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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Good evening, tonight we're in Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1 the Bible reads, The former treaties I have made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, to the day in which he was taken up, after that he threw the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, sayeth he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight, and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven, the same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven? Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. When they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James. All these continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, the number of names together were about 120. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Al-Qadamah, that is to say, the field of blood. For it is written in the book of the Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let another take. Wherefore of these men, which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed to Joseph called Bersabbas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots, and the lots fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. Let's pray. Dear little God, just thank you for this church giving us and all this every precious soul at this church, Lord, and that we thank you for pastor right now, Lord, and please bless him right now as he preaches your word unto us, Lord, and that us the congregation can take the word that you've given us, Lord, tonight, and apply it to our lives, Lord. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We are in Acts chapter number one, and the time of my sermon this evening is the evolution of churches, the evolution of churches. Tonight, I want to kind of take you through the book of Acts and just kind of show how the first couple churches in the first century AD progressively got better. And I also want to state that the churches of today are actually far superior than the churches in the first century AD. And the superiority that we possess here in 2024 is based on how effective we are, because we've had 2,000 years to refine the administration of churches, right? So for thousands of years, obviously churches have been started, pastors have been ordained, works have been accomplished, and so over the couple of ages that we have here, we've been able to refine it, make it better, and essentially become superior in our actions. And obviously I'm not referring to the belief systems, I'm referring to the way they administrate the church, the operation of the church, because the churches in the first century AD were still trying to figure things out. You know, obviously the New Testament church, though we find the term church in the Old Testament, meaning congregation, the New Testament church is made up of Gentiles, and it isn't just necessarily, you know, essentially for one specific geographic location like the temple, you know, these are all over the place. And so obviously that's a New Testament phenomenon that includes the Gentiles, therefore requires a different administration, a different operation, and so we're gonna look at that this evening. Now, one reason this is important is because of the fact that, you know, you have a lot of churches today that feel as though the churches of today are inferior to the churches of the first century AD. And they'll often say we need to go back to the book of Acts, we need to go back to the way they did it, we need to just do house churches, because churches back then met in houses, and that's how they did it. We don't need pastors. If you look at the churches in the first century AD, they didn't have pastors there, they didn't do hymns, they didn't have a piano. Well, I don't even know if the piano existed back then, right? So now the churches of today are far more superior because we got more instruments to work with. But here's the thing is that that's actually a wrong mentality that the first century AD, the churches in the first century AD, you know, that we need to go back to that somehow, because the reality is this, is that they were very primitive in those days, they were still trying to figure things out, and we're gonna see that in just a bit. Now before we go into Acts chapter 1, let me just start off by saying that obviously when Jesus Christ started his ministry, the disciples that followed him would obviously make up the church, right? And when we say the church, we're not talking about universal church, we're talking about that literal church that he was pastoring with his 12 disciples, eventually becoming 70 apostles, and then obviously multiplying thereafter. And we see that in Matthew chapter 16, he says, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. What is he saying? He's saying that the church will be built upon these lively stones, people who have believed on Jesus Christ. And it's based upon the confession that Peter is making, right? Because he says, Thou art the Christ, he says he's the Savior, he makes that confession that's given to him, and based upon that, the Lord says, that is what the church is going to be made up of, is believers, okay? People who've confessed Christ as the Savior, who believe on Jesus. And then later on in chapter 18 of Matthew, we see that he starts giving instructions on how to deal with problems in the church. When there's offenses or heretics, he talks about going to the church, right? Telling it to the church. So obviously, there is a church in existence in the Gospels. It's not something that just came about in the book of Acts. Now, you say, well, we know that, why is that even important? Well, there's this huge debate in old IFP churches as to where and when the church started. They're like, what's it? Matthew 16? Was it Matthew 18? Was it Acts chapter 1 or Acts chapter 2 in the day of Pentecost? It's like, when did the church start? And it's just like, dude, the church started when Jesus came and just won a bunch of people and they started following him. That was the church, okay? Because the job of the church is to have a pastor. The job of the church is to have an evangelistic program. That's what Jesus did for three and a half years. He's out preaching the gospel. People are following him. He's losing members. He's gaining members. They're participating in the Lord's Supper. So he's running a church and obviously it's a proto church. It's very primitive because this is like a new thing in the New Testament. It's barely taking off. But we see that after that, it progressively gets better, okay? Now look at Acts chapter 1. Because a lot of people will say, you know, we need to go to the book of Acts to kind of teach us how to do church. And according to the book of Acts, everyone met in a house, okay? And that's how we should do it. House, church, movement, blah, blah, blah. Well, let's look at Acts chapter 1 verse 12. It says, These all continue with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. So there's a good amount of people here and it tells us specifically how many. Verse 15 says, And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said the number of the names together were about a hundred and twenty. So right off the bat, when we get into the book of Acts, we see that the membership of this first church is a hundred and twenty people, which would not fit in a house, okay? So obviously, we know they're not meeting in houses. And in fact, specifically, it says that they met in an upper room. It's referring to a hall of some sort. You know, maybe they paid someone to rent it out for a little bit so they can meet there, so they can pray, make supplication, you know, ordain another apostle, choose another apostle, which ended up being Matthias. But the point that I'm making here is that the first church after Jesus Christ's ascension was about a hundred and twenty members. Now, that's really good if you think about it, okay, because the average church today is only about sixty five to seventy five people in America, sixty five to seventy five people. So a church of one hundred and twenty is really good. Now, we know that there is at least seventy laborers from the time of Christ, and of course, he's losing people. People are walking away from him after John Chapter six. The Bible says the disciples walked away and walked no more with him. You know, they rejected him. But he's always he's preaching the word of God. He's gaining followers. And by the end of Jesus's life, only a handful remain until the resurrection, if you think about it. Because everyone, you know, smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered once he was arrested, once he was crucified. Really, the only person who was there at that moment were the women and John. Right. Because even Peter was just like, I'll be with you to death. And then he ended up denying him. He got right with God later on. So his church, so to speak, went from like 70 people, if not more, and dwindled down to like a handful of people. But after his resurrection, the Bible tells us in First Corinthians 15 that he showed himself to about how many people? Five hundred brethren. OK, now that doesn't mean he only got five people, five hundred people saved. These are five hundred people in his immediate area that he's reaching and he's showing himself alive. Five hundred people. But think about this. Out of the five hundred, how many people actually assembled together, congregated together in Acts chapter one? One hundred and twenty. He said, why is that important? Well, because, you know, you talk about so many online, talk about preaching the gospel and we talk about the numbers that we produce. And they're like, people online are like, yeah, but where are all those people, though? This is a common question I get all the time. It's like, yeah, you guys got that many people saved. But how many of those people are actually coming to church? Well, a very low percentage of that come to church. That is the biblical model. And typically I get smart with them and they're like, yeah, but how many? Yeah, but where are all those people now? I tell them probably in their homes. They're probably just living life in their homes. No, but I mean, like, you know, why aren't they in your church? I'll tell you why, because they don't want to come to church. You say, well, you're not really doing good ministry there. Well, that's funny because he's showing himself alive, meaning resurrected to five hundred people, and yet only one hundred and twenty people decide to congregate with the disciples. You would think that Jesus God himself would attract more people after the resurrection. Yeah, he's showing himself to five hundred people and then only one hundred and twenty of them were like, we'll go to church. Crazy, where are the other guys? Yeah, it's like it's like the nine, right, where he heals them and only one comes back and gives God the glory. And the Lord's like, where are the nine? So this is just human nature. Doesn't matter who the pastor is, it could be Jesus himself reaching a ton of people and only a small percentage, twenty four, twenty five percent will actually come to church, if that. OK, and so first church here in Jerusalem has about one hundred and twenty members and, you know, the Great Commission is being reiterated to them. And let me just make something clear is that when you read the gospels, you see the Great Commission being stated various times. And it's not the same, necessarily the same commission or the same area that he's given to. He's telling to them four different times, OK, because obviously they're not getting it. And in fact, look at verse eight of Acts one. It says, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and all Judea and in Samaria until the utmost part of the earth. So they know this. They know that they have to abide there in the upper room until the Holy Ghost comes upon them. They get filled with the spirit. They're given boldness to witness and they'll get people saved. And of course, the church is going to end up growing because of that. But I want you to just keep in mind that they started off in acts with only one hundred and twenty people. And I don't mean only as in that's like little because that's a lot. OK, and by the way, this is one hundred and twenty committed members. This is like devoted members, right? They're praying, they're preaching, they're ready to do the work of the ministry. It's pretty solid. Go to Acts chapter two now, Acts chapter two, we're looking at the evolution of churches in the New Testament. Now, in Acts chapter two, you have the day of Pentecost, OK, and in the day of Pentecost, what you have is Jewish proselytes of different regions coming to Jerusalem to worship. And so God wants to take advantage of that. And in order to expedite the growth of the church, he's going to allow the disciples to be filled with the spirit, to speak in different languages in order to preach the word of God to these individuals so that they can get saved and a great work can be accomplished. Now, if you look at verse nine, it tells us the regions they come from. It's just Parthenians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers of Mesopotamia and in Judea, Cappadocia and Pontius in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Crete's and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. So there's a lot of different people here, OK, that are hearing the word of God. Of course, the disciples are enabled to speak in a different language in order to preach the gospel unto them. Look at verse 41, if you would, what is the result of it? And with many of the words that he testify and exhort saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. We talked about this morning that gladly receiving the word means they got saved. Right. And look what it says here. And the same day they were added unto them about three thousand souls. Now talk about church growth. Right. This is an explosion here. You got one twenty and it's like, man, those five hundred, what happened to those other guys who forget the five hundred, you just add three thousand to the membership. And I don't believe this three thousand is just like, you know, they're casual attendees. I don't believe there's Sunday morning glories only because it says in verse forty two that they continue those three thousand steadfastly, meaning consistently in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking bread and prayers. So they went from one hundred and twenty at the Church of Jerusalem to three thousand basically overnight. OK, now I don't believe this is something that will happen today, per se. And let me explain what I mean by that. I do believe our church can go from one hundred and twenty to three thousand, but not this fast, because obviously this is a notable miracle that the Lord performed in order to accelerate the growth of the New Testament churches so that more labors can be added. And more labors can be sent out and the gospel can be preached. Gentiles can be reached. So he's expediting the process here in order to create more labors. But that's not to say that I don't believe that we can't grow from one twenty to three thousand in a couple of years or decades. I think that's very much possible. OK, so if there's three thousand one hundred and twenty members of Jerusalem, whose house is that? They met in a house church. No, they met in the upper room, which is one hundred and twenty. You know, I don't even think my house can fit one hundred and twenty. We're going to we're going to cram everyone in, you know, but here's the thing, like one hundred and twenty to hear the word of God preached and all that. That's difficult. But now they got three thousand. I mean, where are they going to meet? Well, look at verse forty six. I believe that it's possible that during this particular time, they're actually assembling congregating at the temple, OK, because it's three thousand people. Look at verse forty six, it says, and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. So when you look at the temple, it's obviously broken up into different parts. You have the temple, you have Solomon's porch that's going to be mentioned later on. And so I believe these three thousand are assembling there, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with them joining the temple for religious reasons, because what's being read in the temple? Moses, right? The scriptures are being read at that time. And, you know, people are getting up and reading the scriptures, giving the interpretation thereof. And I'm sure the apostles are there also preaching the word of God. They are assembling there because, number one, it's good. It's good ground to preach the gospel to people who are not saved. But it's also good because the scriptures are already available there. They can read the Old Testament, they can hear the word of God being preached, and then the apostles are there giving them their doctrine. I don't believe they're integrating to Judaism, OK, because people will say, well, you know, Christianity is an evolution of Judaism. Wrong. You know, they're there in the temple to hear the word of God being preached. But the Bible specifically said that they continued in what the apostles doctrine, but they're joining themselves to the temple. They're there to preach the gospel to the people who are not saved, but they're also there to hear the word of God because it's being read in the temple as well. OK, now, the reason I believe they're assembling at the temple is, number one, because of the three thousand. But then in Chapter three, what do we see? We see Peter and John going up to the temple to pray, the Bible says. OK, and that's when they heal the guy and a great work's done there. OK, now go with me, if you would, to Chapter four, Acts chapter four. So what do we start with? We start with this really primitive church with Jesus and the disciples. OK, he's there with them for three and a half years. He ends up sending them out as apostles. It evolves to 70 apostles, possibly more. He loses some. He gains some. And then in chapter one, we see that at least one hundred and twenty people are there after the hundred and twenty. When the day of Pentecost takes place, three thousand are added to that. And it's referred to as a church. OK. They don't necessarily have a building per se to meet in, so they're assembling at the temple because everyone's already accustomed to going to the temple. And so look at chapter four, it says, and as they spake verse one, as they spake unto the people, the priest, excuse me, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. So after they healed the guy, obviously, they're they're gathering a crowd. People are listening to him. So they start preaching in the word of God. This is what's taking place here. And the religious leaders of the day didn't like that. Verse three says, and they laid hands on them and put them in hold until the next day, for it was now even tied. I want you to notice verse four. How be it? Many of them which heard the word believed and the number of the men was about five thousand. So the first time it was three thousand. Now it's five thousand. Now, I don't think that this five thousand was added to the church, though, because Acts chapter two seems to go out of its way to tell us that three thousand were added to the church. Whereas here in Acts chapter four just tells us that the number of them that believe the people that got saved was five thousand. But if we were to take that same percentage that we took from the hundred and twenty to five hundred, you know, it would show us that maybe maybe twelve hundred came and were added to the church. So now we're dealing with a church that's maybe about four thousand, possibly five thousand in membership. Obviously, it's several thousand. OK, the church is growing. It's doing a great work here. OK, look at verse twenty one. So would you say that this is very successful? Yeah, right. A lot of people are getting saved. People are getting baptized. People are, you know, remaining steadfast in the apostles doctrine. They're going from house to house, meaning that they are fellowshipping with one another. You know, they're showing hospitality one toward another. We see the rudiments of the local New Testament church and some of the practices being put into place at this time. Right now, what happens when you become really successful in the ministry? Persecution, right, a great and effectual doors open unto me, and there are many adversaries. So you can't reach three thousand people, add them to the church. You can't reach five thousand people with the gospel and have nothing happen to you. OK, look at verse twenty one. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing, how they might punish them because of the people for all men glorified God for that which was done. Look at verse twenty nine. So obviously, what are they threatening them to say? Don't preach in this name. We don't want you talking about this. And if you do, we're going to get you. We're going to, you know, hurt you. We're going to do something. We're going to persecute. Verse twenty nine. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. So why are they praying this? Well, because, you know, if you're being threatened, they kind of have like an ultimatum here. They're like, yeah, you know, we need to preach the word of God. We need to preach the gospel. But we're kind of scared, you know, because people are saying they're going to threaten us, throw us into prison. You know, they're going to punish us for this. And so what do they need? They need boldness. OK, says the first thirty by stretching forth thine hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child, Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they had assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And they spake the word of God with boldness. And the multitude of them to believe were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. So now we see that the church that's about maybe four or five thousand has boldness. And these people are actually out there preaching the gospel, challenging the religious leaders, reaching a lot of people for Christ. And let's just be honest. Many of these converts are Jews. They're Jewish proselytes. OK, you know, and so they're creating a stir because now the membership has switched from the synagogue to the church. They're taking people out of the synagogue and they're adding them to the church. OK, so these miracles are being performed and people are like, wow, this is amazing. Giving them an opportunity to preach the word of God, get more people saved. OK, but we have something take place here in Chapter five. OK, you know, we we take a little detour with Ananias and Sapphira lying until the Holy Ghost. And what happens to them? They die. OK, and what better person to do this is Paul or not Paul Peter. You know, he's just like the feet of them that carried your husband out are right there at the door to pick you up to and take you. Both him and his wife die and they're buried. And, you know, God allowed that in order to strike fear in the hearts of not just the people around them, but just the church specifically. OK, so Ananias and Sapphira are killed. And, you know, we see that great fear comes upon the church because of this. And obviously, it gives a lot of credibility to the disciples, to the apostles, look at Acts chapter five and verse verse 11. It says in great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch. And the rest of the church, not no man joined himself to them, but the people magnified them and believers were the more added to the Lord. Multitudes both of men and women. So the death of Ananias and Sapphira was necessary. You know, they had to be made an example of in order to strike fear in the hearts of the church to let them know you can't just go around lying and doing wickedness and sin because you just might fall dead like Ananias and Sapphira. And this not only placed the fear of God in their hearts, but it caused others to actually get saved because of it. OK. Oh, you'll scare people away with that type of preaching. Well, these people were actually added to the church because of that. OK. Fear. You know, the Bible says some save with fear, pulling them out of the fire. But I also want you to notice there in verse number 12 towards the latter end that it says that they were with all one accord in Solomon's porch. So these this large church of thousands of believers are congregating in one accord there in the temple still. So we still have this one church in Jerusalem. It's a mega church. OK. And, you know, people are dying and people people are getting saved. People are being added to the church, but they're utilizing the temple to congregate and also to evangelize. Look at verse 40. It says, And to him they agreed. And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counter worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, in every house, they cease not to preach and teach Jesus Christ. So this is showing us, according to verse 42, that they're utilizing the temple to congregate in because there was one accord in Solomon's porch. But according to verse 42, they're in the temple preaching Jesus Christ. OK, they're evangelizing the Jews there in the temple, but it also says in every house. So, you know, they meet together, they're preaching the word of God, and then they could possibly say, you guys stay here, evangelize the Jews. We're gonna go from house to house and preach and teach Jesus Christ. OK, so they're kind of using that as a home base to do so. So keep in mind that at this point there's at least 4500 members of this church in Jerusalem, of this New Testament church. Now, what happens when you have a church of 4000, 5000 people? You think everyone is just there's no problems whatsoever. You know, you think that, you know, there's not gonna be some some issues there. Of course, there's gonna be a lot of issues. OK, when you have a church of 5000 people, sin becomes rampant. Needs are there and, you know, problems begin to arise, at which point we arrive to Acts chapter seven. Excuse me, Acts chapter six, where because the disciples are increasing, now people are being neglected in the daily ministration. Look at verse one, it says in those days, what days? The days when the church of Jerusalem was growing to about 4000, 5000 people. When the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called the multitude of disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we would give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. So they kind of get together and they're like, you know what, people are being neglected, but we have to sow in, we have to teach the word of God. Like we can't just go around to the 5000 people that are here and just take care of every single person. So let's go ahead and hire someone. Let's ordain people to take care of this daily ministration. And this is essentially known as the chapter where we see the inception of deacons. Okay, verse five says, and the same pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they set before the apostles. And when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. So we see here that they ordained these seven deacons, right? And these deacons aren't there to tell the apostles what to do. It's not a deacon board to run the pastor, right? They're actually there to be the assistant to the pastor. And they're there to minister and be an extension of the leaders to help in the daily ministration. Now, when this is properly executed, what's the result of that? Look at verse seven, the word of God increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And because a lot of these responsibilities were delegated to these deacons, then the word of God was increased, people are getting saved, people are joining the church, and a great number of the priests, these Levites, whether that's referring to those working in the temple, they're being obedient to the faith, they're adhering to New Testament Christianity. And this is why we don't have a deacon board, and this is why we don't have a lot of deacons, because our church is not 5,000 right now. Now, our membership is about 190 people, we have like 190 people on our membership list, and so we have two staff members. And if you want us to add more staff members, then let's grow this thing to like 1,000, or 500 to 1,000, we'll hire more people. Because we hire people based upon the need of what's needed in the local New Testament church. Now, I also want you to notice that these deacons are not just like serving people and just kind of carrying out daily ministrations, they're actually great preachers of the word of God. So these men knew how to expound the word of God, and in fact, the main deacon that we see here is Stephen, who the Bible says is full of the Holy Ghost. He starts preaching to the Jews immediately, and this is like him versus everyone else, and he's giving it to them hard. I mean, we don't have time to like go through his sermon in Acts 7, but the man knows his Bible. I mean, he's giving them a crash course on the history of Israel, ultimately leading to calling them out for resisting the Holy Ghost. And you know, this is the shortest lived deacon position in history, because he gets ordained, he preaches the word of God, and then he's killed. Because he made everyone so mad that they end up stoning him to death, and you know, he's killed because of that. Now, here's the thing is that one thing we see in the Bible is that when people are killed, that actually accelerates the New Testament church even more, because it emboldens others. When Christians are persecuted, what it causes others to do, it causes others to say, wow, this is like amazing. God is using our church, you know, God is using the leaders, and so it makes us want to kind of step it up more, right? Now, this is where the Apostle Paul, who is not an apostle at this time, his name is Saul, it's also Paul, it's both, okay? This is where he's mentioned, and he's holding the coats of those who are stoning Stephen. Now, let me just take a break here to just remind everyone that up until this point, how many churches are there? Just one. There's the church at Jerusalem, okay? It's made up of about 5,000, if not more, thousands of people. They got seven deacons, one of which just died, okay? And so this is a very interesting situation that they're in. Now, look at Acts 8 and verse number 1. Now, do you remember what the Great Commission was? Great Commission was, go ye therefore and teach all nations, preach the gospel to every creature. Leave Jerusalem. It says Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. Move. But do we see the church of Jerusalem doing this? No. However, God like enabled them to do that, though. I mean, he gave them like 5,000 members. You know, we have 5,000 members here, we're starting churches like that, we're sending missionaries. I mean, that's because God is enabling our church to do so, right? If he does that, if he gives us 3,000 members overnight and he is expediting the church with prophets and preachers, people who just know how to do ministry, they're preaching the Word of God, it's time to start sending people out. We're not talking about laying hands suddenly on any man, but obviously the Lord is enabling them supernaturally to kind of do these works immediately because he wants to give the churches there a head start. So God's like, you know, here's 3,000, not doing anything. Okay, let's get 5,000 saved. Let's add to it. Maybe they need a couple more church members or something. Nothing happens. All right, let's create some needs so they can ordain deacons. Seven deacons, one dies, everyone still sticks around in Jerusalem. What's with Jerusalem? Look at Acts 8, 1. It says, And Saul was consenting unto his death, referring to Stephen. And at that time, there was a great persecution against the church, which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hauling men and women committed to them to prison. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. So what do we see here? We see that they're in Jerusalem, and God's kind of like, okay, if you guys aren't leaving, then I'm just going to shake things up here and cause you to be scattered. Now, this is what they used to say in the old IAP, and it's really good. They said, if you don't do in Acts 8, 1, then God's going to bring in Acts 8, 1. If you don't do in Acts 8, 1, then God's going to bring in Acts 8, 1. In other words, if you don't go out there and preach the gospel, then God's going to shake things up at home to force you to get out and go do something. Now, here's the irony about this, because think about this. Think about the irony of Acts 1, 8 and Acts 8, 1 and the Apostle Paul, because the Apostle Paul, obviously he's not an apostle right now, was responsible for starting churches before and after he became a Christian, right? Think about that. It was because of his persecution that the churches ended up scattering and going to different regions, even as far as Cyprus. I mean, we're not just talking about like Jewish cities, we're talking about Gentile cities, okay, by his persecution, and they scattered and they ended up going to different cities. But here's the problem when these churches, when the believers were scattered, is that they only still wanted to reach Jews in those cities. So, because you got to think about it, during this time, there's Jews all over the world, okay? So, all these different regions had Jewish proselytes, so what are the disciples doing when they're scattered? They're trying to reach Jews. So, God allows Saul to persecute the church of God in order to scatter the believers so that they can start churches everywhere else and reach Gentiles. That doesn't happen, so now Paul gets saved and then he ends up starting other churches in Greece, in Asia Minor, in all these different regions, Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithynia. The irony in that, right? Paul's being used before and after BC, you know, before Christ and after Christ. And of course, in this particular chapter, we also see that Philip is doing his job, he's in Samaria, he's preaching the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, the Ethiopian eunuch gets saved, he gets baptized, he goes back home, and I'm sure he's also reaching people there, okay? Now, let me also say this, okay, because, you know, again, back to the house church argument, like, oh, man, you know, that's, we need to go back to that because the Bible talks about people meeting in houses. I believe this is probably the reason why people started meeting in houses is because of the persecution. And in fact, the house churches that we see in the New Testament, in my opinion, are a result of two things. Number one is the persecution that took place in Acts chapter 8 forced everyone to leave immediately, at which point, you just got to think of something, so let's just meet in different houses, in Caesarea, in Joppa, in Cyprus, just different parts of the known world at that time, people are just kind of meeting places. And here's the second reason, to create satellite ministries. So when you look at the house churches in the New Testament, you actually see that they're somehow tied to the main church. For example, you have the Corinthian church that's being addressed, but then it talks about, you know, Aquiline, Priscilla, and the church in their house, okay? So it's possibly referring to the fact that they're in Achaea, and they're preaching the word of God there, but that's a satellite ministry of Corinth. The same thing with Nymphos, when the church at Colossae is being addressed, at the very end of the book, he talks about Nymphos, how he greets him, and the church that's in their house. So obviously, it's referring to some sort of satellite ministry there, okay? So I don't believe, like, all the churches were just completely independent in a house. These are probably satellite ministries, and they were meeting in houses out of necessity, because they were scattered, they had nowhere else to meet, therefore, they just meet in someone's house, okay? Romans 16 talks about that, Aquiline, Priscilla, and their house, so on and so forth. Now, here's, go with me if you would to, no, let's go to chapter nine, if you would, chapter nine. All right, so 120, built up to 3,000, they accumulated another couple thousand, and they're doing a great work, they get seven deacons to help with the administration, but they're still not reaching the world, per se. They're not really fulfilling the great commission as Jesus Christ set forth. So God allows persecution to come upon the church by the hand of Saul, then they are scattered, starting different churches, so now it's not just the church at Jerusalem, now you have a church at Antioch, okay? And then you have a church in Cyprus, you have the church in Caesarea, you have the church in Joppa, you have different congregations meeting in different areas, but here's the problem, they're still only reaching Jews, okay? And obviously, that's great and everything, but God wants everyone to be saved. So now, enters in the Apostle Paul, right? He gets saved, look at chapter nine, in verse 29, he says, He spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians, but they went about to slay him, which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus, then had the churches, this is funny, then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. So the churches have rest after the Apostle Paul gets saved, and you know, he's probably doing the bulk of the persecution, okay? But then churches have rest, and this is the turning point where you have one church being mentioned until chapter eight, and now you have churches being mentioned, showing us that when these disciples are scattered, they're obviously starting these congregations in different parts. Where? Judea, Galilee, Samaria, different parts of the world, Caesarea, and so on. They're walking in the fear of the Lord, comfort of the Holy Ghost, and they're being multiplied. Now, look at verse 42, it says, and it was known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord, showing us that people are starting to believe in Joppa as well, people are getting saved there. Now, I do want to mention this, is that two churches that are just very notable in the book of Acts is obviously the church of Jerusalem, but then also the church where? In Antioch, and it seems to indicate that both of these churches are very large in membership, whereas the other churches that are meeting in houses or different regions, they're a little smaller, okay? And the reason I want to say that is because, think about this, I don't know if you've ever thought about this, okay? The Bible says that they were first called Christians in Jerusalem, is that what it says? That's weird. No, they're actually first called Christians in Antioch. But who came first? Antioch or Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Why are they being called Christians first at Antioch and not in Jerusalem? Well, we're going to see later on that Jerusalem became a very mixed church of Jews that are still adhering to, excuse me, my voice is cracking here because I'm losing it, but they're still adhering to the law of Moses, they want people to be circumcised, and believers. So they have this Judeo-Christian kind of atmosphere in the church of Jerusalem, okay? Whereas Antioch is just a mix of different people from different regions, and so it's kind of interesting that they were first called Christians in Antioch, not Jerusalem. And who's the pastor at the church of Jerusalem? James. Who's James? He's the brother of the Lord. So obviously this guy has clout, and we'll see later on that he was very denominational in his thinking, but he is the brother of the Lord, and he has a lot of clout, he has a lot of authority, people look to him, and so that created some issues later on in the future. Now we're not gonna go through, go to Acts chapter 11, in Acts chapter 10 you have Cornelius getting saved, and obviously the Lord is trying to teach Peter, hey, you need to reach out to other people like Cornelius, who's this Roman centurion, and so that ends up being a notable miracle that he ends up repeating to the other apostles in Jerusalem, he's like, hey, Gentiles are getting saved, and they're like, wow, that's pretty cool, I guess God gave repentance to the life of the Gentiles too, it's like, yeah, that's been the purpose the entire time. Now look at Acts 11 verse 19, it says, These things came unto the ears of the church which is at Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch, who when he came he had seen the grace of God and was glad and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people were added unto the Lord, and so on and so forth, so here we see that they're first called Christians in Antioch, we see that Barnabas and Saul end up joining that church in Antioch for about a year, doing the work of the Lord there, and what happens, well Paul and Barnabas are showing themselves faithful, they're preaching the word of God, they're serving, they're actually sending relief to the church at Jerusalem and Judea, they are being servants, even though the Apostle Paul is literally an apostle, he's serving, right? And then what happens, well look at chapter 13, now the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy says that the Lord put him into the ministry counting him faithful, and so we see here in Acts chapter 13 that now the Lord wants to use the Apostle Paul and Barnabas to expand the work and go further out than what the apostles are doing, this is where independent churches actually start, okay? Look at verse 1 of Acts 13, now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul, and they ministered to the Lord and fasted, excuse me, as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them, and when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away, so they being sent forth of the Holy Ghost departed to Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. Now this is important, okay, because obviously the church of Jerusalem is not doing this, why isn't the church of Jerusalem sending out Paul and Barnabas, you know? They're the ones where the church started, that's where it all started, that's where it all began, why isn't it that they're, why aren't they ordaining and sending out people to go start churches? It's actually Antioch who's kind of like taking up the torch, and taking on that responsibility, you see what's happening here? Now what does it mean to lay hands on them? It doesn't mean they jumped on them or something, you know, 20 seconds. Laying hands is a biblical concept that stems all the way back into the Old Testament, where essentially in the New Testament, when a church elder lays hands on you, it's a symbolic representation that they're giving you that authority and approval of the church to go out and do a work for Christ, okay? Whether that be as an evangelist, as a deacon, as a pastor, an elder, as a missionary, they're being sent out by church authority to go accomplish that work. And we'll see later on that when someone gets their hands laid on them, it's essentially meaning that they're commending them, they're giving them unto the Lord, okay? In other words, they're cutting ties. It's like you are your own authority in that church with Christ as your head, that's what that means, okay? So if Paul and Barnabas, if they're getting ordained, that's what laying on hands means, it means to be ordained, that means Paul and Barnabas can go and kind of do their own thing, start their own churches, and really they don't have to report anything back to Jerusalem or Antioch. You understand what I'm saying? Now Paul just kicks butt at this point. Like once he's released, I mean, the man just does a lot of great works. He's preaching in Cyprus, he started in churches in Iconium, and Lystra, and Derby. I mean, everywhere he goes, he's preaching, people are getting saved, start the church. People are getting saved, start the church. I mean, he's just doing the work of the ministry like no other, and God is just with him, okay? Meanwhile, back at Jerusalem, the church of 4,000 are just sitting on their rear ends kowtowing to Jews, whereas Paul is just like, you know, he has like a burden, he has a vision, he wants to go to Ephesus, he wants to go to Pontius and Cappadocia, he wants to go to Greece, he's talking about how he wants to go to Rome, I mean, he's actually actively trying to reach the Gentiles. And even later on, he embraces that, and he says that, you know, he's like a minister of the Gentiles. Now given, you know, he goes into a city, and he does what he does better, you know, first he just goes to talk to the Jews, okay? He goes to the synagogue, and he's like, all right, they're not receptive, and then, you know, he goes to the Gentiles, they get saved, and then the Jews start persecuting him. Look at Acts chapter 14, if you would. So Acts 13 is where Paul is legitimized as a missionary by the church. Now keep in mind that when the Lord chose Paul, right, he could have just gone on and did that if he wanted to, but obviously, the Lord didn't stop the church, like basically the Lord gave authority to that local church to approve of Paul and Barnabas. Even though God had technically called Paul, he's still respecting the authority of the church at Antioch, that when they feel it's right to do, they would ordain Paul and Barnabas to be sent out. The point that I'm making there is that, you know what, let's say you're called, you're like, I want to be a pastor, I want to be a missionary, I feel like God's called me to do this work, I have a desire to do so, yeah, but you've got to go through the proper channels though. The proper channel is the local New Testament church, okay, the proper channel is Antioch, the proper channel is those church authorities, the presbytery, that's going to lay hands on you. So even though the Lord, you know, called the apostle Paul years ago, it's not until Acts chapter 13 where the church leadership actually approves of him to go out and do that work. You understand what I'm saying? Basically, I'm showing you the church authority is important in God's eyes. He's not interfering saying, hey, Paul, don't listen to these guys, I've already presented myself to you, you're an apostle, I've already laid hands on you, I'm Jesus, you know, no, he's like, go through the proper channels, go serve, go send relief, go preach, and when that church feels you're ready, then you're able to go, and amen to that. Look at Acts 14 verse 21, it says here, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed. So the apostle Paul is starting churches, he's ordaining elders, and he's saying, alright, you're in God's hands now, right? You're in God's hands, and so go do the work. Verse 24, after they had passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, and then sailed to Antioch from whence they had been recommended, to the grace of God, for the work which they fulfilled. Now, I don't think he needed to do that. Why would he need to go back to Antioch? He could have just stayed starting churches, planning churches, or stayed at one of the churches that he started, but in his mind, he feels like he needs to report back to this home church. And this is where the modern day concept of furlough comes from, you know, and if you never have been in an old IP church, you don't know what I'm talking about, but in old IP churches, you have missionaries who every five years will go on what's called a furlough, and they'll report back to the churches that are supporting them, okay? But you know, quite frankly, just stay out there. Just go out there, do the work, send your little missionary letter, talk about that one person you've reached over the last five years or something, no, I'm just kidding. Talk about the work that's being accomplished there, but Paul, you don't need to do that. You've been commended unto the Lord. The church in Antioch already placed you in God's hands, just as you're placing the people that you're reaching and the churches that you're ordaining in God's hands as well. What does it mean to be commended? It means, all right, you're independent now. So if you're wondering like, how do I explain being independent, pastor? Here's how you explain it. When the Bible talks about laying hands on people and commending them unto the Lord, that means you're independent from me now. God is in charge of you now. You are to go and do the work of the ministry and you don't need to check in with anybody and if you mess up, then you know what, God's going to get you for that because Christ is the head of that church now, okay? Now go to Acts 15, Acts 15. So they start reporting everything and you know, they're going back to the Jews and the Jews are like, wow, Gentiles are getting saved, wow, that's pretty cool, you know? They're like, Jews are getting saved too and they're like, oh, okay, cool, you know? I look at Acts 15, I'm sorry, before we get into the actual chapter, during this particular time in Jerusalem, you have Jews who are coming and they're saying, hey, you must be circumcised to be saved, okay? Now the people who are saying that are a part of the church in Jerusalem though, because if you read the context, you see that James says that men who came out from us are saying these things. What us is he referring to? He's talking about the church at Jerusalem. So at the church at Jerusalem, you have believers like James, the apostles and the people you reach, but you also have this sect of Jews who are teaching that you have to be circumcised to be saved. Now this is what happens when a church gets so big, you don't want to lose anybody, so So you start compromising on your doctrines, okay? So they start arguing about this and Paul, he's kind of like, that's stupid, but we should talk to James about this to see if we need to make the Gentiles submit to the laws of Moses, okay? Very primitive. Look at verse 19. So this is James speaking. He says, wherefore my sentence is, James, you're the pastor at Jerusalem, you don't pass through these other churches in Greece and Asia Minor, the seven churches in Asia, you don't pass through those churches, right? And he's like, my sentence is that we trouble them not, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood, for Moses of old time hath in every city of them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day. Then pleased that the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, surnamed Barsabas and Silas, chief men among the brethren. And they wrote letters by them after this manner, the apostles and elders and brethren send greetings unto the brethren, which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. For as much as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words. Who is he referring to? He's referring to those who are saying you have to be circumcised to be saved. And James is specifically saying they came out from us. This is why the apostle Paul later on says that there shall be people who come out from among you, who shall draw away disciples after them. He says, subverting your soul, saying you must be circumcised and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So James is writing this epistle and you know what he calls later on a decree and he's giving it to Paul, he's giving it to Silas, he's giving it to Barnabas and he's like go read this in all the churches. But hold on a second, these churches are already independent. And he's also adding these extra rules to the Gentile believers that they don't really have to abide by. Obviously it's good not to fornicate, you know, but these are like, okay, you know, for the Gentiles, they have to adhere to these specific rules, but you know, because they're Gentiles or whatever, James you don't know what you're talking about. Now how do we know that Paul does not agree with this in the long run? Because a lot of this is Judaizing. You know how we know? Because we have a book called the Book of Galatians. And the Book of Galatians is obviously written long after where the Apostle Paul had some time to mature a little bit and he's preaching against Judaizing. So obviously he doesn't agree with James. But obviously he's like capitulating to James because James is the head honcho in Jerusalem and you know, he's the Lord's brother, he probably has a lot of clout, a lot of authority, but it's just kind of crazy to think that people are like, oh man, we need to go back to the Book of Acts. Oh, hold on a second. Here we see denominational thinking though, where all the power is centralized where? In Jerusalem, at the church at Jerusalem. And Pastor James thinks it's okay to just kind of tell every other church what to do. It's not how it works, my friends. And in fact, let me just say this, you know, it's not even Paul's place to tell the churches that he started, commended unto the Lord to obey him or whatever, okay? Why? Because they've already been commended unto the Lord. Now obviously the argument can be made, well, you know, they're apostles, so they're kind of sending out the foundation of certain things that they need to learn. But let me ask you, is what James said biblical though? No, because he's making a distinction between Jew and Gentile. And there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord overall is rich unto all who call upon him. They're all supposed to adhere to the word of God. And it's no longer a Judaism, it's not Judeo-Christian, it's just Christianity, okay? And here's the thing, James, how many churches have you started? None. And why do you have these unsaved Pharisees telling people that they have to be circumcised to be saved? You've lost credibility, it's crazy, okay? Now is it any coincidence that Paul's the one who's actually doing the great work in the New Testament? You don't really hear about, I mean, he wrote the book of James, that's great. But you know, the spotlight, the majority of the time was on the Apostle Paul. And here's the thing is that Paul had less of a church to work with, he didn't have a church of 4,000, James did, and wasn't able to start, he didn't start churches. Why? Because he wanted to centralize the power there, he's keeping it, that's denominational thinking. The churches that we see in the New Testament were independent, autonomous churches because they were commended unto the Lord, okay? And that's how people, and you know what, today, we need to go back to understanding what it means to be an independent fundamental Baptist, emphasis on independent. Meaning autonomous, meaning we don't have headquarters, meaning we don't have another pastor that we have to ask what we do here. Why? Because we're independent. So how do you know? Because I've been commended unto the Lord. You know, this church has been commended unto the Lord, we have the authority from Christ through the proper conduits to administrate the works here, to send people out, to preach the word of God, and we're independent, okay? And here's the thing is that the old IFP, you know, the old IFP might be looking at the new IFP right now and criticizing us over everything that's happening, but they've had these things happen in their world, various times. In the old IFP, there's all kinds of camps. You'll have 50 churches that adhere to one Bible college. It's called the denomination, the denomination of North Valley Baptist Church, the denomination of West Coast Baptist, or what is it called, Lancaster Baptist Church, you know? These are like denominational thing where it's just like, we got to do it exactly the way to do it here. I thought you were independent. And you know what? New IFP has become denomination in a lot of ways. You say, why? Well, because of the fact that people feel like they can just tell other people in other churches what to do. It's not the way it works, whether you agree with them or not, independent. New IFP has literally become, the new IFP has literally become the NFB. They're missing the I, if you guys are wondering, the NFB, there's an I missing. What letter is he? We're not fundamental. Independent is what I'm saying. And here's the thing, people are like, oh, I'm leaving the new IFP. But I thought, I thought, isn't new IFP the things that we believe? So does that mean you no longer believe those doctrines? Like, I'm no longer new I, like you say, pastor, you're not, of course I am, because I still believe in these, these doctrines of the faith, plain and simple. So people say, I'm no longer new IFP, it's like, so does that mean, are you a Zionist or what? Like, what does that mean exactly when you're saying that? Now obviously the new IFP may not, no longer exists anymore per se as, as, as a movement, but the movement of new IFP still exists here though. Like, we're still soul winning, we're still, amen. Let me finish that off for you, men, I don't know if he had a burp or a hiccup or what. He threw me off on that one. The movement still exists here as a church, because you know what, every church is supposed to be their own movement, right? Every church is supposed to be their own movement. Every church is supposed to be preaching the gospel, reaching people, starting churches, sending out missionaries, you know, doing great works for God, that's how God instituted it. And you know, when we start churches, yeah, we might have a satellite church that we're attached to for a while, but once we commend that person unto the Lord, bye. You know, see, I'm not going to tell you what to do, because at that point, then we become like James, where I think I can send him a decree or something like that, and tell him what to do. That's not the way it works. And you know what, obviously, James did a great work, and so did Paul. And we can't get on them too much, because obviously, they're very primitive in their actions, and they're still trying to figure things out during this time, okay? They're still trying to figure things out. Look at verse number 29, it says, excuse me, 30, it says, so when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle, which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation. And Judas and Silas being prophets also themselves, exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed them. Look at Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 16, and look, don't say, oh man, are you like upset with the new, we've been preaching this since the beginning, unless you're denominational. You know, if you're denominational, if you thought we're a part of some southern, west coast convention or something, wrong, independent from the very start, that's how it is, okay? Do we associate with other churches that believe like that? Yes and no, right? Yes and no. You say then, who do you associate with? First Works Baptist Church, Brother Maury, who still needs to learn how to complete a sentence or no, you know, I associate with the people here. And you know what, if every other church falls off the face of the planet, it doesn't, I don't really care. I mean, I care to a certain degree, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really affect us here, because we've been commended unto the Lord, we're in God's hands. And you know what, whatever happens out there, it doesn't really affect me here, just like in the old IP, if another church was affected, it didn't affect that congregation at all, because we've always taught, we're autonomous, independent churches. Look at 16 verse 4, it says, and as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees to keep that were ordained of the apostles and elders, which were at Jerusalem. What are you doing, Paul? So he's going through the churches that he started, that he's already commended, and he's just like, here's a decree, here's a decree from James, this is from James, make sure you read this, this is your homework, you know, read this five times, make sure you memorize this. And you know, you kind of wonder like, the guy should have been like, are we already commended unto the Lord? You know, don't we already have you to teach us? Because think about this, what does James have that Paul didn't have? They both got the authority. So if God wanted that decree, or those specific set of rules to be given to the Gentiles, wouldn't he have told Paul to address that? I mean, Paul wrote a lot of letters. He was giving a lot of revelation from the Lord. But you know what, he was never given that revelation. And it looks like James just came up with that off the cuff. He's like, oh, man, there's a bunch of Jews looking at me right now. Hey, just tell them to, you know, not fornicate abstain from idols and things strangled and and Jews are like, oy oy oy oy, you know, oy vey, oy vey, oy vey, you know. It's nonsense. You know, Paul could have just been like, nice decree, but I'll talk to them. You know, don't worry about that, I'll talk to them. Look at chapter 17, if you would. Let me just finish up here. So in chapter 17, more Gentiles are being reached. Actually, we're not gonna look at any passages there. Go to Acts chapter 20. That'll be the last passage. Now Acts 19, you don't have to go to Acts 19, but in Acts 19, just to let you know, you know, you have false converts at Ephesus. Paul runs into these false converts that, you know, heard about Christ through John the Baptist, but they didn't even hear if there was any Holy Ghost, and so they needed to get saved. And let me just say this, you know, Paul did a great work and so did everyone else. But there's other people who are working in the background who just weren't named because someone reached Apollos. And Apollos is not a Jew, but he's preaching Christ, right? He just needed to be perfected in his knowledge by Aquila and Priscilla. But at the end of the day, someone reached that guy, and he's out there in Corinth, like preaching the Word of God. And so, you know, many people, unnamed heroes in the story that we don't know about. Now in Acts chapter 20, look at Acts 20 verse 28, this is the Apostle Paul meeting with the elders. Elders is another word for pastors. He's meeting with the elders at Ephesus, and he says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. So he's obviously referring to these guys and he's saying, God's made you individually overseers of these flocks, okay? To feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood, for I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Obviously learning from the example of James, okay? Now I personally believe that these elders at Ephesus were probably the ones who ended up starting the churches which are in Asia, okay? And possibly even further than that, because there's a lot of churches, the seven churches which are in Asia, they probably came from and sprung out of Ephesus. I'm gonna finish there. I was gonna go to one more passage of scripture, but I'm out of time. The last thing I was gonna talk about the fact is that James, once again, he's kind of got this denominational thinking in Acts 21, and it's just something that he wasn't really able to shake. And it's just interesting that this church is so large in Jerusalem, but you know what? It's not where they were first called Christians. It's so large, but they're not reaching other Gentiles in different regions. You know, he's the Lord's brother, but it seems people know Paul more than James, right? So there's obviously something there where God enabled James. He gave him everything that was needed to do a great work, and he just kind of failed at the job, okay? And so he ended up selecting Paul to expand the work, start the churches, and so forth. And that's why Paul was used to not only start churches, but write a lot of the New Testament as well. If you get anything from this sermon, get this, don't be a James, be a Paul, okay? You know, if God has given you a lot of resources and capabilities and talents, use those for the Lord. Don't sit on that stuff and not do anything with it. And here's the last lesson is this, recognize what it means to be independent. It means we've been commended, okay? Let's get denominational thinking out of our brains because we're independent fundamental Baptists, emphasis on independent, amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word and for the examples that we see in the Bible of people being commended unto the Lord, being independent, and I pray that you'd help us as your people to recognize the importance of that, Lord. Of course, we're thankful for the apostles and prophets were used in the book of Acts, and they were trying to navigate through something that was very much new to them. And we're thankful for the apostle Paul, Lord, who did a great work, Lord, and expanded the work further and further and was a great example unto us. I pray that you bless us as we go on our way, help us to be spiritually minded in that aspect, Lord, and recognize that one day we're going to start a church and that pastor needs to be commended unto the Lord. The umbilical cord needs to be cut off and that we place them in your hands, Lord. And I just pray that you bless us as we go on our way. We love you. We thank you. Song number 19 is our last song, There is a Fountain. Song number 19. Song number 19. Song number 19. Singing on that first verse, There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from the earth.