Acts 11-12, The Breakthrough

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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Chapter 11 and 12 hear the word of the Lord Now the Apostles and the brothers who were throughout

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Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God So when Peter went up to Jerusalem the circumcision party criticized him saying you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them

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But Peter began and explained it to them in order. I Was in the city of Joppa praying and in a trance

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I saw a vision something like a great sheep descending being let down from the from heaven by his four corners and it came down To him to me looking at it closely

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I observed animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air and I heard a voice saying to me rise

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Peter kill and eat But I said by no means Lord for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth

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But the voice answered a second time from heaven what God has made clean do not call common

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This happened three times and All was drawn up again into heaven and behold at that very moment

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Three men arrived at the house in which we were sent to me from Caesarea and the Spirit told me to go with them

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Making no distinction these six brothers also accompanied me and we entered the man's house

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And he told us how he had seen the angel stand in his house and say

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Send a Joppa and bring Simon who was called Peter He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved

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You and all your household as I began to speak the Holy Spirit fell on them Just as on us at the beginning and I remember the word of the

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Lord how he said John baptized with water But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit If then

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God gave the gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ Who was

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I that I should stand in God's way? When they heard these things They fell silent and they glorified

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God saying then to the Gentiles. Also God has granted repentance that leads to life

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Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch Speaking the word to no one except Jews But there were some of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene who on coming to Antioch spoke to the

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Hellenist Also preaching the Lord Jesus and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the

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Lord The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas to Antioch When he came and saw the grace of God He was glad and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the

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Lord with steadfast purpose For he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith and a great many people were added to the

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Lord So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul and when they and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch for a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people and in Antioch the

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Disciples were first called Christians Now and these days Prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch and one of them named

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Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a Great famine over all the world this took place in the days of Claudius So the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brothers living in Judea and they did so Sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul About that time

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Herod the king laid violet hands on some who belonged to the church He killed James the brother of John with a sword and when he saw that it pleased the

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Jews He proceeded to arrest Peter also This was during the days of unleavened bread and when he had seized him

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He put him in prison Delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him intending after the

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Passover to bring him out to the people So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church

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Now when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries before the door were guarding the prison and behold

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An angel of the Lord stood next to him and a light shone in the cell he struck Peter on the side and woke him saying get up quickly and the chains fell off his hands and The angel said to him dress yourself and put up put on your sandals and he did so and he said to him

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Wrap your cloak around you and follow me and he went out and followed him He did not know that he was being that what was being done by the angel was real

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But thought he was seeing a vision When they had passed the first and second guard they came to the iron gate leading into the city

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It opened for them on its own accord and they went out and went along one Street and immediately the angel left him

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When Peter came to himself, he said now I'm sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the

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Jewish people were expecting When he realized this he went to the house of Mary the mother of John whose name whose other name was

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Mark where many were gathered together and Were praying and when he knocked at the door of the gateway a servant girl named

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Rhoda came to answer Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy She did not open the gate but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate

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They said to her you were out of your mind, but she kept insisting that it was so and they kept saying it is his angel

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But Peter continued knocking and when they opened they saw him and were amazed but motioning to them with his hand to be silent he described to them how the

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Lord had brought him out of the prison and He said tell these things to James and to the brothers and then he departed and went to another place now when day came there was no little disturbance among the soldiers over what had become a

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Peter and After Herod searched for him and did not find him. He examined the sentries in order that they should be put to death

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Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent time there Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon and they came to him with one accord

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Having persuaded blast us the King's Chamberlain They asked for peace because their country depended on the king's country for food on an appointed day

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Herod put on his royal robes took his seat upon the throne and delivered an oration to them and the people were shouting the voice of a god not of a man

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Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down Because he did not give God the glory and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last but the

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Word of God increased and multiplied and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem where they had completed their service bringing with him

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John whose other name was Mark Made the Lord at his blessings the reading of his

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Holy Word It's graduation season though graduations are gradual you don't you don't find people are half graduated, right?

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I mean, you may be a certain way along but you're not half graduated graduations are our breakthroughs

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You either graduated or you are not you've been studying and taking tests and doing projects and gradually gathering credits one class at a time when suddenly

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You're a graduate getting to the threshold of graduation Graduating was slow

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One step at a time the actual graduation is a breakthrough ever wanted a breakthrough a sudden achievement and it advance a victory you're tired of slowly trying to make progress

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Pecking away like a woodpecker Maybe like a glacier. That's what you feel like slowly moving toward your goal

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But you're hardly ever seem like you're never getting there. I'm like you're like a kid gathering pennies And a piggy bank you never seem to get rich You want a breakthrough?

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rather than a Woodpecker you want to be like a chainsaw cut right through that tree on a volcanic eruption you want a rapid river gushing out financially

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You want a windfall? Right. You want one of those offers of Nigerian princes of millions of dollars to be true

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A lot of people will tell us it doesn't happen like that You you have to be patient a little bit every day, you know one step at a time

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It whatever it is you're trying to achieve doesn't come slowly That's true

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Kind of but it's not the whole truth When I was an athlete, I noticed that progress would often come in spurts

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Unlike what's expected, you know, you know, I'm sure I would have to be patient and consistent and disciplined to keep training

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Even when for months there didn't seem to be any improvement. I Was supposed to stay at it, of course in the hopes that I'd gradually get faster

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Maybe shave a few seconds off of my time, you know every every now and then But in my experience it didn't happen that way

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Sometimes the progress would come Just dramatically I'd run a race and suddenly

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I'd be 20 seconds faster than my previous time It was a few, you know, few second half a second at a time.

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I'd have Breakthroughs just dramatic advances In about three weeks.

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We'll be marking the 75th anniversary of the D -Day invasion And that was kind of a breakthrough for months

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The Allies had trained and gathered men and material in England To invade

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Nazi held France and then suddenly they burst forth into the beaches of Normandy But we often forget that for almost two two months after the

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D -Day invasion the Allies were basically stuck Just a few miles of captured territory

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Into France from the from the beach the original plan called for the Allied forces to capture the French city of Khan on D -Day

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Itself June 6. It's only nine miles inland nine miles from the beach But it took them into July 20th.

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Remember they invaded on June 6 It took them nine mile it took them excuse me till June 20

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July 20th To get to Khan get nine miles down the road over six weeks later.

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It took them over six weeks To get nine miles. That's about two -tenths of a mile per day

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Probably all of us here have walked more than that just today since we've woken up So for almost two months, they were stalled but with little progress until suddenly in August General George Patton punched through the

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German defenses and And before that they were barely gaining ground, but then suddenly

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Patton takes Almost all of France at least south of Paris almost the entire country

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In about three weeks It was just amazing. They called it the breakout

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So, which is it is it is it slow steady gritty

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Determined kind of gathering of territory one inch at a time, you know, just trudging through Is it getting grades just one test and one project one paper at a time is athletic prowess just one workout at a time getting

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Gaining money getting wealth Is it just one penny at a time or is it is it that gradualism or is it a breakthrough a sudden?

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dramatic Gains you you graduate or you work for years to break the five -minute mile and then suddenly you just blow past it like it

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Was nothing you're 445 something like that. You are barely able to to make your business survive for years.

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You're just hanging on Trying to avoid bankruptcy and then you get a big contract something happens and you're just now suddenly you're booming

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Is it slow and steady? Or is it sudden and explosive? Well, it's both really it's both as they say make haste slowly

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Keep working at it and then suddenly You'll find yourself there Here Jesus has given the church a mission.

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Remember at the beginning of Acts chapter 1 be my witnesses Jerusalem Judea Samaria to the ends of the earth

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But here we're over one -third of the way through the book of Acts We're almost halfway there the whole through the book and they're still in Israel Not only they still in Israel They they don't even have any conception the beginning of chapter 11 here that they should even be reaching out to people outside of Israel To non

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Jews. Anyway, they need a breakout like like Patton if over one -third of the way through Acts They still haven't even accepted the idea that they should be preaching to the

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Gentiles. How are they going to get? to the end of the earth Their progress is is too slow

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At this rate, they'll never make it at the beginning of these two chapters of the church in Jerusalem thinks it's shocking

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That they could even think of the idea of baptizing Gentiles, you know, it's just it's a controversy beginning of chapter 11

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Allow these Gentiles to be part of the church But you know, how are they gonna make it to the ends of the earth, but they're ready

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They're poised For a breakthrough We see that here and four different kinds of people the

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Gentiles second the Christians third the martyrs and fourth the tyrants

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Well word has gotten out that Peter had a group of Gentiles baptizing Capernaum. That was just revolutionary

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Just it doesn't even seem to be something they had even considered a possibility

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This wasn't on the map at all for them. It's shocking to some of them So when

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Peter got back to Jerusalem, they wanted that they want to have a we will have a word with you Peter He won't mind a group of them later called later called

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Luke calls him here the circumcision party. That's almost certain a title that name that came later and now he's describing it to them

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This is probably their origin they believed that Jesus was the Messiah for the Jews if you wanted the benefits of Jesus you had to become a

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Jew and that meant if you're a man like Cornelius, you know that Roman officer that Peter had baptized You had to be circumcised and if you tried to you tried to reason with them, you know say hey wait

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Wait, that's for the Old Covenant. Now things are different They would probably pound their fist on the table say no.

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It's a command of God It's not our place to lower his standards just to allow more people in we you have to trust and obey no compromise

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Peter had plainly desecrated baptism by allowing people to be baptized who haven't kept the law yet who haven't been

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Circumcised for all we know they're still you know, they could even can you they're probably still eating pork and shrimp

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Can you believe that that's just if you could imagine such a thing and we're supposed to consider them our brothers and sisters in the faith disgraceful

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Probably something like that We can hear stuff like that today, right? Peter comes back to Jerusalem with the news that the

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Gentiles had converted to Capernaum and instead of hallelujahs Right, they're aghast

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I mean you can almost hear the tone of their voice in verse 3 you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them

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It was probably more like you went to uncircumcised men and ate with them

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Yuck What's wrong with you Peter? So Peter explained it to them. He recounts the vision for us again and it in here again that Luke records it

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Luke could just say he recounted the vision and We would could go back to chapter 10 and read it again if we wanted to but he recounts it

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Luke himself recounts it again for us here. So we have to read it again He's trying to teach us something by that repetition mother of learning

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We're forced to think about this Again that God gave this vision about how important it is to God to include all kinds of people

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So we've accounts the vision a sheep thing like thing comes out of heaven and Peter says

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I looked closely At it that's kind of added from last time He looked closely saw all kinds of animals a voice said to me rise

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Peter kill and eat But Peter saying but I was like you You know, I said, you know,

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I'm gonna eat that stuff No, no way Lord for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth, but the voice came back to me

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What God has made clean do not call common this happened three times and Then at that very moment

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Three men arrived from Caesarea Inviting me to go with them the Holy Spirit.

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He says in verse 12 So he's already got this vision the Holy Spirit told me to go with them making and Peter makes a claim playing there

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Making no distinction get the theme and he says six brothers accompanied him

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So six plus him that would be seven seven witnesses Like a Roman document had to have seven seals to be official like an official will seven witnesses

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More than you just need for the law, but a seven like the perfect number you can't you can't criticize that Peter tells of how the

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Roman officer had had an angel tell him to send for him and then he began to speak You know that that brief message we looked at last week.

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Just just beginning Peter says he just started to make his Comments he intended to make that Jesus wasn't just another prophet that he is

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Lord of all remember he's the judge of all people that he he's the one that you have to believe in for your sins to be forgiven and As he's saying this apparently obviously

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They believed we know they believed because they showed signs with They demonstrated their faith with signs and they were the same signs

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Peter says that we showed When we received the Holy Spirit Peter says in verse 15 the

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Holy Spirit fell on them Just as on us at the beginning

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Same signs same Holy Spirit of being filled with the Holy Spirit is experiential Not inferential.

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It's something that can be seen in your life It's not just a theological conclusion you you come to you because you claim you've accepted the right doctrine

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Therefore you must have the Holy Spirit can't feel anything different But must be because that's what that's what the pastor guy tells me

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No, she's nothing you experience Peter saw that they have received the Holy Spirit and he remembered what the Lord Jesus said in chapter 1

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John baptized with water But you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit And he says when we saw that they had been baptized with the

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Holy Spirit to they've been baptized in the Holy Spirit already Before their water baptism.

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So conversion comes first Contrary to what some people teach you had to you only get converted through baptism conversion comes first you receive the

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Holy Spirit first Then baptism, so he concludes in verse 17. He then he

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Peter says if then God gave the same gift to them to these Gentiles as He gave to us when we believed in the

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Lord Jesus Christ And he did right get the same gift then who was

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I that I could stand in God's way Well, they have been baptized in the Holy Spirit to not baptize them in water is to stand in God's way

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They had been included by God to not include anyone that God has included.

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It's to stand in God's way and If you stand in God's way You're likely to get run over so with that in verse 18, it's a key verse verse 18 is a key verse and In the book of Acts perhaps in the whole

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New Testament It's a turning point for the church, it's a breakthrough verse 18 when they heard these things

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And you have to hand it to them as much as I kind of mocked them earlier They were open enough teachable enough that they could change at least most of them.

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They change they sit in the Apostles particularly Because this is totally contrary to their upbringing.

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This is revolutionary for them And if they're willing to accept this make this change says a lot about them

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They're too teachable if they when they heard these things that Peter had patent desecrated baptism

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But that God had baptized these Gentiles who and and and will baptize God will baptize all kinds of people in the

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Holy Spirit when they heard that Says they fell silent They say fell silent about their criticism

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They stopped criticizing and began worshiping. They glorified God and said then to the

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Gentiles Also God has granted repentance that leads to life

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There it is There's the breakthrough for the church. This is how they're going to get to the ends of the earth

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Here we are in chapter 11. They finally understand it to the Gentiles also

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God has granted repentance that leads to life. That's the breakthrough notice how they put it a

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Lot of Christians today think that repentance and faith are kind of the two cents that we add to our salvation

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To finally activate it. I was God is just the salvation out there. And if we want it we have to We have to muster up our own repentance and faith

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Like flipping a switch to make the lights. Come on, right? The power company may do all the hard work generating the electricity putting up the wires to get it to our house

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But it's still up to us to flip the switch They think many people today Think salvation is the same way

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Christ is okay. He's done all the hard work we get that but it's still up to us They think to gin up repentance and to muster up faith in order to turn that salvation on But that's not what the

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Apostolic Church believed. Is it right here? Chapter 11 verse 18 to the

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Gentiles. Also, it's shocking as much as a mental breakthrough that is for them to them also

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God has Granted you just say made available repentance and faith our

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Repentance says God has granted. He's given it it has been bestowed on them already repentance that leads to life

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Saving repentance true repentance is a gift of God If we've really repented if we've turned from our sinfulness to faith in Christ, that's not ultimately

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Because we made the right decision Because we were noble enough to see what what we ought to do

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Well, others aren't weren't so we're we can kind of thank ourselves a little bit for that, right? No It's because God graciously gave us the ability to do that God grants repentance

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That leads to life I Understand a lot of people are only aware of their decisions

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I mean you can understand that they aware of their prayers They pray this may be sinners prayer or whatever prayer and that they were they aware of their repentance and their faith

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They can understand they remember when they believed and so they assume that You know,

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I guess what the correlation is causation or something like that but they assume that when they repented when they believed when they said the prayer and And they were at the same time saved.

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They kind of think well my My prayer my repentance my faith caused that salvation

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That's the way many people kind of assume it's like a person maybe go out and sees the Sun rising in the

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East in the morning and then setting in the West in The evening and sure we don't feel I don't feel like I'm moving to you

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Then feel like didn't feel like the ground underneath going anywhere So it must be all revolving around us.

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We're still and everything is revolving around us people kind of think the same way of God Right. God is

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God had something against me now. He doesn't and because I said this prayer maybe I'm making him Hey, I'm making him move

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What what they need to see what the Bible here tells us that if we repent and believe

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It's not because our decisions are moving God but that God is moving our decisions we need a breakthrough and seeing how

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God is in control of all things especially our salvation first is the

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Gentiles that group of people the Breakthrough realization that God is granting them repentance in life, too

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But they still haven't begun to to do anything They realize it in the whole thing with Cornelius was

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God's doing right? He sent the angel to Cornelius. He sent a vision to Peter The church hasn't begun to do anything deliberately to reach these

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Gentiles now that now they are just now realizing that the God is Granting repentance to so for that Second thing second group of people there's

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There's the Christians Starting in verse 19 Those who fled the persecution in Jerusalem when

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Stephen was killed They took the gospel with them They went to Phoenicia what we probably what we would call modern

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Lebanon today Cyprus what we call Cyprus today and Antioch, which is the big city up in Syria But but they in keeping with their culture their upbringing remember their mindset.

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Jesus is only for the Jews. They only spoke to the Jews Now they made a lot of converts they tried to a lot of new believers, but they were all still from our kind of people but some anonymous believers in Antioch Didn't give their names but they didn't see why they were thinking of themselves.

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Why should we keep it to only our kind of people? Let's say there's these Greek speaking Gentiles. Let's share it with him.

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Maybe they'll like it that they realize instinctively What it took a vision and the manifestation of the

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Holy Spirit to teach Peter So they shared the gospel with the Greeks the Gentiles to just preaching the

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Lord Jesus in verse 20 the the Lord blessed them and It says a great number who believed

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Turn to the Lord in verse 21. Notice how many times Luke puts things about thinking about salvation That's just only different in the way we talk about it

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Notice those that phrase those who believed Turn to the Lord truly believing causes you to turn to the

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Lord. He changes your life Suddenly, there's a though. There's a breakthrough in Antioch To Gentiles the church is actually now

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Deliberately reaching them so news gets news of this gets to Jerusalem where Peter has accomplished a he's already accomplished this worldview breakthrough

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So that now they see that God intends on bringing salvation to all kinds of people So they don't criticize what's going on in Antioch before they were they were thought what are those people doing up there?

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Now they understand what God's doing. So they send Barnabas this his name means remember the son of encouragement

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They send him up there to encourage them in verse 23 Barnabas comes it comes to Antioch and notice it says he saw the grace of God Another interesting way to putting things

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How do you see grace? Well, you can because grace makes changes you can see

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He could see God's grace and these transform believers In Antioch, it says he was glad got a feeling

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He was the kind of guy that was glad a lot, but he's glad particularly here, you know saying this is great Wow, we love this all these new people coming in.

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They're Gentiles So what they're used to eating, you know barbecue pork and when I go to check her pig for lunch, so what?

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Oh, I don't know. I'll go with that. He exhorted you encouraged them to remain faithful to the

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Lord notice that with steadfast purpose Continue he's telling them to discipline yourself be disciples to seek the

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Lord to learn his ways to read his word To go to church go to meetings, you know

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Keep studying the the Bible which at that time is only the Old Testament Even if even if not every not ever gathering not every time you pray and not every time you read it

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It's a mountaintop experience. It's some breakthrough. Okay, you're not gonna have a breakthrough every time But you just keep at it make haste

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Slowly Barnabas is telling them be patient show that slow steady gritty determination of a disciple

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And maybe you'll have breakthroughs from time to time He encouraged them to keep at it and he did that in verse 23 because he was in verse 24 a good man full of the

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Holy Spirit and of faith Think of Barnabas here. He's described in the word

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That's that's his description and the eternal Word of God. How would you like that for a reward? It's pretty good award a good man full of the

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Holy Spirit and of faith. In other words, though. He encouraged them By being the kind of man he was

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He's good spirit filled faithful That's what literally a full of faith means in it.

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They full so a great number believed and turned to the Lord before before Barnabas arrived and now with him there

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Cheering them on says in verse 24 a great many people were added to the

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Lord Think of that phrase a great many people were added to the

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Lord It's an interesting sentence, right? It's a passive It means it leaves the subject the one who was doing the adding unnamed.

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So who? Added those great many people to the Lord who was doing the adding

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Barnabas No, he may be the he may be the agent the instrument the tool that God used

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To add but only God can add people to the Lord.

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So here the Lord adds people to the Lord Think of that the

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Lord is adding people to the Lord and when we see that that's the way it always is when anyone is added to the

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Lord the Lord adds to the Lord and when we see the Lord adding to the Lord that he is both the subject and the object and the one being added to and the adder

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The source and the goal when we see that Yeah, we we have to repent of our self -centered kind of self -confident strategies for evangelism as though evangelism depends on on our work our

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Techniques our tactics having the right mood music our programs

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It doesn't We need the Lord to add to the

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Lord We need the Lord to grant faith and give repentance so people will believe and Turn to the

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Lord That's what we need Here they have that and they have a breakthrough

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The Lord is adding to the Lord in Antioch and he's doing it so much that Barnabas knows he needs help

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He's just and he knows just the man He wants to help him. He remembers.

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I remember that guy That brother Remember that guy we sent off got in from the cold in Jerusalem when the rest of the church was scared of him

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Sent him off to Tarsus because he had so aggravated some of the some of the zealots around here

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So why would it go get him Barnabas thing? He was he was useful. He was good He'd be good to you that that guy was the name

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Saul his name. Yeah, he might have a future He just might have a future Barnabas things

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So Barnabas goes up to Tarsus looking for Saul soon to be called Paul and he recruited him to help him handle this breakthrough in Antioch Barnabas is the one who starts

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Paul on his ministry To be the Apostle to the Gentiles If you think of all that Barnabas did

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I said this on a Wednesday night. It's amazing man He often not recognized to be recognized here is a good man full of faith in the

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Holy Spirit He's just Barnabas is the one response he's the Barnabas is the one humanly speaking who gave us

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Paul the Apostle Paul He's also the one that salvaged mark So you could say that all of the old all of it and of course

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Paul gave us Luke So Barnabas gave us Luke since Barnabas gave us

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Paul who gave us Luke. So Barnabas gave us the gospel of Mark and Luke The book of Acts all the letters of Paul That's quite an accomplishment.

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Is it for what man? anyway that's what God used Barnabas for any book Barnabas starts Paul in his ministry to be the

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Apostle to the Gentiles Paul becomes the the general patent of Christianity the one that leads the breakout

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For a whole year Barnabas and Paul are meeting with the explosively growing church in Antioch teaching a great many people the church gets so big

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And is so distinct from the Jews they realize now this is not just a another synagogue of the

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Jews This is something entirely different. They're talking about Christ all the time. And so the whole city is a pretty big city one commentary says that 500 ,000 people it's about a half a million.

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This is a big city a lot of people and the news gets out They talk about Christ the These people believe in Christ his name

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Christ gets so common that the people of Antioch start calling this new group of people by that name These are the people they're pointing at them those people, you know that Barnabas and Paul or Saul guys still

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Talked about Christ all the time. They're followers of Christ. They're Christians the unbelievers of Antioch made up that name and The believers go like yeah.

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Yeah, I like that that works that fits. We'll take that we're

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Christians Yeah, the new name Christians is it just for the believers in Antioch as though they're different.

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They're detached They're separate from other believers like in Jerusalem They're all connected

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And so when prophets come from Jerusalem to visit the church in Antioch and one of them named Agabus Foretold by the spirit that there would be a great famine over that region

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The word there and it says world in verse 28 The Greek word probably means that the region not like the whole planet had a famine

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And so they they planned and they committed to save up and help send help to their poor fellow

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Christians in Judea Mostly Jews there now, they're mostly Gentiles, but they're one

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Right there stick they're connected They sent Barnabas and Paul their pastors to deliver their relief

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What the believers in Antioch prove what's what's the purpose of this prophecy is that Christians look out for each other

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Dave Ramsey says that generosity is God's way of creating community But by giving to help their poor fellow

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Christians and Judea the Christians in Antioch mostly Gentiles Christians in Judea entirely

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Jews Showed that they they cared about them that they're connected That all this talk about one

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Lord one body where the family of God just kind of talk talk talk That it's not just talk.

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It's for real We show we are Christians by our love and then the

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Christians of Judea realized Man, they just sent this money or grain or whatever. They sent or both and these

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Christians in Antioch really do care about us Those Gentiles up there You know, I was the one scoffing at them

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Well, how can we they're uncircumcised or we can't accept it and now they send money to us.

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That's amazing So they feel connected to them It's not as though they feel indebted Okay, they pay it.

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I'm in love now. I'll pay this debt back when I get back on my feet I thought no, it's not a debt.

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It's a it's a connection. It's a community Took care of each other and their need and if later the

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Christians Judea were well off and they Christians in Antioch needed help They would they would go reverse Generosity is

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God's way of creating community The belief to the brothers and sisters of Judea is a community

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Creating Breakthrough has been a breakthrough and understanding that God's mission is for all kinds of people and then in Antioch a breakthrough and actually

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Doing that mission and bringing Paul and out of Tarsus into leadership and that's going to be a key

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Breakthrough in connecting the Christians at Antioch to those in Jerusalem. That's a breakthrough and Now it looks like though when you get to chapter 12 at first instead of a breakthrough

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Looks like we have a breakdown Back in Jerusalem King Herod figures that the way to curry favor with his subjects is by cracking down on the church to break it down They've had a time of peace

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We know before their their chief persecutor Paul their Saul About to be Paul was converted and he came back from Damascus preaching about how salvation is only through Jesus now

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Just when there's a breakthrough in Antioch, there's a crackdown in Jerusalem Herod has some believers there in Jerusalem arrested and now the first of the

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Apostles is martyred James is killed James was the son of Zebedee It's the brother of John who wrote the

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Gospel of John and the three letters in the book of Revelation He was the one with his brother No, James and John You remember the story about how they asked the

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Lord Jesus, you know Let us sit beside you on your right hand your left side, you know in your kingdom

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When you come to rule that they thought they thought he would take over any moment now And they wanted to be his right hand and left hand men, you know, he's on the throne but they're like one

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Prime Minister and whatever Secretary of something and They wanted to be right there with him But Jesus said to them you do not know what you were asking.

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Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink? It was the cup of suffering and death

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Now they didn't know that But they made their commitment they pledged

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We are able and then Jesus said to them Probably with his words just dripping with compassion you will drink my cup and So James here in Acts chapter 12 drinks it

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He's the first Apostle killed the first one to become a martyr

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Says he's killed with sword probably that means he was beheaded his his brother would much later

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Be exiled on an island rather than renounce the faith So one brother was the first to be killed and the other was the last but both drank the cup the

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Lord Jesus Gave them that he drank now with James. The Apostles are becoming martyrs

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Testifying to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with their blood all but John who was exiled for his faith all of them would give their life rather than renounce that Jesus is raised from the dead that he is

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Lord of all and James is the first here the martyrs begin well next

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Herod has Peter arrested and Plans to execute him to just for the popularity.

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It brings he has Peter guarded in prison with extra security He's gonna he's gonna guard

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Peter. He's gonna make sure no way he can escape Usually prisoners we can we can tell by the description usually prisoners were only chained to one soldier

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Right and with one set of manacles should be enough But Peter is chained to two soldiers one on each side with both hands manacles four squads of soldiers dedicated just to guarding

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Peter sentries at the doors in the prison now Herod almost certainly heard the story of how the

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Apostles were freed from prison in Acts 5 and Was determined that that not happen again

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He would execute Peter after the Passover is over so they had to go wait for the Passover so that we had to wait about a week the only problem for Herod Was that it wasn't

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Peter's time yet God's people are Indestructible their bulletproof.

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They're unkillable until they're at the time that God sets for them and It's not that time for Peter yet.

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So it really doesn't matter how many guards that Herod sets on them how many chains? Herod puts on Peter God is going to get him out and Herod has his soldiers in his prison the church has his prayer and They're coming head to head

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On the very night before Peter was going to be brought out for this The show trial that he would put on and then have him beheaded

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That very night notice that the night before Interesting that God didn't release him on the first night.

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I mean, he's probably The unleavened bread the Passover class a week. So apparently he was in prison for a whole week

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Why not release him on the first night? Instead of waiting to the last whatever God did it that way

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Peter is asleep though. Notice that too Would you be asleep if you're not going to get you know, you're gonna get your head cut off in the morning

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When I when the the the the the stress of that have a way of kind of inducing insomnia for that night

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Would for me anybody he's no longer this terrified denier of Jesus Remember, he's a little servant girl ask him.

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Are you with Jesus? No, no, not me. He's not like that anymore He has faith He's about he's about to have his head chopped off in the morning and he's sound asleep

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That's pretty good faith an angel appears to him wakes him up I got a nudging on the side the two guards stay asleep next to him and the angel tells

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Peter to get up the chains fall off Dress yourself. He's told put on your shoes.

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Apparently Peter is so out of it He has to be told to ever do every little thing Like he's a little kid put your shoes on put your cloak on wrap your cloak around yourself

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Follow me and he thought maybe this was a vision or a dream or something He didn't know this was real and they walk right past the guards

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Who either either they're like invisible and they guards can't see them or the guards are asleep then say the iron gate opens by itself

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It's not so unusual for us You know We used to some buildings having electrical doors that open but Peter has never seen anything like that before And now he's out on the street and the angel disappears and then only then

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Does he realize that this hasn't been a dream says he came to himself wait kind of like he's been

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Sleepwalking and he says to himself now I'm sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the

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Jewish people were expecting So he goes to Mary's house No, not this Mary But Mary the mother of John Mark Who would later write probably under Peter's guidance the

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Gospel of Mark. The church is praying fervently or the word could be translated unremittingly constantly for Peter Now there's probably a wall around their house because he says

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Peter's at the gate So there's a wall around the house There's a house a wall around it and with perimeter and Peter comes to the gate and he's knocking

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Servant girl Rhoda now there and they're intensely praying and it's a road to go into the door and and He cut she comes to answer and Peter's even says, you know, it's me.

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I'm out Rhoda recognizes his voice. He's she's so happy That their prayers have been answered

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She forgets to open the gate and let him in and she goes back into the praying church and tells them that Peter is out

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There and they say you've heard verse 15. You're out of your mind You know sound dogmatic they are about it

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They're absolutely sure it cannot be him and after a while they say something. Well, maybe it's his look -alike angel

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Why don't you go out and check instead of speculating? Anyway, they can't believe that God would actually release him so much by the way for the idea put out

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You know by these prosperity teachers The so much for that idea that our prayers depend on our positive confession, right?

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That's why they teach the reason you're the reason you have a million dollars is you're not confessing it It's all up to your confession that God's power breaking through relies on us saying the right words on Calling it into being

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No, it doesn't Their prayers have been answered and they don't even believe it

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Peter is still outside. He's knocking and finally they go out and open the door and sure enough Wow Who would expect it is

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Peter and they're amazed and they're exclaiming and they're shouting and they're all abuzz And he motions for them to quiet down and he tells the story about the angel tells them to go go tell

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James This is the other James the the brother of Jesus the author of the book of James Who's now become the leader of the church in Jerusalem?

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And and then he goes Peter goes into hiding somewhere else. And meanwhile when the guards wake up Wouldn't you know, no

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Peter. Where'd Peter go? He was right here when I fell asleep Nobody medical to me as a frantic search for him as was the practice in that day, though I mean they can't find him the practice in that day is with if a prisoner breaks out

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It's assumed that the guards were either derelict or complicit in the breakout And so they received the penalty that the prisoner would have gotten

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So they are executed the crackdown is broken down There won't be any more

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Christian martyrs just yet But there is still the tyrant here

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Herod is the tyrant The church has often suffered from from tyrants

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We're glad for freedom Still so far our country today But sometimes the church has thrived and lived under tyrants first first 300 years.

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The church was the target of tyrants Whenever tyrants arise they think they're like God they have absolute power

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They think and they think there's no God above them to whom they'll have to give an account And so they often turn against Christians, even if the

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Christians are they're law -abiding. They're quiet. They're peaceful. They're productive citizens You know rationally they should like Christians in their in their kingdom or their in their people's

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Republic or whatever it is But they can't stand the idea that there are people under them Who believe that there is a power over them over the

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Kings the Emperor's the Führer's The president's for life the chairman of the

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Communist Party, whatever it is. They want to be hailed as the ultimate authority and so they

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Are tyrants who persecute who crack down on God's people so Herod intoxicated by his power is able to make tire and sight and humbly submit to him

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He gave a speech and his resplendent royal robes sitting on his ornate throne the people in attendance

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They just fed his ego. They noticed the way to get on his good side They gave him the praise that he craved the voice of a god and not of a man and he took it in Oh, he loved that He didn't say like Peter said to Cornelius, you know when

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Cornelius bowed to him knelt before him he said I'm just a man Herod didn't do that. He soaked it in Not giving

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God the glory and and so God who was jealous for his glory struck the proud tyrant like the tyrant had struck

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James and He the tyrant was was eaten by worms probably intestinal parasites

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And he died God's kingdom came his judgment broke through into this world meanwhile the breakthrough continues in verse 24 the

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Word of God increased it says and it Multiplied remember earlier before the

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Lord added to the Lord Now God's Word Multiplies by the numbers of people who believe it but the numbers of people who confess

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That Jesus is Lord those numbers are multiplying James chapter 12 begins with our cubic acts chapter 12 begins with James martyred and Peter on the verge

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Herod cracking down it ends with Herod dead

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Peter broken out and the Word of God breaking through Do you want to break through?

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Well, then pray fervently Unremittingly like the church here disciplining yourself seeking striving for agonizing for Begging God for a breakthrough a little bit every day

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Asking him to grant repentance that leads to life Maybe for you for certain sins or maybe for the certain people to add more people

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Especially the people you want to break through for to add people ask the

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Lord to add people to himself to add and Then to multiply

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Do all that you can do Knowing that none of it depends on you Make haste slowly gradually building

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Praying for a breakthrough and then watch the Word of God triumph multiply