being imposed upon our area, and no, we're not going to have you anymore.

So dust gets stirred up in the gospelization derby. Notice that the dust in Antioch of Pisidia that gets stirred up is stirred up because of the report.

The report, in other words, the gospel. Notice the word of the

Lord was being spread throughout all the region. The word of the Lord. The word of the

Lord we see earlier in the book of Acts was preached to Cornelius and to his household. A little bit earlier, the word of the

Lord was preached to the Samaritans by Philip and the apostles. The word of the Lord was being preached here, there, and everywhere.

What was that word of the Lord? But the good news of Jesus Christ. That He is indeed the

Christ, the Son of the living God. That as God's Lamb, He died upon the cross, a satisfying sacrifice before the face of God, so that all those who would trust in Him would find that their sins are completely, utterly paid for, satisfied as far as God is concerned.

That they would be righteous in God's sight, forgiven in God's sight, welcomed before the face of God by the death of Christ and by the resurrection of Christ, and that He is ascended to the right hand of God, interceding for us daily.

The good news that He is King. The King has arrived. His throne is higher than any other throne.

All the nations belong to Him. He gets to say what happens, and everybody ought to bow the knee to Jesus Christ if we want the blessings of God.

The word of the Lord. How long had the word of the Lord been proclaimed by the prophets to the nation of Israel?

Generation after generation heard prophet after prophet say, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord, thus saith the

Lord. And we come to this point on this side of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

Now, thus saith the Lord means look at Christ. Everything the prophets have said here culminated in Christ.

He's the one with the authority. He's the one with the holiness. He's the one with the truth. Thus saith the

Lord. Here is the word of the Lord. This provokes a jealous response from the

Jews who felt they had the monopoly on the word of the Lord. They have the scriptures.

They have the scrolls. They have the synagogue. If you want to know the word of the

Lord, then there's a whole system you have to go through. If you want to hear the word of the

Lord, then you need to first of all be born a Jew. Congratulations. If not, then you need to become a proselyte.

And you need to go through several systems and several layers to become a proselyte. So we'll let you in the door of the synagogue so you can hear the reading of the word of God.

Otherwise, you don't get the word of the Lord. But now the word of the Lord is being declared in the name of Jesus Christ to everybody outside the synagogue.

And the Jews, those who do not believe, are angry. Those who do believe are rejoicing.

And notice that this report, the gospel, was going throughout the entire region. So Antioch was a

Roman colony with several outlying villages and farms and so on. And the region was called Pisidia. So it wasn't just the city.

It was everybody living in the outskirts of the city and beyond out to the rural county area.

And they are all hearing this good news.

Interesting, the region in which Paul and Barnabas are preaching the good news of Jesus Christ was talked about in prophecy.

Isaiah 66 and verse 19. Thus saith the

Lord, I will set a sign among them, and those among them who escape the remnant,

I will send to the nations. The other word for nations is

Gentiles. Either way, I will send to the nations. Notice that God promises to send this faithful remnant who escapes

His judgment. He says, I will send them to the nations, to Tarshish, and Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, and Tubal, and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, who have not heard my fame nor seen my glory, and they shall declare my glory among the

Gentiles, among the nations. In describing the new covenant,

God promises to send His servants preaching the light, preaching the gospel, preaching the good news, to all these different places, to the coastlands afar off.

And do you know where Paul and Barnabas ended up leaving the coast of Antioch, sailing to the island of Cyprus, to the islands into the coastlands.

They come up to the coastland of Galatia, and they head north up to Antioch of Pisidia, and they're about to get kicked out and sent back into Iconium.

And do you know that Paul and Barnabas are traveling between Lud and Tubal? Those odd little names in Isaiah 66 -19 geographically, that's where Paul and Barnabas are right now in the book of Acts.

And they're going to travel from Lud over to Tubal, just like God said would happen.

That the gospel will be going out to the nations, to these far off, hard to reach regions, and yet there's resistance.

There's resistance. Notice in verse 50, "...but the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city."

What had the Jews been trying to do there for the last 200 years that they had lived in that city, in that region?

They had been trying to convert the pious, devout, leading women and the chief men of the city.

They'd been trying to get proselytes. They'd been trying to convince them to come in and be a part of their community.

What better way to thrive than have city elders sympathetic to you and maybe even participating with you in your own faith system?

Well, now, obviously, can't make them proselytes? Use them as pawns.

What do they do? They stir them up. They're not compelling them to the faith. They're not compelling them to hear thus saith the

Lord. They're not compelling them to the Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one,

Him only shall you serve. They're not trying to convert them away from idolatry, away from paganism. They're going to use them as pawns and stir them up as political weapons against their enemies.

They stir up the devout and prominent women and chief men of the city.

Devout? These women were devout to their idols. They need salvation.

They need forgiveness. They need to have the light of God in their life.

They need eyes to see and ears to hear. They need to be brought in to the kingdom of Jesus Christ and be saved.

But the Jews are stirring them up and manipulating them as weapons against the

Christians. And of course, this stirs up a ruckus. They raise up persecution against Paul and Barnabas.

They raise up persecution against Paul and Barnabas. I mean, what can they do?

They can't stop the spread of the word of the Lord throughout the region. Good luck. It's already out there.

So -and -so tells somebody else and somebody else tells so -and -so and so -and -so tells somebody else. It's on the spread.

You can't stop it. They can't eliminate the word of the Lord. They can't effectively counter the word of the

Lord. So what do they do? They attack the messengers. They attack the messengers.

They persecute Paul and Barnabas. Jesus said it would be that way.

In Matthew chapter 23 in verses 31 through 36, Jesus said this was going to be this way.

Jesus was talking to the religious leaders of the Jews. He said, therefore, you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those, sons of those who murdered the prophets.

He's saying the apple's not going to fall far from the tree. He said, fill up then.

Go ahead. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt. Which is a slight reference to Daniel chapter 9.

Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell?

Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes.

Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city.

That's the section we are in Acts. Paul and Barnabas are going to be running from city to city, running away from murderous persecution.

Jesus says that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias and of Barakai, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Indeed, in that very same generation, it was happening.

It was happening. Jesus said the truth. So, the ruckus is being stirred up against Paul and Barnabas.

Now, they reject, they expel Paul and Barnabas from their region.

They expel them. The term is used elsewhere in the

New Testament to describe the exorcism of demons. That is how much they loathed

Paul and Barnabas. That's how much they opposed Paul and Barnabas. They exorcised the preachers of the gospel from their region.

I don't want to hear that anymore. They say, get away from us. The term is also used when

Jesus describes the judgment of hell of those cast into outer darkness.

That's how final this is for them. How much they are against Christians.

Those who preach the gospel. Now, how do Paul and Barnabas respond to this stark, difficult rejection?

They obey Jesus' instructions. So notice that when they are cast out, kicked out, verse 51, they shook the dust from their feet against them.

They shook the dust from their feet against them. That seems a little bit strange.

Why would they do that? It was an expression. It was a metaphor.

It was obedience. Paul and Barnabas were not going to be carrying with them any of the responsibility for those folks' rejection.

They had preached the gospel. They had declared the truth. They had done their utmost. They had done their best. Were they perfect?

Did they get everything right? Was there something they forgot? Sure, but they're not going to be guilty for this situation.

They're shaking the dust off their feet. They're not going to bring anything with them. They're going to move on in obedience.

In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 10, verses 14 through 15. Matthew 10, by the way, is

Jesus' discipleship course. Discipleship 101, Matthew chapter 10. And in verses 14 through 15, this is what he says.

Whoever will not receive you nor hear your words when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.

Paul wasn't there among the twelve hearing that. Barnabas wasn't there among the twelve hearing that.

But obviously, the twelve had taught others and had taught Barnabas, and Barnabas told

Paul. And Paul himself was personally discipled by Christ in the wilderness when he came to faith. So, these are the instructions.

Shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

Why? Sodom and Gomorrah versus, well,

Antioch at Pisidia. Antioch at Pisidia had Paul, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas preaching the gospel to them and many came to faith.

And still, those who were there rejected the gospel and kicked them out. Sodom and Gomorrah, they had

Lot. Lot wasn't a great preacher. He was pretty poor.

That's all they had. So, places like Antioch at Pisidia will be held more accountable than places like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Well, that's the response. They shake off the dust from their feet and they rejoice.

They are redirected. They leave Pisidia and they head for Phrygia, the next region.

The next region all within Galatia when Paul writes the letter to the Galatians. He's writing to all the

Christians in these areas. He's heading to Phrygia now. They're going to head to a new town,

Iconium. And the result is that Paul and Barnabas are filled with joy.

They rejoice. Now, we would not expect that after such a moment of chaos where there was rejection and they get kicked out of an entire area that there would be joy or that we would read that they would be filled with the

Holy Spirit and with joy after such an outcome.

I think one of the surefire conclusions of our modern effeminate evangelicalism is that if this sort of thing happens today, if there's some sort of conflict, if Christians get kicked out of some place and people get angry and mad, you can be 100 % sure that nobody ought to rejoice and the

Holy Spirit wasn't anywhere near that situation. How could He? But here we read of a passage where Paul and Barnabas were faithful and they preached the

Gospel, and people got angry and kicked them out, and yet Paul and Barnabas are rejoicing and they're filled with the

Holy Spirit. Now how is that? It's important to remember that it is true that human conflict abounds where sin abounds.

That's true. And so any kind of conflict that a Christian is in isn't thereby automatically sanctified and fine.

But it's also true that for the same reason that where sin abounds, conflict abounds.

For the same reason that when the Word of Christ comes, there's conflict. In Matthew 10,

Jesus says in verse 34, Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth.

I did not come to bring peace but a sword. And a sword that might bring conflict and division down to even the family.

We are not wrestling against flesh and blood. We are contending for the truth. We contend for the truth against demonic forces.

Ephesians 6 tells us. 2 Corinthians 10 tells us. It's not about territory.

It's about truth. The Pisidians make it about territory. They think if they can just remove

Paul and Barnabas from the territory, then they've won. They haven't. Because the seed of the gospel has been planted.

And the Word of God does not return void, but accomplishes the purpose for which it is sent. And so the gospel has been sown in there amongst them, and it's going to succeed.

They thought it was about territory. Paul and Barnabas knew it was about truth. And yes, it was messy, but they could have joy.

Why could they have joy? Why could they have joy? Because it wasn't about them and their personal record of success.

It wasn't about them and whether or not people were happy with them. It wasn't about them and how they felt. It was about Christ.

The Word is Christ. The region was Christ's. The suffering is Christ's. The strategy is

Christ's. The joy is Christ's. And the Spirit is Christ's. It was

His Word that they were preaching. It was the good news about Jesus. The region itself belonged to Him.

All authority has been given to Jesus Christ in heaven and on earth. Go therefore unto all the nations and declare to them the gospel.

All the territory belongs to Him. It was His region. He owned Pisidia. Paul and Barnabas were just heralding the fact.

By the way, you've lived here all your life, but this whole territory doesn't belong to Caesar. It belongs to Jesus Christ.

So you need to bow the knee to Him. The suffering is

His. Paul in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 24 puts it this way.

He says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ for the sake of His body, which is the church.

The tribulations of Christ, the afflictions of Christ, are not complete.

The sufferings for Christ upon the cross before the face of God for our sins are complete.

He said it is finished. But there is still suffering to be done. Christ is still suffering through His body, which is the church, upon this earth, through tribulations, through persecutions.

Not redemptively. He's already redeemed us. But there is a suffering.

When Jesus Christ opposed Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, He said,

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? Saul had never laid eyes on Jesus of Nazareth before.

Had never met Jesus of Nazareth before. All he was doing was killing and hurting Christians.

But Jesus said that you're doing that to Me. You're doing that to Me. So what does that mean when we are

Christians and we suffer for the sake of the Gospel? When we get kicked out of our jobs and kicked out of relationships and kicked out of families and family time and family gatherings, what happens when we get kicked out for the sake of the

Gospel of Jesus Christ? We may rejoice remembering that the suffering is

His, unto Him. We're not suffering outside of Christ.

We're suffering in Christ. The strategy is His. Jesus says in Matthew 10,

I send you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.

That's a strategy. God doing the impossible through the unlikely. Sheep among wolves?

That doesn't sound likely. That doesn't sound like a good strategy, but it is.

He sends us out as sheep among wolves. It's His strategy. It's Christ's strategy. We can rejoice in that.

The joy comes from Him. The Spirit is a gift from Him. And so, recognizing that, we may have joy.

Getting kicked out with joy means keeping our attention upon Christ whom we are confessing,

Christ whom we are professing, Christ for whom we are suffering, Christ whom we are following. And just like Paul and Barnabas in a very complex, rambunctious situation, a

Gospelization derby, we may equally follow suit, follow

Jesus' instructions. What do we do now? We just got kicked out of Antioch.

We just got kicked out of Pisidia. Let's check the manual. It says, shake the doves off your feet. Very well.

Let's do that and let's do the next thing. You see, we follow

Jesus' instructions like children would follow them, like sheep would follow them, that we would be like serpents and like doves, that we would follow the instructions of Jesus in faith, obediently, that we would do so with wisdom, and that we would do so in a pure and harmless way.

That gives us joy. There is no situation in our lives as Christians that is not so complex and estranged and difficult that we cannot turn back to the

Word of God and find the simple instructions of Jesus Christ to follow. We're not lost.

We're saved. We have our Good Shepherd. And we have

His good instructions. We can rejoice not only in His instructions, but in His promises. When Paul and Barnabas got kicked out of Pisidia, how many promises could they recall and rejoice in as they walked towards Iconium?

They had plenty of time to think about it. They had an abundance of promises to reflect upon and to claim and to recognize that, no, things are not lost.

Think about all the promises that we have in Christ. How many might we apply when we are kicked out?

Kicked out of conversations, kicked out of relationships, kicked out of jobs. And, of course, they were also filled with the

Holy Spirit. We read they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we read Scripture passages like that and we say, oh, well, good for them.

That must be nice. It's also our calling. Ephesians says that we are to be being filled with the

Holy Spirit. That in wisdom that we should seek the will of Christ, that we would sing the praises of God and love towards one another, giving thanks always to God, humbly submitting ourselves to each other.

We can't control the Spirit any more than we can control the wind. We sure can set sail, though.

There's a difference between the Christian who says, well, I'm not in charge of the Spirit, so I'm going to sit here on my rump and do nothing, versus the

Christian who says, I want to be filled with the Spirit. I trust in God's provision. I'm going to set sail and wait for the wind to blow.

Faith. Acting in faith. Well, I hope you're all set to get kicked out with joy.

It's important to know it's not a requirement to get kicked out. It's not required.

You haven't failed the test if you fail to get kicked out of someplace. It's not a requirement to get kicked out, but it is important that we know how to get kicked out with joy.

With joy. All right, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much with the time that you've given us in your

Word. I pray that you would give us confidence in you, confidence in our Savior, Jesus Christ, to know that we are to profess the good news of Jesus before all men in all situations and know that you will supply our every need in Christ Jesus for whatever difficulty there may be.

Lord, I pray that you would give us joy today as we think about the triumph of Jesus Christ, his victory, as we reflect upon the good news that he has accomplished.