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Good evening and welcome to First Works Baptist Church. We're going to get started with song number 427, We Three Kings of Orientar. And if you are able to, let's all stand together. Song number 427, We Three Kings. Song number 427, see it on that first verse. We three kings of Orientar, bearing gifts we traverse up far. Field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Born a king on Bethlehem's plain, gold I bring to crown him again. King forever, seizing never, over us all to reign. O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Frankincense to offer have I, prayer and praising, O man raising, worship him God on high. O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Meru is mine, it's bitter perfume, breathes a light of gathering gloom. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sleet in the temple tomb. O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Glorious now, behold him arise, King and God and sacrifice. Hallelujah, hallelujah, peals through the earth and skies. Star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, Westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Amen. Wonderful scene. Let's start our service with a word of prayer. Dear God and my Father, we thank you so much for God for just giving us another day of life. Thank you so much for just allowing us to be in church this morning and this evening with God. I do pray that you please just bless every aspect of our service, Lord God. I do pray that you please be with the preaching of your word, Lord God. I pray that you please fill pasture with your Holy Spirit, Lord God. Please guide him through the scriptures, Lord God. I also do pray, Lord God, that you please just be with us in the congregation. I do pray that you please, Lord God, help us, Lord God, to be attentive to your preaching, Lord God. And I pray that you please help us to leave here changed, Lord God, because we applied the sermon to our lives, Lord God. I pray now these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Song number 421, the first Noel. Song number 421. Song number 421, seen on that first verse. The first Noel the angel did say Was to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay In fields where they lay keeping their sheep On a cold winter's night that was so deep Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel And by the light of that same storm Three wise men came from country far To seek for a key was errant and To follow the star wherever it went Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel This star drew nigh For Bethlehem it took its rest And there it did most up and stay Right over the place where Jesus lay Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel Then entered in those wise men three For reverently upon their knee And offered there in his presence Their gold and myrrh and frankincense Noel, Noel, Noel Born is the King of Israel All right, great singing. Thank you for being here this evening. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be 429. Happy to hear the Christmas songs are being sung already in the month of November. Amen. And so by the end of December you'll be sick and tired of all of them. I'm just kidding. Hopefully not. I sing them up until January and I think I even start like in October or September around then so All right, here we go. Sunday morning service 10 30 Sunday evening 5 p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at seven o'clock. We are currently going through the book of second Samuel. Hope to see you on Thursday evenings. You see the so many times and teams the list of expecting mothers. Congratulations to Miss Vanessa and brother Ulysses. They're going to be expecting another baby and so please be in prayer for them and make sure brother Ulysses make sure you put your wife's name on here. Don't wait until the baby's already born please. Okay or week before the baby's born. You see the important reminders there at the bottom and some of the upcoming church events. Of course the homeschool field trips coming up. It says November 30th but Tuesday is actually the 29th so just keep that in mind. If you have any questions regarding the field trip you can see my wife for more details. Married couples Christmas lights activity is this Saturday December 3rd. We're going to meet at In-N-Out at 5 45 and of course it'll be paid for and so you're welcome to come to that and dinner is on us. You can actually the address to the In-N-Out is right there at the bottom and then we will meet at a corner by the Rite Aid and then we'll go look at some Christmas lights thereafter so hope to see you there. Christmas caroling is the following Saturday on the 10th. It's going to be exciting. We had a good turnout last year and a good response from the neighbors. Of course it's not going to be around here it's going to be more sort towards the hills and I heard people are going to be dressing up kind of like the the the old-fashioned. Am I right about that? Is that rumor true that they're dressing up in 1800 style? Okay good because I would have came that way and I would have been the only one if it was not true. All right well man I'm glad I said something about that. Scratch that but hey Christmas caroling is going to be great nevertheless and um thank God that the Holy Spirit led me to ask that question at this moment. First Works Christmas program is on Saturday December 17th and I heard the practices have been going very well. I know the children have been working hard. Thank you to the parents who have been laboring with them and making sure your kids are here to practice and then uh tonight after the service this is not in your bulletin we're going to have a sync'spiration by the piano brother uh John Seiber will be heading that up and so that'll be after the service right next to the piano. No food to drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Please make sure you're not loitering in the foyer fellowship hall during the preaching service and then make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. It's going to take some soul winning numbers from this past week's salvations from Monday to Thursday. Any salvations from Monday to Thursday? How about Friday and Saturday? One for Riverside, one right over here. Anybody else? Anybody else? Okay. Two. Okay. How about this afternoon? Salvations for this afternoon? One for brother Marcus's team. One for brother Cody's team. One for last. Did you have a question mark at the end of that? One for last week for sure. Okay. Anybody else? Two for brother Maury's team. Okay. Did I miss anybody? Going once, twice, thrice. Okay. Keep up the great work. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. 429, hark the herald angels sing. Song number 429, hark the herald angels sing. Song number 429. Sing it on that first verse. Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild. God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies. With angelic host proclaim. Jesus born in Bethlehem. Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Christ by highest heaven adored. Christ the everlasting lord. Late in time behold him come. A spring of a virgin's womb. Veiled in flesh the God in tea. Hail the incarnate deity. Please as man with man to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Hail the heaven born prince of peace. Hail the son of righteousness. Light and life to all he brings. Wrist with healing in his wings. The herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Fix in us thy humble. Rise the wolf in its conquering seat. Bruise in us thy serpent's head. Likeness now in face. Sempt thine image in its place. Second Adam from above. Reinstate us in thy love. Hark the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Amen. Wonderful singing. At this time our artists will be receiving the offering and please turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 9. So so so Good evening tonight we're in Acts chapter number nine. Acts chapter number nine in the Bible reads and Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the lord went into the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues that if he found any of this way whether they were men or women he might bring them bound to Jerusalem and as he journeyed he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and a voice and heard a voice saying unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou lord and the lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and he trembling and astonished said lord what will thou have me to do and the lord said into him arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do and the men which journeyed with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man and Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened he saw no man but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and he was there three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink and there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias and to him said the lord in a vision Ananias and he said behold I am here lord and the lord said unto him arise and go into the street which is called straight and acquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarshish for behold he prayeth and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight then Ananias answered lord I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name but the lord said unto him go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake and Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said brother saw the lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the holy ghost and immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized and when he had received meat he was strengthened then was saw certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the son of God but all that heard him were amazed and said is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests but saw increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelled at Damascus proving that this is very Christ and after that many days were fulfilled the Jews took counsel to kill them but their lane await was known of Saul and they watched the gates day and night to kill him then the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall in a basket and when Saul was come to Jerusalem he has said to join himself to the disciples but they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus and he was with him coming in and going out at Jerusalem and 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 rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied and it came to pass as Peter passed through all with throughout all quarters he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda and there he found a certain name and Ananias which had kept his bed eight years and was sick of the palsy and Peter said to him Ananias Jesus Christ maketh thee whole arise and make thy bed and he rose immediately and all that dwelt at Lydda and Sauron saw him and turned to the Lord now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha which is by interpretation is called Dorcas this woman was full of good works and alms deeds which she did and it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died whom when they had washed they laid her in an upper chamber and for as much as Lydda was nigh to Joppa and the disciples had heard that Peter was there they sent unto him two men desiring him that he would not delay to come to them then Peter arose and went with him with them when he was come they brought him into the upper chamber and all the widows stood by him weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them but Peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed and turning him to the body said Tabitha arise and she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up and he gave her his hand and lifted her up and what he had called to the saints and widows present presented her alive and it was known throughout all Joppa and many believed in the Lord and it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner let's pray uh dear Lord we thank you first and foremost for our salvation Lord and we thank you for the King James Bible you've given us Lord and we thank you for pastor as well we pray that right now that you bless him and fill him with the Holy Spirit as he preaches your word Lord and I pray that we're attentive and edified by the preaching Lord just bless this time we pray this in Jesus name amen okay we're in Acts chapter 9 this evening and the title of my sermon tonight is the exploits of the apostle Paul part one the exploits of the apostle Paul part one we're essentially for the next about three weeks or so excuse me my voice cracks a little bit I'm losing my voice just a tad so please don't make fun of me all right the next throughout the next three weeks or so we're going to be going over from Paul's persecution conversion all the way up into all three of his missionary journeys and just kind of seeing all the exploits that he does and how God used them in such a great way and let me just start off by saying by way of introduction that obviously when you read the New Testament much of the epistles are written by the apostle Paul you see that he's one of the greatest influential men of the New Testament we see that he did a lot of works even more so than many of the apostles themselves and he got a lot done he was one born out of due time as he says he's the least of all the apostles in his own eyes but he's a man who's greatly used of God and when you look at the book of Acts it ends up essentially being about the apostle Paul okay and when you read the story of the apostle Paul in the book of Acts you see how exciting it is to serve God and how exciting it is what an adventure he experienced and everything that happened to him throughout the years of his ministry and how God's hand was on him you know it would be a shame not to preach on the subject like this just because of all the great things that happen in and around his life starting from his conversion and on but look at Acts chapter 9 verse 26 it says when Saul was come to Jerusalem he is safe to join himself to the disciples but they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus and he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem now let's look at a couple things here before we get into his actual ministry go back to chapter number seven if you would we're going to look at first and foremost prior to his conversion prior to him getting saved we're going to see that he was actually an enemy of the church or should I say the enemy of the churches the enemy of the disciples of Christ he was actually a persecutor of that way as as Christianity was essentially described in the book of Acts but his first appearance comes as a persecutor he's not a friend of Christians he's not a friend of the churches and in fact to a certain extent he was like their greatest foe he's the one who pushed back the most when it came to them trying to get the work of God done he was there ardently fighting against them if you look down at verse number 57 in chapter 7 of Acts it says then they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with one accord this is referring to Stephen of course Stephen was one of the first deacons of the churches there and he was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit his man who was filled with the power of God and as soon as he's ordained to be the deacon he just starts preaching hell fire and damnation he starts preaching replacement theology and he's preaching to all these Jews and they can't stand them you know they they you know just like now you know you preach for praising theology that people don't like you so they they cry out with a loud voice and they're stopping their ears and they run upon him with one accord not so they can make a decision for Christ or something either they're running upon him to get rid of him to kill him okay it says in verse 58 and cast them out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses listen to this laid down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul now Saul of course is Paul now contrary to what a lot of modern churches teach you know it sounds good you know but it's not biblical is often say well Saul was his name prior to getting saved but then when he got saved he became Paul okay I may have heard something like that where they'll say you know he was saw before salvation but then after salvation became Paul because he became another man and it makes for good preaching but here's the truth both Saul and Paul are his name because you even see him using the name Saul even after he gets saved in certain instances the difference being is that Saul is more like the Jewish name and then Paul is more like his Greek name okay and obviously he's using both to his advantage depending upon what crowd he's talking to right you know for example myself okay if I'm speaking to an English crowd I'm going to go by Bruce but if I'm if I'm in a really Hispanic country I'm going to use my other name that I'm not going to say right now because that name sounds really Hispanic you know because I want I'm all things to all men okay so this is what the Apostle Paul is basically doing he just uses his name based upon the crowd that he's referring to but here we see that he's holding the coats of them that are stoning Stephen okay now one thing I want to point out because in Acts chapter 8 verse 1 it says that he's consenting unto his death Stephen's death and what that basically means is that he approves of the fact that Stephen is dying now nowhere here does it say that he killed Stephen or that he killed any other Christian for that matter and the reason this is an important point is because a lot of liberal Christians on social media they all like to say well Paul was a murderer you know anytime anytime they want to defend like Jeffrey Dahmer some wicked reprobate you know some cannibal pedophile you know homo or something like that they're like are you saying God can't say that means that God couldn't say the Apostle Paul because Paul was a murderer it's like well no he wasn't yes he was consenting unto his death yes he persecuted Christians but nowhere here does it say that he actually murdered a Christian he arrested a lot of them and the Bible says that he was that he essentially wasn't jurious he was a blasphemer but he wasn't a murderer and that's a big difference okay putting people to death okay that's a big difference there but we do see that he's holding the coats of them who are stoning Stephen essentially showing that he does consent to his death he's approving of it he thinks that these people who are preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified are bad people okay and of course we know why he's zealous over his own religion he thinks he's doing God's work and we see later on that the Bible says that he did it ignorantly in unbelief so essentially he doesn't know the truth yet he thinks that what he's doing is actually the truth but he doesn't he hasn't been shown the truth as of yet okay now hold your place there in the book of Acts because we're going to frequent the book of Acts but go with me if you would to um go to go to Galatians chapter one and first timothy chapter one so if you have a bulletin use that to put a book marker there so this is Paul's first appearance as being the persecutor and we see in first timothy chapter one i quoted some of it just now but let's look at it in verse number 12 it's the apostle Paul speaking to the writing to timothy his son in the face states in verse 12 and i thank christ jesus our lord who hath enabled me for that he cannot be faithful putting me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer now let me just clarify what that means this doesn't mean that he blasphemed the holy ghost either okay a blasphemer someone who speaks evil of some of something else okay and we obviously see by the book of acts that he's speaking evil of that way also known as christianity so he thinks it's an evil it's it's a bad religion or it's a bad uh whatever you know these people are just kind of stirring up trouble this is what it means that he was a blasphemer it doesn't mean he blasphemed the holy ghost because people who blaspheme the holy ghost can never be saved okay it says he was before blasphemer persecutor and injurious and i think what this is referring to he's physically taking people and dragging them to to be you know to be arrested he's taking them to the cities but i obtained mercy because i did it ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our lord of our lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in christ jesus so here's the exception to the false prophet rule because essentially the apostle paul at you know face value would be considered a false prophet because he's a pharisee and if he's persecuting christians like oh man this guy must be a false prophet but here's the difference he did it ignorantly in unbelief and when he's shown the truth he changes you see a person who's a part of a false religion that they're catholic if they're a seven-day adventist if they're jahovah's witness if they're a mormon and you know they're they're preaching that that's what they believe and then when you show them the truth and they reject it then they're a false prophet they're reprobated they can't be saved but if that person comes to the saving knowledge of jesus christ and recognizes that his ways are in error he wants to get saved and they want to get right with god then that's different because that's what we see with the apostle paul now let me just say this is that i would say with the case of the apostle paul is probably a rare case because the vast majority of false prophets just remain false prophets okay this is a rare case and here's the thing is that many pharisees even in the days of jesus got saved many of them believed because of the fact that there's actually sincere people in judaism as wicked as that religion is or became you know there's actually sincere people and the bible tells us that all the synagogues you know they're basically reading from the books of moses so if they're reading from the books of moses they're getting truth many of them are believing many of them are persuaded to believe on jesus christ as the savior as the christ doesn't mean all of them were false prophets but a good majority of them were because a good majority of them were the ones who are essentially spearheading the persecution of the christians in the book of acts okay so we see here he's the exception to this rule he is this is obviously later on in his life in first timothy go to galatians chapter one galatians chapter one but let me say this you know he's in a false religion but at least he's all in to that false religion he's not like you know just kind of a pharisee and he's just kind of you know just kind of being lame not doing anything he actually thinks he's doing something right and i'm not saying it's right that he did that but obviously his umph or his desire to seek out the truth led him to the truth it says in galatians 1 13 for you have heard of my conversation in times past in the jews religion which by the way does it say god's religion right does it say the religion of jesus christ no it says the jews religion because that's exactly what judaism is it has the jews as their god not the god of the bible 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 so apparently just like he says in philippines chapter 3 he was a pharisee of the pharisee he was like the cream of the crop when it came to the pharisees because he's actually doing something about his religion okay now again ignorantly in unbelief look at verse number go back to verse you're in galatian chapter 1 go back to verse 11 it says but i certify you brethren that the gospel which is preached of me is not after man for i neither received it of man neither was i taught it but by revelation of jesus christ now another thing i want to point out is that obviously he's persecuted the church we see that he consented to stephen's death and think about this okay because later on we see that the apostle paul is used in a great way to reach out or to reach the gentiles in different parts of the known world right i mean he's used greatly through these missionary journeys but if you think about it he's also used even prior to his conversion to reach out to the gentiles how so well because of the persecution that he's giving the church in act chapter 8 we see the disciples are dispersed abroad okay there's so much persecution that the church is receiving that in act chapter 8 all the converts and the disciples the christians they go to different parts of the world they go to cyprus they go to antioc they go to just different areas and it was almost as if god allowed that persecution to come upon that church at jerusalem through paul so because why because he wanted the gospel to go on to every nation see the problem was is that initially in the book of acts the jews who were saved peter james john you know they're all kind of just like us four no more so they're preaching to jews they want to reach jews they're all about jews but that wasn't god's original plan god's original plan is to preach to the jews first but also to the gentiles and the last commandment that he gave was to go into all the world teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father the son of the holy ghost god's will is for all people to be saved including gentiles so he gives them that great commission but then what do they do they don't do it they receive power from on high to reach jerusalem judea samaria uttermost parts of the world and they're like cool let's just stay in jerusalem let's just reach jews okay so what does god do he allows persecution to come upon the church in order to disperse them into all nations to preach the word of god in different parts of the known world now here's the funny thing the disciples the converts they all go the apostles what happens to them they stay in jerusalem so like you guys go we'll stay here right and here's another funny thing is that when the disciples are dispersed abroad to cyprus and all these other areas they don't reach gentiles you know what they do they preach to other jews who are in cyprus in antioc they're just like let's just replicate what we got going on over here in cyprus antioc all these other areas but they're still only reaching jews so god uses paul to disperse the disciples because he wants people to be saved all over the world and he was hoping that that would essentially move them to go do so but you know they fail at that okay i just thought that's interesting the fact that you know god used the apostle paul even prior to his conversion to disperse the disciples and when they don't do he's like all right well let's just get this guy saved because this guy's over here you know he's compassing land and seed to make one proselyte well get him saved and maybe he'll compass land and seed to make true converts of the gospel right so chapter nine go to chapter nine is where we see this taking place saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughters it says in verse number one against the disciples of the lord went into the high priest he desires letters and he wants to go arrest some people in damascus he's like i'm feeling in the mood to arrest some christians let me get some let me get approval to go arrest christians and this is where he meets the lord jesus christ now this this story is retold about three times in the book of backs or it's told three times in the book of acts where he has this experience of on the road to damascus where jesus christ reveals himself to the apostle paul and you know he has this miraculous vision of jesus christ and then jesus essentially tells him to go to damascus to ananias and the ananias was going to deliver a message to him and through these series of events he would essentially you know he gets saved he becomes a convert and he begins to preach god's word now let me address a couple things regarding his conversion okay because there's a lot of uh debate of how the apostle paul was saved okay and some people are of the persuasion that it was ananias who got him saved other people are the persuasion that it was jesus christ who got him saved now i personally believe that jesus christ was the one who led the apostle paul to himself okay and i don't think it matters either way because i think all of us could agree that he got saved and that it happened in act chapter nine okay you know i don't think it really matters and i think both uh categories have some pretty good arguments to prove either or okay because of the fact that you know those who believe that ananias got him saved essentially referred to the fact that ananias later on i believe it's in chapter 22 when when the apostle paul is retelling this story because a lot of these stories that he tells they kind of lack information and then when he retells it it's like more information is given so he kind of sometimes you know we're here we see jesus christ talking but then later on when he retells the story we see more of what jesus said okay so he basically declares how ananias told him you know rise and be baptized wash away thy sins calling on the name of the lord and we obviously know the way you wash away your sins is by calling on the name of the lord calling on the name of the lord is equivalent to getting saved okay for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved and what that implies is that someone believes in their heart that jesus christ is their savior they believe in the resurrection and then in belief of that with their mouth they confess him and they ask him to save him okay this is confirmed by roman chapter 10 and this is why when we do soul winning we always want to close right with him asking jesus christ to save him it's like you believe this all right well have a good day you're good to go man you know and that's it we don't do this norm diamante lame soul winning where he wants to teach that no one needs to call upon the name of the lord okay there's no hope doctrine out there okay and it's just like well you know it's kind of a gray area not when you have verses that say you have to call upon the name of the lord to be saved well now when the bible tells you that with your mouth you confess okay when there's clear verses that tell you that's what you do and then you just completely deny it you're either a heretic you're an idiot or you're just both okay but you know we see that they make a good argument with that right i'm not saying the the call upon the name of the lord the deniers of that i'm talking about people who believe that ananias got him saved they make a good argument for that because that's potentially what could have happened and we obviously know that people need people to be saved okay however i believe the reason i believe that jesus christ is the one who led them to the lord is because jesus christ led a bunch of people to the lord when he was here on this earth number one number two is because of the fact that when he's done speaking to jesus christ it states that he's able to see even though he's physically blind that's why he needs men to lead him into the city and typically when the bible talks about being able to see like from a spiritual perspective it's referring to the fact that you know once i was blind but now i see it's like in relation to salvation and not only that when ananias sees him he refers to him as brother saul something that you would tell someone who is saved okay and so you know that's why i believe that that essentially jesus christ led him to the lord but you know in galatians one we just read that he says in verse 11 i certify brethren that the gospel which is priest of me is not after man for i neither received it of man neither was i taught it but by revelation of jesus christ so he's saying that the gospel he got he got it from jesus christ jesus christ is the one who taught him that okay so we see there that that's possibly the case now whether you want to believe one or the other i don't think it's worth splitting hairs over i think you just need to believe that he got saved obviously okay and you know you can believe either or i don't think people should get involved in vain janglings and disputings about this after the service tonight and and you know everyone meets in the pa room and just starts arguing about it and then i have to go in there and just kind of rebuke everyone in there for nothing not that that would happen or i'm just you know in case something like that were to take place i think we just need to agree on unless you could have a healthy discussion about it but once the door's closed and you see people just like you know you know people mad and stuff at that point then it's become vain jangler okay paul got saved okay whether it's by jesus christ or it was by ananias i don't think it matters he got saved he was converted and so but you know i understand why all i also understand why those who believe that ananias got him saved why they want to deny that it was jesus christ who got him saved because maybe they might think that opens doors to people saying today that jesus christ spoke to them in a vision or something right but who cares what people think in a vision that if they got a vision or something like that if they want to think that who gives a rib we know they're lying okay and at the end of the day the reason visions were being given to people even up until this point because the bible had not yet been canonized there's still more revelation to be given and therefore god has to fill in the blanks he still has to reveal the word of god even more so now today in 2022 we have the word of god we don't need a new revelation we have everything that we need to know in god's word and if someone comes to you and says you know i have a vision of x y and z ask him if it fits with the bible if it doesn't fit with the bible then we reject it if it matches the bible we don't need it because we already have the bible who said it two thousand years prior all right and so that's what we see there that he gets converted he gets saved look at you're in chapter nine and look at verse 18 it says immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received site for with and arose and was baptized and when he had received me he was strengthened then was saw certain days with the disciples which were at damascus make sure you hold your place in galatians though because we're going to come back to that just a bit verse 20 and straight away he preached christ in the synagogues that he is the son of god but all that heard him were amazed and said it is not this he that destroyed them which called on the name in jesus on this name in jerusalem excuse me and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priest so i want to point something else out is that after his conversion we don't see this in acts chapter nine but galatians sheds further light and actually what took place during this time because what we see is that he gets saved in acts chapter nine but then later on in act chapter nine we see him go to jerusalem okay now i'm going to give you there's going to be a lot of geography in this sermon okay okay you know so you're going to have to pay attention here all right and and act interested okay i think this is super interesting i i love this stuff what we see is that he gets saved in damascus and then it says later on in act chapter 9 that he goes to jerusalem however in galatians chapter 1 look at galatians 1 verse 15 he gives a little more detail as far as what took place in between and he kind of fills in the blanks of some of the of some of the areas that are not explicitly mentioned in act chapter 9 he says in verse 15 but when it pleased 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 heat immediately i conferred 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 to damascus then after three years i went up to jerusalem to see peter and abode with him 15 days so this is something that is not explicitly mentioned in act chapter 9 the fact that he gets saved while he's in damascus act chapter 9 says that he goes to jerusalem however galatians 1 states that when he's in damascus he goes into arabia for three years then he comes back to damascus and then he goes to jerusalem thereafter now the question is what was he doing in arabia well the bible doesn't explicitly say what he's doing there but if i were to conjecture what's taking place there he's probably receiving training from jesus christ himself that's potentially it okay i think that that could possibly uh be the reason why he's there he's going there to learn from jesus christ we know that jesus christ gave him a lot of revelation you know he he taught him a lot in fact he was given more revelation than most of the apostles which is what he states in first corinthians chapter 15 an abundance of revelation the bible says okay and so you know and of course we know that he's given a thorn in the flesh uh so that he doesn't become puffed up and prideful and arrogant because he's had so much of the abundance of these revelations that that jesus christ is giving to him we don't know exactly what that thorn in the flesh might be some had said have conjectured that maybe it's referring to he had an eye condition which is why in galatians we see that he tells the galatians you know if if you could you would give me your own eyes like they offered him you know obviously they can't like pluck out their own eyes and give it to the apostle paul but they're just saying that out of endearment they're saying if we could we would give our eyes to you so we don't know what happened to him maybe he got stoned he got hit in the face he messed up his eyesight or when jesus christ reveals himself to the apostle paul his scales fall from his eyes he isn't fully healed from his eyes yet we don't know where he still has like eye issues or whatever it may be but it's possible that in those three years that he's in arabia he's being taught of jesus christ he's being given all these revelation and then he returns again to damascus and look what happens in act chapter 9 go back to act chapter 9 it says in verse number 22 but saw increased the more in strength and confounded the jews which dwelt at damascus proving that this is very christ now here's an awesome example of a convert who gets saved and what does he do he just starts soul winning right away he just gets at it you know he gets saved he's just like let me go preach that jesus christ is the son of god okay and look obviously we know that you know right when he gets saved he doesn't necessarily know a whole lot maybe that's why he goes into into arabia for three years and receives some training but then he comes fully equipped essentially to preach the gospel and i would say you know it doesn't take that long essentially today to become a full-blown sonar but it probably takes that amount of time to essentially become well-versed in the bible where you can go to anybody and you know give them the gospel with no bible just from memory cold verses you know take about three years or with the bible and then show them other verses in the bible to prove other other doctrines you know you can answer their questions or whatever may be so he's doing a great work he's in damascus he's preaching that jesus christ that jesus is the very christ verse 23 and after many days were fulfilled the jews took counsel to kill him but their lane way away was known of saw and they watched the gates day and night to kill him so what happens he three years into his ministry of just soul winning and preaching the word of god he starts getting persecuted by the jews okay so he's had this problem from the very start from the very beginning of his conversion three years in he's already receiving persecution and they want to kill him verse 25 then the disciples took him by night and let him down by the wall in the basket and when saw was come to jerusalem he is saved to join himself to the disciples but they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple so you know they're they're just like you know embankments brings them to jerusalem and they're just like well hold on a second i know who you are you arrested my friend or you arrested some of the disciples and they're just like i don't know about you so everyone's afraid of him okay because he was an enemy verse 27 but barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at damascus in the name of jesus let me just say this we all need a barnabas amen and i'm sure there's people in jerusalem you know these prophets or whatever who just don't give anybody the benefit of the doubt they just think oh this guy's he was an enemy he's probably an infiltrator but yeah you have barnabas who's like you know well let's give him a chance he saw jesus in the way he's been preaching the right doctrine let's give him a chance you know what i mean and you know barnabas essentially stuck up for him okay now sometimes that goes bad okay you know we stick up for someone who many of you know maybe a lot of people don't like and you help that person have a good reputation they just blow it okay well then you know that's our fault or whatever for sticking up for someone like that but luckily it wasn't like that for the apostle paul because he was legitimate he was genuine he was a man of god god's hand was on him and god had a plan for him so then he says in verse 28 and he was with them coming in and going out at jerusalem and he spake boldly in the name of the lord jesus and disputed against the grecians but they went about to slay him so he's having all these issues in jerusalem because people want to kill him so obviously he's not holding anything back now think about this for a second think about this okay why is paul the only one being persecuted in jerusalem there's other apostles there so obviously the other apostles are not preaching as hard as the apostle paul is preaching because they've been there for a while they've been there for a while in jerusalem you know they're they're they're preaching but obviously and i'm not saying they're preaching false doctrine because they may not be preaching they're obviously preaching right things but there's something a little wrong there not in their doctrine but in the intensity of their preaching or maybe there's some things that they're not saying because they're in essentially the bed of the jews and so they don't want to offend the jews and that's probably why no jews want to kill them but they wanted to kill the apostle paul though okay so he's obviously someone who stands out you know what i mean this guy is is on fire for god he's standing out and he's not being a nuisance to the church he's obviously being a blessing to the church he's benefiting the church he's an asset to the church there jerusalem because people are being won to christ they're being turned to righteousness i mean god is using them in a great way now i never really noticed this before where we're about to read but as i read it don't don't don't look down john what are you doing man this guy bro i'm just kidding i never really you can look down i never really noticed it i read it through but i never really thought about it this way okay but it says in verse 30 after you know they went about to slay him it says in verse 30 which when the brethren knew they brought him down to sisseria and sent him forward to tarsus now tarsus is what where's tarsus that's where what's what's significant about that what yeah yeah i'm not saying like where is it exactly i'm saying like what's the significance of tarsus he's from there who said that you get up you get a candy after the service right yeah he's from there so what do they do they send him home why do they send him home because he's being persecuted and he's probably bringing heat to the church there so they're just like let's send this guy home okay now here's something even funnier moses look at verse 31 then had the churches rest throughout all judea and galilea and samaria were edified walking in the fear of the lord and the comfort of the holy ghost will multiply so it's not it's only until paul is taken out of the picture that the churches are just like oh okay now we have rest because maybe so much heat was coming upon the church now here's the thing is that we're we don't know obviously this is an account okay and obviously luke is the one writing this we don't know exactly if this means that you know he had to be getting they had to get rid of him or something i don't think that's the case i think when they sent them they sent because they didn't want persecution the heat to come upon them but here's the thing is that do you remember what he says in philippians chapter 2 or philippians chapter 1 excuse me that because of his boldness other brethren waxed bold in the lord as well and began to preach the word of god so he leaves but hold on a second the disciples were multiplied and everyone was edified and i think it's because of the people that he's reaching so the apostle even though he sent people are like yeah you know let's start preaching like the apostle paul so he's getting everyone riled up at the church there he's encouraging people you're starting to see now how influential the apostle paul really was okay and so right off the bat okay he's doing this and he's doing great works and then we start turning gears into the apostle peter he does some great exploits there in act chapter 10 excuse me and in that chapter 10 we see him reaching cornelius okay peter and this is where our favorite story of the four of the sheet with the knit at the four corners with all the animals and he's like slaying eat rice slain he does it three times and we just show that to people we're like amen you know you can eat anything you can eat shrimp you can eat all these animals or whatever but the reason god is doing that to paul to peter is to essentially tell him hey you need to reach out to the gentiles stop being such a jew lover you know you can still love the jews but you need to start loving the gentiles as well and he that's what you have to do it three times he did it three times to kind of get it across to him which by the way didn't he do something else three times in john chapter 21 love is down me more than these it's like peter's like thick-headed he can't get it through his brain god has to just constantly tell him okay kind of like some of you amen i'm just kidding you're like i feel like i've heard this from him before yeah i got to tell you again amen so he does this and then of course peter he adheres and he goes to cornelius he preaches the word of god into them unto him and his household they get saved and of course cornelius is a gentile he's not a jew he's a gentile he gets saved and then you know he brings this report back and then the jews are like getting on him like for it and then he's like well hold on a second you know hey they're they get saved too you know they're not unclean and we're supposed to reach out to them and they're like wow i guess you know god did grant the gentiles repentance unto life then too you know i guess they can get saved too it's like yeah that's the last thing that jesus told you before he ascended was to reach out to the gentiles and so you know that whole ordeal takes place look at act chapter 11 in verse 19 it says in verse 19 now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about stephen traveled as far as finisi and cypress and antioc preaching the word to none but unto the jews only so mission failed because they were scattered to different parts of the world but then they're preaching to none other but jews only like let's just reach the jews you know and that's it verse 20 and some of them were men of cypress and syrene which when they were come to antioc spake unto the gretians preaching the lord jesus now let me just make or actually let's read this next verse and the hand of the lord was with them and a great number believed and turned unto the lord so it's not bad that they're going to the jews because the jews are actually being saved in those areas what's bad that they're doing it at the exclusion of preaching to the gentiles so they think that they only have to reach jews whereas the bible says in roman chapter one that the gospel is the power of god to all them that believe to the jew first and also to the greek plus it's reach both so they're getting all this fruit with jews but it's just like cypress is not a jew you know part of the region you should be reaching out to gentiles as well but you know god is with them he's helping them reach these people because obviously he's he's he he wants all men to be saved so then what takes place here well tidings come that people in anti-arca getting saved it says in verse 22 the tidings of these things came into the ears of the church which was in jerusalem and they sent forth barnabas that he should go as far as antioc so if you look at a map you have jerusalem and then you have antioc in the north okay and a bunch of people are getting saved there they're not only getting saved but they're they're being turned to righteousness they become disciples of the lord they're following christ and they're like barnabas go up there to see how everything's going over there and he gets there he's just kind of like amazed at the great work that's being accomplished there and in fact antioc the church in antioc becomes a great church i mean the church of jerusalem is probably a really big church only you know uh and then you have the church in any act thereafter like they're doing a great work as well in antioc well apparently there's so much work to be done in antioc that barnabas decides to go get who paul what is paul where's paul he's in tarsus now we don't know what he's doing in tarsus i don't think he's just like twiddling his fingers or anything like that but based upon his character might be that he's reaching people in tarsus as well but here's the thing barnabas remembers his old convert the guy who he kind of helped win to the lord or should i say disciple and he's like let me go get paul to help me with the work here so then they both come down to antioc and they have john mark with them and they preach the word of god there for a full year okay they're preaching god's word for a full year i'm sure they're doing soul winning and then they're discipling the converts there just like a great work is being accomplished okay and so but i want you to notice here that they do it for an entire year now throughout this time we don't see the apostle paul being esteemed by the church as being anybody is important or anything so think about this from the time of his conversion up until this point he's basically it's been about four to five years and in those four to five years he's soul winning he's preaching he's discipling they tell him to go home he goes home he's not fighting anybody barnabas comes come down to antioc help me out with this work he goes there he's preaching for an entire year 365 days just serving in the church right and then it says in verse number verse 26 it says and when he had found him he brought him into antioc and it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people and listen to this and the disciples were called christians first in jerusalem no in antioc isn't that interesting so this church is doing some great works to the point where now they're labeling the disciples they're not they're not labeling them that way they're labeling them christians okay and does it have anything to do with the apostle paul being there i think so he's obviously getting a lot of work done and he's doing something great there so then let's skip down a little bit we have agabus he comes he's a prophet of jerusalem and it says in verse 27 verse 28 excuse me there stood up one of them named agabus signified by the spirit that there should be a great dirt throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of claudius caesar then the disciples every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in judaea which also they did and sent it to the elders by the hands of barnabas and saul now what's another significant part of this well saul you don't hear him complaining like oh man can i do something else that's greater than this what is being sent to do send relief unto the brethren he's basically an errand boy with barnabas they're like take this money take this food and take it to judaea and go send relief unto your brethren don't you know that the lord jesus christ revealed himself to me through a vision don't you know how many people i've won to the lord how many how much sony i've got done don't you know how the persecution i faced what did he do he just went why because he's satisfied serving the lord at whatever capacity apparently i don't hear anything complaining any complaining and you know why he doesn't complain how do we know he didn't complain because throughout his epistles he's talking about being a servant and he's talking about it because he actually lived it because you know you know sending relief doesn't necessarily sound like a noble or a popular job that you know gets you a lot of followers essentially it just sounds like an errand you have to run you know what it's not it's not bigger it's he's not too big to do the job though he went with barnabas to send relief and he's happy to do it and here's a great principle that we can learn folks is that sometimes there's too many chiefs and not enough indians sometimes too many people want to be the leader and not enough people want to be the servant all right let me just say this not everyone's qualified to be a chief and you know what there's a time in my ministry when i'm so when i was serving god prior to starting this church i was not qualified to be a chief they didn't have the experience so what'd you do served were you happy yep i was happy serving i was my pastor's water boy i was his errand boy you know what there's times in my ministry where my pastor asked me to do menial tasks that maybe people other people didn't want to do but i did them with a smile on my face because i was just happy serving the lord by serving my pastor i mean there's times when he called me he's like hey i need you to i need you to drive with me two hours take me to whatever this city because i'm going to be preaching there i'll be happy to do it make sure that the gas tank is filled car is clean oh how's that reaching the world it's not it's just serving my pastor which is what the bible commands me to do doing the menial tasks and you know the apostle paul was able to do that effectively and this is five years into his ministry okay five years into him being saved he's just serving god but now you can see why god used the apostle paul so greatly because he recognized that serving god by winning thousands of people is just as good as serving your pastor serving your leaders taking you know uh commands is just as important let me ask you something how how well do you do taking a command you balk at that when someone gives you an order they give you a command do you think you're just better than that command you think you deserve better or is it just you know what i'm happy to serve at whatever capacity i can in my local new testament church under my pastor under my parents under my boss whoever it is you know i'm happy to do the job by the way not just the church at your secular job too you know don't tell me yeah pastor i can serve under you but you're just a complete jerk to your boss just not a servant to your boss you just think you deserve better you know but well hold on a second you didn't start the company though i i just think i deserve better because i'm a christian didn't work harder okay but we see the apostle paul he you know he's not like well can i get a pay raise though i mean you know and look let me just be honest there's some things i did at my old church they just you know just weren't glorifying let's be honest with you you know taking kids going candy selling is not a glorifying job i had to do that for a very long time and and like i just feel embarrassed look at how look how you're looking at me right now it's just like yeah exactly it's not necessarily the most glorious job but you know if it's what my leaders asked of me and obviously you know all that stuff was was is but done okay because churches shouldn't sell anything but you know as far as the spirit of the task is concerned is concerned you know if that's what they asked me then that's what i was going to do i wasn't going to complain about it okay and so this happens you know he returns and he preaches and look he's still preaching he's preaching god's word and i'm pretty sure he's just happy serving god you know thinking back to like the times when he was persecuting the church he's like this is way better obviously god showed him mercy he's like i get to be with the apostles and he even says in galatians these just seem to be pillars in the church so obviously his themes peter james and john is being like these great guys and he's like i'm just happy to be able to do this with barnabas you know serve god travel and preach god's word send relief whatever needs to happen okay great attitude here so keep in mind this is happening during the span of about four to five years okay well in chapter 12 you have james the brother of john killed by harrod okay and then paul in chapter 13 returns to jerusalem okay go to chapter 13 if you would actually look at 12 chapter 12 verse 25 it says in barnabas and saul returned from he didn't return to jerusalem returned from jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and took with them john whose surname was mark so they are done fulfilling relieving the brother in judaiah and then they returned back to antioc and if you think about it when you see in chapter 13 this is where they're called to go as missionaries so you kind of wonder what if the apostle paul didn't respond well to that menial task right what if he's just like no i want to do something cooler i want to do something that's more exciting all right we'll give the job to someone else and then that person would have had this cool job here because what happens is in chapter 13 is when the holy ghost separates barnabas and saul for the work they were going to see in his first missionary journey he says in verse number one now there were in the church that was in antioc certain prophets and teachers as barnabas and simian that was called niger and lucius of syrene and manian which had been brought up with harrod the tetrarch and saw and they ministered to the lord and fasted the holy ghost said separate me barnabas and saw for the work where unto i have called them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away now the first thing i want to point out is the fact that obviously the church at antioc is an established church how do we know that because they are ordaining their own people to be sent out and by the way this is how churches start churches it's not like paul's like well you know what god's called me to preach so i'm just going to send myself out okay i'm just going to go start a church somewhere and i'm called of jesus christ and so because i'm called to jesus christ well you know what jesus christ has ordained people in churches and these people with the authority of jesus christ are sending out people and this is the pattern that we see in the book of acts okay he ordained these apostles which in turn started the church in antioc which in turn produce these missionaries evangelists known as barnabas and saw where they laid their hands on them and sent them out with the authority of the church there in antioc okay we don't accept these these rogue pastors out there they just want to go out and start your oh but they preach like us i don't care who cares if there's someone out there who sent themselves out but they preach like us they're preaching like us to essentially be be accepted by us but we don't want to accept people like that because they're not going out with the authority of jesus christ because they're not going out with the authority of a local new testament church oh but they preach so good i don't care who gives a crap how good they preach or how much good doctrine they teach i don't care if that person is not an ordained pastor sent out by a local new testament church it's not a legitimate church and more often than not these people end up being really bad you know you had tyler doka a couple years ago who was essentially one of those guys who sent himself out and now today today he claims to be jesus christ i mean that's an extreme case but this dude thinks he's jesus he's like rebuking people in the comments section of his video people who are like this is a great true this is a great sermon and he's like what you should be seeing is thou art the son of god i mean when this guy dies you know we talk about like someone splitting hell wide open he's gonna he is gonna split hell wide open but he's gonna probably be on the right hand of judas we talk about like the lowest parts of hell he's probably just right below that but you know what that's an extreme example but folks they're out there like that he's the self-ordained you know like adam fannin and if you don't know who adam fannin is who cares he's he's he's an idiot who ordained himself stole a church try to steal a congregation probably stole a bunch of money to do it and became this self-ordained pastor changed all his even change his belief about ordaining pastors coincidentally folks the pattern that we see here and you can't show me otherwise you're like well what about the apostles though there's no more apostles today okay and if you think you're an apostle come over so i can throw a black mamba in your hands and see what happens let's see if you pass the black mamba challenge you know all these so-called apostles out there let's throw some venomous snakes in their hands because according to the bible they should be able to handle them be bitten okay because then you got these snake handlers they don't get bit or anything like that because you know they freeze them first that's what that's what snake handlers do by the way they freeze them first so when they take them out the snakes are all delirious they're like don't even know what's going on and by the time they wake up they put them back but sometimes you know they wake up too fast and then they get bit and then they die which that's what happens when you handle venomous snakes okay but let's see if they they pass that they're not going to pass that because they're not apostles the very last apostle was the apostle paul okay he had all the signs of the apostle etc but these are the men and and here's the thing is that the churches are started on the foundation of the apostles referring to the fact that they're the ones who essentially were the catalyst to the new testament churches that are found in the book of acts okay anyways so they go there and of course they're commended by the church at Antioch and they're sent forth and so let me just give you a breakdown of what takes place here okay so they're ordained they go to uh uh salutia which is a coast and from salutia they set sail to cyprus and they land in cyprus and in my opinion i think they go to cyprus because you know it doesn't really say why they chose their route that they chose but in my opinion they went to cyprus first because who's from cyprus barnabas barnabas is from cyprus that's where he's originally from so you know maybe barnabas is like hey there's some believers over there i'm from there i know the area let's go there first okay so they go there and they they land there and it goes well they're preaching the word of god they're getting a couple converts here and there but then they go to paphos okay and paphos is where he finds sergis paulus okay who's the governor there and he wants to preach the word of god into them he's preaching god's word but then who shows up a limus the sorcerer who is a jew he's a false prophet he's a wicked person and he tries to essentially deter the apostle paul from winning sergis paulus to christ and this is where we see and confirm that the apostle paul was an apostle because he's like trying to preach and this jew is trying to you know trying to stop him from preaching the word of god and so then he just smites him with blindness so a mist of darkness falls upon elimis the sorcerer and he's just blind okay look at verse chapter 13 and verse 11 it says and now behold the hand of the lord is upon thee and thou shall 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 then the deputy referred to sergis paulus when he saw what was done believed listen to this being astonished at the doctrine of the lord so sergis paulus gets saved why because of the miracle no he says he's astonished at the doctrine he's astonished at what the apostle paul's teaching he said why wouldn't he be astonished at the miracle because the miracle confirmed that the apostle paul was sent by god but what's more astonishing than the miracle is the doctrine yeah and i love the way it works that it's not like oh i believe because of the miracle he's like i believe but i'm astonished at the doctrine like i want to get to and this guy ends up getting saved so he gets saved does a great work there and then they leave paphas cyprus and they go to perga which is in panphilia and you know something interesting takes place here where john mark just leaves he just suddenly leaves uh uh perga and he goes back home to jerusalem and we don't know exactly why he left however we know that this was a point of contention later on because he leaves it doesn't say why but at the latter end of acts chapter 15 and i know we're just studying the bible tonight i know i'm just giving a lot of information but you know we need this though we need to know how to decipher the the sequence of events that are taking place in the book of acts amen this is important we understand that at the end of the book of uh uh act chapter 15 the apostle paul wants to go back to the churches with the with barnabas on his second missionary journey he's like let's go see how the brethren do and then and then barnabas wanted to take john mark and then paul's like nah don't bring him because he left us you know he was really upset at mark which kind of leads you to believe that maybe you know he wasn't going to leave but then he left and you know there's a lot of things you can conjecture about what took place in that situation obviously we know that that the contention was so sharp that they split ways so paul uh he takes uh sylas barnabas takes uh mark and then they go their separate ways and you know we don't know exactly what happened maybe mark was just homesick maybe he just quit maybe it was just too much for him we don't exactly know what however what we do know is that later on the apostle paul in second timothy chapter uh four tells timothy hey bring john mark with you he's profitable to me for the ministry so we see that even though there was a falling out with mark early in paul's ministry they end up reconciling afterwards either because one mark got it right later on or the apostle paul just matured and wasn't so hard on people who just like went home early or whatever we don't know exactly what took place there but you know he leaves them he's being a little weenie i'm just kidding he leaves them and paul and barnabas they go to anti-oc now this anti-oc is a different anti-oc than the one that's at the church the anti-oc this anti-oc is in piscidia which is in asia minor okay and they go there you know they they and they go to the synagogue first okay now let me just make this let me just address this real quick because a lot of people bring this up it's like oh you know they would go to the synagogue on the sabbath they're observing the sabbath but just because they go to the synagogue on the sabbath doesn't mean they're observing the sabbath why are they going to the sat the synagogue on the sabbath i'll tell you why because there's people there looking for god that's the only reason why they're doing that and look going to the synagogue would actually contradict what you're supposed to do on the sabbath right you're not even supposed to leave your house on the sabbath now let me give you a modern day example of this okay i'm a former catholic i don't know if you knew that but i was a catholic when i was a young boy and i went to i even went to catholic school for like two years believe it or not and um you know i i identified as catholic even up until like you know i got saved obviously like i forsook it afterwards but you know recently we went to belize and you know where we spent most of our time at a catholic school now let me just tell you something i went to that catholic school not because i was trying to like respect the catholics or something like oh you know oh i used to go to a catholic school too let's just let's just enjoy ourselves to this catholic school because you know we believe somewhat like them no i went there we went there because that's where the fish are biting that's where people are receptive to the gospel now obviously the catholic schools here are probably not as receptive as the catholic schools over there okay that's where we're not although i don't know maybe we should try a catholic school out here one day and we might be pleasantly surprised i don't know i'm just i'm just conjecturing that it's probably not the same but over there the fish were biting why because the children are seeking after god they're making statements that show that they're being receptive to the gospel well like manner they're going to the synagogues not because they want to be like some jews not because they're trying to follow judaism but because in that synagogue are jews and gentiles who are seeking after the lord so they're preaching the word of god in antioc at uh in pacidia at that synagogue and then you know i'm sorry prior to them preaching they're hearing the word of god and then the leaders are like hey brethren you guys have anything to say you want you know maybe want to say something because they see that they're jews and they're like oh yeah so paul gets up and he gives this synopsis of the history of israel and then he starts preaching replacement theology and talk about how jesus is the very christ so then a bunch of jews believe and so do gentiles and they're like men and brethren we want to hear of the again of this matter the next sabbath like come back so then barnabas and par like score let's come back it's like it's like when you guys got a bunch of people saved at that catholic school you guys came back like dude these kids are receptive they're like let's go back tomorrow so then they go back the next sabbath day and now the whole city is there so for six days the people at the synagogue are obviously telling people about barnabas and paul and now on this next sabbath day when they come the whole city's there and you know it was all fine and dandy as long as the apostle paul and barnabas didn't have a whole lot of influence they weren't reaching a whole lot of people they weren't getting a whole lot of converts oh but when you have the whole city coming to hear you preach now the jews are filled with envy now they're just like now they're mad at paul now they're mad at barnabas because they have a huge audience and what happens is they basically look at uh chapter 13 verse 45 says 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 then paul barnabas wax bold and said it was necessary that the word of god should first have been spoken to you but seeing he put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the gentiles so it's just like if you guys don't think this message is for you you don't you want to reject it okay then we'll go to someone else we'll go to the gentiles so you know gentiles start getting saved they start believing and then the jews again they stir up people and they basically cast them out of the city okay so they kick them out of aniok they're just like you know they kick them out of aniok so then what do we see we see them from aniok the church in aniok they go to cyprus papas from there they go to perga which is in panfilia from panfilia they go to aniok which is in asia minor and now from aniok in asia minor they go to uh iconium lystra and derby which is the last areas that they're going to essentially visit but this is where the rubber meets the road this is where the stuff hits the fan stuff hits the fan okay why well because now they're getting all kinds of converts and they get all kinds of converts and so persecution ensues so what happens to the apostle paul they end up stoning him and this is the first time he's actually resisted unto blood because before you know you have a lioness sorcerer before you had the guys who were threatening to kill him but now they're actually stoning him so he gets stoned and they drag his body out of the city supposing that he was dead and then of course he gets back up and he goes to preach again now it's possible that when he was stoned uh with rocks of course he's laying there that that's when he gets the vision when he goes up into paradise it's possible we don't know you know he's having these crazy visions you know and you know he goes and then he goes back into the city again to preach the word of god in lystra and derby and then finally he's just like you know i think it's time to go home you know i think it's time to go back to the church in aniok and and go home and of course throughout that time he heals an impotent man he preaches the word of god to the lysonia uh to those in lystra and derby he gets persecuted all that but he basically retr- he retraces his steps goes back through lystra and derby to aniok and he begins to confirm the disciples who are in those regions now i want you to pay attention here because if you're not careful when you read this story you think wow this like a couple months maybe this took place in about a year or how long does this take well it actually takes place over a span of 14 years and the reason we know it's 14 years is because in galatians chapter 2 according to the timeline it says it talks about above 14 years he comes back to jerusalem to aniok into jerusalem and he withstood peter to the face which is an event that took place in act chapter 15 after he returns from his first missionary journey okay which would make complete sense because of the fact that when he goes back through lystra and derby to aniok he's ordaining elders you don't ordain elders in one year it takes a year sometimes so they're putting in all this work but you know what by the way aniok in in asia minor is where timothy's from that's where his mom is that's where he is that's where his grandmother was so obviously he becomes a disciple of the apostle paul and the apostle paul takes him under his wing he begins to train him and then he does a great work as well so there's all types of disciples all types of converts that are being won but then he's able to establish churches in those areas as well okay he comes down to perga goes to italia and from italia he essentially goes back unto aniok the church at aniok near north of jerusalem okay now what is it that we can learn from this first missionary journey give me 20 more minutes okay no i'm just kidding simply we can learn this is that we have to understand that there's no such thing as an overnight success because we see a lot of success with the apostle paul persecution we see which is considered success according to the bible we see persecution we see that he gets stoned we see that he gets beaten we see that he makes a lot of converts we see the awesome story with the limus the sorcerer getting blinded we see churches are being started he is commanding them he's making disciples i mean all kinds of exciting things are happening over a span of 14 years old okay so i say that to say you know our church is five years old so we still got a long ways to go you know and i'm preaching to myself obviously because i want to start churches i definitely want to ordain elders but you know he didn't ordain elders right away though and you know lay hands suddenly on no man neither be partakers of other men's sins that's what the bible says sometimes it takes years so although we're looking at this through span of a couple chapters this takes place over a span of 14 years at least 14 years and if you add on top of that the five years prior four to five years prior from his conversion up until his completion of the task going to judea to send the brethren relief i mean it's a couple it's a it's a long time almost 20 years where he's able to do all these great exploits okay but we see that with his first missionary journey he still did a lot went a lot of people to the lord got a lot of people saved rebuked a lot of false prophets was persecuted started churches comes back to Antioch and rebukes one of the apostles as well as we're going to look at next week all right so let's finish up there let's pray father we thank you so much for your word we're so thankful for the apostle paul's example and what a great man of god he was and i pray that you'd help us lord to be patient like the apostle paul to be a servant like the apostle paul and uh just to be content where we are at serving you and lord i would love to start uh a church first works baptist church san diego first works baptist church inland empire first works baptist church river so we just i'd like to start them all over the place but sometimes now is not the time and i pray that you'd help us to just faithfully serve you and be happy with where we're at and recognize that those things come in time and just keep making disciples winning people to christ i'd like to start a church in belize one day i think that would be great but maybe we have to create disciples there first and and and disciple them and keep in contact with them and make friends with people there and and teach them so that one day 14 years later we can actually start churches there and i pray that you'd use this to do so we love you we thank you pray these things in jesus name amen amen song number 431 silent night holy night there's our last song song number 431 sing it on that first verse silent night the infant so sleep hey glory stream from heaven is silent bye jesus so with Hallelujah to our King, Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born. Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed. You are dismissed.