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Good morning friends on the 150 days Summer 2019 Scripture journey with me. Today we are reading Acts 14.
Most of us have either been on or know someone who has been on a ‘short term missions trip’. Normally those are a week or two, maybe three, and in a group who go to help missionaries in a foreign place accomplish their ministry and give those on the team exposure to foreign missions.
Today in Acts 14 we find a rapid fire description of Paul and Barnabas’ first missionary journey. It began by traveling from their sending church in Antioch north of modern day Lebanon, to the island of Cyprus, then north into modern day Turkey and eventually, by the end of chapter 14, back again to Antioch.
You’ll notice they encountered opposition in every place they stopped to share the Gospel. WHY? Why even today is there such resistance to the most amazing good news that God so loved us that He sent His Son to die for us, paying the sin debt we couldn’t pay, so we could receive the gift of forgiveness and eternal life that we couldn’t earn. Why is that so strongly resisted around the world… and sadly, even here in North America?
Maybe because many believe it’s simply too good to be true, and therefore there must be a catch, some trap to enslave us. Or maybe because it calls us to consider we are not the authors of truth, God is and His truth convicts us sinners who need a Savior and shows us we can’t save ourselves?
I wonder what the roadblock was for you, before you trusted Jesus with your life? Do you sometimes reflect on who you would be and what the condition of your life would be if you had done as many of the hearers of Paul and Barnabas did.. .and rejected Jesus and His Gospel?
Not everyone opposed them, however, and Acts 14 tells us that in each town they shared the Gospel SOME people were moved by the Holy Spirit to believe and put their trust and their lives in Jesus’ hands. Notice Acts 14:23 “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church…”
Now please remember… no Bible schools, no Seminaries, no Christian radio or TV or publications. not even Bibles as we know them. The Torah scroll would be in the Synagogue with a prescribed reading each week… but that’s it!
Can you imagine churches being planted simply by two men sharing the powerful truths of what Jesus has done in their lives, and telling the stories about Jesus as they had heard them from the Apostles who’d been with Jesus?
Of course the power in all this is that they were anointed by the Holy Spirit of God who led them to speak God’s truths to people who had never heard this Gospel before!
You’ll notice beginning in Acts 14:21 they backtracked and re-visited each of the towns where they had already been, encouraging the believers to grow in their relationship with Jesus and share their story with others. Notice the word “Church” in vs. 23. Remember Jesus had promised “I will build MY Church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18) and that is exactly what He was doing by the power of His Holy Spirit, through Paul & Barnabas!
“Church” is the word Ekklesia and it means “called out ones”. A people called by Jesus from their sin enslavement.
Finally, notice Paul & Barnabas return to the church in Antioch from which they’d been sent out. They “gathered the church together and reported all that God had done…and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained there a long time with the disciples.” What would you say, if your church asked you to give a report of what God has done in your life in the last year or so?
Pause here and just thank God. . . from this first ‘missions trip’ Jesus has grown His Church to nearly 1 Billion people around the world in our day! About 100,000 are trusting Jesus everyday around the world! I urge you to thank Jesus today, and ask Him to show you what your role is in what He is doing where you live and around the world.
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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