We're going to get started with song number 411, hold the fort, song number 411, and if
you are able to, let's all stand together for our first song this evening.
Song number 411, hold the fort, song number 411, we'll see you on that first verse.
Oh, my comrades, see the signal waving in the sky.
Re-enforcements now appearing, victory is nigh.
Oh, the form for I am coming, Jesus signals them.
thy grace we will see the mighty close and fancy Satan leading on mighty men
around us falling courage almost gone all the poor for I am Jesus
Name of triumph over every foe.
Hold the form for I am coming,
Jesus' signal stills.
Wave the answer back to heaven,
by Thy grace we will
fear Salonga.
Onward comes our great Commander,
Cheer my comrades cheer.
Hold the port for I am calling Jesus,
Sick of stills,
When the answer back to heaven,
By thy grace we will.
Amen, wonderful singing.
Let's start our service with a word of prayer.
Dear God and my father we thank you so much for allowing us to be in your house this evening
Lord, we pray that you please just bless every aspect of the service. Again, Lord God, we do
pray that you please just bless the seeing unto you, and I pray that you please most of all be
with the preaching of your word. I pray that you please bless pastor with the power of God
and knowledge of your word, Lord God, and I pray that you please just guide him through the scriptures,
and I pray that you'd also just please be with us, O Lord, dear God, and the congregation. Help
us. We got to be attentive to your word being preached as well, and I pray that you please,
again, just bless us tonight and help us. We got to receive just knowledge from your word as well.
in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Song number 55, when the roll is called up yonder.
Song number 55.
Song number 55, when the roll is called up yonder.
See it on that first verse.
When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound,
and time shall be no more.
And the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair.
When the saved on earth shall gather over on the other shore,
and the roll is called a pionter, I'll be there.
When the roll is called a pionter.
is called a beyonder. When the roll is called a beyonder I'll be there. On that bright and
cloud this morning when the dead in Christ shall rise and the glory of his resurrection
share. When his chosen ones shall gather to their home beyond the sky and the roll is
When the roll is called a pionter, When the roll is called a pionter,
When the roll is called a pionter, I'll be there.
Let us labor for the master from the dawn's a setting sun.
Let us...
Then when all of life is over...
When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
When the roll is called up yonder,
When the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.
All right. Good evening, everyone. We have some announcements here before we sing our next song,
which would be song number 216, Shirley Goodness and Mercy. Song number 216. If you'd like to
get that ready in your hymnals. We would like to welcome you back to our Thursday night service
at 7 p.m. We're currently going through the book of Isaiah, which we're almost done with that book.
So many teams and times are there below and if you know if none of these times really meet or you know
Have has a time available for you. You know, we'll make one for you
So if you're interested in going so when we'll figure it out and when I say we I mean brother Hernandez
He will be heading that up for you if you if you have the the so desire
Continue to pray for the expecting mothers as always
Just some church announcements as we
on the right of the bulletin here we have Tijuana missions trip which would be Saturday May 24th
meaning at the building at 915 brother Hernandez will be leading that if you have any questions
or you'd like to participate go on and reach out to him our graduation ceremony will be Sunday May 25th
The a.m. Will be for the elementary school and the p.m. Will be for high school end of school
Excuse me end of school party will be Saturday May 31st
We'll have a little bit more information on that in the future
And then we have our ladies prayer breakfast Saturday June 7th meeting at the building at 10 a.m.
That's it for the announcements. Please silence your phones to not be a disturbance to the service and
Please open up your hymns to song number 216 surely goodness and mercy
Song number 216, Shirley Goodness and Mercy.
Song number 216.
We're seeing a left first verse.
A pilgrim was I and a wandering
In the cold night of Sinai did grow.
When Jesus the kind shepherd found me
And now I am on my way home
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days, all the days of my life
Surely goodness
And mercy shall follow me
All the days, all the days of my life
He restoreeth my soul when I'm weary
He giveeth me strength day by day
He guards me each step of the way.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me.
To the dark, lonesome valley
My Savior will walk with me there
He's safely His great hand
Will bring me
To mansions He's gone to prepare
Surely goodness and mercy
All the days of my life, surely goodness and mercy,
shall follow me all the days, all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever,
spread for me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, all the days of my life, all the
Our ushers will be receiving the offering,
and please turn your Bibles to Galatians chapter one.
Good evening tonight. We're in Galatians chapter one
Galatians chapter one the Bible reads
Paul an apostle not of men neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the father who raised him from the dead and
All the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia
Grace be to you in peace from God the father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver
Us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our father
To whom be glory forever and ever, amen.
I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that has called you into his grace of
Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would
pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which
you have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
As we said before, so say now I again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than
that you have received, let him be accursed.
Yet pleased men I should not be the servants of Christ, but I certify you brethren that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man
For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ
We've heard of my conversation and time passed in the Jews religion how that beyond measure
I persecuted the church of God and wasted it and
Profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in my own nation being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers
But when it was pleased, but it went to please God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace to reveal
His son in me that I might preach him among the heath and immediately I confer not with flesh and blood
Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me
But I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him 15 days
But other of the apostles saw I none save James the Lord's brother now the things which I write unto you behold before God
I lie not
Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Sicilia and was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ
but they had heard only that he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which
ones he destroyed and they glorified God in me. Let's pray dear Lord God just thank you for this
time we have to hear the preaching of your word Lord just please bless this service Lord and be
with us Lord please be with pastor and fill him with the Holy Spirit as you preach your word unto
Amen. Okay. You are in Galatians chapter one and the Bible reads in Galatians chapter one verse number one Paul and Apostle not of men
Neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of
Galatia the time I started this evening is the churches of Galatia the churches
of Galatians, I want to talk about these churches that are being mentioned here in Galatians
chapter 1. Now go to Acts chapter 13, if you would, Acts chapter 13. The book of Galatians
is a very unique book in the sense that a lot of these other books that are being addressed
by the Apostle Paul are directed to a specific church, the church at Corinth, the church
at Philippi, the church at Colossae, right? You have the letter to the Romans, whereas
being addressed to multiple churches.
We don't know exactly how many,
but there are multiple churches that are being written to.
And in fact, in 1 Peter, chapter one,
when the apostle Peter is also writing his two letters,
he's writing to the strangers, which are scattered abroad.
He talks about Pamphylia, Cappadocia, Bithynia,
but then he also says to those in Galatia,
showing us that there are many believers in this region.
Now I wanna talk about those specific churches this evening.
Now first and foremost, look at Acts chapter 13, if you would.
And let's look at verse number one, it says,
now there were in the church that was at Antioch,
certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon,
that was called Niger, and Lucius and Cyrene and Minean,
which had been brought up with Herod, the tetrarch, and Saul.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas,
and Saul for the work we're into I have called them.
Now let me give you a little bit of background here
of where we are at in the timeline of the book of Acts.
You have the apostle Paul,
who's not necessarily an apostle as of yet.
Obviously we know that he's ordained to be an apostle,
but he's not necessarily doing the work of an apostle
just as of yet.
Previous to this, we obviously know
that he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.
He's going about arresting.
different believers, you know, possessing letters in order to go to Damascus and to arrest believers
because he thought that Christianity was a false religion that was essentially in opposition to
Judaism. And so he's a Pharisee. He is zealous first false religion. We know that he ends up going
on the road to Damascus. He encounters the Lord. He gets saved and he gets on fire for God.
The Apostle Paul right away begins to start preaching the Word of God, reaching people in Jerusalem and a lot of persecution comes upon him because of that.
So they start persecuting him and obviously even the believers who are in Jerusalem are kind of leery of him because they know the reputation of the Apostle Paul.
They're like, this is the guy who persecuted us, this is the guy who arrested us, he was injurious.
who's the son of Constellation,
he kind of has to bring him along and say,
hey, I know you had a reputation,
a bad reputation in times past,
but this guy's legit, he's saved,
God's gonna use him in a great way.
So you know Barnabas really went to bat
for the Apostle Paul.
And later on we see that the persecution gets so heavy
that the Apostle Paul ends up going back to Tarsus,
which is exactly where he's from.
Now what's interesting about that story
is that when he goes to Tarsus,
the persecution dies down.
And you say, why is that interesting?
Well, why should it die down?
You have all these apostles in Jerusalem.
You have all these men of God in Jerusalem.
You know, there should still be persecution, right?
But the reason there isn't persecution,
and obviously I'm inferring this into the text
because of what the Bible teaches about persecution,
would be that they're not preaching hard enough, okay?
Now, who's the leader in Jerusalem?
You know, James, who's the Lord's brother, okay?
So James, who's the Lord's brother,
he's leading that church in Jerusalem.
It's somewhat of a very large congregation.
And if you know anything about the history
in the book of Acts regarding the church at Jerusalem,
you know, they were very much countowing to the Jews, right?
They were kind of ministering to them,
but they were also kind of bowing down to them
and they were kind of mixing that in.
And so that's why they're not receiving any persecution
from the Jews.
The apostle Paul is the one who stirred up the pot
while he was there, okay?
So once he goes back to Tarsus,
everything kind of dies down.
The Bible literally says that the churches have peace
in that region, but obviously that's not a good thing
because ye all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
So if they're not suffering some form of persecution,
it kind of goes to show that the apostles
aren't necessarily doing their job.
Now, we obviously know that in large they did not do their job because they're not going out and preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.
They're not reaching other people.
They're kind of just focusing in on the Jews.
They want to reach the Jews.
And then later on in Acts chapter 10, we see that God deals with the apostle Peter in that regard, right?
He gives them that vision with the sheet knit at the four corners, etc.
And that was essentially God trying to wake the apostle Peter up to say,
common people, the unclean people, get them saved because God cleansed them.
In other words, he sanctified them to be saved through the Gospel.
So then later on, you have Barnabas, the son of Constellation.
He's ministering. He leaves Jerusalem and he goes down to Antioch.
Now geographically that almost wouldn't make sense since Antioch is north of Jerusalem.
But the reason it says down is because actually Antioch is at a lower elevation.
So he goes to Antioch and Antioch is also a thriving ministry.
There's a lot of people getting saved there and there's so much work to be done there
that he's like, hey, I know a guy that can help us with this.
So he goes to Tarsus, he gets Saul, who's Paul,
and by the way, let me just say this regarding his names.
Both of them are his names, okay?
You know, Paul and Saul are his names.
Paul, Saul is like the Hebrew, Paul is the Greek.
You know, obviously you can, you know,
say, well, you know, he became Paul when he got saved
and now he's the apostle Paul,
whereas before he was Saul.
But later on, you see him kind of using,
still using that name, Saul.
So it makes for good preaching,
Those both are, both of them are his name.
It's like me, I'm Delphine and I'm also Bruce.
But I go by Bruce most of the time.
Don't call me Delphine, all right?
You know, that's what's taking place.
So he goes back, he goes to Tarsus,
he gets the apostle Paul, he brings them to Antioch
and they're serving God there.
They're preaching there, they're discipling there.
And you know what, the apostle Paul
is very content with doing that.
You don't see him being self-willed.
You don't see himself forcing himself
into positions of leadership.
He's essentially just serving where he's needed.
And keep in mind that the guy has a lot of weight.
I mean, he saw the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ
on the road to Damascus.
He was separated by God to do a work unto him
and to reach the Gentiles.
I mean, he was commissioned to do this.
But even then, the Apostle Paul is not trying to step on anyone's toes.
He's under authority, he's under leadership, he's not a self-willed person,
he's not someone who despises governments, despises authority,
he's just doing what he's told.
So he's in Antioch and he's preaching, and eventually the Apostles in Antioch, the leadership there,
Tell and tell Barnabas and Saul. Hey, you guys need to go send relief unto Jerusalem
There's a famine there and so they need resources go down there and send them some relief
Now this can be compared to just like an errand that's being given to them, right?
And you know the apostle Paul is not like whoa hold on a second. Don't you know I'm an apostle?
I'm an apostle here, you know what I mean?
Why are you making me do these menial tasks or whatever?
But no, you know, he understands
that the work needs to be done.
And you know, the principle that we can learn there
is there's no job too small for us to do
if we're doing it as unto the Lord, right?
As unto the Lord, every work of God is important, and obviously we want to spend our time doing
the most effective, efficient things for the Lord, but at the end of the day we should be able to
serve at whatever capacity God calls us to serve. And you know Barnabas and Saul are doing the work
and so they go down there, they send relief, they come back up to Antioch,
and they are still serving there.
And we see that in Antioch and Acts chapter 13,
there are prophets and teachers.
A prophet is someone,
we would think of a prophet as someone
who is able to foresee the future, right?
But prophet is just another way of saying preacher, okay?
So, there's preachers there, there's prophets,
there's various men there who are serving at this church.
And then finally, the Holy Ghost essentially separates Paul
and Barnabas.
for the work of doing missions.
Now, the specific work that he's calling them to do is what?
He wants them to go into all the regions round about
to go in souls to Christ and establish churches there.
You say, well, is this like unique to them?
No, because in Matthew 28, that's what he told the apostles to do, go into all nations,
you know, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, preach
the gospel to every creature.
And that's reiterated multiple times, but specifically in Acts chapter one of verse
number eight.
In Acts one verse number eight, he talks about how there are going to be witnesses in Jerusalem
and Judea, Samaria, and listen to this, and the uttermost parts of the earth.
And he tells them, I've given you power of the Holy Ghost to go and do this work, but unfortunately, the majority of the apostles just stay in Jerusalem.
Why? Because of the fact that Jerusalem is a thriving church.
It's thriving, it's growing, it's somewhat of a mega church.
You know how many are they running? We can surmise. It's close to maybe four to five four to five thousand people of that church
Because three thousand people were saved in Acts chapter two later on you have five thousand people that were saved in Acts two
Two thousand were added to the church
I'm sorry, 3,000 were added to the church.
Later on, the 5,000 were added unto the Lord,
but it doesn't really say that they were added to the church.
We can surmise, maybe 1,000 of them did, right?
So this church is thriving, it's growing, it's doing great.
And so, you know, we can surmise
that essentially the apostles in Jerusalem
are just kind of content with just staying there, right?
So then the Holy Ghost, what does he have to do? Well then after what Acts 1-8 you have Acts 8-1
And what happens in Acts 8-1? Well, this is prior to the Apostle Paul coming on the scene
This is when he's just a Pharisee persecuting. He comes
He persecutes the church there and what happens they disperse
Okay, so you know it's often been said in the Old IFB if you don't do an Acts 1-8 you're gonna get an Acts 8-1
You know if you don't go out and preach the gospel to every creature then God has to ruffle some feathers a little bit
He has to shake the nest he has to shake that cage to get people to actually go out and do something for God
And so the the funny thing is though in Acts chapter 8 is
That you know he allows persecution to come upon the church, but then everyone leaves except for the apostles
So like the apostles are like, hey everyone, we gotta go,
we gotta disperse, we gotta go into all different regions,
but then we're still gonna stay here, right?
So that's where you have Philip the Evangelist going,
and you know, he reaches the Ethiopian eunuch,
you have that great story there,
but still we see that they're not accomplishing
what God told them to do.
So then God ends up miraculously intervening
and getting Saul saved, becoming the apostle Paul.
and now he's going to use him to actually do what the apostles have failed to do.
Now, what I find interesting regarding this story
is that God used the Apostle Paul as an unsaved and safe person
to disperse people.
Because, you know, he did it in Acts chapter A verse 1 as an unsaved person,
persecuting them in order to disperse them.
They still didn't do it, so then he sends him again as a safe person, and now he's going to be the one to go out and preach the gospel to every creature.
So it says in verse number two,
And they minister to the Lord, and fasted, and the Holy Ghost said,
Separate me, Barnabas, and Saul, for the work were unto have called them.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
So what does it mean to lay hands on them?
This is what we would consider to be ordination.
Now, there's nothing supernatural about the physical act of laying hands on someone.
And when we talk about laying hands on someone,
we're not talking about whooping them, okay?
I'm gonna lay hands on you.
There's instances in the Bible where it's like that.
Nehemiah, for example, he was like,
I'm gonna lay hands on you, right?
Laying hands is just a way of commending someone
unto the Lord.
It's like a transfer of authority to someone.
So when I was ordained as the evangelist
and then later on as a pastor,
the previous pastor laid hands on me
and he prayed over me and it symbolically represents
that the authority's being transferred over
to the new leadership in order to take over that work,
to be commissioned for that particular job.
So they lay hands on Barnabas and Paul
in order to get them to send them out
and be missionaries and do the work there.
Look at verse number four.
It says, so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost.
departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus,
and when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews,
and also John to their minister. Now, one last thing I want to say about
this ordination that we see here, is that obviously it's the Holy Ghost
who's sending them out, right? But who is the Holy Ghost
using to send them out? Authorized
authority of the Logan New Testament Church.
He's working through the church at Antioch in order to ordain these men.
And the Holy Ghost is not like usurping the authority.
He's working in conjunction with the authority of the church that Jesus Christ established in order to send them out.
Now, the reason that's important is because you have people today that send themselves out.
You know, oh God send me out. Well, really that's funny because God works through a local New Testament church and
The pattern that we see in the Bible is that the is that the Holy Ghost
Uses local New Testament churches as a means of authority to ordain someone and send someone out for the work of the ministry
Okay, now another thing that we can learn from this is one of the reasons the Apostle Paul sent out is because he served first
You see, you know at this point he's already been saved for quite some time
And yet throughout this time, what is he doing?
He's winning people to Christ,
but he's also just serving in his church,
sending relief, doing what he's told, right?
And this shows us that, you know, the type of leadership that we need today in 2025 are those who are serving their people.
Those who are serving others, those who are winning people to Christ, they are quote-unquote sending relief.
They're being used of God in all different areas and manners and forms.
And so we see that with the Apostle Paul.
So they go, and they go to Seleucia.
From Seleucia, they go to Cyprus and Salamis, and they begin to preach the gospel in Paphis.
Okay, now what is this referring to?
And from there, they go to Seleucia,
which is essentially off the coast there of Antioch.
And they sail to Cyprus, modern day Cyprus.
And you think to yourself,
why would they go to Cyprus first?
Well, the apostle Barnabas is from Cyprus.
So if you're trying to figure out, man,
where should we do missions?
Where should we go and win people to Christ?
You go with where you're familiar with, right?
That's why we're going to Mexico, man.
Because we've got a lot of Mexicans in our church, right?
So, uh, thank you brother Maury. Hey, why don't we go to Belize because Maury is Belizean, right?
So they're obviously going there because they're familiar with that region they're familiar with that area
so this is like the first mission strip here that they're going to and
They go to Salamis they win a lot of people to Christ there and I want you to notice that the first thing they do when they get there
Is they go to a synagogue?
Now why are they going to a synagogue not out of conviction?
It's not like, hey, you know, I know we're Christians, but you know Ove brother, you know
We got to like we got to do the synagogue and all this
No, why would they go to a synagogue first when they go on the mission trip for practical reasons?
Not for conviction. This is not their church. This is not a church
Okay, and I'm not going to get into the history of the synagogues because I've done that in times past
But let me just go ahead and go over it anyways
Okay, a synagogue simply means a gathering and these were institutions that were not sanctioned by God
And they they're very old obviously they existed in the Old Testament to some extent some form
But you never see God actually saying hey thou shall create synagogues in the Old Testament
Okay, it's their man-made institutions
The only institutions that got sanctioned were the Tabernacle, which is essentially a portable tent while they're in the wilderness, and then after the Tabernacle, what, the temple?
So then, after that, or during that time, they would create these synagogues, and synagogues were essentially established, we can say,
for people who couldn't make the pilgrimage to the temple as consistently as others who were geographically closer to the temple, okay?
And, you know, they're essentially like Bible study groups, to put it lightly, okay?
You go there, you read the scriptures, you pray together, you sing together.
You know, these are paratemple ministries is what they are, okay?
And you think a lot of Christians, they get offended when I talk about this.
They're like, no, synagogues isn't the Bible.
Yeah, Psalm 74 says synagogues, but it says that they're being burned down though.
So I don't know if you want to use that as your text verse for synagogues of the Old Testament.
Okay, because when the Babylonian Empire came and took them over,
one of the things that they did, aside from destroying the temple,
is they destroyed all the synagogues as well.
So then they're taken into captivity and if they don't have a centralized place of worship
Known as the temple. What's the second best thing to do is meet in synagogues once again?
And at that point, you know, obviously we could say maybe the synagogues were houses
There are just
Geographical little places where they met together and read the scriptures and so forth the problem is is that during the Babylonian captivity which lasted for 70 years
Synagogues ended up being like a centralized place of worship that almost was on par with the temple, okay?
To the point where when, you know, King Cyrus sanctioned for the Jews to come back to Jerusalem, the synagogues remained.
And, in fact, years later, with Antiochus Epiphanes and the Maccabean Revolt, you have a segment
of the Jewish population, these leaders known as the Pharisees, who ended up seizing power
over these synagogues, and they ended up taking rule over them.
You see, the temple had sanctioned leaders, right?
They had the Levites.
the high priest, they had the priest there, the house of Aaron,
synagogues, there was no sanctioned leadership there.
So what happens, it's up for grabs, okay?
Now, you know, by the time we get to the New Testament,
now you have these synagogues who have sanctioned leaders,
not by God.
These are sanctioned leaders known as the Pharisees
and these guys have major religious and political power.
To the point they can excommunicate people from their congregations for confessing Christ
I mean they can they can flex on people and people are very afraid of the Pharisees
That's not to say that every Pharisee was wicked
But they're essentially the textbook false prophet according to the New Testament though and there were there were Pharisees that did get saved
But the vast majority of them were in opposition to Jesus Christ
They essentially spearhead of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is where synagogue synagogues come from the only good thing about synagogues is that it did possess scriptures
Okay, now from the Maccabean Revolt from the Babylonian captivity should I say up until the time of Christ?
The Bible doesn't highlight this, but we know that this is true historically and based upon some of the evidence of the New Testament.
Synagogues had basically been established in all areas of the known world, right?
You say, well, how do you know? Well, here we are in Cyprus, and there's a synagogue there.
You go to Greece, there are synagogues there. You go to Asia Minor, there are synagogues there.
you know, synagogues, right?
And obviously, these are Pharisees who are going about,
they're making copies of the Word of God.
And I would even say that many of these copies
are Greek translations of the Old Testament.
Because if you have synagogues in Philippi,
you have synagogues in Thessalonica,
these people don't speak Hebrew.
They don't read Hebrew, they don't speak Hebrew,
but they're proselytes of Judaism.
There are proselytes of these Jews, and so if Moses is being read in every synagogue,
as the book of Acts puts it, it must be some form of a Greek translation of that Old Testament
Hebrew scriptures.
You understand what I'm saying?
So what are they reading here when they when they talk about the scriptures that are being read of Moses and the synagogues?
They're reading these translations. Okay, now I'm not going to get into the the substitution and all that
Obviously, that is a major false document there that has a little bit of truth
But the majority of it are filled with lies
You so why is that because of the fact that it's based on
Sinaiticus and Vaticanus which are essentially Catholic manuscripts
that hold no water for the New Testament,
and the Old Testament is essentially
mixed in with the Apocrypha.
You know, the King James Bible,
obviously when it first came out,
had the Apocrypha separated
from the other books of the Bible,
whereas the Satuagint actually has the Apocrypha
mixed into the stories of the Old Testament, okay?
So that's a sermon for another day.
The point that I'm making here is this is why we have synagogues because you're like what are synagogues doing in in Cyprus?
How are they just able to go there? Well because they're established long ago, okay?
So they have these leaders here and so on a practical level when they do missions
Where should you go? Should you go to the temple of Diana first?
Should you go to the the temple of Zeus first or should you go to the synagogue first?
Well reason would have you go to the place where the word of God is being preached anyways, okay?
So this is why they do that
Everyone following look at verse six. It says when they had gone through the Isle unto Paphis
They found a certain sorcerer a false prophet a Jew
Whose name was bar Jesus
Which was the with the deputy of the country Sergius Paul is a prudent man who called for Barnabas and saw and desired to hear the
Word of God now, let me give you a synopsis of this particular source
It's one of my favorite stories in the book of Acts. It's great because Sergius Paul is
As a deputy and he wants to hear the word of God, so he's requesting for Barnabas to come and preach to him
So Barnabas and Saul go and preach to him, but then you have this false prophet this Jew
Alimus the sorcerer and
He's seeking to hinder
The Apostle Paul and Barnabas from getting surges Paul is saved
Now, this is essentially the birthplace of the 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 passage, right?
Forbidding us to speak into the Gentiles that they might be saved for the wrath of
God has come upon them to the uttermost.
Because one of the biggest events that happened to the apostle Paul that led to him understanding
where the Jews were at this time is this particular event with the Limus the Sorcerer.
So the Limus the Sorcerer is like trying to stop him and look, if you've gone so many
Try to disrupt you while you're out so many right follow you around say hey no soliciting and you know
We're not interested and you're just like shut up. I'm not talking to you
I'm talking to this person here or something and they're following you around. They're like harassing you
This is exactly what the alimony is doing
Well skip down to verse number nine is this then saw who was called Paul
who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said,
O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness,
will thou not cease to pervert the right rays of the Lord, and now behold,
the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind not seeing the sun for a season,
and immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to lead
him by the hand. So a miraculous
thing takes place here where the Apostle Paul is just fed up and you just
smite them with blindness, right? He's just like you false prophet and you know
you're gonna be blind for a season and so this guy just goes completely blind
and you know you think that you know by the way like you have churches today
that believe in these miracles, right?
And obviously, many of them are just false prophets.
They're not performing any miracles.
Many of them are.
Some of them are just like people who they're just,
what do they call them?
What is it?
So not as sensational as they are,
they're like snake oil salesmen type.
What?
Charlotans, that's what I'm looking at.
They're like Charlotans, right?
And here's the thing is that when the apostle Paul
What is the response of Serge's policy as he's like wow, you know, I believe these miracles
No, look what it says in verse number 12 then the deputy when he saw what was done
Believed I want you to notice this being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord
So what was he more impressed with the miracle or the message the message?
You know the miracle was there to confirm the message. So when the miracle was performed
He's like wow, this is great doctrine here and obviously he ends up getting saved
Now what's something that we can learn from this particular story in Cyprus?
Well, I'm gonna tell you what can be learned that is is that you're always gonna have some form of opposition
When you try to win people to Christ
And it should come as no surprise into you.
You know, you're gonna receive opposition.
Someone's gonna cuss you out.
Someone is going to get angry with you.
Someone is going to mock you when you're out evangelizing.
Someone is gonna offer some form of opposition
because a great and effectual door is open unto us
and there are many adversaries.
And quite frankly, Elimus the Sorcerer
is just the taste of that, right?
And this is a cool story.
I'm sure the Apostle Paul's like,
You know, it's right, you know, but you know you get a little crazier there after
So look at verse number 13, this is that when Paul and his company lose from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pemphilia and
John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. So what's going on here?
Well, one thing that the text did not show us previously is that is that Barnabas and Paul
though traveling together were not alone. They were actually with John Mark as well and John Mark seems to be somewhat of a young guy here and
for whatever reason
Once they left Cyprus, the island of Cyprus,
to go to Perg and Pamphylia,
John Mark basically got homesick or something,
and he ended up quitting and leaving.
Now this actually ended up becoming a problem later on
with the Apostle Paul because when they're going
on their second missionary journey,
you have Barnabas wanting to take John Mark
and Paul's like, no, no, no, no, we're not taking this guy.
This guy like, you know, left us.
I mean, it was a point of contention between the two.
So we see here that John Mark ends up departing from them.
He leaves the work of God.
And you know, the principle that we can learn there
is that as we do the work of God as a church
throughout the years,
you're gonna have people leave the church.
Who are once your co-laborers in Christ.
You say, how do you know?
Well, I'm the pastor here, so I've seen it.
I've seen people come and go.
I've seen people who are on fire for God, winning souls to Christ, serving the Lord,
great fellowship, they're not even here anymore.
And yeah, we made good memories, but that's all they are now is a memory.
John Mark departed from them, returning to Jerusalem, look at verse 14, but when they
departed from Pergah, they came to Antioch and Pisidia and went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and sat down.
This Antioch in Pisidia is not the same Antioch north of Jerusalem.
They're both called Antioch, but this Antioch is essentially in this particular region where
he's going to plant all these churches, okay?
And this is a verse that people will want to use to say, oh, you're against synagogues,
you're against the Sabbath.
Well, that's funny.
The apostle Paul went to a synagogue on the Sabbath day in Acts 13, verse 14, as if that's
like a text verse to prove that he's for Judaism or something, okay?
Again, why is he doing that?
For practicality's sake.
If you go to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, who's going to be there?
A lot of Jews and a lot of Greek proselytes.
You see, God is all about being efficient in the ministry.
You see, how do you know?
Well, because of the fact that though he commanded them to go into all the world, preach the
gospel to every creature, we have the events of Acts chapter 2.
And what are the events of Acts chapter 2?
were all these proselytes of 14 different regions
coming to them.
So instead of them going out to these different regions
like Rome and Pesidia and Egypt to try to reach them,
God basically allowed them to speak a different language
in a supernatural manner because of the fact
that these proselytes from different regions
were gonna show up at the same time, okay?
Let me give you an illustration of this.
You know, we go to Mexico once or twice a month.
And quite frankly, we just go to one place, just be honest.
And we've knocked some doors there,
but not a whole lot of doors.
We literally go to the same park every single time.
You're like, why don't you expand?
Well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
You say, why do you go to that same park?
Because that park is just a revolving door of new people
every single time.
So we do it for practical reasons.
We never run into the same person twice.
I mean, those who have gone to Mexico, have you guys run
into the same person twice?
I haven't, you know?
You always run into new people who are coming to that park.
So we go to that park though,
of course we're four door-to-door soul-winning.
We go to that park for practical reasons, right?
Because there's people coming to that park
every single time, new faces, new people.
So this is why they're doing that.
Look at verse 15.
It says, after the reading of the law and the prophets,
The rulers of the synagogue sent unto them saying ye men in brethren if you have any word of exhortation for the people
Say on so again. This is proof here that they have the scriptures
They're reading from the law and the prophets and obviously if they're reading this in a synagogue
They see the apostle Paul to see Barnabas these guys look like Jews and
Of course the apostle Paul probably knows how to behave himself like a Pharisee since he was a Pharisee for so long, right?
And you know the ruler is like hey you guys got anything you want to say and you know what the Apostle Paul is like heck
Yeah, I do
So you know the reason he's allowing him to speak is because he probably thinks oh this guy is of Israel
He's of Jerusalem. He's a Pharisee. He's a Jew. He's in line with what we believe here
And so you know the Apostle Paul wants to take advantage of this in order to preach the word of God, okay?
So we're gonna skip some of this here this entire sermon that he preaches against the Jews. It's a great sermon though
Look go down to verse number 42
Look at verse 42 it says and when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue
The Gentiles be sought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. So it's pretty interesting
You know, you know, they're done preaching. He they give them this this history lesson on the nation of Israel
and the Gentiles are really intrigued by this, okay?
They're just like, wow.
Now, two things that I wanna point out
regarding this passage, okay?
Number one, there has to be some level of knowledge
that the rulers are like bad people, right?
Why?
Because what did the Gentiles do?
They waited for the rulers to leave the synagogue
in order to approach the men.
Okay, I don't think that's on accident. The passage is there, right? They're probably like, hey, you know wait wait till
You know rabbi or whatever leaves and let's go hit them up
the second thing that I want to address here is that
They're intrigued by the words that are coming out of the Apostle Paul's mouth regarding the history of Israel
Which shows us that the rulers aren't preaching these things
Because why are they so intrigued?
Why are they just like, hey, come back the next Sabbath
to come preach to us, because they're probably
not getting fed that at the synagogue.
So we can say, oh yeah, they're reading the word of God
in the synagogues.
Yeah, you know what, they're probably reading the word
of God over at a Calvary Chapel too.
They might be doing some Presbyterian church too.
They might be doing other fundamental Baptist churches too.
But there's a difference between reading the scriptures
and actually expounding upon the scriptures.
And you know what, these Gentiles,
some of them might be saved, most of them are not.
And you know, they're hungry for the Word of God.
They want to know what the Bible teaches.
And look, folks, we have a lot of rulers today, don't we?
They want to lord over the flock of God,
but they're not feeding the flock of God.
They're not actually giving the Word of God
to the flock of God.
They're not preaching the Word of God.
And you know what?
The Word of God is appetizing.
To a person who wants it,
people want to hear Bible preaching.
They want to hear expository sermons.
And sometimes they just, you know, for example,
our church, I've mentioned this before, you know,
I feel like our church has built up an appetite
for preaching to the point where you can endure
an hour and 20 minutes of preaching, okay?
You say, well, how do you know?
Because this morning sermon was an hour and 20 minutes.
I didn't know it was, sorry about that.
I did it again, oops, sorry, but not sorry.
But you know, I promise you, a lot of people out there
can endure that.
You know they're hungry the favorite you know football teams about to play or something their mind is elsewhere. They despise prophesying
So these Gentiles are like hey
Can you preach the neck? Can you come back and preach again on the next Sabbath day?
Says in verse 43 now when the congregation was broken up
Many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who speaking to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of God
So they're building up a following
You know and not every ruler was bad because we have some rulers and some of the proselytes they just want to be with the Apostle Paul
They want to be with Barnabas because they just want to ask them questions
They want to talk to them and the Apostle Paul and Barnabas are preaching doctrine unto them
They're they're continuing to be there
Excuse me
They're persuading them to be steadfast and unmovable and to serve God and continue the grace of God
Look at verse 44 and the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city
together to hear the word of God
Now this is big stuff here
Because what do we see? We see that the word is getting around. It's circulating. They're blazing broad the matter, right?
So these proselytes and these rulers are telling other people by word of mouth and
It's causing the entire city of Antiochipecidia to actually come to like hey
You got to come here this guy priests the word of God. This is good stuff where we're learning here
And so everyone comes to hear the word of God now everything's going great
This is awesome. This is very successful. Right. I mean like, you know
I'm sure the apostle Paul and Barnabas are like see this is why I got into the ministry
get to reach people and
You know look at all these people just hungry for the word of God and we're just gonna live happily ever after
verse 45, but
when the Jews
Saw the multitudes
They were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul contradicting and blaspheming
So what do we have? We have the adversary of the New Testament known as the Jews and what are they upset about?
They're upset at the multitudes
Now why are they upset at that because their followers are converting to Christianity?
Their followers are no longer following them. They're actually listening to these two guys who won them over in just a couple sermons
And what do they do?
They start contradicting them and blaspheming.
What does it mean to blaspheme?
It means to speak evil of something, right?
Specifically, obviously, in this context, it's Christianity.
It says in verse 40, 46,
then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold.
and said it was necessary that the Word of God
should first have been spoken unto you,
but seeing you put it from you
and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life,
lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
So the apostle Paul obviously still has a heart for the Jews.
And in fact, we see this in Romans chapter 10.
We also see it in Romans chapter nine.
He wants to get Jews saved.
And so typically when he would go to a synagogue,
it's a mixed bag of Greeks and Jews.
And he wants to get these Jews saved.
But he says there, oh, since you're unworthy,
you deem yourself to be unworthy of your everlasting life.
I mean, you're just too good for it or something.
You know, we're gonna go ahead and preach the gospel to the Gentiles
We're gonna turn to them because they're the ones who want the word of God skip down to verse 48
And when the Gentiles heard this so obviously this isn't a very public setting. He's preaching them
He's like we're gonna turn to the Gentiles verse 40
Let me see verse 48 says when the Gentiles heard this
They were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life
Believed now. What is the principle that we can learn there? We need to preach the gospel to those who want to hear it
Go to where the fish are biting
This is why we will never take a mission trip to Israel. I
Don't care how cool be to go to Israel, and I don't think it's cool. I
Think it's lame
You know and it's at the bottom of the barrel
It's at the bottom of the tasteless for nations to win over
Well brother it says to the Jew first and also to the Greek well, they did go to the Jew first
And you know what that's not a fruitful area to go to and look fundamental Baptist for years have sought to win Israel to Christ
You know and they've gone over there, and they preach the gospel to them
And you know the very very little success obviously a surprise, right?
Well, well, well
You know why? Because they're not receptive to the gospel.
And I'm not saying they can't be saved,
because of course they can be saved.
If they believe on Jesus Christ.
But you know the biblical pattern, the biblical model
that we see in the Word of God,
is that God wants us to go to the people
who actually are responding to the light
that God has given to them.
You say, well, how do I know that they're responding?
Well, are they receptive?
Or do they spin on the ground when you say Jesus?
If they do the latter, then that kind of shows you,
yeah, let's not go there.
Let's go to Belize instead.
Where they exalt the Word of God, they exalt Christ, go to the Bahamas where they're exalting Christ.
Let's go to the cities that actually want to hear the Gospel, go to Mexico, go to these areas that actually want to hear the Word of God.
Yeah, but wouldn't it be so cool to say you got a Jew saved?
Yeah, you know, obviously I want to get all people saved.
And I think it's cool when you get anyone saved.
It's just like, yeah, but what about the Jews though?
Well, the Jews had an entire, I mean, look how much history they have.
Until then, we're committed to the miracles of God.
And I'm not saying they've had their chance,
but folks, let me just remind you that Israel
is a reprimand nation.
Why? Because they rejected the gospel
that was given to them.
And again, Jews can and do and will get saved.
A very minority of them,
but in general, they're very close to the gospel.
So they're here telling them these things.
And you know, the Gentiles are just excited about this.
Right?
They're just like, wow, because you gotta keep in mind
the Gentiles are in these synagogues hearing about
the God of the Hebrews, the God of Israel,
exalting the God of Israel, because this is Moses
and the prophets, and Moses and the prophets,
though mentioning the Gentiles,
mostly talk about the nation of Israel,
the nation of Judah.
So when they hear these Jews coming and saying,
hey, we're going to go to the Gentiles.
I mean, that makes them feel great.
They're just like, wow, this is wonderful.
God loves us too, right?
The Lord wants us to be saved as well.
Look at verse 49.
And the word of the Lord was published
throughout all the region.
But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women
and the chief men of the city and raised persecution
against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coast.
Hey, what goes around comes around, amen.
You guys didn't catch that they were expelled they expelled them and later on they get expelled themselves
So what we have here so the juice see that all these Gentiles are believing they're obviously going to leave the synagogues
And in line to that, they end up influencing,
we would say maybe like the influential people of the city.
This is what it talks about when it says
the honorable women and the chief men of the city.
It's referring to those of influence,
maybe political leaders, individuals who
just have a lot of influence over people in that region.
And so they're just like, hey, these people
are doing these things, they're speaking blasphemous things.
And this kind of shows you
This is kind of proof that the Pharisees had not just religious influence but also political influence as well.
Because if they can go to the honorable women and the chief men of the city and influence them to persecute the men of God,
obviously that's a lot of pool that they have, okay?
So they persecuted them, they expelled them out of their coast in verse 51,
but they shook off the dust of their feet against them and came unto Iconium,
and the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost.
So a great work is done here.
So what do we have? We have, from Antioch, they go to Cyprus, they went to Sergius Paulus, maybe he's the only one who got saved, but a great work was accomplished there.
From the island of Cyprus, they go to Perga Pamphylia, Perga Pamphylia, they go to Antioch and Pisidia, there's a synagogue, a great work is accomplished there, and in fact they end up staying there for a couple weeks apparently.
because they're going sabbath after sabbath preaching the word of God a lot of Gentiles get saved they receive persecution and then
They're essentially excommunicated from that region, you know because of their preaching. So this places them in Iconium
Okay, so you have Antioch right you're here of Pisidia Iconium is kind of like down here
Okay, look at verse 1 of chapter 14 and it came to pass in Iconium that they went both together
into the synagogue of the Jews
And so spake that a great multitude,
both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.
So this is showing us that these synagogues
don't just have Jews, they have a lot of Greeks, right?
And this is what you need to tell people when they're like,
oh, the apostles went to the synagogues.
Not at a conviction, they're going,
and look, if they're going there at a conviction,
then why aren't they saved?
Why are those people in the synagogues not saved, right?
So they're going there. They're they're they're speaking to the Jews
They're speaking to the Greeks and again in Iconium a lot of them are getting saved
So this is a lot of success that they're seeing verse to but
the unbelieving Jews
Stirred up the Gentiles and made their minds evil affected against the brethren now. This is extremely evil
What does it mean when it says they made their minds
evil affected against the brethren?
What they're doing is they're going to people
and spreading rumors about them that are not true.
Making someone's mind evil affected
is when a person receives rumors from someone,
gossip about someone that is not verified, right?
And obviously these guys are liars, they're evil,
they're wicked, so they're spreading rumors about them,
they're spreading lies about them, they're slandering them,
and unfortunately people just believe them, okay?
And this is a principle for us to learn
that we can't just believe everything we hear.
Doesn't matter how convincing it is,
unless there's solid facts,
we can't just believe everything we hear.
Don't allow your mind to be evil affected against someone
because you don't know what the agenda of that person is.
We need to make sure that we stand on principle
and facts are, you know, or it's not true,
because I want to see the facts.
I want to see the proof, the evidence, right?
Now, it's interesting that instead of, you know,
these Jews, they're angry about the Apostle Paul
and Barnabas being successful.
And, you know, instead of just saying, you know what,
we need to kick it up here, you know,
we need to work a little harder in our synagogues.
Preach better sermons.
You know actually you know preach good sermons and and you know we need to start making more proselytes
And we need to just work a little harder instead in order to elevate themselves. They have to tear down the apostle Paul
I'm Barnabas
Okay, that is a major red flag
To show you that someone does not is not in the ministry for the right reasons
If they have to try to tear someone down in order to exalt themselves folks if you want to be magnified of the Lord
Just do the work
Okay, do the work preach better sermons, you know, these Jews should have just joined the apostle Paul Barnabas
And be like, you know what? Let's just turn the synagogue into a church
All right, they're already here. I want to be saved. How can I help?
But no, they are envious of the success that they are seeing so they end up stirring up the Gentiles that are in Iconium
against
the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, look at verse three,
long time therefore abode they speak in boldly in the Lord,
which gave testimony to the word of his grace
and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
This is obviously a fulfillment of Mark chapter 16,
that God is allowing the apostles to perform these miracles
in order to confirm the message that they're preaching.
So they're there and it doesn't specify
what kind of miracles they're doing.
But if it's anything of like what's happened to Elimus,
you know, these are notable miracles.
These are the signs of the apostles.
in order to lend veracity to their message.
Verse four says,
but the multitude of the city was divided,
and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles.
And when there was an assault made of both of the Gentiles
and also of the Jews with their rulers,
to use them to spitefully and to stone them,
they were aware of it, in other words,
they were aware of it, and fled into Leisström and Derby,
cities of Lyconea, and unto the region
that lieth round about.
So this is pretty cool, okay?
they're causing such a controversy in Iconium that they've caused the city to be split in two
One part of the city is just like the Apostles are right
The other part of the city is like no, they're evil the rulers said they're bad and so there's this major division
Now what does that teach us it teaches us that Christ came not to bring peace but a sword
You know what division is a natural byproduct of preaching the word of God
Now, we want unity in the local New Testament church.
That's where unity belongs, amen?
We don't want unity with people out in the world.
You know, though hand joined in hand,
the wicked shall not be unpunished.
God wants doctrinal unity in the church.
He wants us to strive together for the unity of our church,
the unity of the gospel.
He wants us to be like-minded in the local New Testament
church, but he also wants us to divide people
when we're out there,
because that's exactly what the gospel does.
And not just the gospel, every other Bible teaching
of the word of God divides you from your family.
It can divide you from your spouse.
It can divide you from your children.
It can divide you from your cousins.
It can divide you from your friends.
It divides you from the admiration of the world.
But here's the great thing about that.
It divides people, meaning that there's
going to be a group of people that just absolutely hate you.
But there's also people who are going to support you, too.
So don't see division as a bad thing.
It's like, oh, man, now I got all these people who hate me
and all this, and people don't like me.
Yeah, but you also got a bunch of people who like you, though.
Because you're not the only one. There's 7,000 prophets who have not bowed the need to bail
and
so
You know this is a good thing and the Apostle Paul obviously they're aware that they're conspiring to kill them
He's aware that they want to destroy them
So then they end up fleeing from Iconium to Leisner and Derby
So if we're to look you go to Cyprus pergopanphilia they go to Antiochal Pesidia
They go to Iconium now they're gonna go to Leisner and Derby, which is further inland. Okay
So, man, they're fleeing, they're getting the work done, a lot of people are getting saved.
Verse 7, And there they preached the gospel, and there sat a certain man of atlaistra, impotent in his feet.
Being a cripple from his mother's room who never had walked the same heard Paul speak who steadfastly be holding him perceiving
That he had faith to be healed said with a loud voice stand upright on my feet
And he leaped and walked and when the people saw that Paul had done what Paul had done
They lifted up their voices saying in the speech of like like on Ea
The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men and they call Barnabas Jupiter and Paul
MacCurious because he was the chief speaker. So what's taking place here?
They go to Leistra and Derby and specifically they are actually in Leistra they will they're going to flee into Derby later on
But both of these cities are essentially known as Lysonia, okay
And they're there and of course god provides an opportunity to lend more veracity to the message of the inhabitants of that city
He ends up healing this man. Everyone's seasoned. They're just like, whoa
The gods are come down to us
Now let me just make a quick little uh assessment here of verse 12, okay
because it says that they're calling Barnabas Jupiter,
but they're calling Paul Macurious, okay?
Now, who are Jupiter and Macurious?
These are false Roman gods.
Now, the point I wanna make here
is that in the original language,
it's actually not Jupiter and it's not Macurious.
It's actually Zeus and I believe it's Hermes, okay?
Zeus and Hermes are not Roman gods, they're Greek gods, okay?
And we were like, oh man, is this a mistranslation?
No, because they're both false gods.
And the Roman gods, Jupiter and Macurius,
are the equivalent to Zeus and Hermes, okay?
And it's possible that the King James translators
translated as Jupiter and Macurius,
because during that particular time in the 1600s,
they're just more familiar with these Roman gods
for whatever reason, okay?
But you can call them Beelzebub if you want,
I still, you know, they're still false gods.
Doesn't really matter what you call them.
Okay, so they think that these guys are our gods. They're these Greek gods
That are come down to them and why are they saying this they're just like oh man you guys are great
You guys are gods and so they're exalting them as though there's someone look at verse 13
Then the priest of Jupiter which was before their city brought oxen and garlands onto the gates and would have done
Sacrifice with the people these guys are extreme
Which when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of?
They made everyone kiss their toes and kiss their rings and
Receive worship from them because that's exactly what popes do. Amen
No, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying and saying sirs. Why do you these things?
We also are men of like passions with you. He says so obviously we see the apostle Paul
He's not receiving worship like you know the the current pope or the one who just died who's in hell did right?
And like the current Pope, the guy from Chicago or whatever, is going to be receiving.
You know this is what they're doing is as outright blasphemous is disgusting. It's filthy
It goes against the word of God, whereas these men who are legitimate men of God
Apostles, you know, they are the representatives of Christ on this earth during this particular time. They're not receiving worship
They're not receiving that admiration. They're actually tearing their garments because they don't want to be worshiped
They're like we're men just like you stop this, okay?
Look at verse 17's is nevertheless he left not himself without a witness and that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and
Fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness. What is he saying?
You know he begins to preach unto them and obviously these are people who are just accustomed to worshiping false gods
And you know they probably think to themselves well, you know what we've been blessed though, right?
We've been blessed even though we're worshiping these false gods. We're being fed
We're being taken care of and you know what we can say the same for a lot of pagans out there
There's a lot of people in this world who receive the benefits of
Just being a creation of God even though they're not Christians, but why is that?
I'll tell you why it's because he sends the rain on the just as well as the unjust
Okay, that's why
Jupiter's not blessing these people.
McCurious is not blessing these people.
God is the one blessing them,
even though they're not giving glory to God.
And it says in verse 17 that he left not himself
without a witness in that he did good.
And we often talk about the witnesses of God, right?
We have the witness of God written in our hearts, right?
We have the word of God that's also a witness.
We have creation that's a witness.
But you know, a fourth witness is just the goodness
that we experience in this life.
And there's people that are born, they live, and they die,
and they lived a good life, and they will still go to hell,
because they didn't get saved.
Why? Because the goodness and forbearance of God
did not lead them to repentance to be saved, right?
And so even the goodness, and I would say that you could
probably point to a time in your life before each salvation
where you experience some form of goodness.
You know whether it's economic, you know wealth, you know, you're healthy
You had a great family you have good things that happen to you prior to Christ
And it's not because of the absence of Christ is because of the fact that God is just good and he sends rain upon the unjust as well
You know in fact that says there he gave us rain from heaven fruitful seasons
Filling our hearts with food and gladness that means these pagan heathen Mayans
Who are you know offering sacrifices and human sacrifices that are false gods in order to receive rain in their time of famine?
And they got that rain God did it not because they offered sacrifices, but because he's just good
And it should be that they're just like you know what?
These gods suck
They didn't do this there has to be someone else because we did this last time and they didn't get we didn't get rain
You know we did this last time we didn't why are we having famines in the first place?
They need to give credit to where credit was due which is God and that's what he was hoping for God wants people to essentially
look to the witness of his goodness
and thereby respond to the like God gives to them
and obviously it'll lead them to Christ eventually
or it'll lead them to a person
that can talk to them about Christ.
In fact, look at verse 16, who in time past
suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
What does that mean?
It means he allows people to just make their own decisions.
Oh man, so you know, what about the kid in Africa who grows up with paganism and stuff
like that?
Well, you know, if he wanted to, he could get out of that if he wants to.
It's his choice.
What about, you know, the guy in the Congo, if he dies, is he going to go to hell?
He's going to split hell wide open, yes, he will go to hell if he does not believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Regardless of what region of the world you're a part of,
at the end of the day, everyone has the same amount of light,
meaning that you can respond to whatever light God gives to you
and that will lead you to be situated in such a way
that, you know, God will send a missionary,
he'll send a soul winner,
he'll send someone to preach the gospel to you.
And this is more true today than it is back then.
Why? Because of the internet.
Dude in the Congo doesn't have to have a missionary come to him.
He could just watch something on YouTube.
In his hut.
It's true, they have technology there.
In their huts, in their makeshift little house
that they had the mud hut while they're eating
their mosquito burger, folks, they still got iPhones
or what, I promise you they do.
You know, I've seen people in Cambodia
and living in the most horrible conditions,
yet they got their phone, they're watching YouTube on there.
They have access to the truth, okay?
So he's preaching unto them, and you know, he thinks that he's gonna see the same success though, right?
And you know, he does it. Okay, so he's in Leistra. Look at verse 19 and there came thither certain Jews
From Antioch and Iconium. So you got to understand what's taking place here. He's not in Iconium
He's not in Antioch. Where is he? He's in Leistra
But yet it says here that there's Jews who came from Antioch and they came from Iconium. They follow them to Leistra
So it's just like these guys are so insufferable
They're so evil that they're just like we don't want them to preach the gospel in that region either
So they're literally following them in order to stop them from preaching the word of God
It says who persuaded the people meaning they make their minds evil affected against them
and having stone Paul drew him out of the city
supposing he had been dead, okay?
So this is the first time the apostle Paul
is literally stoned, okay?
He's like beating me stone, and these guys are wicked.
They end up influencing the people of the city
to murder Paul, and I personally believe
that he probably did die.
I know it says supposing he had been dead, you know?
It's not really clear.
You can guess that maybe that means like,
I would assume that he probably was dead.
And I would think that this is where the story
in Second Corinthians comes into play, okay?
Where he probably went into heaven
and he saw all those things unspeakable.
And so, you know, they stoned him,
then they dragged his carcass out of the city,
no proper burial, just throw his body out on the field
and that's it.
Now, I kind of, I do find this part funny a little bit.
Verse 20,
how be it as the disciples stood around about him.
So they're just kind of like, they're just around his body,
just kind of like looking at him.
You know, like, what are you guys doing?
You want to bury him?
They're just kind of looking at him.
It says, how be as the disciple stood around about him,
he rose up and came into the city,
and the next day he departed with Barnabas and Derby.
Now that's powerful there, okay?
Because after he's stoned, what does he do?
He gets up.
You know why?
Because the just man follows seven times
and rides it up again.
And you know what, this is a great principle
for you and for me, that when we are beat,
we're palpitated, the stones of life hit us,
we're going through a hard time, discouragement,
depression, health issues, financial issues,
and it's knocking you down, you better get back up.
Rise up again, get up again.
And look, I'm not giving you some TikTok up here.
Not TikTok, TED Talk.
Yeah, both. Yeah, I'm not giving you a Ted talk up here saying, you know, just get back up. Just get back up
No, no, no, no, it says he rose up
The next day departed and barred and went into the city the next day and it says later on that he preached there
So he got up and what do you do? He did the work of God again
You know what the message to you and to me is when we're knocked down when you get back up and go serve God again
Get back up and go preach the gospel again get back up and go to church get back up and go read your Bible
Get back up and go serve people get back up and go serve God
It's not just about get about getting up
It's about getting up and doing something about
And I love it. He says you stoned got back up and I'm just gonna guess that you know
He looks pretty messed up
You don't get stoned supposed to your dad and just come out looking like you know
Just unscathed he's probably swollen might be missing some teeth. We don't know probably got a big headache
Look at verse 21 and when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many
They returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch
Pause of pause bold
He dies or a stone he gets up. He's all right time to go to Derby
Gets people saved there, and he's like, where should we go next? Let's go to Leistra, and it's just like you mean where they stoned you
Okay, let's go to Leistra, and then let's go to Iconium you mean to the place where the people who stoned you are from and
Then let's go to Antioch. You mean where the synagogue was where they cast it expelled you out
Yeah, because you know what obviously he doesn't care. He obviously knows that his life is in God's hands and
He's out there preaching the word of God, but let me explain to you why he's going through these regions again, okay?
He's going through these regions because he has converts in these regions and
He needs to use listen to me what happened to him as an example
To those converts because look what it says in verse 22
Confirming the souls of the disciples. What does it mean to confirm? It means to make them firm
You see we want to get people saved, but we want to get them rooted in the Christian life
Right, we want to get them grounded in the Christian life so that they become steadfast
Unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord and it says confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and
That we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God
Now I think it's safe to say that the Apostle Paul knew what he was talking about
He's going to and he's possible. He's going through these reasons like this is a perfect illustration to use
He's all bloodied and battered.
He's missing some teeth, he's swollen,
and he's just like,
we got some extra relation into the kingdom of God.
They're just like, whoa, this guy's hardcore.
And he's illustrating to them what happens
if you serve God, right?
He's not scaring them.
He's actually exhorting them, it says.
And you know what?
You and I need to be an example of suffering.
And this is why it's important that when you suffer,
you pass with flying colors and you don't quit.
You need to make sure that when you go through a trial,
a tribulation, when you are beat,
when Satan plummets you, when he's destroying you,
when you're going through a difficult time,
that you get back up, you go preach the gospel,
and you confirm the souls of the disciples
because people need to see you suffer
and suffer righteously.
You know, one of my favorite books in the Bible was Joe.
But you know why?
Because he passed with flying colors.
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him?
Powerful.
Man, never quit.
And there's something encouraging about a person
who's able to go through hardships and afflictions
and just not quit.
Just stick it out, all right?
And he's like, we muster much tribulation
and turn to the kingdom of God.
People are like, yeah, we can see that, you know?
And look, this is an important message for them.
You know why?
Because he's leaving them.
And he's leaving them in Satan's seat, which are the synagogues
So he's leaving them with all of these false prophets
Who are gonna be there and he's leaving them there. So they he's basically telling like you're gonna suffer tribulation
You know, think it not strange the fiery trial which not which shall try you as though something strange happened unto you
They need to realize that if they serve God, you know, this might be the outcome. You might get bombed
People might target you and you know what we inspired a lot of people out there through that bombing
When we got bombed a lot of people were inspired by that a lot of people were encouraged
A lot of people were exhorted and you know what I one of the reasons got allowed the bombing in our church is to be a message
To all churches if you serve God like this this might happen to you
Promise you that's one of the message because this was blazed abroad all across the nation
Other nations were contacting me about this.
I promise you, there are churches out there
that were just like, whoa.
Either they're gonna be like, you know what?
Maybe the pastoring's not for me.
Or they're gonna be like, you know what?
We need to turn it up a notch.
But at the end of the day, they see preaching the word
of God, serving God, might cost me something.
It might cost me a lot.
The man's church was bombed.
I don't want my church to be bombed.
Or they might be like, you know what?
I wanna suffer for Christ's sake too.
So he's exhorted and look at verse 23 and when they had ordained them elders in every church and had prayed with fastings
They commended them to the Lord on whom they believe so what happens?
He's confirming them
He's exhorting them and then he's selecting leaders in that region and he's doing to them
What those in Antioch north of Jerusalem did to him right late hands on them to confirm them
They ordained them and then they basically established churches there
And after they had passed through the city of verse 24, they came to Panfilia and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Atalia and then sailed to Antioch from Wednesday had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.
And when they were come, they had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles and there they abode long time with the disciples.
So the work was accomplished.
They were able to start these churches.
You say, why do we start in Galatians chapter one though,
pastor?
Well, because all of these regions are in Galatia.
Every single region we just looked at,
other than Perga and Pamphylia,
I'm talking about Antiochipicidia,
Lystra, Derby, Iconium, all of that is in Galatia.
So who is the apostle Paul writing to in Galatians chapter one?
Those regions right there, those churches.
And we look at Galatians chapter one and what a great book.
And not just that, but first Peter chapter one as well,
that he's addressing the Galatians.
There's churches there who I believe by the way,
Timothy came from,
because Timothy is from this region.
That's where he was reached.
Remember, his mother was a Jew,
or excuse me, yeah, his mother was a Jew,
but his father was a Greek.
Well, what do we have in these regions,
Jews and Greeks, right?
So, that kind of shows that there are already saved people in these areas, but he ends up
being a great man of God.
He ends up overseeing congregations, right?
And you know what?
A great work was accomplished.
Churches were established, but let me just say this, it costs the Apostle Paul something.
That's the point that I want to make with the sermon.
We see the churches of Galatia, it's like, whoa, but hold on a second, that costs someone
You know and when you read in Galatians chapter one the churches of Galatia just remember Acts 13 and 14
Everything that the Apostle Paul and Barnabas had to go through to establish those people to establish those churches
To a confirming them in the faith, but it was all for the sake of creating these churches
This this this body of churches in Galatia, which ended up being great churches
You know, what's the point of the sermon? The point of the sermon is this? Hey, you want to do great things for God
It's gonna cost you something
Oh, but the results are great.
And so, count the cost, but just realize the result is always worth the cost.
Always worth it.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
And thank you for the Apostle Paul and Barnabas and their great example, Lord, starting these
churches of Galatia, reaching Timothy.
And these churches are started, Timothy's reached, and now we have 1st and 2nd Timothy
What a what a wonderful thing there and I pray Lord that you'd help us to realize that
Doing things for you great things for you
Comes with the price and we can often look at the price of serving you and think man. That's that's a lot
But when we realize that it might produce the churches of Galatia
We can see that it's worth it and I pray you bless this as we go on our way
Hope us not soon forget what we heard tonight in Jesus name. We pray amen
Man, our last song is a song sheet, the wonder of it all.
If you need a song sheet, please keep your hand raised
and one of the ushers will come by and give you one.
Anybody else need one?
Some of the kiddos up here need some over here.
The hike over here.
All right, it seems like everybody got one.
We're going to sing this song on the first verse right there.
There's a wonder of sunset at evening.
The wonder as sunrise I see.
Here's the one
just to think that God loves me.
There's a wonder of springtime and harvest.
The sky, the stars, the sun.
that's only begun.
Oh, the wonder of it all,
the wonder of it all,
just at the end.
There's a wonder of God's revelation,
the word who dwelt among men.
But the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul
is that Jesus is coming.
wonderful scene and you are dismissed.