Acts - Week 10 (14:8-23)

This is ERC Sundays, the messages at Emmaus Rd.

Church in DeWitt, Iowa. ERC is a Church of people

striving to grow in Jesus and make him known to others through

our faith, words and actions. Find out more about our church

at emmausrdonline.org. Here's this week's message.

We are working through the book of Acts this summer.

So far we've met a lot of different people, stories,

testimonies, apostles, disciples, believers.

I want to refrain from using the word characters because while

they are people in a story, these were, these were real

people. They weren't made-up people.

But today we're going to talk about some heavy hitters, some

some of the All Stars, as it were.

We're going to talk about Peter a little bit.

We're going to talk about another, another guy named Silas

and Barnabas and Paul. Hopefully a lot of those names

are familiar to you. If they're not the New

Testament, the the second-half, the smaller part of God's holy

word. There's, there's copies of the

Bible in the seats in front of you if you need that.

We are in the book of Acts, which is towards the the front

of the New Testament there we're going to be in chapter 14 this

morning. But before we get there, we're

going to do a little visual aid this morning.

And, yeah, not not chicken Nuggets this time, though this

one may be one that has been seen, but it's OK because

there's some who haven't seen it and there are others that it's

going to be made more meaningful for.

So let me ask you, is this jar full?

Got a pretty strong no over here from Doug.

He sounds very sure of himself. It is full.

All right. All right, Marlon, Marlon's

getting philosophical here. OK, let's try this.

Full now. Fuller.

More full. There was still room in there.

Yeah. Is it full now?

Filled in a lot of gaps. Can't really shake it around

anymore. It's not moving.

There's still some air in there, Marlon.

I think Marlon's on to something.

There's still some air. We got some space.

We'll go, we'll go. Here maybe full now.

Who said it's full now? Ellen's in on the Ellen, I

think. I think he won her over with the

air comment. Marlon.

She's just, it's full. I think there's more room.

Got some water in there still. Still going, Thank you all.

Right. Is it full now?

Out of air? Air is gone.

All right, so in Marlins philosophical world where air

fills space, can't say you're 100% wrong.

It started full. Now I think physically I don't

think we put anything else in there really.

It would be, it would be overflowing as far as physical

matter goes. What would have happened if I

started the other way though? If I filled it with the sand

first, those big rocks, they would have nowhere to go right?

It it would have been filled up with the little stuff first.

The the big ones in there, they they allowed a little bit of

space for for other smaller less significant things to fit in

there. If I had gone in reverse, the

jar well, is this charful? Maybe some of you can see, maybe

some of you can't. It's it's actually full of

water. It is if I had started with the

water. I add anything to this water's

pouring out immediately. Even if I even if I had one, one

small lentil, one small bit, it's going to displace what's

full in there already. We've talked in the past and we

talked somewhat frequently about our life priorities, about the

order in which God designed for us to prioritize the things in

our life. If we truly believe the words

that we just sang, especially that last verse, would I gladly

be made nothing that Christ would be made more for.

I know that He is working for his glory and my good.

And the order of that lyric is also very important, because our

good love us as He may, as He does.

Our good does not come before His glory.

His glory is in place, and it's the reason that His Son could

die in our place. His glory comes first, even

before our good. It's because of His glory that

He can act and plan and will our lives for our good.

So in the hierarchy of our lives, what do we need?

What do we, what do we want? What do we put first?

If this is our life, what are the big things that we're

filling it with? What's number one church answer?

But what's #1 Jesus, God, faith, however you want to call it,

that's one. What else?

What else are some other important non negotiables

family, whatever, whatever that may look like for you.

Honestly, that might I would include friends almost in that

because for for some of us, friends or friends or family or

better than sometimes friends are.

Oh, I'm just saying, Hey, I'm just saying sometimes sin's

messy and sometimes family is not quite family.

So OK, friends, family, close relationships, family might look

like kids or spouse for you. I think there can be some

subheadings in that. But OK, family, that's OK.

Life's life's getting full and that's important.

What else? Jobs, work country, I and I

think along so that I think that fits into what I'm going to what

I'm going to say is calling. If if we can put it into that,

because for some of you, your job or your your calling or your

responsibility, it doesn't look like a nine to five.

It. It doesn't look like that you're

you're a homemaker or wife or or you're called to be home with

your children or you're called to help others in your life.

And it maybe doesn't look like that.

So I don't want to I don't want to say job.

I think, I think it's more of calling and yeah, that's

probably what we fill our nine to five with every day.

Usually some of you have weird hours, I know.

But that's, I think that's the other, the other big one, right?

Job, work, calling, responsibility, those things

have to go in first. If we fill our lives with the

other little things and that could be XYZ, anything, could be

money, could be maybe an unhealthy commitment to work or

responsibility or call it maybe. Maybe too much time poured in

there makes makes there not not enough room for family, friends,

quality relationships. There's not room in life for

that big one. There's too much of the smaller

little things. There's not room for the big

things that matter, the priorities that matter.

We're going to take a look at a story in Acts 14 today that

spoke to me that even in the early church, even as we

brothers and sisters in Christ, children of God, even as we

think about doing church in our time now, we maybe distract

ourselves with a lot of little things and we don't leave room

for the things that really matter.

Acts chapter 14. We're going to start at verse

Acts 14 · chapter mention

one. We're going to jump around a

little bit, not physically, but you can if you want.

Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas are at Iconium here in

Acts 14. Previously before that Peter had

been imprisoned and miraculously freed by by the power of an

Angel came and and freed him from his prison.

Barnabas and Paul were were commissioned that were through

prayer and fasting. Hands were laid on them and they

were sent out. The previous chapters 12/13 tell

of them in in Cyprus and Pisidia.

And now we have this account of Paul and Barnabas in Iconium.

At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went, as usual into the Jewish

synagogue. It's just kind of where they

started the religious gathering places to spread the news of the

Gospel. There they spoke so effectively

that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other

Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there,

speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His

grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

Notice this little shift right here.

The Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles,

met with adversity or resistance to their message.

Paul and Barnabas came back to what we spoke on about a month

ago. Boldness met with resistance.

They doubled down on one of the big things, one of the main

things that they knew to be true, the gospel of Jesus Christ

speaking boldly for the Lord. And the Lord confirmed the

message of His grace by enabling them to perform signs and

wonders. The people of the city were

divided. Some sided with the Jews, others

with the apostles. Skip ahead a little bit.

There they move on to to Lystra. And Lystra, there sat a man who

is lame. He had been that way from birth

and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was

speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw

that he had the faith to be healed, and called out.

Stand up on your feet that the man jumped up and began to walk.

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the

Laconian language, The gods have come down to us in human form.

Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because

he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple

was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the

city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices

to them. A bit of a weird reaction.

We've seen this before. We've talked about other

sorcerers before that had interacted with the apostles,

maybe misplacing where this power actually comes from.

When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore

their clothes and rushed out into the crowd shouting,

friends, why are you doing this? In this instance, it's a very

important question to ask, a very appropriate response for

the apostles to this reaction from the crowd.

But this verse gave me pause this week too, as a question to

ask for each and every little thing that I let infiltrate my

life. Why are you doing this?

They certainly weren't naming Barnabas and Paul, Zeus and

Hermes for the glory of God. That wasn't glorifying God for

them to attribute these actions to other gods.

Right? So the answer to this question

in the moment certainly isn't for the glory of God, but for me

this weekend. In prepping and reading through

this passage, I was struck by thinking about the little

things, the little activities or accomplishments or hobbies.

Not all things that are even bad.

They don't even have to be sins, necessarily.

We started out the beginning of the service, reran, read Hebrews

12, Cast aside every weight and sin.

I've said this before that word weight doesn't explicitly mean a

sin, but it might be something that's holding you back from the

things that really matter. It might.

Be something that gets in the way of you keeping these life

priorities in order. Why are?

You doing? This right now.

Why are you doing this? Why are you here right now?

Is it for His glory and your good friends?

I'm convinced. That we.

Need. Far less.

In this life, then, we convince ourselves that we need.

If you look back at the story of Peter, there's very little

concern recorded by Paul when he when he's imprisoned.

Peter wasn't beside himself, wondering, Well, if I'm locked

up in here, who's going to take out the trash or who's going to

run and go pick up the kids from soccer practice or, or, or or

how's this going to get done? He fasted.

And prayed and worshipped his God in shackles.

There. Wasn't a single thing or

circumstance that was going to get priority #1 displaced in his

jar of life. Earlier accounts back in the

beginning of Acts we talked about or we read about how the

early church simply did life together.

Simply was in their homes together and broke bread and

prayed and worshipped together. There wasn't an addendum of and

then they went and hung out at the baseball game and then they

went. And saw a.

Concert in Chicago and then they went out for a movie.

I know we're mixing. Timelines and technologies with

that. But I was convicted this week of

each and everything, especially the things that are not related

to one of these big items. Why are you?

Doing this. If it's.

Outside the realm of faith, family, friends and calling, I

think we need to very much be on guard with this question.

Why are you doing this? Because in this moment, in this

passage, somehow, some way, these people needed to fill in

the gaps. They didn't understand what they

were seeing with Barnabas and Paul performing these miracles.

So they put. It into terms that they could

justify. Oh, we've made these gods and

we've made their powers, so it makes sense to us that they

could act in this way. So it must be these gods that we

made or these gods that we think much of must be acting in these

ways, in these powers. And Paul comes back with, why

are you doing this? Why are you replacing the might

and power of the living God? With something that your mind

can rationalize, with something that your human mind can

understand, can you not take it on faith that this God who is

greater than you and me and each of us moved in this way for his

glory, to glorify himself in his power, and for this person's

good, to bring good and healing to this person's life?

That could have been enough. That should have been enough for

them to witness this miracle. Praise God, be joyful for this

person who was healed. Move on with the day.

But no, these guys must be Zeus and Hermes.

These must be these gods that we made-up, manifested in the flesh

and come down. They go on.

We are only human like you. We are bringing you good news,

telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living

God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything

in them. For Paul.

And Barnabas for the early disciples, the early apostles.

That was. Enough the good news of Jesus

that the Creator God sent his Son through no worth or earning

of our own. That was enough.

They didn't complicate it. They didn't add to it, they

didn't embellish it. And This is why Paul and

Barnabas go on. Yet He, God, has not left

himself without testimony. He has shown kindness by giving

you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons.

He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with

joy. Even with these words, they had

difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to that.

Whoa. Do you believe these words,

Church? That he has.

Shown kindness by providing for you.

That He provides you with plenty of food.

That He is the One. God is the one who fills your

hearts with joy. How?

Many other outlets do. We seek out chase, out Rundown

to fill our hearts with the joy that is fleeting.

To. Replace this joy that the Father

desires to fill our hearts with. How often do we complicate it?

How many? Things do we have during the day

that we should pause and say, why are you doing this?

And even further, how many times is the answer to that question

because I've lost faith? That God's.

Still providing joy in my life. I'm there too.

Some days, church. But I.

Think and what I'm convinced of this week if we if we keep these

things in order and we commend these things to God.

We're going to. Be filled and recognize this joy

that God has provided a lot more readily.

If we. Enter into faith and we're

taking the first one, the faith one I'm taking as as kind of

granted, not that all of you have to be professing believers

in this place right now, but I want to start us off on a

baseline that as a believer, faith, God, Jesus.

Grace through. Faith, no merit of my own

salvation and eternal life is mine.

That's got to be #1 if you're here.

That's what we got to start with before we can even be on the

same chapter of the same book talking about life here.

That informs our worldview that Jesus did this for us by grace

through faith, out of love. That's number one.

And if that is number 1, then next one relationship, family,

whatever that may be. We cannot.

Enter into that should not enter into that really any

relationship that matters deeply, that influences our life

without that understanding, without that same modicum of

respect and relationship with God.

There might be. Friendships or acquaintances

along the way. Of course we're not going to run

into everyone that's a believer and we're not called to.

We're called to go make disciples.

We're called to interact with people that aren't believers.

But if you're entering into a close knit relationship with

someone that doesn't see eye to eye with you on box #1, you

might be following them looking for joy in other places than box

#1 Marriage. Same thing we're we're told in

scripture not to unequally yoke with unbelievers in marriage.

It matters so that when and those of you who are married

hopefully on the same page with me here so that when you fail as

a. Spouse husbands when?

You disappoint your wives and and wives.

When you disappoint your husbands, there's still the joy

from God that sustains the both of you, that that is the root of

your joy, informing the joy in your relationship together.

Kids. Same thing probably shouldn't

enter into parenthood without commending it to God first.

And yes, we're not perfect. We do not execute this blueprint

perfectly, but I think this is the blueprint from God for our

lives, each and everything that we engage in our lives.

Why? Are you doing this?

Because. They had it pretty simple.

At the end of chapter 14 they begin to not see resistance from

people. They begin to not have to

qualify their message or not have to re explain what they're

talking about. There's this simple picture at

the end of Acts chapter 14 of how Paul and Barnabas interact

Acts 14 · chapter mention

with these people. They returned to Antioch, and

they preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of

people. Then they returned Elijah,

Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and

encouraging them to remain true to the faith.

We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom

of God, they said. And Paul and Barnabas appointed

elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting

committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust.

That's it, That's all. The picture of the early church

was they preached the Gospel. Disciples were strengthened.

They met. Together and were encouraged to

remain true in the faith. Paul and Barnabas appointed

elders. That's the same.

Elders and pastors is the same word in the Greek.

There were spiritual leaders. There were leaders for the

people there and with prayer and fasting, committed them to the

Lord. Church done.

That's it. We don't need.

The bells and whistles we don't need whatever it might be.

Yes, 40 by Fall is a is a catchy, awesome thing.

And we kind of need that as people to have ownership over

things. We need causes and campaigns and

things to get behind. But please hear the heart behind

them. This is your church, not the

walls, the people. The.

Ministry, the message, it all matters when we ask you to

engage in something like that. It's to serve.

As Jesus served you, it's to engage and have ownership and

and and maybe influence or be influenced by a faction of our

people that that you haven't been before.

Here the. The core, the heart of that,

that we're doing life together in that even if it's wrapped up

in a catchy campaign thing, even if it's wrapped up in a in a

pool party next week on Sunday. OK, I'm not saying all the bells

and whistles are bad news, but why are we doing this is a

question that needs to be on our hearts and minds.

I'm going to have the band come back up.

I'm. Going to leave you with.

One final thought because I don't think any of us today are

starting with a clean, empty jar that we get to fill from nothing

today. We all have history, we all have

baggage, we all have relationships.

I'm not telling you to cut. Away.

All of those. You'll never hear the words from

my mouth, especially for you married couples.

You'll never hear the words from me of get divorced.

That's not a, not. That's not what you entered

into. That's no one's plan for their

marriage to get divorced. But you might be mired.

In a hard. Marriage.

You might be mired in a tough relationship with your spouse,

with your family, with your closest friends.

You might be. In.

One of these main priorities, it feels like you, you can't get

out. You can't just take it out of

the jar and Chuck it away. OK, God can heal.

That it might be easier to to reach in and take out some of

the littler things and Chuck them away and leave room.

For his. Spirit to move and heal.

Remember this, you can you can barely see the the rock that was

faith in God, the the rock that was family, the rock that was

work. And if you if you could feel

this, there's no room for anything to move around in here.

There's no room for the Spirit of God.

To work. In each and every one of these

important things, we've got to take some of that extra stuff

out. We need to ask.

Ourselves the question why am I doing this?

With the big. Things that should be for His

glory and my good, because God said so when He designed it for

my life. This is the way it's going to

be. I'm going to follow His Word and

follow His blueprint for this, for my marriage, for my

parenting, for my calling, those things.

If you can't answer today that I'm doing this for His glory and

my good, you've got some deep cutting questions to ask this

week with those closest to you. And then for the little things,

I hope most of them. Aren't answered.

With for his glory and my good. They're they're they're probably

for my good and maybe his glory. Maybe.

But I just like having fun. So I fill my life up with this

and don't leave room for the spirit to move.

And this isn't me and you. This, this isn't.

I've got this all figured out and my life is perfect and I've

got plenty of room for the spirit to move in and through my

marriage and my parenting and my life.

I yelled at my kids this week. I was upset at my wife this

week. I didn't love.

Parts of my job this week and I'm supposed to do my job for

His glory and His glory and my good all the time.

I don't have any outs. Church it takes.

Discernment. It takes humility.

It takes a willingness. To.

Reassess. The things that.

Truly matter to reset with those to cast aside the weights and

sins that are taking away from what really matters.

And to. Let His Spirit move and heal

these aspects of your life the same way that Jesus moved and

healed your sins and your eternal life on the cross.

None of us are. Starting with an empty jar.

I know we're going to have to take some stuff out, but if we

fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our

faith, if we make room for His Spirit to move, He is faithful

to do. It thanks for listening.

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