November 29, 2025 • 17 mins
A quiet room in Antioch erupts into purpose when prayer and fasting meet a clear call from the Holy Spirit. We follow Barnabas and Saul as a local church lays hands on them and launches a story that stretches across islands, synagogues, and city streets—where the message of Jesus collides with power, pride, and hunger for truth. What begins as worship becomes movement, and what meets resistance does not stall.
We walk through Cyprus to meet a governor who wants wisdom and a sorcerer who wants control. Paul’s bold confrontation is less about spectacle and more about clearing the fog so the gospel can be heard. From there, the road bends toward Pisidian Antioch, where Paul stands in a synagogue and weaves Israel’s history into a single thread: promise, kings, prophets, a crucified Messiah, and a risen Lord. The core claim is simple and seismic—through Jesus there is forgiveness and a right standing with God that the law could never secure.
Not everything goes smoothly. John Mark leaves the team, and the text names the wound without hiding it. Crowds surge the next week, jealousy flares, and opponents try to smother the message. Paul and Barnabas answer with clarity, widen the invitation to the Gentiles, and keep moving when a mob forms. The surprising result is joy—Spirit-filled, resilient joy—among new believers who carry the word farther than any one sermon can reach. Along the way, we reflect on how to discern next steps, why perseverance matters, and how to hold truth and grace in tense spaces.
If this journey stirs your courage, stick with us as we continue through Acts. Subscribe, share the episode with a friend who needs hope, and leave a quick review to help more people find the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Your voice helps the word travel farther.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Well, hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Acts chapter 13.
(00:22):
And today, if I were to give ita title, it would be The Gospel
Reaches New Places.
What we're going to see today isa shift in the narrative and a
shift in what's kind of goingon.
And likely, and we don't knowthis for sure, but likely this
is also where the shift occursbecause of the relationship that
Luke has with Paul.
We're going to get into that injust a moment.
(00:43):
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
like, share, and subscribe tothe YouTube video.
If you listen to this as apodcast, make sure you leave us
a five-star review.
Also, let us know how you areencountering God's word.
And I would love for you to goto our Facebook group, a Bible
breakdown discussion, and let meknow, let us know.
Have you ever been on a missionstrip?
Ever been on a trip somewhere,be able to share the gospel, be
(01:04):
the hands and feet of Jesus.
If you have, I want to know allabout it because, man, that's
what we're going to see today.
And I would love to know whatyou are experiencing in God's
Word as we go through the bookof Acts.
Have you ever read through thebook of Acts before?
If so, man, are you picking upanything new?
Let us know.
We want to grow together.
Because man, the more we dig,the more we find.
Now, what we've beenexperiencing up until now, the
(01:27):
first 12 books of the story ofthe early church, as written by
the doctor-turned investigativejournalist, Luke, is the early
days of the church.
And we've been really focusingon Jerusalem, Peter, and the
different things that's going onwithin the Jewish community.
But what we're about to see fromnow, really moving on through
the rest of the narrative ofwhat is happening, is we're
(01:51):
going to focus on three majormissionary journeys of Paul.
And then afterward, we're goingto see how Paul eventually makes
his way to Rome.
But what we what we really beginto see here is that God begins
to use Paul, which he's he'sabout to change his name to Saul
or from Saul to Paul, but he'susing him to go and to spread
the gospel into variousdifferent Gentile cities and
(02:13):
really helping the gospel justget out there a whole lot.
And so that's a lot of whatwe're going to see is it really
focuses now on these missionaryjourneys and a lot of what
happens.
And what we're going to see in alot of these places is the
Gentiles receive the gospel.
Man, they're so excited.
But then Jewish people, theybecome jealous because he's
(02:34):
teaching the gospel.
And it the basis, the foundationof the gospel begins with Jewish
culture and with the law, thecovenant, because Jesus came to
fulfill the law, not do awaywith it.
So there's all this jealousythat starts to happen.
So we're seeing this whole thinghappen.
And one of the reasons why isbecause we know at some point
Luke becomes a travelingcompanion with Paul.
(02:56):
And that makes a lot of sensebecause as we're going to see,
almost everywhere Paul goes, heeither starts a church or starts
a riot.
There really isn't two waysabout it.
And to be honest with you, for along time, I always wanted to
meet Paul.
I wanted to meet him and talk tohim.
But at the same time, I'm notentirely sure.
Paul might not have been themost friendly person.
(03:18):
You know what I mean?
I think he would be, but at thesame time, you imagine the
personality of a trend settingpioneer who goes into an area
and is willing to just argue anddebate the scripture with
anybody.
That's going to be a very type Aguy.
So whereas he would probably befull of joy and kindness and
goodness, he's probably the sameguy who's going to tell you like
(03:38):
it is.
So if you like that kind of guy,that's the kind of guy you want
to meet.
And that's Paul.
And I love that.
But at the same time, you wantto get ready for that, right?
And so we're going to see thateventually, because Luke and
Paul become travelingcompanions, because Luke was a
doctor and Paul was constantlygetting beat up and needing a
doctor, that's likely one of thereasons why we start to see
this.
It's because either right now iswhere Luke started to follow
(04:02):
with Peter or with Paul, or ashe's traveling with them, he
starts telling these stories.
So either way, we get to seethis.
So let's dive in to the firstmissionary journey of Paul.
So if you got your Bibles, Actschapter 13, verse 1.
Among the prophets and teachersat the Church of Antioch of
Syria were Barnabas, Simeon,also called the black man,
(04:25):
Lucius, the serene, Manin, thechildhood companion of Herod
Antipos, and Saul.
One day these men wereworshiping the Lord and fasting,
and the Holy Spirit said,Appoint Barnabas and Saul for
the special work to which I havecalled them.
So after more fasting andprayer, the men lay their hands
(04:47):
on them and sent them on theirway.
Let me just take an aside hereand say, if you ever want to
know what God's next steps foryou are, take time to do fasting
and prayer.
There's something about fasting.
Fasting is saying no to aphysical appetite so that you
can say yes to a spiritualappetite.
And it humbles our heart andmakes us sensitive to hear the
(05:10):
Lord.
And when you fast and you pray,God does amazing things in your
life.
So I just want to throw that outthere, okay?
They did that, and then Godsaid, I want you to send
Barnabas and Saul.
I have work for them.
So send them and let them do it.
Verse 4 says this.
So Barnabas and Saul were sentout by the Holy Spirit.
They went down to the seaport ofSeleucia and then sailed to the
(05:33):
island of Cyprus.
There, in the towns of Salamis,they went to the Jewish
synagogues and preached the wordof God.
John Mark with them as theirassistant.
Now pause again.
John Mark, he was a Greekspeaker and could write Greek
very well.
Now, some things are going tohappen eventually, and John Mark
is going to leave their company,but John Mark's story is not
(05:56):
over because eventually thissame John Mark partners up with
Peter because Peter is going togo to Rome and is going to
preach the gospel in the city ofRome.
And John Mark is going to be hisinterpreter.
He's going to interpret forPeter the words he's saying.
And eventually he writes downall the sermons that Peter
preaches as he's inspired by theHoly Spirit, and it eventually
(06:18):
becomes the Gospel of Mark.
That's who this John Mark is,the gospel writer of the Gospel
of Mark.
Verse 6.
After they traveled from town totown across the entire island
until they finally reachedPaphos, where they met a Jewish
sorcerer and a false prophetnamed Bar Jesus.
Joker needs to change his nameand get my Savior's name out of
(06:41):
his mouth.
Sergius Paulus, who was anintelligent man.
The governor invited Barnabasand Zaul to visit him, for he
wanted to hear the word of God.
But Elamis, the sorcerer, as hisname means in Greek, interfered
and urged the governor to pay noattention to what Barnabas and
(07:02):
Saul had said.
He was trying to keep thegovernor from believing.
Saul, also now known as Paul,was filled with the Holy Spirit,
and he looked the sorcerer inthe eye.
You son of the devil.
He was very kind in that moment.
Full of every sort of deceit andfraud, an enemy of all that is
(07:23):
good.
Will you never stop pervertingthe true ways of the Lord?
Watch now, for the Lord has laidhis hand of punishment upon you.
You will be struck blind.
You will not see the sunlightfor some time.
Instantly mist and darkness cameover the man's eyes, and he
began groping around, beggingfor someone to take him by the
(07:44):
hand and to lead him.
And when the governor saw whathad happened, he became a
believer, for he was astonishedby the teaching of the Lord.
Sometimes people come to theLord out of miracles, and
sometimes out of judgment.
But the end of the day is theycome.
Verse 13.
Paul and his companions thenleft Paphos by the ship to
(08:05):
Pamphylia, landing in the portof Perga.
There John Mark left them andwent and returned to Jerusalem.
But Paul and Barnabas traveledinland to Antioch of Pasidia.
Now, pause again.
This is not a good thing.
John Mark abandoned them.
We don't know exactly whathappened, but what we do know is
(08:26):
this was not a situation wherethey sent John Mark back to
Jerusalem on purpose.
For whatever reason, somethinghappened and John Mark abandoned
them and left.
And we know that because this isgoing to become a problem later
on.
Which already I would love tojust take a moment to say, isn't
it amazing what God does?
I just want to take a secondbecause right now, when the heat
(08:48):
is on, John Mark abandons them.
Later it becomes a problem.
But what happens is, is like Itold you earlier, he eventually
goes and he goes with Peter andhe becomes a translator and he
eventually begins to redeemhimself until in 2 Timothy
chapter 4, right before Paul isabout to die, he says, Go get
(09:09):
Mark, go get John Mark, becausehe is a blessing to me.
So God redeems him, even thoughright now he abandons Paul and
Barnabas when they need him.
All right, moving on.
On the Sabbath, they went to thesynagogue for their services.
After the usual readings of thebooks of Moses and the prophets,
those in charge of the servicesent them this message.
(09:32):
Brothers, if you have any wordof encouragement for the people,
come and give it.
Don't threaten me with a goodtime, Paul says.
All right, here I go.
Verse 16.
So Paul stood, lifted his handto quiet them, and started
speaking.
Men of Israel, he said, and youGod-fearing Gentiles, listen to
me.
The God of this nation of Israelchose our ancestors and made
(09:54):
them multiply and grow strongduring their stay in Egypt.
Then, with a powerful arm, heled them out of slavery.
He put up with them throughforty, he put up with them
through forty years of wanderingin the wilderness.
So other words, they didn't gohappily, but he put up with
them.
Then he destroyed seven nationsof Canaan and gave the land of
(10:14):
Israel as an inheritance.
All of this took 450 years.
After this, God gave them judgesto rule until the time of Samuel
the prophet.
Then the people begged the king,and God gave them Saul, the son
of Kish, a man from the tribe ofBenjamin, who reigned for forty
(10:35):
years.
But God removed Saul andreplaced him with David, a man
to whom he said, I have foundDavid, son of Jesse, a man after
my own heart.
He will do everything I want himto do.
And it is the one, King David,one of King David's descendants,
Jesus, who is God's promisedSavior of Israel.
(10:56):
Before he came, John the Baptistpreached that all the people of
Israel needed to repent of theirsins and turn to God and be
baptized.
As John was finished hisministry, he asked, Do you
think, or he was asked, Do youthink I am the Messiah?
No, I am not, but he is comingsoon, and I am not even worthy
(11:17):
to be his slave and to untie thesandals on his feet.
Brothers, your sons of Abraham,and also you God-fearing
Gentiles, this message ofsalvation has been sent to us.
The people in Jerusalem and allthe leaders did not recognize
Jesus as the one of the as theone the prophets had spoken
(11:39):
about.
Instead, they condemned him, andin doing this, they fulfilled
the prophet's words that areread every Sabbath.
They found no legal reason toexecute him, but they asked
Pilate to have him killedanyway.
When they had done all that theprophecies had said about him,
they took him down from thecross and placed him in a tomb.
(12:00):
But God raised him from thedead, and over a period of many
days he had appeared to thosewho had gone with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem.
They are now his witnesses tothe people of Israel.
And we are here to bring youthis good news.
The promise was made to ourancestors, and God has now
(12:21):
fulfilled it to us, theirdescendants, by raising Jesus.
And this is what the secondpsalm says about Jesus.
You are my son.
Today I have become your father.
For God had promised to raisehim from the dead, not leaving
him to rot in the grave.
He said, I will give you thesacred blessing I promised to
(12:42):
David.
Another psalm explains it morefully.
This is not a reference toDavid, for after David had done
the will of God in his owngeneration, he died, and he was
buried with his ancestors, andhis body decayed.
No, it was a reference tosomeone else, someone God had
raised from those whose body didnot decay.
(13:05):
So, brothers, listen, we arehere to proclaim to you that
through this man Jesus there isforgiveness for your sins.
Everyone who believes in him hasbeen made right with God,
something the law of Moses couldnever do.
Be careful, don't let theprophet's words apply to you,
for they said, Look, youmockers, be amazed and die, for
(13:28):
I am doing something in you inyour own day, something you
wouldn't believe, even ifsomeone told you about it.
As Paul and Barnabas left thesynagogue that day, the people
begged them to speak about thesethings again the next week.
And many of the Jews and devoutconverts of Judaism followed
Paul and Barnabas, and the twomen, two men urged them to
(13:50):
continue to rely on the grace ofGod.
So what we just got to see isthe message that Paul would
preach.
He would say, All of thesethings that happened in the law
are great.
And they were leading to Jesus.
And now that Jesus has come, wecan receive salvation through
his name.
And so they continued to preachthis over and over again.
(14:11):
All right, let's finish this up,verse 44.
The following week, the entirecity turned out to hear them
preach the word of the Lord.
And when some of the Jews sawthe crowds, they were jealous.
So they slandered Paul andargued against whatever he said.
Then Paul and Barnabas spoke outboldly and declared, It was
necessary that we first preachthe word of God to you Jews.
(14:34):
But since you have rejected itand judged yourselves unworthy
of eternal life, we now offer itto the Gentiles.
For the Lord gave us thiscommand when he said, I have
made you a light to theGentiles, to bring salvation to
the farthest corners of theearth.
When the Gentiles heard this,they were very glad, and thanked
the Lord for his message, andall who were chosen for eternal
(14:56):
life became believers.
So the Lord's message spreadthroughout that region.
Then the Jews stirred up theinfluential religious women and
the leaders of the city, andthey incited a mob against Paul
and Barnabas and ran them out oftown.
So they shook the dust fromtheir feet as a sign of
rejection and went to the townof Iconium.
And the believers were filledwith joy and with the Holy
(15:19):
Spirit.
Isn't that amazing?
As the gospel is continuing tospread, and as the gospel
continues to spread, some peoplereceive it with joy.
Some people don't receive it,but it doesn't stop the gospel
from moving forward.
And what I love about this isthat even when it's not
received, it doesn't stop Pauland Barnabas from moving
(15:40):
forward.
So what can we learn from thischapter today?
Many things.
We can learn a lot of thingsabout what God is doing all over
the place.
And what I love about this is itbegins with fasting and prayer
and it ends with continuedfaithfulness.
Notice that in every one ofthese towns, Paul and Barnabas
are going to be faithful, goingto share what's going on.
(16:01):
And they experience troublealong the way.
They receive word that theirgood friend, John Mark, abandons
them and leaves.
They continue to move forward.
They have this moment where noteverybody wants to believe them.
They continue to move forward.
They have a time where theJewish people actually try to
just dismantle what they'redoing.
Continue to move forward.
Just trusting God to make a way.
(16:23):
Maybe that needs to be the wordof the Lord in your life today.
Whatever you're doing, if you'redoing it for the Lord, keep
moving forward.
Don't let other thingsdiscourage you.
Don't let it distract you.
But continue to be faithful andlet God do what only God can do
in your life.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you so much for yourword.
Thank you for your goodness andfor your mercy.
(16:44):
Thank you, Lord, that you arewith us in all things.
Lord, my prayer today is thatyou will fill us with your hope
and with your goodness thatwe'll never give up, but will
continue to serve you all alongthe way.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Don't forget, Jesus said in Acts1.8, say it with me.
You will receive power.
When?
When the Holy Spirit comes uponyou, and you will be my
(17:05):
witnesses to the ends of theearth.
My prayer today is that youwould receive the power of the
Holy Spirit and you would be awitness for Him in your world
today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Actschapter 14.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Well, hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Acts chapter 13.
(00:22):
And today, if I were to give ita title, it would be The Gospel
Reaches New Places.
What we're going to see today isa shift in the narrative and a
shift in what's kind of goingon.
And likely, and we don't knowthis for sure, but likely this
is also where the shift occursbecause of the relationship that
Luke has with Paul.
We're going to get into that injust a moment.
(00:43):
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
like, share, and subscribe tothe YouTube video.
If you listen to this as apodcast, make sure you leave us
a five-star review.
Also, let us know how you areencountering God's word.
And I would love for you to goto our Facebook group, a Bible
breakdown discussion, and let meknow, let us know.
Have you ever been on a missionstrip?
Ever been on a trip somewhere,be able to share the gospel, be
(01:04):
the hands and feet of Jesus.
If you have, I want to know allabout it because, man, that's
what we're going to see today.
And I would love to know whatyou are experiencing in God's
Word as we go through the bookof Acts.
Have you ever read through thebook of Acts before?
If so, man, are you picking upanything new?
Let us know.
We want to grow together.
Because man, the more we dig,the more we find.
Now, what we've beenexperiencing up until now, the
(01:27):
first 12 books of the story ofthe early church, as written by
the doctor-turned investigativejournalist, Luke, is the early
days of the church.
And we've been really focusingon Jerusalem, Peter, and the
different things that's going onwithin the Jewish community.
But what we're about to see fromnow, really moving on through
the rest of the narrative ofwhat is happening, is we're
(01:51):
going to focus on three majormissionary journeys of Paul.
And then afterward, we're goingto see how Paul eventually makes
his way to Rome.
But what we what we really beginto see here is that God begins
to use Paul, which he's he'sabout to change his name to Saul
or from Saul to Paul, but he'susing him to go and to spread
the gospel into variousdifferent Gentile cities and
(02:13):
really helping the gospel justget out there a whole lot.
And so that's a lot of whatwe're going to see is it really
focuses now on these missionaryjourneys and a lot of what
happens.
And what we're going to see in alot of these places is the
Gentiles receive the gospel.
Man, they're so excited.
But then Jewish people, theybecome jealous because he's
(02:34):
teaching the gospel.
And it the basis, the foundationof the gospel begins with Jewish
culture and with the law, thecovenant, because Jesus came to
fulfill the law, not do awaywith it.
So there's all this jealousythat starts to happen.
So we're seeing this whole thinghappen.
And one of the reasons why isbecause we know at some point
Luke becomes a travelingcompanion with Paul.
(02:56):
And that makes a lot of sensebecause as we're going to see,
almost everywhere Paul goes, heeither starts a church or starts
a riot.
There really isn't two waysabout it.
And to be honest with you, for along time, I always wanted to
meet Paul.
I wanted to meet him and talk tohim.
But at the same time, I'm notentirely sure.
Paul might not have been themost friendly person.
(03:18):
You know what I mean?
I think he would be, but at thesame time, you imagine the
personality of a trend settingpioneer who goes into an area
and is willing to just argue anddebate the scripture with
anybody.
That's going to be a very type Aguy.
So whereas he would probably befull of joy and kindness and
goodness, he's probably the sameguy who's going to tell you like
(03:38):
it is.
So if you like that kind of guy,that's the kind of guy you want
to meet.
And that's Paul.
And I love that.
But at the same time, you wantto get ready for that, right?
And so we're going to see thateventually, because Luke and
Paul become travelingcompanions, because Luke was a
doctor and Paul was constantlygetting beat up and needing a
doctor, that's likely one of thereasons why we start to see
this.
It's because either right now iswhere Luke started to follow
(04:02):
with Peter or with Paul, or ashe's traveling with them, he
starts telling these stories.
So either way, we get to seethis.
So let's dive in to the firstmissionary journey of Paul.
So if you got your Bibles, Actschapter 13, verse 1.
Among the prophets and teachersat the Church of Antioch of
Syria were Barnabas, Simeon,also called the black man,
(04:25):
Lucius, the serene, Manin, thechildhood companion of Herod
Antipos, and Saul.
One day these men wereworshiping the Lord and fasting,
and the Holy Spirit said,Appoint Barnabas and Saul for
the special work to which I havecalled them.
So after more fasting andprayer, the men lay their hands
(04:47):
on them and sent them on theirway.
Let me just take an aside hereand say, if you ever want to
know what God's next steps foryou are, take time to do fasting
and prayer.
There's something about fasting.
Fasting is saying no to aphysical appetite so that you
can say yes to a spiritualappetite.
And it humbles our heart andmakes us sensitive to hear the
(05:10):
Lord.
And when you fast and you pray,God does amazing things in your
life.
So I just want to throw that outthere, okay?
They did that, and then Godsaid, I want you to send
Barnabas and Saul.
I have work for them.
So send them and let them do it.
Verse 4 says this.
So Barnabas and Saul were sentout by the Holy Spirit.
They went down to the seaport ofSeleucia and then sailed to the
(05:33):
island of Cyprus.
There, in the towns of Salamis,they went to the Jewish
synagogues and preached the wordof God.
John Mark with them as theirassistant.
Now pause again.
John Mark, he was a Greekspeaker and could write Greek
very well.
Now, some things are going tohappen eventually, and John Mark
is going to leave their company,but John Mark's story is not
(05:56):
over because eventually thissame John Mark partners up with
Peter because Peter is going togo to Rome and is going to
preach the gospel in the city ofRome.
And John Mark is going to be hisinterpreter.
He's going to interpret forPeter the words he's saying.
And eventually he writes downall the sermons that Peter
preaches as he's inspired by theHoly Spirit, and it eventually
(06:18):
becomes the Gospel of Mark.
That's who this John Mark is,the gospel writer of the Gospel
of Mark.
Verse 6.
After they traveled from town totown across the entire island
until they finally reachedPaphos, where they met a Jewish
sorcerer and a false prophetnamed Bar Jesus.
Joker needs to change his nameand get my Savior's name out of
(06:41):
his mouth.
Sergius Paulus, who was anintelligent man.
The governor invited Barnabasand Zaul to visit him, for he
wanted to hear the word of God.
But Elamis, the sorcerer, as hisname means in Greek, interfered
and urged the governor to pay noattention to what Barnabas and
(07:02):
Saul had said.
He was trying to keep thegovernor from believing.
Saul, also now known as Paul,was filled with the Holy Spirit,
and he looked the sorcerer inthe eye.
You son of the devil.
He was very kind in that moment.
Full of every sort of deceit andfraud, an enemy of all that is
(07:23):
good.
Will you never stop pervertingthe true ways of the Lord?
Watch now, for the Lord has laidhis hand of punishment upon you.
You will be struck blind.
You will not see the sunlightfor some time.
Instantly mist and darkness cameover the man's eyes, and he
began groping around, beggingfor someone to take him by the
(07:44):
hand and to lead him.
And when the governor saw whathad happened, he became a
believer, for he was astonishedby the teaching of the Lord.
Sometimes people come to theLord out of miracles, and
sometimes out of judgment.
But the end of the day is theycome.
Verse 13.
Paul and his companions thenleft Paphos by the ship to
(08:05):
Pamphylia, landing in the portof Perga.
There John Mark left them andwent and returned to Jerusalem.
But Paul and Barnabas traveledinland to Antioch of Pasidia.
Now, pause again.
This is not a good thing.
John Mark abandoned them.
We don't know exactly whathappened, but what we do know is
(08:26):
this was not a situation wherethey sent John Mark back to
Jerusalem on purpose.
For whatever reason, somethinghappened and John Mark abandoned
them and left.
And we know that because this isgoing to become a problem later
on.
Which already I would love tojust take a moment to say, isn't
it amazing what God does?
I just want to take a secondbecause right now, when the heat
(08:48):
is on, John Mark abandons them.
Later it becomes a problem.
But what happens is, is like Itold you earlier, he eventually
goes and he goes with Peter andhe becomes a translator and he
eventually begins to redeemhimself until in 2 Timothy
chapter 4, right before Paul isabout to die, he says, Go get
(09:09):
Mark, go get John Mark, becausehe is a blessing to me.
So God redeems him, even thoughright now he abandons Paul and
Barnabas when they need him.
All right, moving on.
On the Sabbath, they went to thesynagogue for their services.
After the usual readings of thebooks of Moses and the prophets,
those in charge of the servicesent them this message.
(09:32):
Brothers, if you have any wordof encouragement for the people,
come and give it.
Don't threaten me with a goodtime, Paul says.
All right, here I go.
Verse 16.
So Paul stood, lifted his handto quiet them, and started
speaking.
Men of Israel, he said, and youGod-fearing Gentiles, listen to
me.
The God of this nation of Israelchose our ancestors and made
(09:54):
them multiply and grow strongduring their stay in Egypt.
Then, with a powerful arm, heled them out of slavery.
He put up with them throughforty, he put up with them
through forty years of wanderingin the wilderness.
So other words, they didn't gohappily, but he put up with
them.
Then he destroyed seven nationsof Canaan and gave the land of
(10:14):
Israel as an inheritance.
All of this took 450 years.
After this, God gave them judgesto rule until the time of Samuel
the prophet.
Then the people begged the king,and God gave them Saul, the son
of Kish, a man from the tribe ofBenjamin, who reigned for forty
(10:35):
years.
But God removed Saul andreplaced him with David, a man
to whom he said, I have foundDavid, son of Jesse, a man after
my own heart.
He will do everything I want himto do.
And it is the one, King David,one of King David's descendants,
Jesus, who is God's promisedSavior of Israel.
(10:56):
Before he came, John the Baptistpreached that all the people of
Israel needed to repent of theirsins and turn to God and be
baptized.
As John was finished hisministry, he asked, Do you
think, or he was asked, Do youthink I am the Messiah?
No, I am not, but he is comingsoon, and I am not even worthy
(11:17):
to be his slave and to untie thesandals on his feet.
Brothers, your sons of Abraham,and also you God-fearing
Gentiles, this message ofsalvation has been sent to us.
The people in Jerusalem and allthe leaders did not recognize
Jesus as the one of the as theone the prophets had spoken
(11:39):
about.
Instead, they condemned him, andin doing this, they fulfilled
the prophet's words that areread every Sabbath.
They found no legal reason toexecute him, but they asked
Pilate to have him killedanyway.
When they had done all that theprophecies had said about him,
they took him down from thecross and placed him in a tomb.
(12:00):
But God raised him from thedead, and over a period of many
days he had appeared to thosewho had gone with him from
Galilee to Jerusalem.
They are now his witnesses tothe people of Israel.
And we are here to bring youthis good news.
The promise was made to ourancestors, and God has now
(12:21):
fulfilled it to us, theirdescendants, by raising Jesus.
And this is what the secondpsalm says about Jesus.
You are my son.
Today I have become your father.
For God had promised to raisehim from the dead, not leaving
him to rot in the grave.
He said, I will give you thesacred blessing I promised to
(12:42):
David.
Another psalm explains it morefully.
This is not a reference toDavid, for after David had done
the will of God in his owngeneration, he died, and he was
buried with his ancestors, andhis body decayed.
No, it was a reference tosomeone else, someone God had
raised from those whose body didnot decay.
(13:05):
So, brothers, listen, we arehere to proclaim to you that
through this man Jesus there isforgiveness for your sins.
Everyone who believes in him hasbeen made right with God,
something the law of Moses couldnever do.
Be careful, don't let theprophet's words apply to you,
for they said, Look, youmockers, be amazed and die, for
(13:28):
I am doing something in you inyour own day, something you
wouldn't believe, even ifsomeone told you about it.
As Paul and Barnabas left thesynagogue that day, the people
begged them to speak about thesethings again the next week.
And many of the Jews and devoutconverts of Judaism followed
Paul and Barnabas, and the twomen, two men urged them to
(13:50):
continue to rely on the grace ofGod.
So what we just got to see isthe message that Paul would
preach.
He would say, All of thesethings that happened in the law
are great.
And they were leading to Jesus.
And now that Jesus has come, wecan receive salvation through
his name.
And so they continued to preachthis over and over again.
(14:11):
All right, let's finish this up,verse 44.
The following week, the entirecity turned out to hear them
preach the word of the Lord.
And when some of the Jews sawthe crowds, they were jealous.
So they slandered Paul andargued against whatever he said.
Then Paul and Barnabas spoke outboldly and declared, It was
necessary that we first preachthe word of God to you Jews.
(14:34):
But since you have rejected itand judged yourselves unworthy
of eternal life, we now offer itto the Gentiles.
For the Lord gave us thiscommand when he said, I have
made you a light to theGentiles, to bring salvation to
the farthest corners of theearth.
When the Gentiles heard this,they were very glad, and thanked
the Lord for his message, andall who were chosen for eternal
(14:56):
life became believers.
So the Lord's message spreadthroughout that region.
Then the Jews stirred up theinfluential religious women and
the leaders of the city, andthey incited a mob against Paul
and Barnabas and ran them out oftown.
So they shook the dust fromtheir feet as a sign of
rejection and went to the townof Iconium.
And the believers were filledwith joy and with the Holy
(15:19):
Spirit.
Isn't that amazing?
As the gospel is continuing tospread, and as the gospel
continues to spread, some peoplereceive it with joy.
Some people don't receive it,but it doesn't stop the gospel
from moving forward.
And what I love about this isthat even when it's not
received, it doesn't stop Pauland Barnabas from moving
(15:40):
forward.
So what can we learn from thischapter today?
Many things.
We can learn a lot of thingsabout what God is doing all over
the place.
And what I love about this is itbegins with fasting and prayer
and it ends with continuedfaithfulness.
Notice that in every one ofthese towns, Paul and Barnabas
are going to be faithful, goingto share what's going on.
(16:01):
And they experience troublealong the way.
They receive word that theirgood friend, John Mark, abandons
them and leaves.
They continue to move forward.
They have this moment where noteverybody wants to believe them.
They continue to move forward.
They have a time where theJewish people actually try to
just dismantle what they'redoing.
Continue to move forward.
Just trusting God to make a way.
(16:23):
Maybe that needs to be the wordof the Lord in your life today.
Whatever you're doing, if you'redoing it for the Lord, keep
moving forward.
Don't let other thingsdiscourage you.
Don't let it distract you.
But continue to be faithful andlet God do what only God can do
in your life.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you so much for yourword.
Thank you for your goodness andfor your mercy.
(16:44):
Thank you, Lord, that you arewith us in all things.
Lord, my prayer today is thatyou will fill us with your hope
and with your goodness thatwe'll never give up, but will
continue to serve you all alongthe way.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Don't forget, Jesus said in Acts1.8, say it with me.
You will receive power.
When?
When the Holy Spirit comes uponyou, and you will be my
(17:05):
witnesses to the ends of theearth.
My prayer today is that youwould receive the power of the
Holy Spirit and you would be awitness for Him in your world
today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Actschapter 14.
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