The Book of Acts 13:44-52 Paul's 1st missionary journey - next Sabbath

OK. So basically, you know, in this picture, we're you know, we started in Antioch here. I forgot what river it's by. But anyway, they went to the coastal city of Seleucia and sailed across the Salamis. Papos, and then to Perga, and then up to Antioch and Pisidia. And so that's where we are right now. And so through chapter 13, they're going to leave Antioch and go to Iconium. Or actually, they're going to be forced to leave Antioch.

They're going to be driven out, and they're going to go. And that's kind of very picturesque. They shook off the dust of their feet. We're going to see that. That actually occurs quite a few times in scripture. We'll look at that a little bit. So that's kind of the big picture of his. And then we're actually in Chapter 14.

It's going to talk about Iconium and Derby and then they kind of retrace their steps back to Antioch here. This is Antioch. And I mentioned before, they're up to 12 Antioch. I mean, I didn't find any names. Go ahead. Describe this particular Antioch last laser. as on the Orontes. Thank you. The one where the church center moves from Jerusalem to Antioch and this is on the Orontes. Great, thanks. And then they go to this other Antioch, but there are a bunch of other ones, 10 more out there.

So anyway, there's somebody, he liked to name things after his children or whatever. I don't know what it was. OK, so let's look at, so I like this overview that Merriman did. He kind of looks at these verses and overview of the positive and negative responses to Paul's message. So basically, the many responded positively. We're going to see that. there was massive local interest in God's word. We're going to see if the whole city shows up on the next Sabbath.

But as you might expect, there was hostility, contradiction, and blasphemy by the Jews. They looked at it and said, hey, these guys It reminded me of when the Lord was in his ministry and the Jewish leaders said if we're not careful this guy, everyone is going to believe in him and we're going to be out of a job. It's very human nature. It's sort of like if you're selling cookies and you're competitor across the street sells more cookies and I'm going to be out of business here. That just went very worldly. The Jews looked at this and said, if everybody goes and follows Paul here, we're going to be in trouble. And what's amazing here, when the Gentiles hear the good news, they glorify God.

And they have an extended area of evangelism around their appearance seems to be. And then there is persecution and this persecution, the word for persecution is the same word that. It's interesting, the same word is used of Paul when he persecuted, when he wasn't a believer, he persecuted the early church in Jerusalem there. The same word is used here for the persecution that Paul received in Barnabas. I thought that was kind of interesting.

And basically, just like they drove him out of Jerusalem, they drove him out of Zaniot. They pushed him out of the city, they did not want him there. They convinced all the local authorities to join with them and get it out. It wasn't good for business. If it's not going to be part of the established synagogue and that kind of thing, it's not good.

I want to use this as an outline as we go through. Any thoughts or comments for now? Alright, so the many responded positively. Actually, what's interesting is here, I didn't notice this until I started reading a little bit. If you have a King James Bible and you have a New American Standard, they read a little bit differently. And it's not clear initially. If you look at the King James, it says, and when the Jews had gone out of the synagogue, whereas the New American Standard says Paul and Barnabas were going out, And then it says the Gentiles besought, or that's the word for beg basically, sought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. And this one says the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.

So it seems like if you look at how the different translations, their origins, some come from what's called the majority text and some come from the minority text. And so this is kind of difference between majority Texas King James, I believe, and minority Texas. And what that means is, I think Vern was talking about the main service, you know, how many copies we have of scripture. So people have made, they've invested lots and lots of time. The majority of the scriptures agree with this and then they have a minority agree with that.

So people, there's different camps on which one is more accurate. So that's kind of where I'm at. I don't know much more what I just said. So I'm not I'm not a student of that, but people do that and it can be helpful, it seems like. OK, so I like Merriman's comment about this.

So he says, regardless of precisely who begs, it seems like that the Gentiles were begging, or maybe the people. The people sometimes refers to the Jews in scripture. So was it the Jews only? Was it the Gentiles? Some Gentiles, we don't know, but the main thing to take away from this is that they wanted the Word of God preached again to them.

They heard his description. He went through the whole history of Israel, basically, and pointed out how Jesus was the key component of that and how he fulfilled the scriptures of the Messiah. So they wanted to hear more. And they kept on begging him. It wasn't just one. They said, we don't want to hear more. We want to hear more. So they were very intense about that. So that's kind of really cool. The little thing about Gentiles, Jews, I don't think that's a key point. The key point is that they wanted to hear more. And they were very excited about that. Next part.

So then verse 43, it says, when the meeting of the synagogue had broken up, and it seems like this is kind of additional information, if you will, to 42. Many of the Jews and the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, urging them to continue in the grace of God. So then I have here, it's kind of interesting. I was trying to understand what they were urging them to continue in the grace of God. So it seems like somehow from the message that they heard, They realized that that message that Paul preached was God has come to us and explained what happened in our country better and that's God's grace.

So somehow they picked up on that. The Amplified Bible tries to pick up on that. I don't think it did. It basically renders it, just like the urging part, urges them to continue to thrust themselves and to stand fast in the grace of God, and basically just kind of gives us a definition of the grace of grace, which is not the absolutely best one, but it's okay. So it seems like they saw grace in the fact that Jesus was provided as a savior and salvation.

If you look back in chapter 13, look at Acts 13.32.

Paul is talking here, we preach to you the good news, and that's a word, euangelion I think, of the promise made to our father. He showed them the good news and that good news was really God's grace to them that provided salvation for them. Paul ties it all together and shows them that their scriptures talked about this salvation was to come. What they did is they crucified the one that was provided for that salvation. Here they are urging him to continue in the grace of God. They caught on a lot quicker than you might think it seems like. I thought it was really interesting.

Let's go on to the next one here. OK, next Sabbath day, OK, here's the whole city basically assembled. And we've seen that in other cases. And we're going to see it down the road, where after the preaching of, we're going to see it in 14, where Paul will preach the message. And then pretty soon, it expands outside the boundaries of the synagogue. It goes beyond that.

And pretty soon, it encompasses the whole territory around that. So the whole city assembled. to hear the word of the Lord. So here again, I thought the Amplified did a pretty good job. They said, the next Sabbath, almost the entire city gathered together to hear the word of God.

And basically, this tries to bring in, what was that message? Like I mentioned, the message that Paul brought was one of salvation through Jesus Christ. So they try to pick up on that concerning the attainment through Christ of salvation in the kingdom of God.

If you look at Paul's sermon again, since we are focusing back upon what they have heard before, as was mentioned before last week, it kind of breaks down into three sections in verse 13. Verses 16, it kind of starts in 16, when he starts speaking, and he goes through the history of Israel, and that kind of goes down through 25. And then starting in 26, he talks about the resurrection and the crucifixion of Christ and how Jesus fit exactly their Messiah that was to come. And then it goes down and we get to verse 38, and that starts the last section here.

And 38 says, it kind of tells him, therefore brethren, let it be known to you that through him, Jesus, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And that through him, everyone who believes is freed from all things from which you could not be free from through the law of Moses. And he says, take heed. And in verse 40, he talks about how to take heed and not to be like the scoffers. Don't be like that.

So he tries to show them what's going on here. So that's where that interest came from what was preached before. But of course, along with that came the Jewish mindset that they are encroaching upon their territory. First of all, they saw the crowds. It looked like the majority was going to go against them. They were filled with jealousy. And that word jealousy is the idea of envy, pretty typical of what you would think it to be. And we see that in other places. Let's look back at Acts 5. This happened before when the message was preached in Acts 5. I'm going to read Acts 5, 16 and 17.

There came also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing sick folk, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits. And they were healed, every one. Then the high priest rose up, and all that there were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with indignation. Right. And then they laid hands on the apostles and put them in public jail.

So this is, you know, this jealousy against, here's people, you know, They didn't really want to hear the message, they were jealous that they were getting the attention and they were going to be the important people in the community in terms of God. They just weren't jealous. The jealousy drove them to contradicting the things spoken. The word contradicting is the idea to speak against.

I just want to show a couple of places. For this word, just one place. We kind of see a similar pattern. The Jews will object consistently throughout Acts. They'll object to the message that's presented. And some of the same words are used in Acts 28-19. It says, but when the Jews... Let me just go back. This is basically Paul in Rome here, but it says, when the Jews objected, I was forced to appeal to Caesar, not that I had any accusation against me.

And that's basically the contradiction or speaking against, but may not exact match there. And then thirdly, the idea of blasphemy. So what do you think, and this is one thing, I have a verse that talks about in other places, so what do you think, and it's not clear, I don't see it stated, what do you think they were, we would consider the Jews blasphemy about? And maybe, this is somewhat, we're kind of reading between the lines here, what do you think that, and I've heard some people conjecture about this, what do you think the blasphemy was concerning?

And maybe this is it. Tom? They tended to settle on their own idea of when Christ would really appear instead of what they got. And they figured this is just an interlude. It's all going to be washed down this pool and we're going to stick with what we know.

Well, it seemed like they remember the high priest who said, well, if Jesus really is from God, then we can't stop it. When if he's not from God, it's going to die out. Kind of like what you're kind of saying. Well, it may die out or it may go forward. If it goes forward, then we can't do anything about it. God will prevail. Which is actually pretty wise. And actually, at that point in time, we read about that earlier in Acts. That was a good decision at that point in time.

I've heard some people say in terms of who Christ was. I think anytime that you speak in contradiction of what the word of God says, that's blasphemy. That's what they accused Christ of because that was their tradition, but now beyond that they realize the truth and speaking against the word of God in any form is direct contradiction to what God says. I think even in our modern day, there's even many popular Christian teachers that think, well, they're sincere in their belief, they're okay with that. And you've got to recognize, that goes against the word of God. I know. It's actually kind of scary stuff. It makes me kind of think, Lord, help me be careful with your word. Help me be accurate. Because I don't want to speak against God. I don't want to say something that's contrary to what his word says. And you're right. I think it all centered on Christ. I mean, Christ is a pivotal part, right? When they spoke against Christ, so we'll know Christ is not the Messiah. Go ahead.

I'm just a little confused. I had thought that Vernon said something about that you can't commit blasphemy now because it was only when... I can't remember now. I have to kind of think about that a little bit. I forgot, because I was like, yeah, I was like, oh my gosh, that's last man. But I thought he said he couldn't.

Right. Yeah. OK, well, let me think about that. OK. Thanks. I'll reserve judgment. Let me think about that. OK. Well obviously at this point, I think we'll all agree at this point in time, there's probably no scripture that says that they were committing blasphemy. So we'll go along with that.

But what you're saying, you look at the New Testament and you look at the church age, I don't know. Let me think about that. Maybe believers wouldn't commit blasphemy because we've already accepted who Christ is for, you know, accepting his truth. But it's more unbelievers? Yeah. That would make sense. Yeah. I think that was it.

So the Jews were putting out, they were jealous, they saw the crowds, they were jealous, they were contradicting the things spoken, they were blaspheming, most likely against Christ, who he was and what he did. So Paul was in the midst of this. They're going against it. So now it seems like they're out. It doesn't really talk about the second Sabbath day. It doesn't really describe here what was said. Like in the first one, they got up. Back in verse 6, they were asked to say something in the synagogues.

And of course, that was Paul's typical approach. He had a shoo-in. This was asked last week. He had a shoo-in. He could walk into any synagogue, a Jewish He was an elder, he could walk in and they would ask him to speak. So it's a perfect platform to present the Jewish history the true Jewish history with Christ given his rightful place in that history. So he did that. But we're not told in this second Sabbath day, it doesn't say what he said. It just says they spoke out boldly. Now, was that in the synagogue? Was that out in the streets? I don't know. It seems like this is probably not in the synagogue. Or maybe it was in the synagogue. I don't know. We don't know.

So it says Paul and Martin spoke out boldly. it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. And this is kind of key, this idea of this order that God has. So let's look at this idea that And in this idea of boldness, let's look at 1 Thessalonians. How are we to be bold is the question. How are we to be bold? I think you guys know this already, but let's go with it.

1 Thessalonians 2.2. Someone read that? But even after that we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi, We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.

What caught my eye here, and we see that the word in is pretty important many, many times in scripture. So we had boldness in ourselves, boldness in our group, in our gathering, just like so many things. Our boldness, any any activity in the Christian life is in Christ or in God. And so they have boldness in God. So, you know, they don't say it here, but their boldness had to be in the Lord for it to be effective. So it was their boldness within the Lord. And that's to be. differentiated from our arrogance.

And many times I think of that many times, you know, leadership has a crucial thing. I mean, leadership has the power many times to do something. But. Are they doing it, especially in the context of body of believer, are they doing it in love, in terms of God's purpose, and so on and so on.

So we may have the power sometimes, but do you do it in concert with what God would have you do? And their boldness always applies to the word of God. It's never, well, we have a better opinion. They wax bold in the truth of God and nothing else, just what God says. Right, exactly.

Okay, so I want to do this thing about the Jews first. It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. implying that he's talking to the Jews here. So if you look at Matthew 15-24, there are a series of about three verses here that kind of talk about, and I think most of you kind of know this already, but it's kind of good to just remember it again. Matthew 15-24.

But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So Christ proclaimed that. He wasn't sent to everyone. He was focused on the lost sheep of the house of Israel. God's plan was that the nation of Israel was to be his plan A. God doesn't have plan A and plan B. I'm not going to say that. His expressed intention was that the nation of Israel was to bring forth his word. Messiah came from Israel and that was his plan. But we're going to see that basically they didn't want him. And so he moved on, not necessarily to plan B, but to the continuation of his plan through people that were willing to do his will.

Then we see in John 4.22 another statement about this.

John 4.22 says, You worship the things which you do not know. We worship that which we know. For salvation is from the Jews. So it's possible you could take this a different way, but it seems like in the context we're talking about that the origin of salvation comes through the Jewish people and that idea. And then basically Romans 116 says a similar kind of idea in terms of the origin of salvation.

Romans 1.16 says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jews first, and also to the Greeks. Does the word Christ occur in your particular translation? In 16? Yeah. No. So how does yours read?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that be. I think once again, that's King James. So we have some of the textual things. I wouldn't get real upset with that. But there are differences like that sometimes. Secondly, point one is that God's plan came through the nation of Israel. Secondly, in terms of the Jews first, Paul's custom.

If you look in Acts 14, Paul once again, I mentioned this before, we won't belabor this point too much. Every case he's going to go into the synagogue. Acts 14 verse 1, and it came about that in Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together and spoke in such a manner that a great multitude believed, both Jews and Gentile Greeks. So once again, they entered the synagogue. So he starts with the Jews first. So that was Paul's custom, and that was God's plan. So there's at least two parts to that idea.

OK. OK. But what happened is the someone else had a different translation that we reputed, reputed. I have a better word, but I was curious. What does the King James say? Put it from you. What's that? Put it from you. Yes, OK, that's good. Actually, literally it means to reject and to thrust from oneself. It's like saying, you push it away. I don't want that. I don't want that. So that's what the Jews said. I don't want that. I don't want that. They repudiated it. or thrust it from themselves.

And that occurs in other places, earlier we've seen that, other places in scripture. And this is interesting, once they do that, once they thrust it from themselves, that That results in a form of judgment. And the way it's stated is interesting. It says, let's read it here.

It says, since you repudiated it and judged yourself unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. So the very act of rejecting it and thrusting it away, That action is a judgment. I think the Amplified Bible tries to bring that forth. It says, But since you thrust it from you, you pass this judgment on yourself, that you are unworthy of eternal life, and out of your mouth you will be judged.

Now I turn this on. That's just kind of an amazing statement. It seems like, wow, by doing that, they're judging themselves unworthy. I'm not sure I totally grasped the full significance, but the Amplified seemed to really bring that across more forcefully, that there's a judgment involved by dismissing or thrusting it away, which I thought was pretty interesting.

And so based upon that, he says emphatically, now behold, we turn to the Gentiles, the heathen. And of course, that probably infuriated them even more. They had nothing to do with the Gentiles. And the fact that you're going to take this message and go someplace else, even though they didn't want it, probably didn't make them any happier. Pretty amazing.

And also, this is the first, this statement here is the first time Paul says that he's turning to the Gentiles. Even though, if you look at, if we go back and look at his Nero to Emmaus, does he talk about, well let's just look at that for a second. Nero to Emmaus, did he say, did the Lord tell him that he was going to minister to the Gentiles there? I just, I forgot. I don't think he said that. Did he say that? I'm going to say it explicitly. He says you'll suffer for me. Well he kind of says it to Ananias but not to Paul. What verse are you looking at? 9.15.

This is the first time that he basically says in his ministry to the people that I'm turning to the Gentiles. He says it later on in Acts 18 verses 5 and 6. He says from now on I go to the Gentiles. And then at the very end of the book, he says, this salvation of God has been sent out to the Gentiles.

So as mentioned a few times, I was pointing out there. So anyway, so this is the first occurrence of that. OK, so 47. And now what he's going to do is he's going to give justification for the fact that the Jews were to be the instrument of God's message to the world. He says, so the Lord commanded.

And then he quotes, I like to read both of these, Isaiah 42.6 and Isaiah 49.6. So let's turn there. So this is kind of justification for what he did, that the Jews were to be light, and they didn't want to do that.

Can someone read Isaiah 42.6?

I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. And let's keep going, I'm sorry. Read 7 as well. To open blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I will point you as a covenant to the people, as light to the nations. You can think of the word nations to be synonymous with gentiles. That's 42, 6 and 7.

Let's look at 49, 6. and he said it is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

This last part of that verse, that was God's intent through the prophets, that they, so that my salvation, let's go back, I will also make you a light of the nations, Gentiles, so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. So he uses this as his backup. He quotes these verses from Isaiah as his backup to what he told them about themselves and that they are rejecting it. And basically, this verse quotes what we just read. I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

So now we're going to look at the fun verse here. I hadn't initially thought until I saw what Merriman did that I was going to spend as much time on this verse. The verse reads, When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. So what makes this verse a little bit of a struggle is the last part of the verse.

It seems like that, you think, well wait a minute. Scripture is pretty consistent. Scripture talks about that we come into a relationship with the Lord Jesus and then And then we have this possession of things that we have when we believe in Christ. We've been adopted. We're his child. We're sealed with Christ in the heavenlies. We've been elected. But that picture in scripture, you believe, and then you have this. This seems like it flips it around. And it basically says you're appointed, then you believe.

And I'm not a great student of Calvinism. I know some of it. I've actually learned a little bit more reading this. But Calvin, in my mind, kind of went off on a tangent. So he's taken this verse and done some things. But one thing that's helpful, that I didn't realize either, is that if you look really carefully here, let's look at the inner linear.

It's a Bible that basically takes word for word from the Greek. The Greek sentence will be, you know, so this tries to translate. So this is the exact word order in the Greek. Except for the sake of clarity, I think that actually I flipped and I think it's hearing now rather than now hearing. So the interlinear says, now hearing this, the Gentiles were rejoicing. So first they were rejoicing, and they were glorifying the word of the Lord, and believed And there's no punctuation in the Greek, as many have been appointed to eternal life. So the point here, the reason I'm taking some time, is that basically it starts off, now hearing this, Gentiles. There's like three verbs here. Rejoicing, glorifying, and believed. So those are the three verbs. And if you look at that sentence structure, it's like a compound verb. Hearing, rejoicing, glorifying, and believed.

So the question is, what do I do with this phrase, as many as have been appointed to eternal life? And what seems like people have done, they have made that, as many as had believed, appointed to eternal life, they have made that the subject of the word believed. So the consequence of that is that that subject produces the action. So it says the action of being appointed caused them to believe. Which can't be. That would mean God is predestined. It would seem that there's a possibility also that there's a number of Gentiles out there that were just like the Athenians. They just wanted to hear the latest new gig. What's news across the nation? We have not the information in a word. hope that it will amuse ladies and gents. Let's get on with the news.

Probably what their attitudes were. I mean, it's not like Paul's bad at 1000. And because if he did, there would be so much of an objection by the gentiles who were majority in this, you know, that the Jews couldn't get their point across or do anything. Okay, good. So I am no scholar by any means. I've dealt with this since my freshman year of college. I had many, many, many, many, many discussions and I was stuck with searching my own Bible for my own answers.

And I mean, I don't think I personally don't see it as a huge Romans 1 talks about the called before the foundations of the world, because God knows. We can't say, oh well, that's right, you can guess it, because we don't know, but God knows. And I think it talks to the infinite knowledge of God. We're called to do our part, to share the gospel with others. But I think it's fascinating and it's neat that You know, God knew.

I'm not questioning that at all. All I'm saying is based upon the structure. And I want to read a little part of what Merriman says here. And it's just that I think this is the inner linear. Actually, he quotes the, let me read you the Darby translation.

It's in this first page here it says, And of these, it's about the fourth or fifth paragraph down, and of those of the nations hearing it, rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord and believed, as many as were ordained to eternal life. So the thesis here is that They did all these things, they rejoiced, they glorified, they believed, and oh by the way, which is true of every believer, oh by the way, they have been appointed to eternal life. That's absolutely true of every single believer. The question is, is this verse teaching that?

It's like putting the cart before the horse. Okay, I'm called, and therefore I'm going to believe. God has a message to believers, right? He says, you're my child, you're seated with Christ in the heavenly, you're my son. He goes through these wonderful attributes, and that's one of them. But that's as a result of you believing.

And the implications, he spends six pages here talking about the implications that Calvin kind of took that as people are dead. They're so dead they can't believe. And he goes through this whole thing about they have to be regenerated to believe. And that's a whole rabbit trail which you don't want to get into. Because then you have to be regenerated before you can believe. Well, how do I get regenerated? Well, he uses this verse as his justification. He says, well, the ones that were appointed they get regenerated.

I don't think it's accurately looking at God's word. To me this was like a non-boom. This is really helpful because this puts belief, the Gentiles' belief is not It doesn't make that last clause there the subject of the sentence. That's my contention. I suggest you read this. It's really pretty cool. I don't know what I exactly brought forth.

The implications of having, let's see, what is it called here? Actually, let me just read the first section here. If you have page one of the handout, It says, the reader of most English renderings of Acts 1348 would be better served if the translator more literally followed the Greek text.

In all Greek manuscripts, and here he covers the majority and minority, the Gentiles, in contrast to the Jews, are the subject of the three verbs. That's my point. The Gentiles rejoice, glorify, and believe. So they're the subject. So that the verbal action proceeds thusly. And hearing the Gentiles were glad, glorified, and the word of the Lord, and believed. These verbs are connected by repeated use of the conjunction and or chi in Greek. Grammatically this is indisputable. The following clause is a qualifying statement.

As many as have been appointed to eternal life. Most English translations arbitrarily and in conflict with the grammatical laws make this qualifying statement the subject of the verb. So you see, that's my whole rub with this. If you start doing that, then it gets a whole different twist to this verse. Not that I'm, you know, absolutely we're appointed to eternal order. We're elected.

There's no question about that. I was just thinking, like if you kind of reversed it, that God determined who would not believe then it seems then why would that person deserve hell because it wasn't up to them in the first place. And that's a key point. God never says that. He never says that he's elected or That kind of verbiage is never used in scripture. He talks about the unbelievers. He talks about the believers. The unbelievers, he says, I'm not willing that any should perish.

All should come to repentance. Believers, he said, once you believe, I knew you before the foundation of the world. It's amazing. It's sort of like, once you believe, then this whole vast God's grace just blossoms. And you see all these things that he's done for you.

It seems contradictory at first, but God talks about the unbeliever and the believer and he never elects anyone to hell. Or chooses them to go to hell. That would be inconsistent with who he is. Because we as human beings, God sent his son to die for us and we have a choice. We have a choice to believe or to reject.

And like the verse was saying, because you've put it from you, you have judged yourself. clearly talks about that. And I also find it fascinating that he says, the ways of God are past finding out. So we have finite minds, he has infinite minds, and he has the whole plan set. It is mind marked. Go ahead.

And also, I guess I was reading Corinthians, and just something jumped out at me, is that all of us, before we're believers, have a spirit like a spirit of man, you know, of knowing ourselves as humans, but it's like the Holy Spirit can come in and, so I think how dead is dead? I would say there's still that little seed that a spirit, that the Holy Spirit can work on so that we still can have the choice of deciding or not because I think we are not that dead. There is still that little opportunity. Let's read a few verses that talk about we are dead enough to believe because Christ has said that. How about turn to the second page, page 79.

He says, regardless Jesus himself taught, an hour is coming when the dead, you know what Christ did? He referred to the unbelievers as the dead because they are separated. The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. So basically the dead can hear. So any man can hear. The unbeliever can hear even if he's called dead. Christ called him dead but he can hear. So that's how dead is dead. We can still hear.

Anyway, there's a lot here, and this could be a separate thing unto itself. Reading through it, it's really interesting, I think, and it's really important that we see that scripture teaches that once we believe, we have this, you know, we have a class here called the riches of God's grace.

It has 32 things that happen at the moment of salvation, and this is one of the things that you are appointed for eternal life, or you're elected. These are wonderful things, but it has to be in the proper order. Believing is the beginning of the road. So, appointed just means that once you believe, then you will have eternal life.

It's sort of like you find out, oh by the way, once you believe, all these things are true of you. And it seems like that, well wait a minute, were they true of me before? And that's what this is trying to do, it's trying to put the cart before the horse. You try to get, well I'm elected, now of course I'll believe. God doesn't look at it, he looks at you believe and that starts the process. And then you can say, oh I was elected, God knew me before the foundation of the world, and so on and so on.

In Romans chapter 10, those that are saved, how do I know I'm saved? Well, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how do I call on him who have not believed? How do I believe in him who have not heard? How do I hear without somebody preaching it to me?

And so that takes the pattern and puts it the other direction to say, okay, now, If we're going to appoint somebody to eternal life, if we're going to appoint somebody to be saved, then that person must call. If that person must call, then that person must believe, that person must believe, that person must hear, you know. And so you trace it back the other direction. And so we hear, hear, as you just pointed out.

There's the pattern. They hear, they rejoice, they glorify, which is part of believing. And then we say, yep, that person Follow the right path. Okay, well that's good, that's good. Actually, I've taken my Bible, I've taken the word believe, I've put an arrow and put it in front of almost all the translations, put believe in front of that last clause. Because it's and believe, and there should be a comma, as many as have been appointed to the eternal life. That's absolutely true. But believing starts a process. So now, this persecution, the word of the Lord was being spread throughout the whole region.

The Jews incited, yeah, they went to the big players in the city. Without women means women of prayer. Apparently, there were women that were, now women didn't have a high stature in the early time period, but there were some women that were And so they convinced these noble women, they incited them, and were leading them into the city. They instigated persecution against Paul and Barnabas. And what's amazing is that word persecution, as I've mentioned before, is the same word that Paul persecuted Barnabas. He persecuted all the people in Jerusalem and they were just spread out. I was just going to go back.

I'm still on that. He said the beginning of the process is belief. It's almost like then from all this, it's like the beginning of the process is hearing. We have to hear. That's why it's so important to teach God's Word. To get God's Word out there so they can hear, so they can believe, and so on. You can't believe in something you haven't heard. How do they hear? It seems like the start of it is somehow with the Holy Spirit working to not have that hard heart or that not listening or the repudiate. being open to listening.

Well, in the passage in John 16 or so, it says, when he and the spirit of truth come, I'm sorry, I'm quoting two verses here. It talks about the Holy Spirit convicting or convincing the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. So the ministry of the Holy Spirit is kind of threefold, sin, righteousness, and judgment. That's his ministry 24-7. He's out there showing people what they're like. So the Holy Spirit is working.

And if you don't want to hear that you're a sinner, you're not going to hear it. And then you can't believe. That's alright. That's fine. The bottom line is they were driven out of the district. So they didn't leave Antioch on the red carpet. They got pushed out the door. And this is kind of a Jewish expression. They shook off the dust of their feet.

And you'll see that in various places. Let's see, the one in Luke, Luke 9, 5. Let's look at that real quick. Same kind of expression. You're shaking off the dust of your feet. They're kind of saying, well, that's it with you. I'm done. 9, 5 says, And for those who do not receive you, as you go out from the city, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them. So it's a testimony against the people. That phraseology or that action, if you will, is a testimony against the people that didn't believe. You protest against them.

They went to Iconium. And what's interesting here, the very last part, the very last phrase here, even though they were driven out, The disciples, apparently this is possibly more than Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas, were continually, and that's basically the idea, they were present tense, continual, keep on being filled and keep on rejoicing with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So they were joyful. We presented our message. People have believed. We've been driven out. We've said, OK, we're gone. And they move on to the next city. And so that's really kind of a hallmark of it as a journey. They preach the message, there's a rejection, and they move on.

Thanks for your participation. It was great. Hopefully this is helpful. It's important. People have taken it some other ways, but I think it's important to understand it as best we can. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for this day. We thank you for the blessings we have. Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you that it can be examined carefully. We have the tools to look at it carefully and the helps to really carefully examine your word. In Christ's name, Amen.