Episode 125: Paul and Barnabas in Antioch

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the everlasting

mercies which sent you to us, O Christ, the light of the world

and the life of all. Give us wisdom by Your law and

enlighten our impulses by Your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by Your truth and grant that we may be

obedient to Your words and may fulfil Your commandments at

every hour. O You who enlightens the

rational with the knowledge of Your greatness, do enlight, O my

Lord, our thoughts, that we may meditate upon Your holy and

divine Scriptures at all times. O Lord of all, Father and Son

and Holy Spirit, forever. A Blessed feast of the Blessed,

holy Feast of the Ascension of our Lord and our Savior Jesus

Christ to heaven. Last Thursday we celebrated that

feast, either Solaka or the Ascension.

Yesterday was the first Sunday of after the Ascension and we

have well from last Thursday we have 10 days for the Sunday of

the Pentecost. Everything is in order and we

revisit every year we visit these.

We revisit these feasts and commemorations and the Gospel

readings during the Liturgy of Our Lord or the Liturgy of the

Church or the Divine Liturgy of the Mainly the Holy Qurbana.

You know, it's amazing how the church is set and, and, and this

order that has been set by the, the divine order, by the

divinely inspired apostles and fathers of the Church that every

year we commemorate the birth, the life, the ministry, the, the

preaching, the miracles and the signs of our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ, his passion, his crucifixion, his death, his

burial, his resurrection and his ascension and the descent of the

Holy Spirit that he promised every year.

It's a love story that we need to, you know, revisit every

year. You know, most of you may have

noticed, I mean, when you're watching television, The

Shawshank Redemption, is that what it's called, Stephen?

You know, that's a very popular film.

Like when when you see it on Netflix and you see the program,

when you go into a program, you see that when it's being viewed,

there's, you know, every hour or every two hours.

I'm not sure how long it is. It's that same program, that

same or you have good times. Remember good times.

JJ Dynamite or you have MASH you know when they're when they are

screened or when they're televised.

It's one of one episode after the other right and every now

and then they just they do that. So to keep, you know to remind

us nostalgia go back to the 70s or was it the 80s, what have

you. It's even greater with the, with

the church beloved in the scriptures and the and the

powers of Jesus Christ. In one year, we, we revisit the

life of Jesus Christ and we even go back before his birth in

flesh. So it's a story that we revisit

and we retell and we re worship and we re comprehend.

And we, you know, we, we, we think about and we try to, you

know, parallel our life, our walk with that Jesus Christ that

walked the earth 2025 years ago. Praise and glory be to his name

last as they we read the conclusion of the Gospel of

Saint Luke, who's talking about Christ being ascended, ascending

into heaven. But before he left the earth,

beloved, before Jesus left the earth, he did something.

And then it continues in the book of Acts because Saint Luke

has written the book of Acts before he did something.

You know, we don't read in the Gospels that Jesus actually,

well, yes, the the Last Supper, but we, we knew after his

resurrection, we don't read that he ate with them.

Now when they were on the river of Tiberius and you know, the

catching of the fish, the 153, the fish was prepared, the coal

was there, the bread was there. But we don't read that Jesus

ate. And obviously they would have

eaten, but it wasn't, it wasn't announced or it wasn't

mentioned. However, in Luke chapter 24, we

Luke 24 · chapter mention

actually specifically read that Jesus ate fish and honey

honeycomb, and he specifically asks them, what do you have to

eat? Because, you know, they thought

they're seeing a, a, a spirit. So again, he showed his hands,

he showed the holes, the places of the nails and the spear.

And, but even further evidence for all of us, not just for the

disciples. You know, this was the, the

evidence of the disciples. This was the testimony of the

disciples, and their testimony was confirmed by the shedding of

their blood, that He is resurrected.

He is resurrected in a glorified body, which had bones and flesh,

as He said, and He actually ate before us.

And now we're going to wait for another few days and celebrate

the, the dissension of the Holy Spirit.

And we read now, now we read that testimony in the book of

Acts, the testimony of those apostles and the disciples who

witness, who saw Jesus before their eyes, eating and drinking

and, and, you know, talking to them.

And it wasn't a, a vision. It wasn't just a, a ghost.

It was actually Jesus Christ. Now we are into that history the

the, the testimony and the preaching of those people who

saw these Jesus Christ and the beginning of that church that

Jesus established and the focal reason for the establishment of

his church was to preach the gospel that is Jesus Christ.

Keep in mind always one keynote when you read the scriptures.

When Jesus was on earth, he didn't have a Bible in his hand

per SE. When the apostles went to

preach, they were preaching the gospel.

The gospel means Jesus Christ, the ministry of Jesus Christ.

In actual fact, we can even narrow it down to the death and

the the death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus

Christ resurrected. This is what Saint Paul was

speaking about in this chapter 13, that Jesus was resurrected.

They saw him. Now, when they went to preach,

there was no Bible. They weren't preaching.

Read your Bible, what the Bible says.

No, they didn't. When they referred to

Scriptures, they were referring to the five books of Moses, the

Torah, Pentateuch, Septuagint, right.

There was no written gospel Came 100 maybe, yeah, 100 plus years

after that. They were preaching what they

saw, what they heard and what was told by them, beloved, what

the oral tradition was, what was said during those that were

after the resurrection of our Lord and our Savior of Jesus

Christ. Just the recap, we're up to

verse 50, I believe Saint Paul continues with his preaching the

Jews, seeing that a a great crowd of Jews themselves and

Gentiles were following Saint Paul and Barnabas.

Now they weren't following them, their person.

No, they were following the gospel that was being preached.

They were following Jesus Christ because they were preaching

Jesus. Now, the Jews were a little

ticked off. You know, their feathers, as

they say, were ruffled. They began to oppose Paul's word

and even blasphemy, probably swearing at them.

What's happening on the university campuses around the

world, in the United States, where you have Christians,

according to their constitutional right, preaching

Jesus Christ, preaching the morality of Christianity, and

you have Barbarians. And I know, you know, it baffles

me. You know, when you go to school

or college or university, you go to learn today, you go to

universities to protest, to carry on, to be barbaric, right?

So when some approach these Christian brothers and sisters

and they talk to them about Jesus Christ, they approach with

the F word, they start swearing, cussing, derogatory words, and

they become physical, they become abusive.

They don't want to hear the word.

This was going on probably the 3rd or 4th or 4th within the

first decade beloved of Christianity.

This was happening. They began to oppose and they

began to blasphemy at the same time.

And that's what's happening today when you speak to someone

about Jesus Christ and only about Jesus Christ.

I was watching a video on on Facebook.

I think it was or was it YouTube, a comedian.

I don't know, I don't I'm not really interested too much in

his name. Apparently a kid, a comedian,

one of his acts was to joke about Jesus Christ, to make a

mockery of our Lord, now Savior Jesus Christ, the King of kings

and the Lord of Lords. Say Amin and type Amin, please.

Thank you. Steven.

He's posed a question by the Christian who was interviewing

him. He said would you go to Saudi

Arabia and joke about Muhammad? He started flushing.

He went red and he's saying in a Syrian Ranger appealer, you

know, he was his colors were changing.

He didn't answer that question. He didn't say yes, I would or

no, I wouldn't. I mean, even if he would have

said no, I dare not do it. Oh, well, we'd say, well, there

you go, you know? Yeah.

But it's OK for you to stand there and make a mockery of my

Lord. And am I and my Savior Jesus

Christ. Well, your mockery, you will

have to one day pay for it unless you repent.

You're blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

This is what's happening. And now this is what's happening

today and will continue to happen and even intensified even

greater by 10 times. Maybe it will happen, beloved,

but let's not lose heart because the disciples were going to hear

they didn't lose heart. Saint Paul didn't lose heart.

He wasn't discouraged. Let's not because you know what?

It was happening 2000 and 22,000 and 40 years ago, No, 2015 years

ago, give away 10, you know -10 from was it 2 we're in 225

years, 2015 years ago it was happening.

No, no, actually it happened when Jesus was on earth.

They blasphemed him while he was on earth.

OK, but yet they killed him and he was resurrected in your face.

He was resurrected in your country.

He was resurrected. Your tomb in your country is

empty. He's resurrected and those who

saw him resurrected alive, He ate before them.

As I said, they sealed their testimony not with bribery, not

with foolishness, by the shedding of their blood.

Their blood was shed. They sealed the resurrection

with the shedding of their blood.

And yet he was still mocked. You know, Jesus said, if they've

done this with the dry, what do you call Reed?

What are they going to with a with a wet Reed?

What are they going to do with a dried fragile read?

And this is what's happening. But Saint Paul and Barnabas kept

their cool. They were cool and actually gave

them a little credit to the Jews.

In verse 46, Saint Paul says Saint Paul and Barnabas said to

them boldly, both of them speaking, It was necessary that

the word of God should be spoken to you publicly.

First. You are the chosen people, the

Messiah came through you. But then this is the rebuking.

This is now the you know. Prior to that it was grace and

mercy. Now it's judgment and

condemnation, but because you and I emphasize you, my beloved

Calvinist brothers and sisters, listen to this.

But you, not God, you drive it away from you determine or you

decide against yourself that you are unworthy.

You determine that you are unworthy of eternal life.

Behold, we turn to the Gentiles. Not God has predestined you not

to receive the gospel so that you will forfeit eternal life.

No, you did you because you have free will.

And yes, it was predestined. Eternal life was there through

Jesus Christ from the beginning of the world.

Eternal life was in God's wisdom and power.

It was already prepared. It's there.

It was preordained, but you chose not to enter.

See, there's free will and they and they quote prophecy.

Isaiah 49, six. I have set you as a light to the

Gentiles. So we're going to now go and

preach to the Gentiles because you chose not to accept then the

Gentiles rejoicing, glorifying God that they were appointed.

They were appointed because they, not God caused them to.

They chose to accept what was the appointment.

The appointment was the eternal life, the great.

You have been saved by grace. That means God has done it for

you. It's already pre done, it's

finished, it's done. You don't need to do anything,

but it's up to you to choose that grace or not.

They chose to accept the gospel. They determined, They decided

against themselves that they are worthy of eternal life because

of them accepting the gospel of our Jesus Christ.

How simple is that, beloved? How ridiculous is it to say that

God gives birth or God creates, you know, you know, in your

mother's womb you've been knitted by God, obviously one

Samuel, right? But you know what?

While you are in that womb, God's already determined you're

going to go to hell. You're going to go to hell.

Well, then, so why are we debating abortion then?

Can I say that? Can I ask that, Steven, if God

is already determined, he is determined now, for knowing is

different from determining, right?

Predestiny, for knowing predestining.

It's two different, different things.

God knowing what that child will be, but that child doesn't.

That child knows nothing, right? But no, God is already

foreordained that that child's going to go to hell.

Yeah, he wasn't saved. That's why.

How ridiculous is that? How ridiculous?

And there's plenty of other verses in the Scriptures that

totally ridicule and refute that understanding.

Let's keep going. Verse 49 and the word of the

Lord was published throughout all the Regent.

That means it kept preach. It was preach.

You know, I always say one man's loss is another man's gain.

One man's, what is it? Trash is another man's treasure,

right? But the Jews incited the chief

men of the city and the rich woman who worshipped God with

them so that they stirred up a persecution against Paul and

Barnabas and expelled them beyond their borders.

Who are the leaders of the city? They were Roman authority,

obviously. All right.

They're still ruling in Jerusalem.

You know, this takes us back, beloved.

Think about it. They use the rulers as they use

pilot. But let's let's let's more

concentrate on they use some rich women, right as it say,

yeah, they inside rich woman, renowned rich woman.

There's a strategy there. Something must be coming to mind

now. Woman, woman.

What were these people preaching?

They're preaching gospel. They're preaching eternal life.

They're preaching salvation. And the enemy wants to close

that door, wants to destroy that path for mankind to be.

Or does this go back to the Garden of Eden?

Let's think about it. It was a strategy by the Jews to

have the Romans quash disturbances and uproars and

keep peace. So they want they made uproars.

So for the Romans to keep peace, they would have gotten rid of of

those people who've been who've been accused of causing the

uproar. They would go as far as even

executing people. Remember Pilate?

What happened to Pilate? Twice he said, I find no guilt.

He's done nothing for me to warrant a death penalty.

I can't. It's not right.

But because they started the more screaming and because he

was concerned about an uproar, he said, OK, we'll take him.

You do what you want. I'm washing my hands from the

blood of these men. And the Jewish, the Jewish

priests and the crowd cried out and said, his blood may his

blood. That means the guilt of his

innocence may be upon us and our children.

The blood of his innocence may be upon us and our children.

Now to wipe that away, that curse, you need to then go back

and believe in that precious victorious blood of our Lord and

now Savior Jesus Christ to wipe away this curse that you brought

upon yourselves. How simple is it?

How simple is that right? Honorable Richmond.

Now they were rich, honorable woman, but they weren't faithful

because we don't read that they went against the apostles being

expelled from the city. No, that you know, the Father's

right. They were Greek Jewish woman

most probably. And they started stirring up, in

fact, in fact, the opposing Jews being so evil, they became

imitators of the supreme evil demon Satan.

They became actually demons themselves, transgressions

themselves. They endeavoured through a

woman. Yes, Yes, you're absolutely

right, Eve. Yeah.

They endeavoured through a woman to close the humanity, to close

the door in the way of salvation, in eternal life, in

the face of humanity. Who did this, beloved?

Who does this remind you of? Where does that draw your

thoughts? Yes, just as the one that Satan

closed paradise to men, to humanity through Eve, they were

expelled and there was an Angel that was set as a God so no man

could enter. But until the proper time, until

a certain time, so too these people use woman.

Wow, great analogy drawn by the church fathers.

I forgot which one it was by the way, but it was the you know,

the paradise through Eve was only closed for a certain time.

Until when? Yes, until the divine Jesus

Christ, our Lord, our God, our King, our Savior, our our life

giver and the forgiver of our sins say Amen.

Thank you Stephen until the divine Jesus opens it again for

the believers in his name and also allows them to enter their

and the first of whom was the thief through his blood.

We read through his blood last Thursday was the ascension.

Jesus ascended into heaven in humanity.

He took us up to heaven and he set us at the right hand of

power and majesty our humanity when we celebrate the the feast

of the ascension. It's my ascension as well that I

will go to the Lord Jesus Christ if I remain faithful to the

gospel and I will enter will those who have died until now,

those who have been faithful to the Lord God, loving, gospel,

abiding, God knows that they will be remanded.

They will be kept in paradise and that that you know, some of

the fathers say that they're having a taste.

They're already tasting the goodness to come.

But those evil people who oppose the Lord Jesus Christ and his

gospel and his church and his apostles who die unrepented?

Judgment is for the Lord, yes, but the Scriptures say they will

be held in show, tasting, having a taste, a glimpse of the

torment that is awaiting them when the Lord returns.

Now when Jesus took the thief to paradise, did they go to sleep?

All the Saints are asleep. You can't ask and you can't pray

along with a St. They're all asleep.

Well, was Titus on the right, the thief on the right?

So Jesus took him to Paradise, put him in bed, tucked him in,

gave him his little teddy bear and said go to sleep now, Titus,

until you wake. No, no, obviously not.

We don't read that. He went to sleep.

What about Lazarus, who was in the bosom of Abraham, which was

in comfort, and the rich man who was in torment?

They're alive. They talk unless they're sleep

talking. Were they sleep talking?

What about Elijah and Moses, seen conversing with Jesus on

the Mount of Tabor on the transfiguration of our Lord?

Were they sleep talking? What about those whose whose

blood in the book, in the Book of Revelation, those whose blood

was shed for the lamb, crying out?

How long were they sleep talking?

No, no, they're not sleeping. That is why we mingle our

prayers. We join our prayers by the

prayers of the Saints of our Lord, who are alive, who are

beseeching the Lord on our behalf, who is the mediator

between God the Father and us. Praise and glory be to His name.

Verse 50 51 Sorry. And as they went out, they shook

off the dust of their feet upon them, and they came to the city

of Iconium. So that's very popular.

I mean, you know, we've we've read this as an instruction

shaking the dust of their feet here they used the most fearful

and alarming sign Jesus Christ ordered them to do Matthew 1014

in Mark 611. If they, if any, do not listen

to these, those who oppose the gospel, be it personal, be it a

family or a neighborhood or a city or a county or a a state or

a country, if any do not receive you, shake off the dust from

your feet. So you're not receiving the

gospel. The feet, the dust of the feet

of the apostles who preach the gospel has been shaken and it's

upon you. But that is not the alarming,

most alarming. And the the apostles didn't do

this lightly. They just didn't want to do this

and say, ha, ha, we're going to do what Jesus said.

Oh, Jesus said to do says, you know, God just told me to do

this. No, no, no, they actually did

it, not in wrath nor in reaction, but they were obedient

to the gospel and believing to the promises of Christ what they

were being driven away. Now that actually is not the

most alarming and fearful factor of Christ's commandment, but

more so, beloved, listen to this.

Those who reject the gospel and the dust of the gospel and the

feet of those who are preaching the gospel truthfully is upon

you. This is the alarming thing in

verse 15. Hold on to your seats, Jesus

says and truly I say now when Jesus says truly in the word in

the Aramaic is I mean, yes, yes, I say to you, it will be

tranquil in the day of judgement for the land of Sodom and

Gomorrah. He's not talking about the dirt,

the land. He's talking about the Sodomites

and the Gomorrahites who are engaged in LGBTQ homosexuality

and, and evil, morality, immorality, everything

heterosexual, homosexual, whatever it was, they were

engaged in immorality. Look what Jesus says and those

who do not accept the gospel. And truly, I say to you, it will

be tranquil in the day of judgment for the land of Sodom

and Gomorrah compared to that city, to that person, to that

county, to that, you know, country.

Unless there's repentance, beloved, there's always

repentance. We must, when we talk judgment,

we must always, always mention a time of repentance.

There is a time of repentance to come back and receive the gospel

one more time. Just as I said, those who you

know claimed the curse upon themselves.

May the blood of Jesus Christ who was innocent the the the

guilt of that blood be upon us and upon our children.

It is until until they believe in the blood of Jesus Christ

that was shed on the cross, then that curse will be.

What if, if not if they continue and leave this world with that

curse? It's just as these Jews, you

brought this curse upon yourself.

You deemed yourself unworthy. Well, the Lord will say this is

your free will. And by the way, you know, let me

give you an understanding of how God judges, judges people to

hell. One of the fathers writes it so

beautifully. You know, sometimes, you know,

we preach it in a way it doesn't really justify it.

You know, is it because of our zeal, what have you?

It's like as if God's this and you're going to hell.

Get out of here. I don't want to know you right

yet. Maybe Jesus.

Jesus mentions away from me evil doers, that the fathers write

this, that even when Jesus mentions these words, he is

telling you and I that because you chose out of your free will

to forfeit eternal life, to forfeit being eternally in the

presence of God, basking in the bliss of the Lord Jesus Christ,

being partakers in the holiness and the presence and the beauty

and the tranquility of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth.

How do we have participation through the Scriptures,

throughout prayers, throughout fasting, Most importantly,

beloved, most importantly through the Holy Eucharist, the

sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, Urbana Qadisha.

When you read those who are on Amaros chapter 23 of Luke or 24

or the first half of 24, they were on the road to Amaros.

Those two disciples, they didn't know Jesus started talking to

them. He started teaching to them from

the, from the, the prophets and Moses and they still did not and

Jesus, they still did not open their minds.

Their minds were still not open. They still didn't know Jesus

Christ. When did they actually know

Jesus Christ? When the, when they, you know,

encouraged him and and begged him to come and dine with us And

he did and he took bread and broke it.

That's when their eyes were open and that's when they knew this

is Jesus. See the partition participation

in the Holy Eucharist obviously in a meet and right way, you

know, repented and contrite spirit, right not Saturday out

there doing your stuff and your immorality and Sunday in church.

You know, it's a I'm going to take it.

No, no, no, no. All right.

So when you have that relationship, you have that

relationship with Jesus Christ, you then are in paradise, as I

was saying. Now what happens with those that

when the Lord returns and have had no relationship with Jesus

Christ, they chose to stand totally away and continuously

reject Christ through his, you know, his gospel, his church,

his sacraments. He will say to them, one of the

fathers writes. He will say to them, my dear,

you chose for yourself through the free will that I granted

you. Everything was prepared by

grace. I prepared everything for you.

You didn't do anything. It was by my grace, but you

chose to stand afar. I will now not bring you to me.

I will let you remain in that choice of standing afar.

You will remain afar. You will remain distant from me.

And that is hell, beloved. It's like God saying, if I now

bring you, I don't want to force you to come to me.

You chose not to come to me. I'll still honor your free will

and you can remain distant from me.

No, I don't. We don't want to hear that.

We don't want to hear that. That's why we need to pray for

those who don't know the Lord and they know that haven't

accepted the the gospel. Why?

Because they did not receive God the Son, God the Father, God the

Holy Spirit, and they did not receive the apostles.

Matthew 1040 Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever

receives me receives him who sent me.

In no way did this hurt the disciples.

On the contrary, all the more they did and continued to preach

the word. They continued to preach the

word and the verse 52 and the disciples were filled with joy

and with the Holy Spirit. Of course, it was the Holy

Spirit that had chosen them and commanded that they be set apart

for this mission. This this makes the disciples

even more courageous to go out boldly and to preach the Lord

Jesus Christ and to die to shed their blood for the one and only

the Son of God, the Lord God Jesus Christ, praising glory be

to His name now and at all times and forever.

Amen. We hope you enjoyed this week's

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