WEDNESDAY 02 June 2021 “Encourage/Strengthen”

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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,

Would you believe we’ve now reached the TWO YEAR mark for this amazing daily experience together we call “Walking with Jesus”?

It began as a request from a few friends for a daily time of reflecting together in God’s Word but doing so as if we were experiencing it together with each other and with Jesus! I hope God is refreshing you each day with “Walking with Jesus” as He is refreshing me as I produce it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit!!

Today is significant because we’re accompanying Paul & Barnabas as they come to a major turning point in their first missionary journey. You’ll recall the journey began in Acts 13 when the Holy Spirit said to the Jesus followers in the Syrian Antioch church, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 13:2) It came as a shock to the people of that church for Saul & Barnabas were key leaders & teachers, but they did what God instructed them to do. They prayed for these two men and commissioned them to God’s care, provision, protection and direction. Luke writes: “Sent on their way by the Holy Spirit they went down to Selucia and sailed to Cyprus.”

For the past few days we’ve been traveling with them, following Luke’s account and I’m sure you’d agree we are amazed by what we’ve seen in their journey! Now in Acts 14:19 Paul and Barnabas have been first celebrated, then suddenly violently opposed, in the town of Lystra. The angry crowd threw stones at Paul and dragged him out of the city thinking he was dead! His crime? He had proclaimed the wonderful news of Jesus and the new life available to anyone in a relationship with Jesus! Yet he lay nearly dead on the ground for many in that city wanted nothing to do with Jesus! Does that sound like your town my friends?

Yesterday we saw that some of the courageous Jesus followers in Lystra were not afraid to be seen gathering around Paul. They prayed for him and miraculously God raised him up, healed his wounds, and Paul got up from the ground, walked back into Lystra, to the amazement of everyone who saw him! However, Acts 14:20 says “The next day Paul & Barnabas left Lystra and headed for Derbe.” Let’s walk along with them. Can you hear Barnabas asking Paul something like this…‘Brother Paul, I just don’t understand why people are resisting Jesus, rejecting the forgiveness of sins found in Him, and rejecting the hope of eternal life with God? There is no better news. I thought everyone, everywhere would jump at the opportunity to know Jesus as we do?”

Have you felt that way sometimes friends? Confused, befuddled by the resistance of so many people to the wonderful Gospel of Jesus? It’s a spiritual battle my friends. The stronghold of the evil dark kingdom will not release its stranglehold on people easily. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:4 “The god of this age [Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God.”

And so I imagine as they walked along Paul may have responded something like this: “I understand them Barnabas, I was once like them. I hated the thought that Jesus was really who He claimed to be, God the Son. It seemed preposterous to me. I refused to believe I could be forgiven by God for my sin if I only trusted in Jesus and His death payment on the cross. I must die for my own sin, that is why I worked so hard to live a perfect life. I was blinded, and that blindness caused me to reject Jesus and want to kill all his followers. It was my encounter with Jesus which changed my mind. That’s what they need, Barnabas, they need the Holy Spirit to open their minds and draw them to an encounter with Jesus. So… we will press on. We’ll keep going, from town to town, telling them the story of Jesus, giving them the chance to experience new life in Him, and praying the Holy Spirit will bind the demons which blind them, and open their hearts and minds to Jesus’ truth, and draw them to Jesus… And Barnabas, I hope the stones will be softer in Derbe than they were in Lystra!!”

Luke, who gives us their story, only gives us one short line of their time in Derbe… “They preached the good news in Derbe and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra…” (Acts 14:21) What, that’s all? I guess it’s not important for us to know how long they stayed in Derbe this time, who received them, who if anyone opposed them? What we do know is when they walked out of that town, many in Derbe were followers of Jesus…amen! Now think about that…if God moved you from where you currently live to somewhere else… as you leave, what will have been the impact of your life and the time you have spent living where you live? In other words… what is your legacy?

Now I would have thought Paul and Barnabas would have continued east, heading back to Antioch where it all began. But no…they turned around and went back to Lystra! And then on to Iconium and then on to Pisidian Antioch! That was about 300 miles walk. Why? Luke writes: “…strengthening the disciples [in each town] and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” WOW! Now that’s a challenging thought isn’t it? Could it be that is your life purpose and mine, for the remainder of our lives? “Strengthening followers of Jesus and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.”!!!

We’re going to stop right here for today, and I invite us to give this serious thought. I invite you to ask the key questions:

WHO are those people in your life whom Jesus may want YOU to strengthen & encourage? Ponder that a moment…ask God to bring the specific people to your mind that HE is thinking about for you? What if you began making a list of those people God brings to your mind?

HOW would the Holy Spirit want to lead you to strengthen and encourage each of those people that God is bringing to your mind? They are each different aren’t they?

WHERE do these people live? Where do you encounter them?

WHAT is your relationship with each of these people and what does Jesus want to accomplish in THEM as He encourages them through you?

Now this last thought… as Paul and Barnabas walked back to Lystra, I think you and I both know what they were talking about. “The last time we were in this town they nearly killed you Paul? Are you sure this is what Jesus wants us to do?”

“Yes my friend Barnabas, but our focus is encouragement of our brothers and sisters in Christ here in this town, not confrontation with those who rejected our preaching the last time”

I invite you to join me…let’s ask God to help us live like that, everyday, all day, for the rest of our lives.

But it will be a challenge friends, because most everyone you know or will meet each day, lives under the heavy weight of our dark, discouraging world! So we need a strength that only comes from Jesus, just like Paul & Barnabas… so here’s a song that will help us understand how to live this:

Today’s Scripture is Acts 14:19-22.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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