Good morning, good to see you. I do enjoy the snow. As I was telling one brother this morning, I really enjoy it by a nice fire and a cup of coffee and a book. That's when I really like the snow, when it's outside and I'm inside. If you'd like to follow along, we are going to be moving through the passage that Brother Elias read, Acts chapter 13, verses 42 through 52, and the title of our message this morning is Responding to the Gospel, and that's what we are going to examine. We had the Lord's Table the first Sunday in December, and on that day I went through the sermon that Paul preached from verse 13 down through verse 41. And we didn't really talk about the response to his message at that time, but we often say that there are only two responses to the gospel message, reception and rejection. I'd like to expand that a little bit and say there are two, a positive response and a negative response, or a favorable response and an unfavorable response. When people are familiar with the gospel message and they've just made up their minds, they're not going to have anything to do with it. There are lots of reasons for that. It's not that they don't know the gospel, it is that for various reasons they've just made up their minds, they don't like it, they don't want to hear it. I once visited a man at the Leduc Hospital and we were just chatting. We were friendly. He was a neighbor down the street and I knew him and brought him a coffee and he really appreciated that. There's something about Tim's, I think, that makes people addicted because he sort of shook his hand, reached out and grabbed the coffee. No, it wasn't quite that bad. But anyway, after I did that, I just laid a gospel tract on that little rolly table, you know, that everybody in the hospital has. And right away, he put his coffee down, he looked right at me, and he said, take that away. And he was talking about the gospel tract. Made up his mind a long time ago. that he was not open to the gospel. I've been praying for this fellow ever since we've lived here, since 2009. And I had asked the Lord to move in his heart, and lo and behold, when he got out of the hospital and he was at home, we see each other going out to the mailbox and different things, and he came with his hand out to shake my hand. And he started weeping, and I thought, what is wrong? And he said, nobody's ever been that nice to me. And I mean, I wasn't all that nice. You know me. I'm really not all that nice. I bought him coffee. That's what he was talking about. I visited him in the hospital. He doesn't go to church. And, you know, so I guess that was a new thing for him. Well, ever since then, he has been so kind to me. He brings my bin in when it's been emptied and that sort of thing. He just does little things, asks how I'm doing. Never did that sort of thing before. And so I think another way to think about a response to the gospel is a positive response, not a reception of it, to ask Christ into your heart, but at least a positive response to the explanation of the gospel. Now, I've never had a chance to explain the gospel to this fellow, because I knew he was resistant to that. His wife actually told me, oh, don't talk to him about church. He's really against church. So I thought, you know, I'll find out why. And I found out he's really against church, and I never found out why. but there is a positive response and yet at the same time a negative response, a favorable one or an unfavorable one and the reason that I think there is something in between those two is because very often when I do give the gospel to somebody and it's for the first time or it's the first time they've had it maybe explained the way I explain it, I talk to a fellow who had been raised in a Baptist church, never once heard that he was a sinner. Never once heard. that the reason Jesus died was to pay for our sins. That doesn't make any difference what the name of the church is. That is simply not a Bible-preaching church. So, and for some reason, we get it in our heads that all Baptist churches are good and all the others aren't. That's just not the case. So, I believe the most common response to the gospel is waiting. Not a negative response, but not receiving the gospel either. People typically say things like this. I have questions about what you taught me. I'm going to think about this. Now, technically, I realize that pausing our response is the same as rejecting the gospel, and it does make me wonder how many people there are in heaven who died delaying. Well, it is important that reception of the gospel be genuine. When I was in Bible school, it was not uncommon for me to meet other students, other people who had a much stronger Christian background than I did, who said, you know, I got saved when I was three, or four, or five, and I got baptized, and I went in church all my life, but I never really lived for Christ until I was, and it was usually either late teen years or early 20s, but theologically, it was late teens or early 20s when they got saved. They were never born again as a child. And so we would ask people when they wanted to begin coming to our church or joining the church, I would ask, were you saved when you were baptized? And about a third of the time I would get the answer, no, I wasn't. I knew I was saved later in life. Sometimes we trust some kind of decision which is usually made under some kind of pressure. And we just want the people to leave us alone about that. But we hear the gospel enough to where we do get saved later on. But that's when we get saved. That is typically not when we're rededicated. I say typically. I'm not saying it's always that way. But I've just experienced this over and over again. However, of the responses to the gospel in our text, most were favorable, as we'll see, but some were unfavorable. The message this morning skips over Paul's message in Acts and considers the two responses to the message in verse 42 through 52, but because it's been more than a month since we went over that message, I just want to review it a little bit so we know what Paul the Apostle said. After reading about the setting in verses 13 through 16 at the beginning of the message, we read about the people who were there, the place of it, the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, and the time of the message, we followed Paul's first point, the history of salvation, in verses 17 through 22. He went through all the Old Testament, about how God gave the covenant to Abraham. and how that covenant was followed through the Old Testament and the promise of Messiah, so that we came to the second point, the arrival of salvation. They had the history of it, and now the Lord Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah, comes, the arrival, and he goes through a basic presentation of the gospel message for the Jews, And then the message ends with the application of salvation in verses 38 through 41. That conclusion, that application, he's preached the gospel. Now he's going to apply it to his congregation. By the way, we know, as we move into this last part of the chapter, that If I were in that synagogue in the person of Paul and preaching that message, I would be looking out primarily at Jews. By the way, I don't know if you know this, the name Jews was first used in the exile of the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin into Babylon. And instead of calling them the Judahites, they just shortened it to Jews. But that was such an easy way, I suppose, to refer to them. That was the common reference instead of Israelites. They just called all of the tribes Jews. Well, there were Jews there, but there were also, we're going to find out, Gentile proselytes, those who've gone through the formal process of essentially becoming a Jew by practice. They had to be baptized, they had to be circumcised if they were male, and they had to offer a sacrifice according to the Old Testament. Then they were full-fledged proselytes But this was Antioch, largely Roman population. And so there were Gentiles who were called in the Book of Acts God-fearers. And those God-fearers, they weren't proselytes, but they were interested in learning about Yahweh. And so they attended the synagogue. They were allowed to attend. They were encouraged to attend. And in a city, we're going to find out about 100,000 in population. Yeah, 100,000 in population. I thought I'd said 100 million. That's a little big. Anyway, 100,000 in population. It was probably, we're going to find out, number one, more than one synagogue in the city. And number two, this had to be a pretty large congregation. So the positive response, which we're going to look at first, is described by Luke's use of eight verbs or words of action. Three of them are found in the first three verses, one in verse 42, one in verse 43, and one in verse 44. And the rest we'll see as we get to them. The first positive response is that some of the people begged, our text says, begged to have the same message repeated the next Sabbath. So a week later, we're interested. And that, as I mentioned, I think is a very common response of people. Perhaps they feel like they shouldn't be rude, they want to be polite. Well, this is interesting. I mean, you ladies are familiar with that, eh? You make a dish and you say, how do you like it? Oh, it's very interesting. Yeah, and sometimes that's the response of people to the gospel message. They're interested. Only this is a little bit interested in a good way. We want to hear about this just one more week from now. When we get together, after Paul solemnly, you know what I did? I didn't read the application. Somehow my depraved tablet moved. I'm sure it wasn't me. I'm worried about this tablet, it has a bit of a mind of its own. Anyway, I wanted to go through the last part because really what he does is he focuses on the gospel message in his sermon. So verse 38, let it be known to you therefore, so he preaches all about the Lord and now he's going to admonish the congregation. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man, and he's talking about the man Jesus Christ, 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. He's speaking to a congregation who think that God gave Moses the law so that they could be saved. But that's not why God gave Moses the law. According to Romans chapter 3, what was the reason he gave the law? So that we would know what? That we are sinners. It was never given to us that we would do our best to obey all the laws and then God would say, well you did your best, 51% I'll let you into heaven. No, that's not why it was given. It was given to teach us that we are sinners and therefore we need saving from our sin. Because we cannot do that. And this is what he's talking about. The ones who believe are freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. So if I summarize this, salvation comes through Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins by faith. That's his message. And then he ends in verses 40 and 41 with a very solemn warning. Beware, you see that word, beware. You think as, I mean, I think of when I was a kid and we lived right on a pretty busy residential road And we had a big front yard, but oftentimes the balls would wind up going into the street, across the street, and so forth. And my mother would open the window and yell out, beware! No, she didn't yell that. Get back in this yard, that's what she would say. But beware is a word of warning lest you despise the forgiveness of sins and fail to believe in the only one who can save you and give you peace. That's the Talbert translation of verses 40 and 41. But he warns them, someone like me is going to come and tell you this message and you will not believe it. even though someone is telling it to you. And there was, in the first place, a positive response. We've already seen what it is in verse 42, 43, and 44. Well, let's speak about those individually. Archaeologists estimate that the city's population exceeds 100,000 at the time Paul and Barnabas were there. The Romans settled a large Jewish community in Antioch. This is the first place I've ever heard of doing this. They settled a large Jewish community to increase the economy. I guess Jews are well known for having a positive impact on local economies. So they didn't say how many that they said they moved there, but it was a substantial Jewish community. I mean, Barnabas was from Cyprus, and so it was a substantial Jewish community that was there. And also notice in verse 50 it had to be a somewhat substantial Jewish community because in verse 50 it says the Jews incited who? The devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city. In other words they went to the people they knew they could convince to get rid of Paul and Barnabas. So the Jews were influential in Antioch to be able to do that. And all these facts suggest a sizable congregation and probably multiple synagogues in the city. They may have gone to the largest or the biggest or perhaps they actually had other reasons for wanting to go to that one. So this A first indicator is, as they went out, verse 42, the people begged or urged that these things, the things Paul mentioned in his message in verses 13 through 41, might be told them the next Sabbath. And of course, we know that the Sabbath was Saturday and not the Lord's Day. This expression, they urged them, denotes it was something they did repeatedly, may have been done by multiple people, may have been done by multiple people to Paul as well as to Barnabas, but they were begging. Who? They were begging Paul, no doubt, that he would repeat his message the next week, that he would talk about the same things from different passages or however he was to repeat it. But really the people, as you can tell from verse 15 up at the top of the sermon, it's the rulers of the synagogues who had the right to determine who was going to preach the next week. Well, this was a very positive response, but we have to believe the rulers of the synagogue were not quite as enthusiastic as some of the people were. Why? They were preaching that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, and they knew enough about the Jewish world to know that in Jerusalem that was totally rejected. So, they had to be ambivalent, but the popularity, I suppose, was their main reason for agreeing to another meeting. Verse 43 indicates the second indicator of a positive response to the gospel, and that is in verse 43. Some of them actually followed Paul and Barnabas. And you say, well, that just means they're walking behind them. No, I think it means more than that, as we'll see in verse 43. Because after the meeting of the synagogue, broke up many Jews and devout converts, by the way, the Greek word that's translated by our English word converts, proselytom. So this is where we get our word what from? proselytes. These were the proselytes. These were the converts. These were the people who had gone through the process of becoming Jewish in a sense. But when some of them followed Paul and Barnabas, Paul and Barnabas spoke with them and urged them to do what? To continue in the grace of God. Why continue? Because they'd already started. in the grace of God. They'd gone more than just begging for another meeting. They were following. They desired to have the grace of God at work in their lives. It's interesting because it's the same expression that Barnabas used when he went to first examine what was going on in Antioch of Syria. He went from Jerusalem to visit that church, and he saw the grace of God in them. And he said, continue in this grace. And so the same expression is used here. So these folks, Jews and Gentile proselytes, are the ones who probably get saved in this very service. They followed Paul and Barnabas, not just physically, but spiritually, and they were urged to continue in the grace of God. And what happened as a result in verse 44? It's the third indicator of a positive response to the gospel. The next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. Now, if you were reading this, what would go across your mind when you wanted to think about this and sort of portray this in your mind's eye. I mean, you did a little background study. You found out that in the first century, Antioch of Pisidia was supposed to have 100,000 people in it. And this doesn't necessarily mean that all of the city was there. It does say almost all of the city, but Where would you go? I mean, I doubt their synagogue had 100,000 or 90,000 or 80,000 or even 50,000 seats in it. But there was an amphitheater in Antioch and maybe they dismissed the meeting to move over there. They all got up in their seats and then Paul was preaching to them. The gathering was probably largely Gentile the second Sabbath because the city was largely Gentile rather than Jewish. Also, it's likely that the attenders at Paul's first message were the ones who told them about it, the ones who were begging, the ones who were following, the ones who are now gathered, at least some of them. These are the ones who went and said to their neighbors, hey, come. And I don't know if any of their neighbors were handed a parchment tract and they said, get that thing out of here. I don't know if there was much response because really the response was very, very large. And so here we have this gathering and the fourth, fifth, and sixth indicators of a positive response to the gospel are given to us here. Now, to understand this positive response, you have to understand what happens next, beginning in verse 45. You really have two phrases in verse 45, one in verse 50. So in verse 45 and 50, you have the same phrase, but the Jews. So you had all these people responding, but the Jews. And I just moved the when, I stuck in a they, says the same thing. But the Jews, when they saw the crowds, were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul. So maybe the rulers of the synagogue stood up and in the amphitheater, if that's where all of this took place, they began to contradict the things that Paul was saying. And it says that they reviled him. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, So if the gospel's a book, let's just say they gave them a book, they took the book, they threw it down, and they began to raise their voices, aggressively angry, and say, what you're saying is not true, it's not in this prophet, it doesn't say that there, or it doesn't mean that there. I mean, right in front of all these people. many of whom are very positively influenced by Paul's message. So Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly saying, it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. You say, why? All the promises were made to what group of people? Jews. That's why it was necessary for them to speak to the Jews first. And you had a guy who was raised at the feet of Gamaliel. Maybe one of the reasons that they were so eager to get this guy to stand up and speak is that they knew he was a member of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin or an apprentice to the Jerusalem Sanhedrin. necessary to speak to you first, but here's how they responded. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourself unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. None of us is worthy to be saved, but he's speaking of worthy in the sense since you don't want eternal life. Because this is the only way to get it. You judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles, for this is what the Lord has commanded in Isaiah 49, 6, saying, I have made you, and the you refers to the Messiah. I have made your servant of the Lord, capital S. I've made your servant of the Lord or your Messiah a light for the Gentiles. The same thing Simeon said at the birth of Jesus, that you, that Messiah, may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. So here they were on, at least from the standpoint of Jerusalem, they were at the end of the earth and they were preaching the gospel message to these Jews. But who was there? Largely Gentiles. And for the first time they're learning they can be saved on the same basis as which the Jews are saved. They don't have to become a Jew to go to heaven. But the religious leaders didn't agree with that. So here's a message straight out of the Jewish Bible. which declares that Yahweh himself would open the door of salvation to be proclaimed to the Gentiles and to be received by the Gentiles. How did these Gentiles respond to this good news? Verse 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing. And you could almost hear them. Gloria, Gloria. See? Yeah, I know that's what they were doing. They were just thrilled that the message was for them. It was to be proclaimed to them. Their whole culture was based on the fact that the Jews wouldn't have anything to do with them unless they were God-fearers or willing to be proselytes. So the door of salvation is open to them. When they heard this they began rejoicing, that's the fourth of these responses. The Gentiles were rejoicing to know that God himself was inviting them directly to enter into his new covenant. This joy is also spoken of down in verse 52. They were filled with joy, and verse 52 is talking about the disciples there, he's talking about the ones in Antioch who had already gotten saved. And we noticed back in Acts chapter 8 that this is what happened with the Ethiopian eunuch, didn't we? Philip preached to him, he got saved, and he went on his way rejoicing. Same thing happens here. So this is the fourth indicator. The thing that's really interesting about this, excuse me, I have a cold, I apologize for that, Ephesians chapter 2, In other words, what God is doing in the salvation that's offered by Christ is He is uniting Jew and Gentile in the same church, in the same organization, in the same work. And Paul addresses this, therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. That explains why they're so happy. That was what was in their past. That's not what is in their present and future. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off from what? from the Commonwealth of Israel, from the covenants of promise, from the hope of salvation, from the being without God in the world. Now that's all been changed. In Jesus Christ, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So forth they were continually rejoicing. When you talk to somebody about the gospel and they are filled with joy, that's a good indication they're open to it. God is working in their heart. I trusted Christ one night after two hours. Really it was a good 20-30 minutes of listening to what she was saying. The rest of the time I was just being polite until I could get out of there. And after I got out of there, it was the Spirit of God speaking to my heart, you will die tonight. And are you, or where are you going to go? And I thought, wow, I'm not, I didn't really pay attention to the rest of it. I'll go to hell if what she was saying was true. And I pulled over and I asked the Lord to save me. And several days later, I mean, I was wondering, I didn't feel the same way. I wasn't thinking the same way I was before. In fact, where I was going that night was to a going away party with all my friends. And I got there and I thought, I'm curious about one of the things she said in the book of John. So I told my friend who hosted the party for me. I said, yeah, I'm going home. It was about 9, 9.15. And wasn't any need to say goodbye to anybody else, because they didn't even know I was there. They were five sheets to the wind, and there was just no reason for talking to anybody else. And I went home and pulled out a Bible, and I read. So I knew things were different. I just didn't know what. The pastor and his wife asked me to come over. And his wife opened the door, and she looked at me, and she said, you look different. So I looked at myself in the mirror, didn't seem any different to me. Well, are you really, really happy? Well, no, I want to figure out what happened to me. I'm not sure I have anything to be happy about yet. But for these folks, it was an immediate continual rejoicing, the fifth indicator of a positive response. They were continually glorifying. And what were they glorifying? Not Paul. not the Jewish synagogue, the word of the Lord. Their focus was on the word. and as many as were appointed to eternal life believe." So the fifth indicator is glorifying the word of the Lord. To glorify something means to exalt it, to recognize its greatness, to praise it, to honor it, to extol it, to think very highly of it. It is significant that what these Gentiles glorified was God's word. And yet, what do many people glorify when you go to them with the gospel? Oh, well, I am a, and they name their denomination or their religious group, so I'm okay. And we do live in a culture where it says, look, I have the right to choose for myself, and that's true, but that doesn't mean what everybody chooses is the right thing. So they glorify God's word. So it's significant that what they glorified was the scriptures, and we're going to find out it was significant in their life. It affected their behavior. The sixth and best indicator of a positive response to the gospel is believing it. There was a couple years ago, and given them the gospel. Okay, we want to be saved. They both said at the same time, we do want to be saved. You know, a lot of people just kind of brush over the gospel message and think they want to get saved. But, you know, that was my thing. This is too quick. They can't be ready. So I go through the whole message again with them. Yeah, boy, that's really great. We want to be saved. Are you sure? I mean, you, You're not just making a hasty decision and they both look at each other and look at me and say, well, yeah, we want to be saved. So they believed and immediately the change in life was very obvious. And I felt bad for being so slow to recognize their desire to trust in Christ. Well, this is the best indicator of salvation, is they believed. But notice how it says that here, and as many as were appointed to eternal life, Those who were appointed to eternal life, that expression refers to an appointment made in the past with results of whatever happened in the past, results of that continuing into the present and the future. In other words, the expression means that something happened back then was going to affect someone for the rest of their existence. It's an interesting way to speak of that. For those of you who are really curious and are a little Greekies, it's a perfect passive participle. And the passive of this means that it's an appointment made by someone other than the believer himself or herself. It's describing an appointment to eternal life. Or we could say it's an appointment to salvation. Now, it is important for us to say what the scripture says. Why do we preach what the scripture says? Because psychology changes. And you say, well, you know, you just need to get it out of your system and scream and yell and kill people and then you're better. Then, you know, you've gotten it out of your system. That's baloney. You do that and guess what happens to your system? It fills up with more of the same. And off you go doing that again. Psychology is constantly changing. And psychology is the thinking of mankind. This is the thinking and the action of our Creator. So, My big question is, when were they appointed to eternal life? Sometime in the past. So we're talking about a past event. Well, when in the past? Did they get to the point where they were open enough to receive the gospel? Were they now inclined on their own to receive the gospel? Well, no. Ephesians 1 answers this question in verse 4, that God chose us in Christ, and he tells us when he did it. Before the what? Before the foundation of the world. That's when the choice was made. And what did they do? Because they, by the way, let me back up and say, if it's not the people themselves who are doing the appointing, who's the one who appointed us to eternal life? Well, there's only one person who can do that, and that's God. So, in eternity past, before the foundation of the world, God himself appointed to eternal life, and we could just put a different word in there instead of eternal life, to what? To salvation. God appointed certain folks to salvation by a process the Bible also calls election and predestination. And that's exactly who got saved. All of those in this Gentile, Jewish, and proselyte congregation who listened to those scriptures, those who had been appointed to eternal life in that group, trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the sixth and best indicator of a positive response to the gospel is that they believed. But let me just say one more thing about this because this often bothers folks to hear something like this. No one gets saved by being elect. No one does. What does the Bible say we have to do to get saved? We must repent. We must believe. Two sides of the same coin. And if we don't do that, we will be lost forever. And you say, well, yeah, but people who are elect, they will do that. We have to respond. And I know people who I will witness to and they'll say, well, you know, I'm just waiting for God to make his election plain. And they'll wait, and they'll wait, and they never will believe, they never will repent, and they will burn in hell forever. Why? Because you have to repent, you have to believe to be saved. And so election is not something we learn about in the Bible and then we sit back and do nothing. No, we do what God lays on our hearts to do. The seventh indicator of a positive response is in verse 49, the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. What the Gentile converts glorified, the word of the Lord, they talked about. They spread it throughout the entire region. Antioch was given, according to the Romans, a district. We might think of it as a county. The region all around that county is called Galatia. And so Galatia was the, we would call the country, like Canada, and Pisidia was the county or the province, like Alberta, and the city, for us, Edmonton, but for them, Antioch, that area around Antioch was just being filled with the Word of God. The eighth indicator of a positive response to the gospel is in verse 52, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. Only believers constitute the residence of the Holy Spirit, only believers can be filled with the Holy Spirit. Someone just asked me a couple of days ago, how do you know if you're filled with the Holy Spirit? Negatively, your conscience doesn't have any misgivings about you keeping sin. Negatively, is there anything that I know of that I've not confessed that would separate me from God? And if the answer is no, then you are filled with the Spirit. But positively, I can know I'm filled with the Spirit when the Holy Ghost is motivating me to act in these ways. I want to be loving. I want to be joyful. I want to be peaceful. I want to be patient. And when I'm not any of these things, what do I do? I confess my lack of that in different circumstances. But I want to be kind and I want to be good. I want to have my life characterized as good. Now, 100% successful? No, no. You and I have known each other long enough to where you know I'm not 100% good. Faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These are the things that mark the behavior of someone who truly is born again. By the way, this is why we have the church we have. This is why we want membership. This is why we have covenant. in a membership is we want to encourage each other by our example first and foremost, but then by our admonitions that we would provoke other believers unto love and good works. It is what a church is supposed to do. And so what are the indicators? They begged to hear the gospel again, they gathered again. This is not necessarily indicative of people who are saved. And then they followed Paul and Barnabas. They were believing. This is the beginning of receiving the gospel. And what are the indications that they had already received it? They were growing in grace, rejoicing, glorifying the word of the Lord, spreading the word of the Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit. Well, on the other side, what are the negative responses? Well, who do the negative responses come from? According to the first words in verse 45 and verse 50, we've already talked about this, the Jews. And this is ironic because Jesus came to his own and his own did what? Received him not. They had an idea, they had a theology, they had a group of beliefs. And Jesus didn't fit that, so he couldn't be the Messiah. By the way, the world is filled with people like this. They have their beliefs. They had their idea of what was necessary to go to heaven. And as we know from passages like Matthew 7, 21 to 23, they're wrong. That Jesus was telling the truth when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man can come to the Father except through me. So we need to do what people have done in the past. We need to get to Jesus. We need to get to him. He's the Savior. He's the truth. He's the way. In order to have heaven as my eternal home, I must get to him. But the negative response is among those that we would expect would be the first to go to him. The Jews mentioned in verses 45 and 50 were not just your average Jew because we have, in verse 43, many of the Jews followed Paul and Barnabas. So it wasn't just your, I don't know what you call, you know, your five cent Jew, or actually it'd probably be a five million dollar Jew would be their idea, and the Jews who were the religious leaders, The rulers of the synagogue, they were the ones leading the rejection of the gospel. But the indicators of rejection, there are three in verse 45 and there are three in verse 50, and they are obvious. Their first indicator of rejecting the gospel is, but the Jews, when they saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. And we're not told in the text why they were jealous. Was it because they were wanting the message of Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah? Was it that they hated that and here was a guy preaching that and they did not like the crowds hitting that or hearing that rather? Or was it that they were jealous over their loss of prestige? I mean it's almost the whole city who's here. So, you know, who are they really having credibility with? Well, their credibility looks to be shrinking a bit. The second and third indicator are later in this verse, they began to contradict what was spoken by Paul. As I mentioned, they were likely shouting over Paul speaking. They were contradicting what he was saying. The contradiction here is, in a continual sense, these Jewish leaders continually speaking against what Paul was saying, and those who were receiving the gospel glorifying the Word of God. But what were these Jewish leaders doing with the Word of God? They were contradicting it. That is not the way. And they are hot-headed about it. And then it also says they were reviling Paul. And the word, I'll give you another Greek word, you get lots of stuff in the message today. You get English grammar and Greek. It's blasphemeo. which we get our English word, they were blaspheming Paul, assassinating his character. But when they do this, if this happens to us, and they do this to us, who are they doing it to? They're doing it to the master who has sent us to say these words to them. They're doing it to God. And of all the sins you could commit to blaspheme God has to be one of the worst. It would be terrifying to stand before him as a judge and have it be read out of the record that we have blasphemed who? The judge. Now the last three. indicators that these Jews rejected, that indicate they rejected the gospel message are in verses 50 and 51. The Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city to incite these folks. means to stir up with strong emotion. If you look this Greek term up in the dictionary, this is its definition. To stir up strong emotion against. So they didn't go to these folks and reason with them. This was not a reasonable thing. They were not happy until they had made those folks hate Paul and Barnabas, and their message, and their so-called God. And they use those emotions to persecute Paul and Barnabas. The word just means to chase, to follow, to hunt down. If you were hunting an animal, you would use this word. It's translated persecute here, but the idea is it means to hunt down. and they were persecuting Paul and Barnabas and they threw Paul and Barnabas out. There are the three. The word means to cast out, to throw out, to kick out. This is serious opposition. These are not just folks who say, well, you know, I'm Catholic, I don't have to do this. No. They are ready to do the same thing to these followers that they did to their leader. But at least in this case, they just kicked them out of the country. And how did Paul and Barnabas respond to this? Well, they left. They went to Iconium, but the disciples The ones they left there, and think about this, they must have had some good teachers there to just leave. Now they're going to come back in a few months through Antioch and talk to some of those believers there. But they left and the people are filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. So really this whole message is is designed to ask you, how have you responded to the gospel? And I think it's appropriate to ask the young people in the service, first and foremost, because you've been raised in this. How have you responded to the gospel message, positively or negatively? Have you responded favorably? Are you actively seeking the truth about life? I remember standing out on the balcony of the College of Charleston as a lost person and thinking, why am I even here? What am I taking these courses for? Suppose I have a job, and I get that job, and I work at that job till I'm 60 or 70, and then I retire, and I kick my feet up for a few more years, and then I die. Where am I going? What am I doing here? Who put me here? And it's not a biological answer as to who put me here, and it's not a practical answer. It is the answer that I was created by someone and given life. But these are the questions. Why are you here? Who is ultimately in control of your life? You say, well, I'm in control of my own life. Okay. What's the date of your death going to be? So I don't want to die. Yeah, see, you're not in control of your life. I mean, it is realistic, given the dangers out there, that someone in this building will die on the way home. Where will you go? What will happen to your soul? And maybe you say, well, you know, I've been on a long journey for this. I've studied Hinduism, I've studied Islam, I've studied these other religions, and I have an answer. So now, it's not just where will you go, but how do you know? I don't mean how do you think. That doesn't make any difference with God. You can stand before God and say, well, you know, I think I ought to go into heaven, and I think I ought to do it this way or that way. Yeah, you go 200 kilometers an hour on the Henday and you get pulled over and he says, you know what, you know, I think it's nice for me to get where I'm going very quickly. You can say that all you want, but what you think is not the key. What do you know about responding to the gospel? Now this morning I have said to the best of my ability what it says here. You believe this, you're safe. You don't believe it, you're not just in danger. You are in eternal despair. Do not allow yourself to be that way. And all you have to do is just ask God out of a genuine heart, Lord, what is true? I really do want to know what is true. And he will help you to answer that question with his own words. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your truth. Blessed to our hearts, we pray. We thank you for this beautiful day and for your mercies already given in our lives that we should be born here, that we should be cared for, that we should enjoy what we enjoy. It is all from your hand and we thank you for it. Help us to see, Lord, that your goodness is designed in part to lead us to repentance and that we would do that. on our journey to know you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.