The Message, The Magician, and the Mob - Acts 13

Madison, how are you?

I'm good.

How are you?

I'm good.

I'm tired, but up late.

Late nights.

Burning that candle on both ends, which by the way is a phrase.

If you had a sideways candle, I guess.

That's what I'm saying.

Is this like a I'm holding a candle that has two wicks?

Yep.

And I'm just I want light to go sideways or at me.

And what is the what what is the I'm looking it up?

What is the origin?

Yeah, it probably comes from a time where candles played a different role.

Or if like the candle was in the shape of a U and it was two normal candles.

Magnet-shaped.

And it was Acme candles.

Yeah, it would be like you could burn that one at both ends.

Okay, it originated from a metaphorical expression used to describe a lifestyle that is unsustainable due to excessive.

Okay, okay.

First coin by the poet Edna St.

Vincent Millet, oh, that's a mouthful, in her 1918 poem First Fig, illustrating the idea that while such a life can be exhilarating, it ultimately leads to exhaustion and depletion.

I feel like I'm being judged right now.

Is this the AI summary?

I need like the Meaning or History of English.com.

Did the metaphor come from someone's imagination, or was there an object that published in 1920, she wrote, My candle burns at both ends.

It will not last the night.

But ah my foes and oh my friends, it gives a lovely light.

Yep.

We spend our midday sweat, our midnight oil, we tire the night in thought, the day in toil.

Midnight oil as well.

In the same poem.

Edna St.

Vincent Millet dropping idioms, like reinventing idioms.

Edna, thug life goes across.

Well, on that note, well now that Edna's now that Edna has had a chance to uh to to enrich our lives, what if we read some of the Bible?

Yep.

Let's go.

Back at it again.

Back at it, back at it and axe.

Back act it.

Back back.

It's there.

There's something.

Back to back to back to it.

There you go.

Okay.

Acts 13.

I'm going.

Dereel.

I'm going.

I'm in uh the New Living Translation.

Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, uh Menean, and Saul.

Oh, Menaean is the childhood companion of King Herod Antipos.

That's interesting.

Has that in parentheses.

Do you have parenthetical descriptions?

Mine says a lifelong friend of Herod the Tetrarch.

Yeah.

There you go.

This is uh King Herod the Great's son.

And he was not, he was yeah.

Um this is the one that would be the same one that had Jesus uh that had John the Baptist killed and all that.

That's interesting.

Interesting layer there.

And Saul.

Uh one day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work which I've called them.

So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.

And I'm gonna go ahead and read this next section, and then we're gonna we'll talk.

So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit.

They went down to the seaport of Seleucia and they sailed for the island of Cyprus.

There, in the town of Salamis, they went to the Jewish synagogues and preached the word of God.

John Mark went with them as their assistant.

Afterward, they traveled from town to town across the entire island until finally they reached Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, a false prophet named Bargesus.

He had attached himself to the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man.

The governor invited Barnabas and Saul to visit him, for he wanted to hear the word of God.

But Elimus, the sorcerer, as his name means in Greek, interfered and urged the governor to pay no attention to what Barnabas and Saul said.

He was trying to keep the governor from believing.

Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye, and then he said, You son of the devil, full of every sort of deceit and fraud, an enemy of all that is good, you will never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord.

Watch now, for the Lord has laid his hand of punishment upon you, and you will be struck blind.

You will not see the sunlight for some time.

Instantly mist and darkness came over the man's eyes, and he began groping around, begging for someone to take his hand and lead him.

When the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.

Some crazy stuff.

We might get like a Lord of the Rings, like Green a worm tongue.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, you know too long, have you?

You know such a classic scene.

Throw him out.

Um, man, yeah.

Here we go.

Let's start with that con confrontation between Bar Jesus and Paul.

My question is does obviously Paul is empowered by the Holy Spirit, so he's like doing things according to the will of God.

This is the continuation of that theme going on in the book of Acts.

It's like, here's what the Holy Spirit is up to.

Yeah, Holy Spirit.

See the Holy Spirit is the main character, as the main uh, you know.

But is Paul cursing a person blind here?

Yeah.

That's crazy.

And so my question is, you know, I he's evil.

Well, I know.

He's trying to, he's trying to just trick someone away from the faith trying to say, hey, don't listen to them.

I've probably had people in my life that I've known that are like, oh, don't listen to I Christians are stupid, don't listen to anything they say.

Yeah.

My instant result or like my instant reaction isn't to like you wicked hive of scum and villainy.

Like Yeah.

I don't know.

I don't have you had moments where you've got to be like, I've never had the Holy Spirit inspire me to curse someone.

Well, that's this is my question.

It's like we know the Holy Spirit is behind it because the curse becomes true.

So it's not just Paul saying, like, I'm praying a curse upon you.

I pray that you're not fruitful in the evil things that you do, and we'll see, we'll see you later, and then God works.

It's like clearly God wants to stop this person from doing what they're doing.

But have you had moments where you've had to be as direct as saying, like, what you're what you're saying is just evil, and the path to the right thing in this moment would be me to say, in the name of Jesus, be be cursed.

Like, I think that's a very it's a very like different uh No, I mean I think my my main context for something like that would be, and this is so lame, but uh I guess it's not at the same time.

YouTube videos that critique well-known pastors' teachings that they would deem to be wrong, wrong and maybe not just wrong, but like intentionally misleading.

And I have seen some where they've said this person is a false prophet and their ministry is blah, blah, blah.

And I sit there and I go, ooh, that's pretty harsh.

I guess I don't fully disagree with what they, you know what I mean.

I have this wrestle in my spirit of like, is it okay?

I mean, like, you know, hey, buddy, you're being too intense there.

Right.

But at the same time, I've seen we live in a time right now where everyone's pretty um well, unless you're of certain political there's like a whole, there's a category of people that you're allowed to say whatever you want about and they're bad and evil, right?

But overall, we live in a culture right now that's pretty like, well, you should know that's their perspective.

And they have to appreciate what they're doing.

We're very like, everyone's got their own perspective, and that's clearly not that.

I think what you do see as a theme, though, in the Bible is because a few things that I I think we have a tendency to underestimate evil.

There's a difference between someone being mistaken.

Yeah, it's like an error, a natural error mistake.

And they actually uh so a someone who's really mistaken can cause great harm and and all that.

And they can be doing they can be serving evil.

Sure.

Right?

Like a distracted driver is a mistake.

It's a mistake.

But it isn't like I set out to crash my car into you.

And so how do what we have this man described as a Jewish sorcerer.

So this is a man who would have been raised to know the truth of God, a false prophet.

So he is acting as he is acting as an instrument of of evil.

I mean, that is that is like what, you know.

So there you have that.

Um and it's interesting, like sorcery, we tend to think, you know, cauldron and all that kind of stuff.

But um I believe this is this is right, but like the Greek word for uh sorcery, I think it's pharmacia.

Which is like root for pharmacy.

It's where we, yeah, pharmacaia.

It's where we get pharmacy.

And uh these are guys oftentimes that would be doing tonics and like stuff to put you in a trance.

Here's this, and here's I mean, like drug dealers.

You know what I mean?

So a lot of that, you know, you can mess with people's minds, right?

Here, take this tonic, and then you're all whatever, and then I can have a lot of influence, and I know people who have done hallucinogenic drugs and in those moments had like a oh, and then I realize what my purpose is a spiritual epiphany.

It's very influential, right?

Right?

You're you're under the influence of something, it's evil.

And there is a theme in the Bible of when God or one of his servants is face to face with someone who is a knowing, willing instrument of evil, God is very okay with a head-on collision with that and a confrontational collision with that, not just someone who's a little bit off.

Yeah.

And so I think it's the categories.

This is not a guy who's, hey, well, he needs Jesus too.

It's not like that.

This is a person who I say has intentionally aligned himself with evil, and he's using that to have sway over scream a worn tongue from Lord of the Rings.

You throw that dude out.

Yeah.

You don't, you don't be like, hey man, let's talk.

Let's you pick that dude up, you throw him out, you say, never come back here again.

So I think that's kind of what we have going on.

And have you experienced that?

Like uh, you know, you said online there's a there's a reality of like, hey, this public platformed person is using their public platform to manipulate believers into believing the wrong thing.

But I guess the question is like, I mean, is it like only because it's um involved in the church?

Because you don't see like this non-believers who are because we're gonna get to a Zeus moment where they're like, you know, uh people are confused about who to worship and how to worship, but there's a different conversation there.

This is like Yeah, the closest thing I can say is I did have a person that I would have considered a friend at one point that um from my perspective got way off theologically in some areas.

Um, but but not in sort of like a sneaky, like uh it snuck up on me when I say sneaky, not like he was sneaking around, but like uh like he was always sort of he had some ideas that would have been viewed as I think within the uh realm of that's that's worth it.

It's an appropriate interpretation, maybe, but maybe, but it's definitely in that interesting category.

There, you know, whatever.

But then he went pretty, he kind of like I don't know how to just describe it.

He went, he went all in on some of that.

But did it in a way where he started to constantly attack not just our church, even though it was our church really specifically, but like kind of all churches, and he was definitely trying to, I would say he was acting and he, I don't think he would disagree with this, he was uh constantly, actively trying to get people to stop going to church and to come to his thing, which was kind of like he would describe it as like the anti-church church the way it ought to be, but really he was just trying to build his own church.

Right.

You know what I mean?

And I remember calling him one time because he had posted something online that I was like, it was just so it was it felt deceptive to me.

It was like this is clearly like, dude, and I and I had a close enough relationship with the guy, even though we had kind of drifted apart and there was some unspoken arguments.

But I called him and I said, Hey man, what you wrote is just and he goes, Yeah, I mean he just said it like so clearly.

He was like, Yeah, well, you know, I'm trying to sort of like online I have to be kind of provocative because I'm trying to get, you know, I'm trying to, I'm I kind of trying to I mean he just basically flat out admitted, like, yeah, I know what I said was a huge exaggeration and not really the truth, but I'm I'm trying to get you know trying to give views.

I'm trying to stir the conversation up, yeah.

You know, and um and yeah, I mean there there were times where uh because he was pretty active online for a long time, and there were just outright lies and distortions, and and um I you know I ended up telling some people the closest I guess I would get to this is I ended up saying directly, I got to the point where I felt like this is a guy who is actively trying to destroy something that I am I am in charge of and and have authority in, and I'm and so and I did have a few conversations with people who I knew and knew him and said, Hey man, you need to not listen to what he has to say.

Like you gotta be very, very careful, you know.

I I and I was even still gracious, like he might mean well, but you know, and the result of the matter is that that ministry, if you want to call it that, if it had no fruit.

Like it's not like it became a thing, right?

Um, it's just um because it was very egocentric.

It was very much about him and his teaching and all that kind of stuff.

But I've had dynamics where you know, family members go off the deep end into some you know, pseudo-religious cult or the correct version of Christianity, yeah, yeah.

X, y, z, you know, whatever it is.

Right.

And it's hard because on the receiving end of that relationship, I end up feeling like I'm constantly being accused and constantly like you're being judgmental or you're you know, whatever.

And so it takes a lot of, I think, bravery.

And I that's where I see the Holy Spirit in this moment of like, it takes a lot of uh powers beyond your human intuitions and as to like how do I handle this?

You know, you go into a conversation going, what do I do?

Um, to stand up and say, like, actually, what you're doing is super evil, and I'm not about it, and you're the one that's always trying to accuse me.

Satan's the accuser, and just to be confident and comfortable in that moment of call-out, not to say, I'm not calling this out to denigrate you as a person, but I'm saying this is this has got to be the line's gotta be drawn.

I think that I also maybe have some, this is also a factor in it.

You do have to assess what level of a threat someone is.

At this point in time, the church is so young and it's so unestablished in in many ways that you see, and not just here, but you're gonna see in Paul's letters, I would say Paul has a really low tolerance level for false teaching, for division.

And those who are causing division or who are leading astray, he's very like, get them out.

There is a lot of, you know what I mean?

Um, whereas here, like we have a very well-established church.

There's hundreds and hundreds of people, you know, thousands of people.

I mean that, like on a typical Sunday, you're in the you know, thousands.

And so there's people that come along, and part of it is like maybe sometimes maybe your response is also going to be at the level that you perceive the threat to be.

Right.

You don't want the response to unintentionally confuse and platform more like more confusion in the right.

So, like literally, there were times that that dude would post that I'm mentioning, he would post things, right?

And I would see it because the algorithm, because every time he'd post, I'd read it.

Stop it.

So oh, he he get and I'd be so tempted to want to like comment on it.

But then I'd be like, well, it got like three likes, you know, it's the same three people every time.

Right.

And actually, me commenting on it would probably boost it more.

Boost it more than it needs to be.

So I just like just leave it alone.

You know what I mean?

So there is that.

And but at this point in time, this is this is early, right?

And so I don't know.

Yeah, you want to go on.

It seems like it's just for the benefit, you know, ultimately, uh obviously there's everybody that's getting deceived, but in this moment, it does just I think there is a personal element of like Sergius Paulus, this uh governor guy.

Like it is just kind of for his benefit, too.

Well, it also reminds me I had a pastor in when I was in college named Roy.

Shout out to Pastor Roy in Shak in uh in Kansas City, Missouri.

Uh Roy, I never forget he did a teaching on Jesus uh throwing the guys out of the temple, the turning of the tables.

And the question he asked is, what makes God angry?

Because that's one of the few stories we have of Jesus where he is acting, you would say, like out of anger.

Right.

And he said, when someone is actively trying to keep God's people from him, when someone is standing in the way, intentionally, intentionally serving as a barrier to uh the people that God loves being in his presence, coming to him, that makes God really angry.

And you see that here.

Here's a person who is actively standing in the way of the gospel, who's telling this person, don't listen to these people, don't listen to me.

And that is something God what what Roy said was Jesus did not tolerate people and it really was the Pharisees, the religio their religiousness, their, you know, it's like when he gets angry in the temple when he heals the man.

Yeah.

It's like you are keeping people for you are keeping uh people from God.

I'm not gonna have that.

Yeah.

And that is where he's okay.

This is a very similar situation and tone to like Jesus casting out the so I think there there's maybe a connection point.

I love it.

And I think it's really, you know, it's a mysterious and kind of weird, but it's I think it's also just encouraging too that the Holy Spirit wants to draw people, and when there is that stuff standing in the way, it's gonna be removed.

Well, and also last thing on this one, I mean, he uh God is speaking Bar Jesus' language.

Like you he's a sorcerer, right?

So what's his world?

It's gonna be hexes and spells, and and it's like him saying, Hey, I got something that this will uh this should be right up your alley.

If you you know what I mean?

It's kind of like what Moses does with the with Pharaoh's sorcerers.

Like he's they're all about tricks and yeah, whatever.

He's like, Hey, I can play that game, I can play it better than you can, because that serpent ate their serpents, you know.

And so this guy, hey, you're a sorcerer, you're Mr.

Mystical signs and wonders.

Here's some mist.

Here's some mist for you.

And uh go figure that out.

Another question I have, I know we've focused on this part of the story for a while, but uh it kind of calls out the intelligence of the governor.

It says Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul to hear the word of God.

Do you feel like smart people are like like my brain goes like, well, he's smart, he's gonna see that Barnabas and Saul are true and Bar Jesus is not true.

Do you feel like like intellect or smartness is like also particularly weak to false teaching sometimes?

Because I also know in my own, like I get drawn into some rabbit hole.

I mean, I know a lot of I know a lot of smart people who believe a lot of dumb things.

Correct, right?

And so it's just another like interesting call-out of like God also is gonna help us along, even if we might be Yeah.

I think sometimes when someone values intelligence, and I can just go back to maybe my college years and some of my professors that I had, because I I was uh, you know, um I I realized, I think, pretty early on in college, maybe my freshman year or so, that these guys viewed their own intellect as their God in a sense.

If it did not make sense to them, it could not be true.

So anything that was not intellectual by their standards was foolishness, right?

Right.

And and scripture actually speaks to that.

Like in many ways, in Corinthians, Paul talks about how, you know, the wisdom of God is, you know, the w the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, that kind of stuff.

And so um I do think sometimes that people who and I would even say just value intelligence.

Because I mean, like, I mean, if we're sitting in a room with a bunch of like if C.S.

Lewis was sitting here, he's smarter than both of us and needs to be smarter than any of the professors that I ever had that tried to like they're not C.

S, you're not a literary genius.

And those people have no problem with faith and belief, right?

But um I think people who value intelligence and maybe overvalue their intelligence, um, the thing they're most afraid of is something that seems uh unintellectual.

But God's been really clear that He's chosen to come to us in simple terms that puts the the wisdom of the world to shame.

And so yeah, I think I do think if someone not if they're smart, maybe you can overthink things if you're smart, but I do think too that sometimes people who value intelligence, they they have a built-in desire to need to feel smarter and you know, there is a limit to human intellect.

Yeah, you also see like the, you know, I'm not a super political person, but you do see this like intellect or politically successful, and what we have here is a smart governor.

It's like, hey, there's a smart governor like being drawn into some evil stuff.

And so it's like this moment of like, hey, I'm gonna stand in between, deal with this evil dude.

And then it says that he recognized that because of what happened right in front of him, yeah, like what Paul and Barnabas were teaching is true.

I'm glad you mentioned that too, because I do think there's a connection between intelligence and curiosity.

I think a lot of times very intellectual people are very curious.

They like to ask questions.

They like to question.

They're open.

They're open.

It's like an openness.

Correct.

Yeah.

And so they're open to all kinds of perspective.

They read, I've read this person, I've read this, I've read that.

And openness as a being open-minded is a can be, I think, a very net positive.

Provided you're not open to provided you're discerning.

Yeah, you're not so open minded that your brain falls out.

Right.

If I go, if I go home today and I open all of my doors, that is really great, provided the a lot of bad things don't come in the doors.

And so there's a a discernment there.

I mean, there's it's it's like being right minded and open minded aren't always the same thing.

You know what I mean?

So, you know, there could Be that this man is intelligent.

He's highly curious.

That's why Bar Jesus is there, because he's like, oh, that's interesting.

Yeah, keep him around.

And then these other guys come out.

Hey, they're interesting.

Yeah, exactly.

It's a curiosity thing.

All right, let's move on.

Let's move on.

Verse 13.

Paul and his companions then left Paphos by ship for Pamphylia, landing at the port town of Perga.

There, John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem, but Paul and Barnabas traveled inland to Antioch of Pisidia on the Sabbath when they went to the synagogue, they went to the synagogue for the services.

After the usual readings from the books of Moses and the prophets, those in charge of the service sent them this message.

Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, come and give it.

So Paul stood, lifted his hand to quiet them, and started speaking.

Men of Israel, he said, and to you, God-fearing Gentiles, listen to me.

The God of this nation of Israel chose our ancestors and made them multiply and grow strong during their stay in Egypt.

And then with a powerful arm he led them out of their slavery.

He put up with them through forty years of wandering in the wilderness, then he destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave their land to Israel as an inheritance.

All this took about 450 years.

After that, God gave them judges to rule until the time of Samuel the prophet.

And then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years.

But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart.

He will do everything I want him to do.

And it was one of King David's descendants, Jesus, who is God's promised savior of Israel.

Before he came, John the Baptist preached that all the people of Israel needed to repent of their sins and turn to God and be baptized.

As John was finishing his ministry, he asked, Do you think I'm the Messiah?

No, I'm not.

But he is coming soon, and I'm not even worthy to be his slave or to untie the sandals on his feet.

Brothers, you sons of Abraham, and also you God-fearing Gentiles, this message of salvation has been sent to us.

The people in Jerusalem and their leaders did not recognize Jesus as the one the prophets had spoken about.

Instead, they condemned him.

And in doing this, they fulfilled the prophet's words that are read every Sabbath.

They found no legal reason to execute him, but they asked Pilate to have him killed anyway.

And when they had done all that the prophecy said about him, they took him down from the cross and placed him in a tomb.

But God raised him from the dead, and over a period of many days he appeared to those whom had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem.

They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel.

And now we are here to bring you this good news.

The promise was made to our ancestors, and God has now fulfilled it to us and their descendants by raising Jesus.

This is what the second Psalm says about Jesus.

You are my son, today I've become your father.

For God had promised to raise him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in a grave, he said, I will give you the sacred belong uh blessings that I promised to David.

Another psalm explains it more fully.

No, it was a reference to someone else, someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay.

Brothers, listen, we are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness of your sins.

Everyone who believes in him is made right in God's sight, something the law of Moses can never do.

Be careful, do not let the prophet's words apply to you, for they said, Look, you mockers, be amazed and die, for I'm doing something something in your own day, something you wouldn't believe, even if someone had told you about it.

And Paul and Barnabas left the synagogue that day.

As Paul and Barnabas left the synagogue that day, the people begged them to speak about these things again the next week.

Many Jews and devout converts to Judaism follow Paul and Barnabas, and the two men urge them to continue to rely on the grace of God.

All right, there we go.

There we go.

That's a lot.

We'll finish the last section in a second.

It is a lot.

It's a good message.

It is a message.

And that's what I I think I love about acts.

And it's kind of a weird thing to include in the like historical document situation.

Is there are these highlighted like here's everything that Paul said to this group of people in this little town.

Um back in the day we had the message CDs.

Yeah.

Like, and some of those became more important.

There was a guy that would run from I was the guy.

You the runner?

I was the runner, yeah.

You ran for a season, I was like, soundbooth, get it to the people, make the copies.

Yeah.

So uh uh Sunday morning used to have a final song to end.

And so the the recording would end at the, you know, there'd be the the message ends, and then someone during that final song would run to the back room.

Like the ancient messengers of old, except, you know, way less of a run.

Here's what was said, I had to go 100 yards.

And it was one of those disc drives that had a top burner disc, and then all of the other copy discs would copy and it would take a few minutes, and then it would all open up, except if it was still closed, it wasn't, it hadn't worked.

And so, anyways, we we would do that where it's like here's the recordings for the message so that people could take it home and share it, or just hear it again if it meant a lot to them that particular morning.

Um, but over the years, you know, some of those became more iconic and are even like referenced in other messages later moving forward.

So that tree of life message that is kind of a foundational teaching for our church appears in other messages in part, you know, like we kind of return to that that we're going through Jesus, not religion right now.

We did party on Sunday.

Those uh kind of core things become a thing, but then you can go back to the source and say this is the original one, this is the Sunday that it happened.

And so I say all that to say is like in Acts, I feel like we're getting a repeat of a repeat of a repeat where it's like Yeah, because there's this is pretty close to Stephen's message.

Exactly.

It's pretty close to what Peter says, you know, at the day of Pentecost.

Right.

They all go back to hey, this is the fulfillment of everything you were ever taught.

Exactly.

You know what I mean?

And here's like the recap of our of our story as a people.

Here's what happened in the past recent days, here's what happened with Jesus.

You guys remember John the Baptist, all this stuff, and here's what you do with it now.

And it becomes this kind of repeated message.

So, anyways, I just like the idea of the message.

No, I it is cool that they record this.

It's also cool because um I don't know, I I it's important to remember that our story is the extend it's the extension of a much longer story.

And they were very aware of that.

These were people that their history was precious to them.

I mean, our history as Americans is it's precious to us, but also not as it's it's newer.

I mean, we're at our, you know, we're a couple hundred years in as a nation, and you know, they're they were a couple millennia, it's a little different.

And so their heritage meant so much to them, and and the belief too that that God was finishing something or bringing to not finishing, maybe bringing to fulfillment something that had long ago been promised.

Right.

Um, and they're also they have to establish at these new places, we believe what you believe.

Right.

You know, hey, we're here's the common ground.

Yes, here's the common ground, we believe what you believe, and and then, you know, hey, here's some things.

And so it's not a boring historical retread of like, yeah, well, okay, we've heard I I know what Jews believe.

It's like not this.

It's like, oh, you've been trained to anticipate the what happens next moment, and we're living in the world that it is next.

Uh, one little uh detail from that message, particularly, I like verse 18.

It says about 40 years he put up with them in the wilderness.

Yeah, yeah, I like that too.

He put up with them.

Yeah, he tolerated them.

Yeah.

Actually, you know, it's interesting, some manuscripts read he cared for them.

That's a very different sound feels different.

But if the uh New Living changed that to he put up with them, there must be some caveat to the language there.

So all right.

Let's go, let's finish it off.

Let's finish it.

The following week, almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the word of the Lord, but when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous.

This feels like a repeat story.

So they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said.

Uh-uh.

Whatever he said.

No, no, it's not.

You're dumb.

Your mom went to college.

Is that from Napoleon.

That's one of my that's a great line.

I wish it would be great if they actually said that.

Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews, but since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, ooh, we will offer it to the Gentiles.

For the Lord gave us this command when he said, I have made you a light to the Gentiles to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.

When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for this message.

And all who were chosen for eternal life became believers.

So the Lord's message spread throughout that region, and then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town.

So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium, and the believers will fill were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

So it's a lot since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life.

It's like I think from the very beginning of the Bible, there's this idea of like, this is offered to you, you know, the Deuteronomy, choose life that you might live.

Choose life that you might live.

Yeah, my yeah.

Life and death are offered.

And so God's never gonna force the people, but in this moment, it's like, so we're just gonna go where people are willing to accept this and willing to, you know, like we can't be held up here, yeah.

Yeah, the shaking the dust thing, I mean, that's that's biblical and that's something Jesus don't force them to shake the dust and it's gonna be a waste of time and move on.

And it's unloving to force someone to love you.

Yeah.

Yeah, you let people make decisions.

It's um yeah, it's tough because we're a church that's like planted in a place.

Like we're here.

So if you live here, walk through our doors, and we're for you, we really are.

Um we can shake the dust from our feet, but then we're like, we're right, we'll be here Sunday.

Like I was saying, we're planted in one place.

They're traveling, and yeah.

Um what could have been?

What could have been.

So there we go.

Now they're off to the the next place.

To Iconium.

Yep.

Which is an iconic place.

Uh see what I because of icons.

I'm sure that there's idol worship.

Yep, and we'll get there.

I'm sure.

There we go.

Um, cool.

So this is uh, you know, we had the the magician and then the message.

There we go.

The magician and the message.

The magician and the message.

That's how you know it's the whole story.

Oh, this is so good.

The magician if there's alliteration, it's from God.

The magician, the message.

We'll go line the witch in the wardrobe from a magician, the message.

Message and the mob.

Oh, dude, Zach, that is gold.

That's what we're gonna call.

The magician, the message, and the mob.

But we'll see you guys next time.

Bye.