The following program, Sharing Your Faith, has been pre-recorded. But Agabus, now he would be a New Testament. Now it's interesting, it says he showed by the Spirit. How did he do that? I don't know. But in some way, he sort of carried on that tradition of acting out a prophecy. Now we know in Acts 21, it said he took Paul's belt and bound himself and said, the owner of this belt will be bound in Jerusalem. So he acted out in some sort of theatric his prophecy. Now that isn't as radical as what the Old Testament guys did, but nevertheless, that was part of his role. Hi there, and welcome to Sharing Your Faith with Larry Dubois. Larry is an evangelist who's been sharing his faith in Jesus for over 30 years. As a street preacher, he has traveled the entire continental United States preaching the gospel in over 200 cities. Taking from his experience in the Word of God, Larry hopes to encourage you in sharing your faith. And now, here's your host, Larry Dubois. And before we do that, I just want to review chapter 10, because I was studying for this chapter. And basically, chapter 11. is Peter, part of the chapter anyway, most of it maybe, is Peter's recount of what took place in chapter 10. So in Acts 11, he recounts what happened in chapter 10. Well, one of the things we had talked about last week in chapter 10 at the end of the discussion was because last few verses there had had It had Peter, after he shared the gospel, it said the Holy Spirit fell on the group and they spoke in tongues. Then Peter says, well, since they received the Holy Spirit like we did, we should get them baptized. And so then they baptized them and basically that was the end of the chapter. So at the end of last week, we discussed a little bit on When someone gets saved, what is the evidence? What would you say if nowadays, say for example, if you led someone to the Lord or something along those lines, would you look for anything immediately to happen to them? Just throw that out there as a question. For me, in my case, it was a hunger for the Word, man. When I got saved, I could not put my Bible down. I was just reading and reading and reading. Great, that's good. I mean, I was just talking about that with a friend of mine, because my sister, it was actually the opposite. She had raised her hand in an altar call type situation, came forward, all that, prayed the prayer, never had any kind of hunger for the Word. In fact, she was like, she handed me a Bible one time and goes, get this out of here. Convicted or something. Okay, well, where I'm going with this. and I don't want to spend a lot of time because we want to do chapter 11, is I thought of it that we just discuss that. We look for the evidence, if you want to look for that, is that it's something that's long-term. It's the evidence of a changed life, right? If we're truly saved and born again, we're going to change, and it's not going to happen overnight in most cases. The other thing we might look for is somebody would have some sort of confession or profession, a verbal profession, and generally speaking, people that are unbelievers, they don't go around saying, hey, I love Jesus. But I was looking back in Acts chapter 8, and in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, when he was going to get baptized, Philip said to him, you can if you believe with all your heart. And so he said, I believe that Jesus is the son of God. So it was a very short, but to the point, he had that confession. And based on that, Philip baptized him. and then they parted ways. When I was looking at, the reason this came up is because there are certain groups out there that believe that you must speak in tongues or you must do certain things in order to be saved. Or that's an evidence of being saved. What I came to, and this is just my opinion, of course, Peter, he was bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. And for the most part, the Jews, that was foreign to them. That was very foreign to them. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that in 11. It was very foreign to them and very significant. And so they would need some sort of immediate manifestation to settle it so that they'd say, okay, these people are saved. And in that case, it was speaking in tongues. We have a situation in Acts 19, Paul runs across some of the Baptist disciples and he said, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you were saved? And they said, we have not heard of anything such as the Holy Spirit. dialogue and then finally they get baptized and after that it said they spoke in tongues and prophesied. But I think in Peter's case there that did need some sort of something to verify they got saved just because of the importance of all of that. And that could be why. I don't know of anyone that I can think of, and not like I've led a ton of people to the Lord by any means, But I don't remember anybody speaking in tongues right after. Not to say they couldn't. I'm just saying it's not the norm. Usually the norm is, to be honest with you, nothing happens really immediately. People have different experiences. They might feel something. They might have emotion. They might cry. They might jump for joy. You can't really go by that, because everybody has a different experience. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw that out as a... Anyway, if you guys want to add anything, comment or something, we can go to Chapter 11. Okay, Dan, why don't you read 1 through 3. Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the Word of God. And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them? In the Old Testament, the Jews were confined under the law, which included not just the Ten Commandments, but the ceremonial laws, the dietary laws. In fact, you remember with Jesus' encounter with the Pharisees, he was making a divide between what was church tradition and what was really what God said to do. And the Pharisees were way off in left field. And they did a bunch of things that were extra. The Jewish people thought that if you went into a house of a Gentile, a non-Jew, that would defile you. You would be unclean. And then if that happened, if some weird reason you accidentally did that or you had to for some reason, there would be some probable ceremony that gets you clean again. Their case, they were saying, why'd you even go down there? I mean, you went in there, what's up with that? And so they were very concerned and they challenged him on this. Okay, so Peter is... recounting his experience he had in chapter 10 as God had set up what we would probably call a divine appointment that involved Cornelius initially visited by an angel. He enlists some of his household and soldiers to go, as instructed by the angel, to Simon the Tanner's house in the city of Jaffa where Peter was staying and summoned Peter to come back to Caesarea. And so that's what they did. Before Peter met these guys, he was waiting to eat. He got drowsy, I guess. He went into a vision. And this is what the vision was. And of course, the purpose was to convince him. Ultimately, he saw a leader. God was talking about people. He was using this as a way to say, hey, it's OK to eat this food now that before was forbidden. And likewise, although you think that Gentiles are forbidden to have communion with you or to be in the same faith as you, I'm going to, obviously I'm doing that. It's, you know, it's something I'm doing here. And so that was what he experienced. And he's reiterating this to these guys that were probably like getting scrutinizing. In 14, that was a verse I read last week because there's information here that we didn't have in chapter 10. And it says, who will tell you by words, but which you and all your household will be saved. So specifically, the angel apparently told Cornelius that when you go to get Peter, he's going to tell you how to get saved. In chapter 10, it doesn't say that specifically. It just says he has words to speak to you. And so he was at, you know, a little bit of a mystery there of what he was expecting. But Peter continues with his accounting of what took place. And it says in verse 12 in chapter 10, it just says some guys went with him. But here it tells us it was six. There were six other men. Now according to Jewish law, all you needed for a witness to put to death is you had to have two. You couldn't put anybody to death on one, but you had to have two and three was better. And that was kind of a theme, that everything be established by two and three witnesses. Well, here they got six other guys besides Peter going along to witness all of this. And they could verify everything Peter told them. So that was a great defense right there. He also had the defense that he saw this vision. I guess Peter being the leader in the church, that and it just like not only the vision, but later he says the Holy Spirit had said to him, go with these guys. I doubt nothing. I sent them. So if Peter were here or we were there and he said the Holy Spirit told me, well, we're not going to probably doubt it right now. I don't know about you, but over the years as a Christian, I've had a lot of people tell me that God told them something. When we say the Holy Spirit told us something, then we tend to give the impression that it's infallible, that it's inerrant. And if we were disagreeing about something or it could be any kind of conversation and you says to me, well, the Holy Spirit said this. I mean, what even recourse would I have? Because I mean, I could challenge if the Holy Spirit spoke to you, but if in fact it was the Holy Spirit, then all the argument's over because that's the perfect word of God. So I think we need to be careful now that when we tell people whatever we think God is speaking to us, that just maybe be a little cautious in how we word it and put it up. But in Peter's case, he definitely had it. There would be no reason to doubt him. So going back to that for a minute, hold on just a second. So Peter, his defense, I kind of broke it down. He had the vision and then he had the Holy Spirit who told him to go. He had the angel who was in on it from Cornelius' end. That was another verification that this whole thing was from God. And then, of course, you have the six brethren that went and witnessed it. And then you also have the fact that the proof in the pudding. All those guys were converted. It was established that this whole thing was from God and he had to make a great case to convince them because of the Jews are very zealous people. You got other situations in the scriptures where There are Old Testament passages that talk about the Gentiles having partaking of the Jewish faith. Romans spells it out. We're grafted in. I'll just name a couple. Acts 13 and Paul's preaching. He says to reject this. We're going to go that the other blood be on your own head. We're going to go to the Gentiles. And then they quote this verse that's found in Isaiah 49, which is basically God has sent us to the end of the earth to the Gentiles. Another one is in Acts 15, before a council, a similar situation. They're trying to prove this situation out. And it was James who brings up a passage in Amos 9 that talks about the Gentiles being a part of this new covenant, the new covenant, the new kingdom, all that sort of thing. And so there was the scriptures, but they were they just didn't see it. Their prejudices really blinded them. And quite frankly, maybe some of those passages until they were fulfilled. They were a little obscure. I mean, it didn't just it wasn't such an ironclad thing. It kind of had it had to be interpreted by by the apostles. They're pointing and saying this is what that passage meant is that is being fulfilled by the Gentiles, you know, receiving. But anyway, so that was his defense. And we're going to see that it worked out. And there was a lot of that going on in the early church. There was a lot of angelic appearances. There was a lot of visions. There was a lot of supernatural miracles and events. The Holy Spirit was speaking to people, at least these missionaries, these apostles and that, quite a bit. In Acts 13, you will see again where the Holy Spirit says to them, separate to me Barnabas and solve for the work I have for them. Now again, the question is, was it an audible voice? I don't know. It's just like when we seek the Lord on where to move, what job to take, all these life questions. To be honest with you, I felt like in my Christian walk over the years, God has given me direction, kind of like speaking to me, if you will. But most of the time, if I'm looking for direction, it's mostly been by circumstances. Open doors and closed doors. Back in chapter 10, I believe that's when they were regenerated. I hate to minimize it or I hate to be wrong in this, but for example, Cornelius, it says of him, he was God-fearing. An angel said, you know, your prayers and alms have been acceptable before God. So by the time that Peter just spoke the word. I mean, they were primed. I mean, if you want to talk about fruit hanging from a tree, like I'm from Washington. When you go to pick an apple, if it's ready to be picked, you put your hand to it and it just like it just kind of comes right off right into your hand in one motion. In fact, if you wait too long before, they'll fall on their own. But if you've got to sit there and reef on it, you know, I can see a cartoon, you've got both feet up on the branches, and you're just trying to pull that thing off there. It's not ripe to be picked. And if we use that analogy to talk about people ripe for the harvest, in Peter's experience there with Cornelius and their household, they were very ripe. And so, of course, when they spoke it, you could say it was a technicality. They had to receive Christ. They had to hear the gospel. So they almost immediately received it. And this is something we discussed last week. If someone is in a faraway country that claims that they worship the true God, the proof in the pudding is when they hear about Christ, they will accept Him. They won't reject Him. That's very clear in the book of John, 1 John, where it says, he who has a son has a father. Also, he who rejects the son does not have a father either. And there's all kinds of language regarding that. It's a package. And so if you have someone claiming to worship the true God, but they reject Christ, there's something wrong. The equation won't work. It's like the math equation. Okay, so Greg, I guess you're up. If you want to read 16 through 18. Where did he hear that? In verse 16, he says, I remember the word of the Lord, how he said. Where did he say that? Peter said that he remembered how the Lord said, John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit. It was in Acts 1. He was having that last discussion before he, that's what he's referring to. It was actually, he verbalized that in the Gospels as well, but those that were here for the first chapter of Acts should have got that. No, I'm just kidding. You know, carrying the promise of the Father, which he said, you have heard from me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And then in verse 17, it says, if God gave them the same gift, in Acts, I think it was Acts 4, When they're before the Sanhedrin, Peter, John said, God gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who obey him. And so it is a gift. I think the obedience that was talking about in. The context here is the obedience of obeying the gospel. Believing in the gospel is the obedience, not trying to follow rules, but obedience in saying, you can't be saved through works, you must receive Christ. That's the obedience for us, to believe on Christ. In 18, they came silent, and that satisfied them. Then God has also granted the Gentiles repentance to life. There was actually several cities of Antioch. I think they said seven or something weird. But there was two main ones, two big ones that we know about in the Bible. This one here, Antioch is in Syria, which at the time was Syria. It's probably modern day Turkey now. That was the Antioch. And that was where, you know, it was quite a ways from Jerusalem. And so it was almost a launching point for Paul and the other missionaries. There was another Antioch, and that was further up in another province, way up by Greece or somewhere up in there, and I forgot now. So there were two Antiochs, so not to be confused. This was the Antioch that was closest. They were preaching to no one but the Jews only. The Hellenists, they were there. The Hellenists, but the group of Hellenists were basically Greek-speaking Jews, right, Dan? Greek-speaking Jews, the Hellenists. people group. But here they're talked about again in this section. But there was more preaching going on. The Lord was with them. It says a great number doesn't say how many, but a great number believe and turn to the Lord. These were the ones that were scattered. After Stephen was martyred in chapter 7 and chapter 8, it talks about a great persecution led by Saul. And all these people in Jerusalem, except the apostles, they went out everywhere spreading the word. And then it's focused on Philip going down to Samaria. But apparently there was people, unnamed people here. They went as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus. And of course, you got to remember back in those days, it wasn't like they just called an Uber. They had to they had to walk Or if it worked out, they could take a boat in some cases, if it was a water passage, or they would have maybe a horse or some other piece of burden they could ride on. But it was quite a deal, the travel. And of course, they were used to it, nevertheless. So they went way up there, 22 to 24. Okay, so now it says, the news of these things came to the church at Jerusalem. And they sent out Barnabas. Okay, verse 25 through... Oh, 25 and 26, just two verses. Okay, so Barnabas, the son of encouragement. Tarsus was the city that Saul later named Paul. That was his hometown. And Dan was telling us he was doing a study on basically Paul's from his conversion. He immediately preached in Damascus, but then he went out to the desert, and then at some point he spent another 14 years or something like that. And I'm not sure where the timeline is, but Paul was also Paul's son. Barnabas was the one who brought him They didn't believe he was a disciple. They were afraid of him because he was persecuting a church. It was crazy. So he gets saved. They're like, I don't think he got saved. Maybe it's a trick. So it was Barnabas who put his real belief in him and introduced him to the apostles. No, he really got saved, guys. And he was the one that became the guy that stood up for him. I think that's in 9. So he went to seek him and said he found him. It wasn't like he looked them up in the white pages. He probably had to ask around. I don't know how big a city Tarsus was then. We sometimes read these things and we think, oh yeah, he went to Gotham. Well, it might have been a little bit of a chore. Yeah, so he might have had some leads, it doesn't say. He might have had an idea where to look for them exactly. But he found them, it says in verse 26. He brought them back to Antioch. They were there a whole year. And they taught a lot of people, a lot of the disciples, and that's where they were first called Christians. I remember we were at this, I think it was in Ogden, Utah. These guys, I know, they're ex-Jehovah Witnesses, and they're saved now. So they like to go back to these conventions, Jehovah Witness conventions, and witness, and basically a lot of it is signs. They have signs, scripture signs, but they get harassed. And I remember the guy was yelling at him, who are you anyway? You know, like he was trying to figure out, because if you're an extrovert witness, they absolutely will not listen to you. I mean, they barely listen to you if you're a Christian, and they won't take any pamphlets from you. But so they, I mean, if you're an extrovert witness, they'll raid Estonia. So they're trying to find out, and he was an extrovert witness, but they're, well, who are you now? And he goes, they first were called Christians in Antioch. I'm a Christian, that's it. That's all you need. I thought it was funny. Let's get a name rank and see what we don't know. Okay. Okay. Last four verses, 27 through 30. Who's up? This is a portion, a lot in here, really. Now in verse 30, the last verse, Barnabas and Saul, they took this offering and they were on a missionary trip to deliver that. And we learn in chapter 12, towards the end of that chapter, John Mark went with him. John Mark was, I think, Barnabas's cousin. He was the one who went with him on this event with the money. And then he went on their first missionary journey to a couple of stops that got too much for him. He returned. And then later, they got a dispute because Paul didn't want to take John Mark and Barnabas did, and they got so much in a disagreement they parted company. But that's who John Mark is. I think somehow he is related to Peter. He calls him his spiritual son or whatever. But John Mark is actually a Bible character that's, he's mentioned several times, but he's basically semi-prominent as far as a character. Also, we're introduced here prophets. we're going to learn in Acts 13 that it was prophets and teachers that were among the leadership in the church of Antioch, initially. Now here it says, in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch, so it must have been the same group. And in fact, Acts 13, it names a few of them. So we won't jump ahead, but that's... But one of them named Agabus. Now Agabus, he'll be mentioned later in Acts 21. It says, he stood up and showed by the Spirit There was going to be a great famine in all the world. And of course, the purpose of God revealing this was so they could prepare for it by starting to gather money to help those that were going to be suffering from it. Now, Agabus being a prophet in the New Testament, Old Testament prophets, you can make a strong case that Jesus said the law and the prophets were until John, meaning John the Baptist. So in essence, he was the last New Testament or Old Testament prophet. And then we enter into the new covenant. And so there's the gift of prophecies, there's prophets, but they are perhaps a little bit different than Old Testament prophets. Old Testament prophets were very radical in a lot of the way they would speak to the people. They would often act out their prophecies. For example, Ezekiel, he had to lay on his side for 40 days. for one thin flip over, cook his food over some dung, and talk the Lord into, I don't want to do it over human dung, can it at least be cow pie? Okay. Another time he gathered all his things and went through the wall out of his house and they said, what are you doing? Why are you acting this way? And you know, and you got, Isaiah walked around naked. You had a lot of these Old Testament prophets that did the czar thing. But Agabus, now he would be a New Testament. Now it's interesting, it says he showed by the spirit. How did he do that? I don't know. But in some way, he sort of carried on that tradition of acting out a prophecy. Now we know in Acts 21, it said he took Paul's belt and bound himself and said, the owner of this belt will be bound in Jerusalem. So he acted out in some sort of theatric, his prophecy. Now that isn't as radical as what the Old Testament guys did. But nevertheless, that was part of his role. He demonstrated his prophecy, but whatever he predicted came true. And so again, that carries on the tradition of an Old Testament prophet, because you had to be right, or it would cost you your life. So those prophets didn't casually say, God told me this and that on a whim. Because if they proved wrong, they would be stoned. Maybe we should start doing that now. We'd have less of that going on. I don't know. So anyway, so you have this guy and of course Luke here throws in a little tidbit. It happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. So every so often you'll get a critic and they'll say, well this can't be happening because, see he's wrong because of this or that. The Bible's always been proven true through archaeology when it comes to some of these historic facts. Luke, being a historian himself, gives a faithful account, but he tells you at certain times this was happening. It was a great famine that was going to happen. And if you study this out, it happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. So he's recollecting this account. So the famine must have had happened already or something. And then of course they determined ahead of time to send relief and that's what they did. And they sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. And so basically that wraps it up unless you guys have anything else. And this has been Sharing Your Faith with Larry Dubois. If you would like to listen to a past broadcast or ask a question that would be aired on a future show, simply go to sharingyourfaithradio.com. And then we trust you'll join us again next time for Sharing Your Faith on First Love Radio, your Christian Internet station.