Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00016A
00:22 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:23 I'm Pastor Mark Howard and I'm here with my cohost, Jim Howard, 00:26 who just happens to be my brother and a pastor as well. 00:28 We are pastoring in the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day 00:31 Adventists. Jim is on the east side of the state near Detroit 00:34 in Detroit and I am on the west side of the state in a little 00:37 place called Gobels as well as directing a school of evangelism 00:40 for the Michigan Conference called the Immanuel Institute of 00:44 Evangelism and that has been a lot of the reason that I've been 00:47 interested in studying the book of Acts, because we see in the 00:51 book of Acts this is the book of evangelism, this is the book 00:55 where we see the mission of the church being carried out in 00:59 practical terms. And it's been exciting to watch in spite of 01:02 all the odds, Jim, that keep coming upon the church, it 01:06 continues to grow. Sometimes today when we talk about the 01:10 church and the growth of the church we lament over all the 01:13 difficulties that we have in forwarding the gospel and 01:17 opposition that we meet but, I don't know, so far it's nothing 01:22 compared to what we're seeing here. For example now, we 01:24 finished last time in chapter 13 of Acts and I want to recap the 01:29 last few verses of chapter 13 but as our custom has been here 01:33 we have asked the Lord to guide our understanding as we turn our 01:37 attention to the word. So I'm going to ask if you would pray 01:41 with us now. Heaven Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would 01:45 again be present to guide our study of your word and Father 01:49 we ask it in the name of Jesus and for his sake, Amen. 01:52 Acts chapter 13. I hope you have your Bibles with you and we're 01:58 going to go to verse 48. Now what happened in chapter 13 is 02:06 Paul preached a powerful sermon in Acts chapter 13 where when 02:11 he finished preaching and giving proofs from scripture that Jesus 02:17 was indeed the Messiah that was to come, both the Jew and 02:21 Gentile listeners begged him that he would preach the same 02:24 words to them the next Sabbath and the Bible tells us the next 02:28 Sabbath nearly the whole city came together. As is typical, 02:32 when Paul was done preaching, some were praising God, but some 02:36 were very upset. In fact, verse 46 says that Paul told his 02:39 audience, his Jewish audience, and when I say this we 02:44 understand that Paul was Jew, Barnabas was a Jew. It's not 02:48 that all the Jews were enemies but the Jewish nation, the 02:52 Jewish leaders in this locale for example unfortunately 02:56 rejected this testimony. And Paul says that, verse 46, Since 03:02 you reject this message you judge yourselves unworthy of 03:08 everlasting life. Behold, we turn to the Gentiles. Now that 03:13 phrase, you judge yourselves unworthy, God didn't judge them 03:18 unworthy. God was offering salvation, but they refused it. 03:22 It's important to understand that I've heard some Christians 03:26 who have this mindset that God has predetermined the people 03:30 who are going to be saved and lost and you know you just might 03:33 be without luck. He might have chosen that he's not going to 03:35 give you the opportunity. But that is not found anywhere in 03:38 scripture. In fact, the most famous text in scripture, 03:41 John 3:16 says, Whosoever believes in him should not 03:44 perish. God so loved the world. So you have this universal 03:48 invitation that's given but if we refuse it we judge ourselves 03:52 unworthy. So it says in verse 48 When the Gentiles heard this 03:56 they were glad and they glorified the word of the Lord 04:00 and the word of the Lord, verse 49, was being spread throughout 04:04 all the region. Verse 50 says, But the Jews stirred up the 04:07 devout and prominent women and chief men of the city raised up 04:10 persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from 04:14 the region but they shook the dust from off their feet against 04:18 them and came to Iconium and the disciples were filled with 04:22 joy and with the Holy Spirit. So as you capped it in our last 04:27 presentation of our last study, the Gentiles were glad and the 04:33 Jews were mad. That's where we move into chapter 14. As they 04:38 come into Iconium, chapter 14, verse 1, the Bible says, Now it 04:43 happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue 04:48 of the Jews and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews 04:54 and the Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews, and this is 04:58 starting to be a recurring theme The unbelieving Jews stirred up 05:03 the multitudes, or stirred up in this case the Gentiles and 05:07 poisoned their minds against their brethren. Now I want to 05:11 come back to that in a minute. Now it goes on to say, Therefore 05:15 they stayed there a long time speaking boldly in the Lord who 05:19 who was bearing witness to the word of his grace and granting 05:22 signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude 05:25 of the city was divided, part sided with the Jews and part 05:29 with the apostles and when a violent attempt was made by 05:32 both the Gentles and the Jews with the rulers to abuse and 05:36 stone them... That's what we were just talking about, right? 05:39 I mean we talk about what opposition we have today, but 05:43 I'm not saying that these things don't happen today in parts of 05:46 the world, but in a lot of parts of the world we have freedoms 05:50 still to be able to study and follow the word of God that 05:53 not everybody has and they didn't have here. They became 05:56 aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia 06:02 and to the surrounding region, and they were preaching the 06:06 gospel there. Now a couple things here, Jim. I want to 06:10 pause for a minute and discuss this stirring up. We keep 06:14 talking about it. They stirred up the people. What does that 06:17 mean? What does it look like to stir up the people? Why? 06:22 They certainly weren't uniting them with joy. They were 06:25 stirring up with them with bitterness or somehow trying 06:29 to give false accusations or in some way stirring them up to 06:32 bring them against and to intimidate the preaching of the 06:36 apostles. That's right and it says here 06:38 they stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds, and I have 06:42 a marginal reading that says embittered. But the reason I'm 06:48 asking this is this kind of thing... You know that the 06:51 Apostle Paul tells us that we are not ignorant of the enemy's 06:54 devices. In other words, the devil still uses the same 06:57 methodology and if this is how he responded to the truth in the 07:03 book of Acts, he will respond the same way today. We've 07:06 touched on this before how we don't see the Jews meeting the 07:11 arguments of Paul and the other apostles with scripture. 07:15 In other words, saying, listen fellows, let's come together and 07:18 let's look at this. You're preaching scripture. Let me show 07:20 you where the scriptures you're preaching are wrong. The reality 07:23 is you don't see that anywhere. What happens is they stir up 07:27 the people, they get violently angry and in this case they're 07:30 trying to kill them. They rally the people together to get 07:35 support and they poison their minds against their brethren. 07:39 So they're evidently speaking things about the characters of 07:44 these individuals. It makes me think of the devil 07:46 himself. In Revelation chapter 12 it calls him the accuser of 07:51 the brethren. We know that we do not wrestle against flesh and 07:56 blood but against principalities and powers, against spiritual 08:00 powers of darkness. So we recognize that this is the... 08:04 We're seeing a lot in the book of Acts by the unbelieving Jews 08:08 and what have you, but ultimately the devil himself is 08:11 doing everything he can to stop the growth of this church 08:14 because right now it's growing fast. 08:16 That's right and we'll see some of these things coming up. You 08:19 know it comes to my mind for example that the rulers in 08:23 Jesus' day said that he cast out devils by the prince of devils. 08:27 and made accusations like that so that they were defaming the 08:31 character of Jesus because they couldn't refute the truth that 08:35 he was preaching. We'll find later on in the book of Acts 08:39 that in one place the Jews gathered together against Paul 08:44 and called him a ring leader of the cult of the Nazarenes and so 08:47 they called him a cult leader. Sometimes tactics like those are 08:51 used to defame the character of a person or a movement instead 08:56 of seeking to refute the truth that's being proclaimed. 08:58 That's right. When you don't have the truth on your side 09:01 you've got do something like that. 09:02 I should add that's not to say... I'm sure the Jews had 09:05 scripture that they taught and preached. They did in the 09:08 synagogue every Sabbath day. It's not that they never used 09:11 any scripture but they wouldn't directly come to the scripture. 09:15 Now I should say that in my own experience where I've studied 09:20 with certain individuals and they've disagreed with a 09:23 position that I take on something, perhaps on... 09:26 We've talked a little bit about the Sabbath. As Seventh-day 09:29 Adventists we believe that the seventh day Sabbath is still 09:32 sacred to God and I've had people that disagree with that. 09:36 You know what, a person has a right to disagree. But I would 09:40 encourage any of our viewers, any Christian, too, if you 09:45 disagree with something. Search the scriptures and see what it 09:50 is founded on. What happens is, it's not that when somebody 09:54 disagrees with me in some cases that they don't have scriptures, 09:58 but they won't talk about the particular scriptures that are 10:01 speaking to for example, And Jesus as his custom was went 10:04 into the synagogue on the Sabbath day for to preach. 10:07 It was his custom. Luke chapter 4. Well what about this text 10:10 over here, no not that text over there. What about the one here 10:15 that says thus and so. So there needs to be an honest desire on 10:20 the part of each one of us to know God's truth even at the 10:25 cost of perhaps having to learn something new or different. 10:30 Yeah. You know any doctrine in the Bible has passages that 10:34 could be confusing and seem to be saying something different 10:38 from what the weight of scripture might be saying. 10:40 So it's possible to look at those passages that are a little 10:44 bit obscure and difficult and seem to be saying something a 10:48 little bit contrary and to use that as your support and not 10:51 feel the burden to have to go to those other passages that are so 10:55 clear in the weight of scripture and to try to explain those. 10:59 Instead you just continually point to the same scriptures 11:03 that support your view and that is an issue where we have to 11:06 look at the honesty of our own heart. 11:08 Yeah and when it comes down to it, when we find ourselves 11:12 wanting to stir up the people, we're getting angry and so we 11:15 want to get all the people that think like us and stir them up 11:18 instead of investigate, then we know that we've got the wrong 11:21 spirit. Because that's what we're seeing here. They want 11:24 to poison the people's minds against the apostles instead of 11:28 studying out the teachings that are being presented. So we see 11:32 this stirring up and it results in them actually planning to 11:35 abuse and stone them. So when they became aware of it they 11:39 fled to another location. And of course, despite the fact 11:43 that they just ran into this issue of a potential stoning 11:46 and there's this plot. In verse 7 it says, And they were 11:50 preaching the gospel there. The same thing that got them in 11:53 trouble, the same thing that this plot was created because of 11:57 it, they are not deterred at all. Then it says in verse 8, 12:01 And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was 12:05 sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never 12:10 walked. Now we have seen something like this before. Back 12:14 in Acts chapter 3 we will recall that Peter and John when they 12:17 went to the temple to pray they healed the lame man there at the 12:22 temple gate. That lame man was also lame since his mother's 12:26 womb. Now in verse 9 it says, This man heard Paul speaking and 12:31 Paul observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be 12:35 healed, said with a loud voice, Stand up straight on your feet, 12:39 and he leaped and walked, which sounds similar to Acts chapter 3 12:43 as well. Now when the people saw what Paul had done they raised 12:46 their voices saying in the Lycaonian language, The gods 12:50 have come down to us in the likeness of men! And Barnabas 12:54 they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker 12:59 Then the priest of Zeus whose temple was in front of their 13:02 city brought oxen and garlands to the gates intending to 13:06 sacrifice with the multitudes. This is an incredible story. 13:09 You know when the healing happened in Acts chapter 3 it 13:13 was primarily Jews, at least a lot more believing Jews in that 13:17 area. Here we're seeing healing that happens around those who 13:20 have a pagan background and the response is a lot different. 13:23 These must be gods. There's a lot in this story... 13:28 It's not the great power of God, it's the great power of the gods 13:30 Right exactly. So there's a lot in this story and we need to 13:33 dig a little bit deeper. But right now we need to go to our 13:37 break. So stay tuned and we'll be back with you in just a few 13:40 minutes on Books of the Book. |
Revised 2014-12-17