Antioch, Apostolic Sending and Setting - Part 11 — Art Katz

Stephen's Witness of Forgiveness

Who volunteered to root out these heretics, saw, if not the demonstration of a man who gave his life with such equanimity and grace and say, Lord, lay this sin not upon them, they know not what they do, forgive them.

Paul's Encounter With the Authenticity of God

That Paul saw a demonstration coming from a busboy who waited on tables of a kind that was more revealing of the nature of God than anything Paul had ever seen rabbinically. And that's why later when the Lord apprehended him, he said, why do you kick against the pricks?

You've never been the same since you were a participant in Stephen's death, because you saw in the patient suffering of that man and the sublime way in which he received the death as coming from the hand of God and was without railing and without offense against those who were stoning him to death by inches, you saw a demonstration of the authenticity of God in men and your persecuting play.

A Stephen Company in the Last Days

It may well be, if the things at the first are a picture and a paradigm of the things at the end, that there might well be the necessity again in the last days for a Stephen body of saints who of necessity not only will have to experience martyrdom, but experience it at Jewish hands, in their frustration, in their opposition against themselves, in their ignorance, in their seeming defense of their Jewishness, you'll have to be victim.

But in being victim, you reveal something in the benign, patient way in which you bear a suffering coming from those whom you're trying to help and have misconstrued you that will turn them in the end from enemies of the gospel to being its propagators.

Israel's Apostolic Destiny to the Nations

Because Israel has an apostolate that says what you see in me is a picture of something before the time. What you see in me, in my apostolate to the Gentiles, is the picture of redeemed Israel to the nations.

Paul's Whole Counsel to the Ephesian Elders

And one of my favorite texts is Paul's farewell to the elders of the church in Ephesus. And they met with him at another location, and he told them, you know what manner of man I've been with you from the beginning.

I never took anything from you, though you know our reputation as Jews. And from the first to the last, I never withheld anything from you, but the whole counsel of God, day and night with tears in houses, in private places, public places, I conveyed to you the whole counsel of God.

And now I know I'm going to my end, and you'll see my face no more. They bowed down and prayed, and they hung on Paul's neck and wept that they would see his Yiddish punim, his Jewish face, no more. Dear saints, the day is coming because of your sacrifice and the conversion that it will bring, for nothing less will obtain it.

Israel's Future Blessing After Opposition to the Gospel

The Jews who have been like this sorcerer, opposing God in their ignorance and in their own self-righteousness, will so bless all the families of the earth, all the Gentile nations, that they will hang on their neck with weeping to think that they would see the face of these Jews no more.

Are you prepared for that? Don't be naive, don't get romantic, don't idealize Jews. We are the enemies of the gospel, Paul says. That's an apostle, he doesn't mince words. Enemy means not just passive, but actively opposing the truth of God.

Not only not entering ourselves, preventing others. And this is the people with whom you have a last day's collision. You'll not meet it on the grounds of naivety or romanticism, but apostolic reality and earnestness, and authority, as Paul did, being full of the Holy Spirit.

Israel Groping for a Deliverer

And he went around being blind, groping for someone to lead him by the hand. Isn't that a picture of Israel? So, Netanyahu was not good enough? My God, I could not wish for anything more for America than a Netanyahu.

What an exemplary man, eloquent and intelligent, not good enough to meet the needs of the Christ of Israel. Okay, Barak, the most decorated hero of Israel, and the highest commanding officer in the land, with a master's degree from Stanford University, and plays classical piano.

Could you ask for more than that as a head of state? And how long does it take before he is cast out, and he's not good enough? So now they have another guy, Sharon, an old war hawk, a good Arab is a dead Arab, and you think that this is going to work?

They're groping in their blindness for someone, but not for him. This is a beautiful picture, and Paul encounters it at the very inception of his apostolic sending, and you will also. This is a pattern, and yet the demonstration of Paul's authority is effectual in turning to the Lord, the one from whom this sorcerer was seeking to prevent.

Okay, any questions? Pastor George, could I invite you, since you have to leave, to make a response to us coming in? I'll take just a moment to touch base with some of the things we are hearing this morning.

The Testimony of Jesus and the Spirit of Prophecy

Thank you for sharing what you shared, brother. It was the Apostle John who left these words with us, that he was in Patmos, the island, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and it brings much joy to my heart that in our day, in our time, we are seeing servants crisscrossing our land who not just have the word of God in their spirit, but who can bring the testimony of Jesus, the spirit of prophecy, as John himself gives an interpretation for us in Revelation 19 and verse 10, and when these come together, something explodes in our spirit, and in a very real way, something heavenly was being deposited in our spirits this morning, and the best I can say is by summing up some thoughts and then leave it to you for other things.

Singapore as the Antioch of Asia

Back in 1978, it was Dr. Billy Graham, who is known to most of us, who came to our land when the nation was just becoming a nation. We are almost 36 years as a nation. We are just 36 years old this year.

Come August, we'll be 36, and as we are just a baby as a nation. Back in 1978, Billy Graham came to our land, and unlike him, he's not given to prophecy or anything like that, but being a servant of God, he was inspired to call this nation, Singapore, as the Antioch of Asia, and ever since then, 1978, several servants of God has crisscrossed our land, and it's with testimony to that very words that we are the Antioch of Asia, and as Singaporeans, although we never knew the full ramifications of what that meant, we received that name as though we were baptized in that name, and we relished and we cherished it.

From Personal Faith to National Calling

But as the years were going by, passing by, and as we are growing up, we'll be 36 this year, some things are coming to our understanding now, only now. In the beginning, we felt that the gospel was for us as Christians, and it is a very personal, individual journey.

Then our understanding grew, and we began to embrace that as churches in Singapore, this is our journey as churches in Singapore. But in recent times, we are just, just beginning to understand that we are a nation, and we are.