Acts 13

Hello everyone, I'm Dr.

Steve Holt.

I want to welcome you to the Road Church Podcast.

Each week we go into God's Word.

We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.

So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.

Well, if you have your Bibles, please open them with me to Acts chapter 13 this morning.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Well, this morning we're going to be continuing in the book of Acts.

And if this is your first time with us here at the road, we preach expository, meaning that we have a specific book in the Bible that we're studying together, and we go through it chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

So that means that if you're not able to join us for a week, that means that no matter where you're at, you can open up to that next chapter and that next section, and you're not having to miss anything.

You can follow along with us.

Last week, Pastor Steve took us to the prison escape of Peter.

He talks about how it was the Lord who opened the door of Peter's prison cell and led him out of the prison, and how Peter came to a prayer meeting of believers praying for his release.

And the thing that stood out to me was uh how it was easier for Peter to get out of the prison than it was to get into a prayer meeting.

So that was all in Acts chapter 12.

Acts 12 · chapter mention

And here's the cool thing and the crazy thing about the book of Acts.

You see, the first half of Acts, we're focusing on the disciple Peter.

We're reading and we're understanding the life of Peter after Jesus is uh uh resurrected and is now sitting at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

So we've been focusing on him uh for the first half, but we're gonna be shifting our focus to a man named Saul who would later go by his Roman name Paul.

Now we've seen Paul before, we've seen him in Acts chapter 7 during the stoning of Stephen, and later in Acts chapter 9, it's actually dedicated to the explaining of his salvation.

Acts 7 · chapter mention Acts 9 · chapter mention

He was on his way to a city called Damascus, and as he was on the road to Damascus, Jesus Christ appears and blinds him and leads him to a man named Ananias to heal him and explain the gospel to him.

Do you guys remember going through this?

Yep, awesome.

Remember that because that is actually very key in our sermon today.

So Saul, who would later be called Paul, isn't a new character.

He isn't someone new showing up on the scene.

What we know about Paul based on uh the book of Acts in those two chapters from 7 and chapter 9 is that Paul was actually uh uh learning and being trained to be a Pharisee.

We actually see later on in his writings, his testimony is is uh written out, and he explains that he was actually being trained under the teacher, the renowned teacher, Gameliel.

And we also see through that that Paul was actually very gifted amongst his peers, and he was leaps and bounds ahead of them in his understanding of scripture.

He was leaps and bounds ahead of them in understanding of the law and the prophets of the Old Testament.

Uh so Paul was a very smart and intellectual man, and today Paul is probably considered the greatest Christian ever.

We know because of scripture that God has used him in such impactful, world-changing ways.

We see that Paul is the author of much of the New Testament.

We read that he has preached to the masses, he has led many to Christ, and he has set up institutions that the church, even the church today, is supposed to organize around.

So he is a very, very important figure in Christianity.

And so we're gonna see what Paul's doing right now in ministry.

So Acts chapter 13, starting at verse 1, it says this.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Menaeon, a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetriarch, and Saul.

While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Notice where Paul first starts in Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Acts 13 does not begin with Paul on a platform.

It does not begin with Paul behind a pulpit.

It doesn't even begin with Paul preaching to the masses, but it begins with Paul amongst his brothers.

You see, the church at Antioch is worshiping, they're fasting, they're praying, and they're listening, and then the Holy Spirit says, Set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul.

Write this down.

Learn to layer your spiritual disciplines.

Learn to layer your spiritual disciplines.

Now, spiritual disciplines are things like prayer, reading the Bible, meditating on scripture, fasting, worship, fellowship, serving, giving, confession, evangelism, and spending intentional time alone with God.

So learn to layer them, learn to use them together.

Here in the Western Church, a lot of us look at these spiritual disciplines and we and we focus on one and we hone in on one and we forget the rest.

A lot of us will look at prayer and we'll become great prayer warriors, which is needed in the kingdom, but but our whole life is focused on prayer that we're not taking it and we're not aligning it with the word.

A lot of us love worship, we love worshiping God, and we'll we'll hone this gift of worship and we'll sing beautiful songs, but we're not interceding for our family.

So learn to layer your spiritual disciplines and use them together.

God spoke to them not through a dream, not through a sermon, but it says in Acts chapter 13, verse 2, it says, While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Acts 13:2

The word and is a conjunction word.

Is there any grammar nerds in here?

Sorry, grammar teachers, I apologize.

Grammar teachers in here.

The word and it's a conjunction word.

We've learned this.

I did Shirley grammar in homeschool.

I understand the whole conjunction song.

So and is a conjunction word, meaning that these two spiritual disciplines were being used together.

And some translations, like the NKJV or the ASB, use the word ministering instead of worshiping.

So it'll say, while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart from me Barnabas and Saul for the work in which I have called them.

So it uses the word ministering instead of worshiping, because the Greek meaning of this act of worship wasn't a worship service.

It wasn't singing uh songs of praise.

Rather, the meaning is that they went into a deep reverence and service to God.

So their heart posture was in a deep position of serving God, and they deprived themselves of food and comforts, and then they received instruction from the Holy Spirit.

Now I've been saved coming up 15 years this December.

And in all my 15 years of a believer, I have never once been taught the importance of spiritual disciplines.

For the past 14 of these 15 years, all I knew to do was to pray, to read my Bible, and to sing aloud during worship.

I've never been taught the importance of fasting, and that's that's pretty obvious.

I've never been taught the importance of fasting.

However, 70 to 70 pounds down, baby, let's go.

Thank you.

I've read and I've had an understanding of what ministering to the Lord meant, but I've never been shown it.

I've never been told or shown that when we minister to the Lord continuously, that it that helps keep our posture of our heart and a desire to serve Him.

I've always thought that fasting was reserved for when you want to see breakthrough or you need an answer on something.

Now, yes, it can be a fasting can be a powerful tool for the believers in that manner.

However, fasting or any spiritual discipline should not be something that we use on rainy days, rather, it should be something that we practice in our daily lives.

So these men, the Bible says prophets and teachers, weren't gathered to get a ministry assignment because they were already ministering.

They were ministering to the Lord, and then the Holy Spirit spoke and gave them the assignment.

Now, they didn't go into the room looking for an answer on something.

Scripture didn't say that.

These were men who were discipling people and teaching people in the ways of God.

The Bible called some prophets and some teachers.

Now the word prophet here doesn't mean what it would mean, what it meant in the Old Testament.

This wasn't somebody who fell asleep and had a dream, or this is one uh what when it's used in this context, isn't somebody who maybe uh received a vision in that moment.

Now that can happen, but when it's using it in this moment, that's not what it was meaning.

This was a person who would deliver the message of God to the church and was empowered to do so by the Holy Spirit.

That's what prophet means in Acts chapter 13.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

Now, could they have received visions?

Could they have received dreams?

Yeah, absolutely.

But in this moment, when it says that some were prophets, some were teachers, the office of prophet then was a person who would receive the word from God and they would deliver it with power and authority.

So you have some in this group who taught the word of God and showed the coming of Christ in the Old Testament, uh, who would look at the law and show how it how it shows Christ.

They would look through history and the Jewish historical context and show how everything's pointing to Christ.

That is a teacher.

And then you had some who preached the gospel of Christ with anointing and authority to encourage the body and to evangelize to those who are not yet a part of the body.

Those are the prophets.

So they already had a responsibility, and yet the Lord still called for Barnabas and Saul.

Now I've been in ministry for nine years.

That's not long compared to Pastor Al or Pastor Steve.

And that's not because they have gray hair, that's just because they've been in ministry a lot longer than I have.

But in my nine, in those nine years of ministry, the one question I have heard again and again is this.

Why does God seem to speak to them but not to me?

Or maybe this uh I've prayed about this situation and I haven't heard anything.

What am I supposed to do?

I guess what I'm saying is the question I I've heard over these nine years is why is God silent?

Have you ever asked that question before?

Why is God not speaking to me?

Well, why is he speaking to everybody else?

Why is he answering all their prayers, but he's not speaking to me?

And underneath that question, there is often a frustration with God, as though heaven has gone silent, as though God has withheld himself from us.

But we have to be careful because sometimes we say, God, why won't you speak?

And yet we we accuse God, God, why won't you speak?

And our Bibles are closed on our countertop, or our Bibles are closed on our nightstand, or our Bibles are put up on a bookshelf.

God's already spoken to you.

And it's called the Bible, it's called the Word of God.

We say, God, tell me what to do, and yet prayer is almost absent from our daily lives.

Prayer is almost absent from our very lips.

We say, God, I want to hear your voice while our hearts remain cold towards worship, and our mouth remains closed, and our lives remain largely untouched by his lordship.

And then we accuse God of being silent?

So perhaps the first question is not why isn't God speaking?

Perhaps the first question should be this Have I positioned my heart to hear and obey what he has already said?

Let me see that again because I don't think you're getting it.

Have I positioned my heart to hear and obey what he has already said?

Because God is not a consultant we call when we need direction, he is the Lord of all.

We do not come to him merely asking for information about our lives, we should come to him surrendering our lives.

And so the first three verses of Acts 13 show us men who are not demanding a word from God, but they show us men who were worshiping him.

Men who were fasting, they were ministering to him.

Their attention was on God Himself, not an answer.

Acts 13, 2 says Acts 13 2 says this: while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

Now I think this is where Christianity gets uncomfortable for us, because we love the idea of God having a purpose for our lives, but we don't always love the idea of God having possession of our lives.

I'm gonna say that again.

We love the idea of God having a purpose for our lives, but we don't always love the idea of God having possession of our lives.

We want the calling, we want the blessing, we want God to use us, we want to know his will.

But here's the thing: being set apart means I don't get to keep every part of my life untouched.

You see, being set apart starts with saying yes to God, and saying yes to God means saying no to other things.

Are you aware of that?

Are you aware that every yes requires a no somewhere else?

It is impossible to say yes to everything and say no to nothing.

Every yes requires a no somewhere else, and so being set apart starts with saying yes to God, and saying yes to God means saying no to other things.

There is no real consecration without surrender.

You cannot say yes to holiness and keep saying yes to the sin God is calling you out of.

You cannot say yes to being a godly husband or a godly wife and keep saying yes to the habits that are destroying the intimacy in your home.

You cannot say yes to raising your children in the ways of the Lord and then give God whatever is left after everything else gets their attention.

You cannot say yes to prayer while saying yes to every distraction, and you cannot say yes to serving Jesus while insisting that it that he never inconvenience you.

At some point, a yes to God requires a no somewhere else.

Now I'm not talking about or saying that we need to put our faith in legalism, I'm not saying that.

We're not saying no to things so that God will finally love us, he already loves us.

We say no because in Christ we already belong to him.

So in just the first three verses, we have looked at obedience to God and what it looks like, and then we have looked at what it means to be called by God and the importance of saying yes.

Now let us now read on and actually see the life of a person separated to God and what that looks like.

Read with me, Acts chapter 13, starting in verse 4.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

It says, So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had John to assist them.

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus.

He was with the Procouncil, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnab who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

But Elimus, the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them, seeking to turn the pro counsel away from the faith.

But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him, and he said, You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight path of the Lord?

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.

Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand.

Then the pro-council believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished by the teaching of the Lord.

So Paul and Barnabas go.

Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the Holy Spirit.

They obeyed God, they got in a boat, and they traveled to Cyprus, and they began preaching the word of God.

And then in verse 6, they come across this man, this man named Elimas, who has who has another name.

His name is Bar Jesus.

Now, Bar in that time meant son of.

We see that in the apostle Peter's name, when uh Jesus calls him Simon Bar Jonah, which means Simon son of Jonah in Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

So Bar Jesus means son of Jesus or son of Joshua.

Now, here's the crazy thing.

Scripture doesn't say this, but this is what I think.

And I could be wrong.

But Jesus was known back then.

Jesus was made famous back then.

Jesus was known as a man who performed miracles.

Jesus was known as a prophet to his followers, to us, Jesus is God.

So Jesus was a well-known person back then, even after his death.

And you have this man who is calling himself Bar Jesus.

He's calling himself son of Jesus.

And yet, look at what Paul calls him in verse 10.

He says, You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness.

Now, this is a serious statement because what Paul could have been saying this.

He could have been saying, You are no son of Jesus.

The only son you are is the son of the devil.

Your name shouldn't be Bar Jesus, it should be Bar Satan, it should be Bar Devil.

That's the only son that you are.

This man may have carried a name that sounded spiritual, but he was actively trying to turn a man away from the faith.

How many of you know people like that?

People who put on this robe of acting spiritual, of acting holy, and yet every every time they open their mouth, it seems as if they're turning people away from the faith.

So this man may have carried us uh in carried a name that sounded spiritual, but he was actively trying to turn a man away from the faith, and that man was Sergius Paulus.

Now, Sergius Paulus was not just some random person standing nearby listening to Paul preach.

Luke tells us that he was the proconsul of that island.

Now, a proconsul was a governor appointed to a specific region, a large region.

Now, unlike Pontius Pilate, who was over Judea, you see, Pontius Pilate was a procurator.

And he was more of a knight level as far as his authority.

And the type of job in today's day and age that Pontius Pilate would be likened to would be a person who was high up in the IRS.

Now, a pro-council was over a very large region.

He also had, he was also a high-ranking member of the military, and he was also part of the Roman Senate.

And so that means that the only person that a pro-council answered to was Caesar himself.

So Sergius Paulus was the Roman governor, he was the pro-council of Cyprus.

Now, Cyprus isn't some small island.

It says that he was the highest ranking Roman official on the island.

Now, again, Cyprus isn't some small island.

Uh Cyprus didn't just have a few hundred people, it had several thousand, several tens of thousands of people.

So this is a man of immense power.

This is a man of immense authority.

This is the highest ranking Roman official on this island.

And Luke calls him a man of intelligence.

He's a man of education, a man of influence, and a man of authority.

So this is not some foolish man looking for a strange religious experience.

This is a powerful, educated man who had enough interest in the things of God that he summoned Barnabas and Paul because he wanted to hear the word of God.

And standing near him is Elimas, a false prophet and a magician who is actually who is actively trying to keep him from believing.

Now, if you're a Lord of the Rings fan, I love Lord of the Rings.

Uh the way I envision this scene is you have worm tongue who's who's in the ear of the king of Rohan.

Now, has anyone seen Lord of the Rings here?

Shame on you for not seeing Lord of the Rings.

When you get home, watch all three of them in one sitting.

Trust me, you're gonna want to do that.

You're not you're gonna want to call into work tomorrow.

Uh because it it's gonna take a long time.

But for those of you who have seen Lord of the Rings, do you know what I'm talking about?

Do you know that scene where you have worm tongue and he's like whispering poisons into King Elrond's ear?

And and King Elrond looks really sickly and old.

Now, I'm not saying this is what it looks like, I wasn't there.

I have no idea.

But you have Elimos who's in that position, who keeps trying to steer this pro-counsel away from believing.

Now let's think about the scene.

The word of God is being proclaimed.

A powerful man is leaning in, he's wanting to hear the truth.

And another man is doing everything he can to pull him away from it.

And then we read about the judgment on Elimos, and it becomes so striking because listen to what Paul says.

Paul says, Will you stop, will you not stop making crooked the straight path of the Lord?

And then he tells him that he's gonna go blind and unable to see the sun for a time.

And the Bible says that almost immediately darkness falls upon him.

Now here's the ir here's the ironic thing.

Here's some irony.

This man had been spiritually blind and he had been trying to lead somebody else away from the truth.

Now God allows the condition of his heart to be reflected outwardly in his body.

The man had been leading others away from the light and is now, he is now physically blind, reaching around for someone else to lead him and take him by the hand.

But don't miss who's standing in front of him, speaking this judgment.

Paul.

Paul himself had been struck blind.

Remember, we just talked about it earlier.

On the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Paul and he was thrown off his donkey and he was blind.

Paul knows Paul knows what it is to think you uh Paul knows what it what it is to think that you know that you're right, that you can see clearly when you're at when you're actually spiritually spiritually blind.

He knows what it is to oppose Christ while believing you're right.

He knows what it is to be stopped in your tracks by Jesus, to be blinded, to be humbled, and then to have your eyes opened.

So picture this you have a once blind persecutor of Christians who is now saved, standing in front of another spiritually blind man who is opposing the gospel.

This is the power of Paul's testimony.

See, what I believe Paul is doing here when Paul when Paul tells him you were gonna be blind, is Paul's remembering back to when he was struck blind.

See, it took Paul to be struck blind before he could actually see.

And Paul was looking at that as a mercy, and so I can see Paul saying, Hey, what I what I have I give to you.

It took me to be blind to see Jesus, so now you need to be blind to see Jesus.

Jesus met me in the midst of my blindness, and so now I wish that upon you.

That is the power of a testimony.

You have power in your testimony, I have power in my testimony.

I was an addict.

I was an addict for six years, and it took me, it took rock bottom for me to be able to come face to face and have an encounter with Jesus.

And now I've been walking with my king and my savior for 15 years.

And then when I come across other addicts, my prayer is this I pray you hit rock bottom because Jesus met me at rock bottom.

I pray you come to the end of your rope and you have nowhere else to turn, and that high that you're seeking isn't doing it anymore.

I pray that you can't get high anymore and you're at rock bottom and you're hopeless because Jesus met me in my hopelessness, and he can meet you in your hopelessness.

Now pay close attention and listen to what I'm about to say.

Opposition has met Paul and Barnabas.

But Paul and Barnabas are not outside the will of God here.

They were sent by the Holy Spirit.

They were doing exactly what God has called them to do, and yet opposition still meets them.

Sometimes we have this idea that if God called me to do something, then everything should go smoothly.

And if there's resistance, if there's difficulty, if there's opposition, then maybe I missed God.

But Acts 13 does not allow us to think that way.

Now, not every hard thing in your life is spiritual warfare.

I've talked about this before.

Sometimes life is hard because we make bad decisions.

Sometimes we're dealing with the consequences of our own foolishness.

But in this passage, these men are walking in obedience, and resistance meets them precisely because they are walking in obedience.

So sometimes there are hard seasons because of spiritual warfare.

But God allows it because sometimes those we are called to reach are in a spiritual darkness, and the only way to reach them is for us to go through hardships.

So outside opposition does not automatically mean that you are outside the will of God.

Sometimes resistance comes because you are exactly where God has called you to be.

Look at what happens in verse 12.

Alimas tried to turn Sergius Paulus away from the faith.

He tried to turn him away from the faith, but he could not stop what God was already doing.

You see, he already had a he already had an interest in this faith.

He called to Saul and Barnabas.

He said, he had them come so they can teach him the word of God.

So he was already, he was already having a stirring in his heart.

The Holy Spirit was already working upon him.

And we see in scripture that Sergius Paulus believed.

And so that means that the opposition was real.

Paul and Barnabas faced real opposition, but the opposition was not greater than the God who sent them.

Friends, I don't know what opposition you're facing.

It may seem big, it may seem huge, it may, it, it may seem cumbersome, it may seem heavy.

It may seem like a big deal, but your opposite, your opposition is not bigger than the God who has saved you and the God who has sent you.

Thank you, five people.

Let's try that again.

Your opposition may be big, it may be huge, it may be heavy and cumbersome, but your opposition is not greater than the God who has saved you or the God who has sent you.

Acts 13, verse 13, it says this.

Acts 13:13

Now, this isn't the same Antioch that they started from.

As is today, like you have Manhattan, New York, and Manhattan, Kansas.

You have multiple places called Antioch back then.

So they left Antioch in Pisidia.

Or they're heading towards Antioch in Pisidia.

But verse 13 gives us this little detail that is so easy to skip over.

It says, John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

Now, this isn't John the Apostle or John the Beloved.

This is actually John Mark.

So John Mark is the nephew of Barnabas, and he's working with Paul and Barnabas.

And it says that he left them.

Now Luke doesn't tell us here why John Mark left, but we'll find out later in Acts that Paul did not take it lightly.

But that's not the sermon for today.

Pastor Steve can can go into detail over that.

But again, you have Paul and Barnabas.

They are obeying God, they are doing exactly what the Holy Spirit told them to do.

They have just watched God move powerfully in Cyprus, and yet there is still disappointment.

Somebody who started the journey with them does not finish this part of the journey with them.

Let me share a simple truth with you, really quick.

Just because somebody else stops does not mean that you stop.

Somebody else's decision cannot become an excuse for your disobedience.

Sometimes faithfulness is not dramatic.

Sometimes faithfulness is just continuing forward, even when all hope seems lost.

Verse 14 basically says that they went on.

John Mark left, but they went on.

Things changed, but they went on.

The team looked different now, but they went on.

And some of you know exactly what that feels like.

Some of you have had people leave you.

Some of you have had, some of you have been rejected by people you thought would always be there for you.

Some of you have had family walk away.

Some of you have been abandoned in marriage.

Some of you have been hurt by a church.

Some of you trusted somebody, you opened up your life, and they did not handle your heart correctly.

I want to be careful here because I am not telling you that pain does not matter.

I am not telling you to pretend that it did not hurt, and I am not telling you to just get over it.

But I am telling you this: do not let what somebody did to you become the thing that stops what God still wants to do through you.

Let me say that again.

Do not let what somebody did to you become the thing that stops what God still wants to do through you.

There are people in this room who have been stuck for years.

You've been stuck for years because somebody left.

And the person who left has moved on.

But you are still standing in the same place, we're playing the moment, still asking why, still angry, still upset, still frustrated, still hurt, still guarding your heart, still afraid to trust again, still afraid to serve again, still afraid to love again.

I get it.

I do, I get that.

I know what it is to be hurt by somebody.

I know what it feels like to be hurt by somebody who was not just some casual friend in my life.

This was a spiritual father who had a massive impact on me.

He discipled me.

He sat with me and taught me the Bible.

He helped shape me.

I understood the gospel and ministry based on his teaching.

He invested in me when I had very little to offer back.

He helped send me into ministry.

He helped send me to Bible school.

He was there in almost every major moment of my life.

He stood with me at my wedding.

He was there through through seasons of joy, through seasons of loss.

He was there when I lost my mother.

He was there when I was trying to figure out what God was doing in my life.

And there are many pieces of the man I am today that God used because that man helped for me.

So when that relationship changed and that relationship ended and we went our separate ways, it did not feel small.

It was not just, well, somebody moved on.

It hurt.

And it hurt deep because the relationship mattered.

You see, the deeper the investment, the deeper the wound can be when something breaks.

And if I'm being honest, I I've had to wrestle with that.

I've had to work through anger.

I've had to work through confusion.

I had to work through grief and disappointment.

I had to work through questions of what's wrong with me.

What did I do?

I had to work through questions I did not know what to do with.

If I could be honest with you, I'm still working through it.

This was a very important person to me.

This this person had a huge impact in my life.

But here's what God is teaching me.

I do not have to rewrite the good in order to be honest about the hurt.

I do not have to rewrite the good to be honest about the hurt.

See, some of you, I've heard your testimonies, I've heard your stories.

And you'll take 14, 15, 20, 30 years of life, and you'll chalk up the whole thing to being it was the worst time of your entire life.

And maybe it was.

I wasn't there.

But but many times Christians today will look at a person who hurt them and we'll villainize them in our entire story.

We'll make them the villain of it because of it because of an instance of deep hurt.

And we'll take away the lessons that God has taught us in that season and we'll throw it to the wayside and we'll say that that was a spiritual attack, the devil sent him, or the devil sent her.

And yet we've missed the entire point of God was working in the midst of all of that.

I can say God used that man powerfully in my life, but I can also say that that loss has wounded me.

Both can be true, but I cannot let that wound become the place where my obedience ends.

So John Mark left.

Paul and Barnabas went on, and some of you will know exactly what I mean.

Somebody who helped shape you is not there anymore.

Somebody you trusted has disappointed you.

Somebody you thought would always be a part of your story is not a part of your story in the same way.

And you can grieve that.

I need you to listen to me right now.

You can grieve that.

You can honor what was good and you can be honest about the hurt, but you cannot let their absence become your excuse to stop following Jesus.

Because they were a part of your story, but they were never the author of it.

They may have helped shape you, but they did not save you.

They may have opened doors for you, but they were never the source of your calling.

God was the source of your calling, and God still is the source of your calling.

And if God is still calling you forward, then at what point are you gonna keep going?

Let's wrap this up.

Acts 13, we're gonna read uh verses 14 through 25.

But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch and Pisidia, and on the Sabbath they went into the synagogue and sat down.

After the reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.

So Paul stood up and motioning with his hand, he said, Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt.

And with uplifted arm, he led them out of it.

And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness, and after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land of inheritance.

All this took about four hundred and fifty years, and after that he gave them judges, until Samuel the prophet, they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will.

Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

And then skip over to verse 36.

It says this for David, after he had served his purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and he was laid with his fathers and saw corruption.

But he whom God raised up did not see corruption.

Let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed from the law of Moses.

Beware, therefore, lest your heart or lest what is said in the prophets should come about.

Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.

And then right here, verse 42.

As they went out, the people begged that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath.

So let me recap.

They've come to a synagogue, and after the law and the prophets are spoken, they are asked if they have a word for the people.

And Paul stands up and begins to preach.

Now pay attention to how Paul preaches.

He starts walking them through their own history.

But listen to who's doing all the action.

Paul's saying, God chose, God made, God led, God gave, God raised up, God brought.

Paul's reminding them that the story of Israel was never really about Israel being a great nation, it was about God being faithful.

Through Egypt, he was faithful.

Through the wilderness, he was faithful.

Through the judges, through the kings, through all of it, God was faithful, and God was moving his plan forward.

And then Paul says in verse 23, Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he has promised.

See, that's where Paul was going with all of this.

He was saying that all of this history, all of these promises, all of these generations, all of it was moving towards Jesus.

Now pay attention right here.

Listen, watch this.

This matters because we have a habit of judging God by one moment in our lives: one hard season, one prayer that we haven't seen answered yet, one person who walked away, one door that closed, one thing that did not happen the way we thought it would, and we start saying, God, where are you?

But Paul is saying, look at the whole story.

God has been faithful the entire time.

Even when his people were wandering, he was faithful.

Even when the kings failed, he was faithful.

Even when they could not see what he was doing, he was faithful.

And God was positioning everything in place because he was moving everything to point to Jesus.

So maybe the question is not always, God, what are you doing right now?

Or God, where are you right now?

Maybe sometimes the question we have to ask is, can I trust God who has already proven himself faithful?

He's proven himself faithful yesterday, he's proven himself faithful today, and I know that he will prove himself faithful tomorrow.

He is faithful.

He has never been unfaithful.

The Bible says, even when I even when I'm unfaithful, he remains faithful.

Even in my unfaithfulness, he remains faithful.

And so Paul's walked them through this whole history and all the stories that they had learned, and now he brings it to Jesus.

He tells them Christ was rejected, Christ was condemned, Christ was killed, he was laid in a tomb.

And then in verse 30, he says, But God raised him from the dead.

See, this is the entire center of Paul's message.

God raised Jesus from the dead.

You see, Christianity is not built on advice, it's not built on great music, as fantastic as our music team is, as awesome as Peter is to the with the keys.

It's not built on trendy growth structures, but it's built on one announcement.

The announcement is this Jesus Christ was crucified for the sinner, he was buried in place of the sinner, and he was raised to life again to save the sinner.

Verse 38 says this through this man's forgiveness of sin is uh through this man's of uh uh forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

Beloved, do not let familiarity make that sentence small.

Through this man, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

We've heard forgiveness of sin so many times that we can say it without feeling the weight of it.

But this is a holy God offering forgiveness to guilty people.

Not because sin didn't matter, but because Christ stood in place of sinners.

Sin mattered.

Sin was a big deal, sin was a big thing.

It wasn't something that God was like, I just I'm choosing not to deal with it anymore.

No, sin is what separated us from God and it made us so unlike God.

Seriously, God is so holy that anything unholy can't exist around him.

So it was a big deal.

So there's a holy God offering forgiveness to guilty people, not because sin did not matter, but because Christ stood in place of the sinners.

He bore our wrath, he carried sin, he died, he rose, and now forgiveness is proclaimed.

It's not earned, but it's proclaimed.

Verse 39 says, By him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed from the law of Moses.

Some translations say justified, and it would say, By him, everyone who believes is justified from everything from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses.

So the law could expose you.

It was there to expose you, it wasn't there to save you.

It could it could tell you what righteousness looked like, but it couldn't make you righteous.

And then Paul gave a warning.

He says, Beware.

He's warning people to uh he's warning the people who know scripture, who know the stories, who know the law, who know the prophets, that you can be around truth and still harden yourself to truth.

You can know the right doctrine and you can st and you can still lose tenderness to God.

You can sit under amazing preaching for years and become informed without being broken, without being corrected, without being humbled or hungry.

Some of us have been sitting in in church for years, some of us have read some of the greatest theologians ever, and we understand this, but yet we're not broken, corrected, humbled, or hungry.

Friends, that is not maturity.

Maturity is not needing Jesus less.

Mature, excuse me, maturity is realizing how deeply and how desperately you actually need him.

So maybe you're here this morning, or maybe you're listening online and this is the first time you're hearing the message of the gospel.

I'm here to tell you that this message is for you.

God created you, he formed you in your mother's womb, but because of sin, we are unable to be holy.

Yet, in order to be in right standing with God, we must be holy.

Now, God, knowing that no matter how hard we tried, could uh we could never be holy on our own, sent his perfect son Jesus to save us.

Jesus Christ came to live a perfect life that you and I could not live.

And he was beaten and put to death on a cross, which was meant for you and me.

He was put in a tomb that was reserved for you and I.

And he was raised to life on the third day, and he now sits at the right hand of God the Father and is inviting you to be an adopted son or an adopted daughter.

The Bible says in Romans 10, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved.

In just a moment, we're gonna have the Kingdom of Min uh the Kingdom Ministry team here to pray for you.

And if you're here today and you feel this desire to pray, this and you feel desire to pray this prayer, that's the Holy Spirit moving you and leading you.

God is calling you.

And so when they when they come up, I'm gonna invite you to come up here.

We would love to pray with you.

But Acts 13 starts with saying, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called for them.

This is for everybody else.

And I have to ask you this are you set apart for him?

I'm not just asking if you're saved, I'm asking if you're fully set apart.

Or are there areas in your heart and life that he isn't allowed to rule over?

You may be waiting for an answer from God, but God is waiting for you to fully surrender to him.

Thank you for listening to the Road Church Podcast.

We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.

For more information about the Road Church and to find more content like this, go to theroad.org.

That's thheroad.org.