Acts 13-15

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0:00 For us to this morning though, I want to look at this section in Acts from one of Paul's first missionary journeys in Acts chapter 13. If you want to look there with me, that would be cool. I got to this because I was thinking that for the next several weeks, kind of as long as it takes us through the summer, we would look at Paul's letter to the church in Galatia and when I was starting to look at Galatians, there's some debate about who Paul's writing

0:37 this letter to. He says at the beginning of his letter to the churches in Galatia, so you know, like when he writes the letters to the Corinthians, that's to the people in the town of Corinth, right? The same with Philippians and Thessalonians. Galatia is not a town, it's a region in Asia Minor, kind of in the Turkey, larger Turkey area. And so there were a lot of towns in Galatia and there's some debate about who Paul's

1:12 writing which region, which churches in Galatia specifically he's writing to. And most scholars divide Galatia into a northern and a southern region and there's some conversation with there pretty sure Paul made a journey up in the north Galatia that's not recorded in Acts. And some people think he wrote the letter to that section. And then other people think he wrote it to the churches in the southern region of Galatia

1:43 which there is a missionary journey recorded to the southern regions of Galatia, that's in Acts chapter 13 through 15. I don't guess I don't really have an opinion, I don't know enough to know which is right. But depending on whether he wrote it to the north or the south, if he wrote it to north Galatia he wrote it earlier, somewhere between 45 and 50 AD which is super early. That would be like one of the first things, the first things written in the New Testament.

2:17 He wrote it to the southern region of Galatia. He probably made that trip to southern Galatia during that time period so he would have had to write it after, like maybe 50 to 58 somewhere in there. So most scholars think that the letter to Galatia to the Galatians was written somewhere in that 10 year period between 45 and 55 AD which still puts it really early. If you think about it, Jesus is born maybe for AD so he is crucified, resurrected and

2:54 ascended maybe 37, 33 AD, something like that. And so then you have Paul of course doesn't see Jesus in his resurrected body pre-essension, he sees him after when the movement has started to grow a little bit but pretty quickly. So somewhere there between the second half of the 30s Paul comes to faith and he has the period in the Antioch where he learns it for like three years.

3:24 So this letter to Galatia is like early. And how cool, when the church gets together in Nicaea in the 300s they do it because the Roman Emperor has converted to Christianity and he wants to make the way of Jesus an official option for people in Rome. And so he's like you bishops got to get together and agree on a book and a statement of faith in order that we can codify and go now either you're Christian or you're not, you're following

3:58 the faith or you're not. And so all the different bishops from the known world come together in Nicaea and they agree on the books for the New Testament. They already had the Old Testament books but they're agreeing on the books for the New Testament and when they do they go who they all bring the books that they're using right? Because Paul wrote one letter to the church in Galatia but then there's several churches in Galatia. So whether it goes to Iconium first or Lystra or Antioch, wherever the letter goes first

4:32 they send it to the next church but they're no dummies they make a copy before they send it to the next church. And it keeps happening so that by the time we get to the council of Nicaea in 300 there are copies of all these letters in these different hubs. Corinth not only has the letters that Paul wrote to Corinth but they also have the letters that he wrote to Galatia and they probably also have the letter that his student wrote to the Hebrews spread throughout the Roman Empire. So by 300 all the bishops get together and they're like okay Rome wants us to decide

5:07 on which are the New Testament books and so they vote which ones do we all have and they have like an agreement, an order to understand which books will we say and agree on are part of the New Testament. One of the things was like if they know it was written by one of the apostles then it's in. If they can determine for sure it was written by one of the people capital A apostles, people sent by Jesus and then they look at do we all have it and does it produce faith?

5:41 Is it working? Is it producing faith as it's read and spread throughout the scriptures? And there are some that they all agree on. They call these the homologuumina. Fun word. And then there's some that they don't all agree on that there's a dispute on. It's funny the heterologuumina they call them are in the second half of the intestines like Hebrews they didn't all agree on because they couldn't determine for sure who wrote it. Jude they didn't all agree on.

6:13 Revelation they didn't all agree on because not everybody knows what the heck John's talking about in Revelation. Galatians though this book is always in everybody's like yeah we all got that one and it is good make sure it gets in there. And so what I want to do to get us started as we think about this letter of I actually am going to get a couple of copies I'll have them next week of this little study by NT right look how little it is super easy by NT right on the book of Galatians and have

6:46 them here in case you want to like take yourself through a Galatian study this summer. We may print some pages and have them available for you on Sundays but I'll have copies of this next week for us if you guys want one. But before we get into that I wanted to look at this missionary journey in Acts chapter 13 14 and 15 that Paul makes that we think are the churches maybe that he sent the letter of Galatians to. So starting in Acts chapter 13.

7:19 We're going to skim through to kind of get the lay of the land and then we're going to come back to a little section here in it. So in Acts chapter 13 it says now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers. You know Antioch if you're like looking at sorry at Jerusalem right here the Mediterranean right here I have to turn around so I can we can all be in the same spot on the map.

7:49 So I have to do it backwards and meditating here Jerusalem here Dead Sea down here Antioch is up here and then it goes over around the Mediterranean and up here in Antioch remember Damascus is like right here and Paul had been in Jerusalem persecuting the Christians and then followed the was on the road to Damascus where he Jesus meets him on the road then he stays in Damascus for a while but then he actually goes up to Antioch. Antioch was like an early hub for people following the way of Jesus the kind of mission was

8:22 the first place where they started calling people Christians little Christ people following the way of Christ was a sending place it was a little bit safer Jerusalem became a problem really quickly you remember we can read at the beginning of Acts they get persecuted right away they get run into jail right away because there's such a locus of authority and custom and order in Jerusalem it's a little bit easier for them to congregate in Antioch. And so in by Acts chapter 13 there's a group of believers in Antioch that they take the

8:54 time to name and remember if they're naming people in the story of scripture they become something in the church down the road and so when the people are reading this and they read who's at the church in Antioch they would recognize the names. Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers Barnabas, Simeon who was called Nigel, Lucius of Cyrene, man in a member of the court of Herod the Tetra and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting the Holy Spirit said set apart for me Barnabas

9:27 and Saul for the work to which I have called them and then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off and so being sent out by the Holy Spirit they went down to the sousia. Okay the next thing to remember here that I think is really interesting one I've said it before but you know God has goes through all this work of incarnating in the person of Jesus. We can't imagine what it takes to accomplish the incarnation but a lot right to bind the unbounded infinite God in flesh in the person in the womb and then go through birth then

10:03 go through the whole life death resurrection and then not stay as fascinating to me right and we talked about Pentecost one of the reasons maybe that Jesus gives that he doesn't stay that he ascends is he wants to send the Spirit but here's what I'm getting to it's so interesting he's dispatched the Spirit and yet the way that people come to faith in the story of Scripture is someone has to walk to them and announce to them the good news and when they announce the good news the Spirit of God comes and enliven some people into faith.

10:37 It's so mechanical it's so interesting somehow that that God has released the original primordial Spirit of life and health and vitality and yet binds it to the capital W word of God that gets spoken and so these people are gathered in Antioch and they've got to send Paul and Silas out go walk there and tell people I don't know why God did it that way there's

11:07 a lot of things that happened because he did it that way but I don't know why he did it that way it would be really interesting to ask why bother with sending these people on feet to walk around places. The other thing I wanted to point out is that they mentioned several names here of people who sound really cool prophets and teachers Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius of Cyrene, Mannin the member of the court of Hair of the Tetrak sounds like a powerful guy and Saul but the

11:39 Scriptures are almost only full of the people who get sent which is not the majority of people. Paul is a really cool guy but pretty unique among the people meaning the call on Paul's life isn't really the call on most of ours or even most of the people in the Scriptures

12:10 they're all there hanging out in Antioch and God's like I set aside Paul and Silas to go do a thing would you send them out so I'm saying like sometimes we read or people read the missionary journeys of Paul and go we should all be out there walking around announcing the gospel and I want to say no man but not even everybody at Antioch was supposed to be doing that.

12:43 The guy what's his name Mannin a member of the house of Hair of the Tetrak was not sent it was like send to Paul and Silas they're the ones you just keep being a member of the court of Hair of the Tetrak do your thing. Paul even says that in one of his places it doesn't get quoted a lot but he's like look whatever your station in life is just stay there until Jesus comes back don't think you've got to quit everything leave everything and go start walking around Asia Minor we don't

13:15 need everybody walking around Asia Minor Paul and Silas are walking around Asia Minor everybody else do the work God has given you to do in the places where you are. So we read about Paul and Silas and their missionary journey because as they did as they walked around for heaven's sake they announced the capital W word of God which less than left this wake of faith behind them right. Paul and Silas take a boat we're going to see it to Cyprus they walk to Lyconium and

13:48 every time they go to the church and they announce people and crazy things happen people get pissed and people love them very few people are neutral but as Paul and Silas walk around and announce the capital W word of God lots of things happen that's why we read about them because they're announcing the word and you and I need the word but we do not need to be Paul and Silas and if someone tells you that the most faithful thing you can do is leave whatever you have and go and walk around listen with a grain of salt all

14:22 of a sudden say they may be right maybe I remember I remember there's one like famous phrase of Paul where he's like complaining that that God leaves this aching problem he calls like a thorn in his side that he's asked God to take away several times you know and he won't take away he leaves it there so that he could stay humble. I remember in college I'm praying about one particular sin or another and I'm talking

14:56 to my pastor and I'm like maybe it's just the thing that God leaves you know and maybe it's just my thorn in the side and he's like he kind of chuckles at me he's like Ben he's like God had to leave a thorn in the side of Paul because he had to keep Paul humble like Paul's walking around starting the church he's surviving stonings and being bitten by snakes he's like you're no Paul.

15:27 He's like I bet God could take care of your sin or you could just let it go buddy. I thought that was funny. So you're no Paul either we don't have to go on these missionary journeys I just wanted to point that out like that's not the standard here. Okay probably spent longer on that than we needed to. So then they go to Cyprus so being sent out by the Holy Spirit they went to Slucya and from there they sailed to Cyprus and when they arrived at Salamus they proclaimed the

16:02 word of God in the synagogues to the Jews and they had John there to assist him not John the disciple but John Mark who were pretty sure wrote the gospel of Mark. And when they had gone through the whole island as far as pathos they came upon a magician then they confront someone who's not applying the spirit correctly and is trying to so part of the wisdom or the benefit of having Paul and Silas walk around as they could correct

16:35 misunderstandings or misapplications of the teachings of Jesus. If you skip down to verse 13 and now Paul and his companions set sail from pathos and came to Perga and Pamphylia and there John left them and returned back to Jerusalem but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch and Pecidia and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down we're going to come back to this but this was the pattern for Paul they would go into a new town and go into the synagogue and then preach and

17:10 I've mentioned before that we don't have very many of Paul's first sermons this is pretty close to a first sermon in a town so we're going to come back and look at that in just a minute but I want to go past it and go to verse. I mean what happens there is they end up kind of getting run out of town because some of the Jewish people get frustrated at the way that Paul is preaching and it gets difficult

17:41 for him there so he stays for a while but then go to chapter 14 they go to a new place Iconium now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke just like they did in Pampfirga there in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers so they remained for a long time speaking boldly for the Lord.

18:13 Of course like the Jews don't think they're poisoning the mind of the Gentiles they think they're keeping the church pure right like what's important to recognize here is they're going into these synagogues right and they're outside of Israel they're not even close to Israel they've sailed into the Mediterranean side but then they've sailed back over to Pampfirga now they've walked to Iconium they left from Antioch Strait, sailed to Cyprus then sailed to another then they're going to walk all the way back around and come back

18:44 to Jerusalem and they're stopping and preaching they're not anywhere near but remember Israel hasn't been Israel for a long time all the way back in the Old Testament 10 of the 12 tribes were dispersed remember that's how they would conquer they'd conquer a land and then take them all and send them out and make them intermarry with all the other nations so that's why we have the phrase the 10 lost tribes of Israel and then of course there's these two that are left that come back and they it's really one and a half Benjamin and Judah but when they

19:16 come back they're called Jews for the first time a shortened version of Judah so but what I'm trying to say is there's been an Israelite diaspora since like the middle of the Old Testament and as they kind of try and persist in the Israelite faith they form these little synagogues you have to have a minimum of a certain number of heads of the family they come together and then they they read the words of the scripture but what's happened in Iconium and Lystra and Firga and

19:47 Pamphylia all these places is as they read these ancient texts and as the people gather on a regular basis folk who are not Israelite are attracted to the way of God and so in when you read the story of Paul he goes into a synagogue and he always says the Israelites and those who fear God there's even a synagogue what we call like Freeman people who were were not Israelite and so there are all these non Israelites who are coming to synagogue to hear what's happening and they're

20:20 these mix of people already but they're not converting to Judaism they just like listening to the way right and so Paul is like then these Jews are coming and when Paul preaches some of them like it but some of them are like this is a change don't let him change it don't let him water it down or corrupt it don't let him do it and so then he goes he he ends up he stays there for a little

20:52 bit then he goes to Lystra and by the time he gets to Lystra he preaches again the same thing happens okay now what happens when he gets to Lystra look at verse 19 but Jews from Antioch and Iconium having persuaded the crowds they okay so when he goes to Lystra the third town Jews from Antioch and Iconium are following Paul into the town now he's walking through Asia Minor they they come with him not with him but they follow behind him so that when he gets to the

21:28 synagogue he's got some jokers from two towns over and now there's two sets of them they they brought some people with Iconium and now they're in Lystra and they're ready and so these guys convince the church in Lystra to stone Paul look but the Jews came to Antioch and came from Antioch and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned Paul and dragged

21:59 him out of the city supposing that he was dead I don't know how often they stone people but it wasn't never you know and they had a way to do it this one because he wasn't pushed off a cliff either they would push him off a cliff and they would fall down then they couldn't get up and run away because either they got knocked out or they broke something and then they'd come and start with the heaviest rocks they could get and drop them on the head and chest first and try

22:32 and kill them that way now this one they didn't do that because they dragged him out of town so they probably started throwing stuff at him until he couldn't run away they hit him enough times in the head or to where he's kind of knocked out then they dropped big stones on the chest and the head trying to kill him right it's brutal I mean it's brutal and they dragged him out of town and they figured that he's dead and like I said I don't know how many times they've stone people but it's

23:03 not none and so the reason I tell you that is he was pretty close to dead if they thought they don't make that mistake that often I'm saying and so he was pretty close to dead and they did it thinking they were protecting the church right but when the disciples gathered around him he rose up and entered the city and on the next day he went with Barnabas to Derp he left town next day

23:37 they left him for dead he came back in to recuperate for the night and then left town with his buddy Barnabas who's called the son of encouragement and then and then when they had preached the gospel to that city in Derp and had made many disciples by then the guys from Antioch and Iconium had gone home because they thought they took care of their business so he gets to Derp and it preaches without their disruption and many believe and then strengthening the souls and disciples oh no

24:09 you Derp and preaching that city made many disciples and then they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They stone him drag him out leave him for dead he gets up goes back to recuperate goes to the next town preaches many disciples then goes back to the town where all the ones were who stoned him just on a little tour hey guys and preaches again the reason to go through that whole thing is one it's a crazy story too

24:43 man Paul is not doing this because he must I mean saying it's not as though he's being forced to do this or it's like something just for fun he had a fine situation if he's doing this for power and prestige it's not working I'm saying they're stoning him he's walking around Asia Minor with whoever will come with him

25:20 there are meant there are much better ways for Paul to spend his life than what he's doing one reasonable explanation for why Paul does this over and over again why his story endures why in 300 they still have letters of what this guy wrote that they've kept and made copies and passed around is because the gospel that he's announcing the word that he's sharing does something in people consistently over and over again let's look at it just real quick I know

25:55 we're going long we're going back to Acts chapter 13 verse 16 so Paul stood up and motioned with his hand he said men of Israel you who fear God listen oh men of Israel and you who fear God that's the that's the bifurcation I was talking about the Israelites and the non Israelites who they they quote fear God the God of this people Israel

26:26 chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt and with a lifted arm he led them out of Egypt and for about 40 years he put them up he runs through kind of the history of what God did and then gets to David and then verse 25 and John was finishing the core his course he said what do you suppose I am so he talks about John the Baptist then verse 26 brothers some of the family of Abraham brothers oh brothers sons of the family of Abraham and

27:05 those among you who fear God he sets the base again and the base is this sons of Abraham when he says that then there's a recognition that they know that there is a God it's not them and that their God has chosen them to live a certain way and those who fear God the base there there is a God it's not them and he is to be

27:38 feared because he's the one who calls the shots he's the one who sets the order by which life works and doesn't work who sets the bounds for life and death who determines the ways in which we ought to live Paul has set the bounds and said those sons of Abraham and the ones of us who fear God and then he goes on to say having set the base what God did he talks about the person of Jesus

28:10 for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers because they did not recognize oh wait he sent them okay verse 28 and though they found him in him no guilt worthy of death they asked Pilate to have him executed and when they carried out all that was written of him they took him down from the tree and laid him in the tomb but God raised him from the dead and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are now witnesses to the people

28:44 and we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers this he has fulfilled to their children by raising Jesus as it also is written in the second Psalm you are my son today I've begotten you and as for the fact that he raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption he has spoken in this way I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David therefore he also said in another Psalm yes will not your holy one see corruption for David after he had

29:20 served the purpose of God in his own generation fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption but he whom God raised up did not see corruption verse 38 let this be known to you therefore brothers that though this man 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 by the law of Moses that's the heart of the gospel that Paul preaches the first time when he goes into a

29:58 place there is a God it's not you the God is in charge and has set the parameters for life and death and in the person of Jesus has accomplished a way to let you live though you fail all the time to let you live fully within his parameters in a way that endures forever that breaks the bounds of life

30:30 and death Paul over and over again though they stone him though he shipwrecks though he's got to walk everywhere though he's got friends who stick with him and friends who leave him Paul goes and he writes letters back over and over again because people in Galatia heard the message that God has freed us from everything and then they go what does that mean how might we live and Paul spends his time explaining how to live with the reality that God has freed you from everything

31:11 I guess what I wanted you guys to hear this morning it's like the message of God is old and relevant still that there is a God who has freed you from everything in the person of Jesus so you're to the degree that you recognize limitations or failures you have been set free

31:49 that animated the church in Galatia and it animates me and I pray that it animates you let me pray that way now hey Lord thank you for this room of people would you give them faith to receive your good work on their behalf that we might live free from the tyranny of shortfalls and the bondage of our failures might you set us free to live with you now and forever in Jesus

32:29 name we pray you know