Good evening, it's good to see you here tonight. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it, even as the day ebbs to an end here on this day evening. This coming Sunday will be our third Sunday of the month, so we're looking forward to our fellowship meal. Of course, we will also have our moral services. Let's read a prayer for our athlete as he teaches the adult Sunday school. We're going to be in prayer for a long time. We've got a lot to pray for tonight. So let's prepare our hearts this evening by turning to our hymnal, hymn number 182, Down at the Cross Where My Savior Died. 182, 182. We'll go ahead and sing all four of that versus. Let's stand and sing, Down at the Cross Where My Savior Died. Down at the cross where the Savior died, Down where for cleansing once did I cry, There to my heart was the blood of Christ. Glory to His name! Glory to His name! Glory to His name! I am so wondrous to say from sin Jesus so sweetly abides with him There at the cross where he took me in ♪ Glory to his name ♪ ♪ Glory to his name ♪ ♪ Glory to his name ♪ ♪ There to our heart was the blood of Christ ♪ ♪ Glory to his name ♪ ♪ O precious fountain this thanks from sin ♪ I am so glad I have entered in Where Jesus saves me and keeps me Glory to His name Glory to His name Glory to His name There to my heart was a blood outpouring, Glory to his name. Come to this fountains of rich and sweet, Cast your host all at the Savior's feet, The Gentry may and may complete, Glory to his name. Hey, good singing. You may be seated. Please go ahead and open your Bibles to Acts chapter 13. Thank you for coming for us this evening, David. I appreciate that. Last week, as we are continuing our series on the prayers of the early church from the Book of Acts, we saw that the Holy Spirit commissioned Paul and Barnabas to lead the church of Antioch and to go out as missionaries. These two chapters, Acts 13 and 14, are well known as the first missionary journey of the Apostle Paul. And so the Church of Antioch pastored, prayed, and sent a missionary down, Acts 13, Mark 13. Paul and Barnabas went first to Cyprus, where Barnabas was from. You see that in Acts chapter 4, verse 36. And on that island, they encountered both the opposition of Phaonimus, also known as Bar-Jesus, as well as the elvenness of Now, as we look at this missionary journey this evening, I want us to see basically three key points we do see preaching. That is very important for any activity of the Church. It is one of the key components of what we do as we worship the Lord. God's Word must be proclaimed. We need to evangelize. And so we'll look at some of the preaching that took place throughout the missionary journeys. Secondly, we will look at what I'm calling helping. You can also classify it as healing. And then thirdly, we will see the prayer, which is the point where we will get ready to pray in Acts 14, verse 3. So we see in this missionary journey, of course, the proclamation of the promise of the world, the proclamation of the gospel. And so we've got basically four locations or four stopovers that we're looking at this evening. So we've already been through Cyprus. We left Cyprus. And we stopped at Antioch of Assyria in Acts 13. And that visit is Acts chapter 13, verses 13 through 15. Last week we read through verse 16, but we're going to pick up this evening at Acts chapter 13, and we're going to read verses 42 through 52, finishing the chapter there. So what's happening here is Paul and Bartolomé are at Antioch, Thessalia, their region in the region known as Galatia. There, these men continued their practice of ministering or preaching in the synagogue before ministering to the Gentiles. And so we saw there in verse 16 that Paul begins with that sermon in verse 16 in the synagogue. Both Gentiles and Jews heard the word of God. And that one picked up in verse 41 of Acts chapter 13. And so as Paul reaches the end of his message, he says, Behold, ye despisers, marvel and perish, for I have worked the work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though I know it to be very true. Verse 41, Testament there. And then verse 42. the sermon has concluded, and so the Jews went out of the synagogue, and the Gentiles, the converts, the Greek believers there, begged that those words might be preached to them, and they accepted. Now, when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout apostolites followed Paul and Cardas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the Word of God. Now, this is Antioch, a city in Galatia, Lucif city, Lucif population. So the entire city, almost the entire city, the whole city comes to hear the Word of God. Verse 45, But when the Jews saw the multitudes that were filled with envy and contradicting and blasphemy, they opposed the things spoken of. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, it was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you rejected it, you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. Be bold. Return to Jesus. For so the Lord has commanded us. This is Isaiah 49. I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth. Verse 48. Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life, the word of God was being spread throughout all that region. But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women, and the chief men of the city raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region. But they, Paul and Barnabas, shook off the dust from their feet. And this, they did to our honor and glory, and the disciples were filled with joy and honor, and all the spirit of Christ was restored. Our Father in heaven, we pray that you would speak to us through your word this evening. We thank you that your word is forever settled in heaven. We thank you that the gospel is the power of God to salvation for all who believe, for the Jews first, and also for us who are Gentiles. Lord, as we see the power of God's word, as we see the transformation, the composition that God's word always He loves us. Lord, I pray that you would help us to be hearers of the Lord, doers of the Lord, and proclaimers of the Lord. And I pray that you would help us as we encourage one another to encourage one another to love and to nobleness in Christ Jesus. We pray this in Jesus' name. So what's happening here? We're in Antioch of Pisidia. Once again, we're in Gentile regions. We have left Jerusalem, Judea, even Samaria with the Menses. We are in Antioch. And there are still Jews there. There is a synagogue. And so the Word of God first goes to the Jews in that synagogue. And that sermon is Acts 13, verses 13-41. These are Jewish people. These are also some of the proselytes, some of the Gentiles who have believed in the truth of God. And what we find is the proclamation of God's word is received by many. But it is also rejected, as we see that the Jews become opposers to the gospel because they are jealous? How often do people reject the truth because they are jealous of those who are telling the truth? We know that the Jews were often jealous of our Savior, as Jesus Christ attracted crowds, as He raised the dead, They were worried that people would follow Jesus. Remember after Jesus raised Lazarus, Lazarus had a saying. The Jews are saying, everyone's going to follow this guy. The Jews know this. They are jealous. And so what we see is that as the Jews reject the Gospel in verses 44 through 48, Paul and Martin say, you consider yourselves unworthy of eternal life. You have rejected the good news. You judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. So you will go and compel others to come in. Remember Jesus' parable about those who were invited to the wedding. and blew it up. So, now there's sins of people out of his hands, people you've never lied to, but certainly not your son's. But he tells the servants, sin brings revenge, brings them to war, brings them to those that are socially unacceptable. And so the Gentiles are involved. And what we see here is these Gentiles, verse 48, hear this and make word of that and glorify the word of the Lord. They accept Christ. They receive eternal life. How glorious this is. No wonder we find in verse 52 that the disciples are filled with joy. They have been saved. They have been redeemed. They are filled not only with joy, they are full of the Holy Spirit. And so, again, the opposition is incentivized. We see that the devout women, the good people, the good girls, the devout girls, the prominent, the ones with social standing, these are the women, and the chief men of the city, who raise up persecution, who persecute. So the disciples have to shake off the rest of it. And we have the same pattern. Once again, the gospel first goes to the synagogue. Chapter 14, verse 1, we have the dachromia, that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews and so spoke that a great multitude, both of the Jews and the Greeks, believed. Praise the Lord. The power of the gospel shows its power. There is redemption. People believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. But, once again, there is opposition. Verse 2 says, Unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned the minds of its brethren. Verse 3, Therefore they stayed there a long time. Isn't that therefore interesting? Things get harder. Things get tougher. Opposition gets greater. Let's stay. Let's fight. Let's proclaim the word of the Lord because it doesn't matter because there are those who will listen. Praise God for opposition. It means something's really happening. If something isn't happening, Satan can leave you alone. So here are poisoned minds, stirred up Gentiles, and therefore they stand a long time. Is that the mindset you have? When the going gets tough, what do you do? Do you get going, or do you say, all right, let's hunker down and fight it out. Let's proclaim the truth. Let's win. Winsomely, lost. Is there anyone in store? Which do we do? They stayed there a long time speaking boldly. Yes, we're opposed. So what? He that is in us is stronger than the entire world. We have God with us. If God is for us, who can be against us? And so they speak boldly. And so there's a division in the city, the borders and the gates, right? First of all, the multitude and significance of the Bible are the views of the New Testament. And then, first of all, a violent attempt was made by both the Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to abuse, not just abuse, but stab. And so they became aware of it. They fled to Lystra in Germany, the cities of Iconium and Assyria. They were reaching out to there. So our third location after Iconium is Lystra. The missionaries' lives were threatened. They moved to Lystra. No need to stay for Estonia. You don't have to. And so in Lystra, what we find in verses 8-10 is that the Apostle Paul heals a lame man who had faith in God. Look at verses 8-10. In Lystra, a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother's womb was lost, who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand up straight on your feet, and you will be healed. So here we have this man, and he responds to the word of God with faith. Notice that this man has faith. Why does he have faith? He's heard the Word of God. He's heard the Gospel. He's heard Paul and Barnabas proclaim the Word of the Living God. So this man has strength, and Paul looks on him, and he says, with a loud voice, verse 10, Stand up, straight on your feet, and he leaped and walked. And so, as Peter, in Acts chapter 3, had healed the lame beggar, Paul heals a lame man here, before it was a Jewish, the late man who received healing, here's a Gentile who receives healing. Once again, as we see there, verse 10, the lame man, He walks around, he's leaping around. He's excited. He's giving the hallelujahs, I'm sure. You know, Peter's healing of the lame man, the Jewish lame man, causes the Jewish leaders to investigate into this absolutely. Paul's healing makes the heathen people of Lystra do what? Do they hold a trial? No. They decide to worship. But they don't worship the true and living God. Who do they worship? They worship Paul and Barnabas. Oops. Wrong rule. That's a wrong one to worship. And so we see that unlike St. Harry, who received worship in fact, rather did it, Once again, Paul and Barnabas reject the attempt to worship Him. And so we see, look at verses 15 through 17. Paul and Barnabas, they tear their clothes, verse 14, and they run in among the multitudes crying out, Men, why are you doing this? We're just men. We have the same nature as you. We preached to you. Turn from useless things. to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he did not leave himself without a witness, in that he did good, giving us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these sayings, they could scarcely, very difficult, right? They could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them. So Paul and Barnabas make clear, there's one true God, who is true, who left Oblivious, With great difficulty, they get these guys to stop worshipping them. Talk about the fiddleness of the crowd. It's dangerous when you try to follow the crowd, or lead a crowd, because crowds can turn on a dime, can they not? One moment they're welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem. Who's saying that to the Son of David? The next day it's what? Crucifio. So here's a crowd, let's worship these guys who must be Zeus and Hermes in verse You know these gods, verse 12, Acts 14, 12. The next moment, we get a few guys to talk to these people, and what do they do? Verse 19, Jews from Antioch, Iconium, come. They chase down these apostles, hunt them down. Oh, you know those guys? You know the trouble they caused back there? And they persuaded the multitudes. These guys who have just seen God's power at work, who have seen a lame man healed, and what do they do? So they stole Paul, that's Acts 14, 19, and dragged him out of the city and supposed him to be dead. So these worshipers... These worshipers are quickly dissuaded from adulation to hatred. The Jews of Antioch and Iconium, of course, incite this riot and incite the stoning. And we see in verse 20 that when the disciples come maybe to bury him, what happens? Paul gets up and moves on. He rose up and went to the city. The next day, he departed with the harvest. He heard that not a good place to stay, but he did not. So, number four. This is the final one for our journey. Number four, they go to Arlington and they go back. Then they go back to Lystra. That's where he was just stoned. Then they go back to Iconium. That's where he's had other troubles. Then to Antioch and Pisidia. Remember there's problems there? They were going to kill him. Oh yeah, verse 22. What was going on as they made these pit stops on the way home? Verse 22, they were strengthening the souls of the disciples. Here the apostles have left these cities basically trying to save their lives. Escaping stoning. Escaping persecution. They'd stay when they were opposed, but when the stones start to fly, it's time to take a hike. It's time to leave. They shake the dust off their feet. But that doesn't keep them away. They go back. Paul could have made another journey a different way home. He did not. Why? Was he just out of his mind? You see, as he had gone and proclaimed the gospel, people were coming towards him. And there were new believers who needed to be established in the kingdom. And all these new believers needed to be established. They didn't have worship. They didn't have a pastor. They didn't have those who knew the word of God as well. And so what you see there, verse 22, says that he had to strengthen the souls of the disciples. I mean, they knew that Paul and Martha's had just barely escaped with their lives from many of these places. They knew it's not easy to do. And so there needed to be a call for these people to be bold, to be courageous, and not only to be bold and courageous, it says there in verse 22, exhorting them to continue in the path. Don't be a quitter. Now, it would be easy when people are stoning you, when people are opposing you, when people are making your life as stinking miserable as they possibly can, just to say, I give up. Or, as Paul and Marcus has had to do, to flee. There are times to lead persecution. And the Christians have done that before. But for these, at this time, the Lord still had them in these cities. And so he says, he exhorts them to know to continue living. Continue trusting your God. Continue to hope. You have eternal life. You have one with you who will never forsake you." Exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, look, reality, reality check. Let's keep it up. Verse 22. He said, you must admit tribulations to be forgiven. It's not going to be easy. It may get harder. As a matter of fact, things may get a lot worse before they get even better. But where are you going? You're going to the kingdom of God. Your citizenship is in heaven. It will be worth it, worth the journey. Be faithful, keep your eye on the prize, don't give up. Now, not only do they encourage these disciples, and again, they're reversing course, going Basically, the journey there, they hit all the cities on the way back here in Galatia. Antioch, the city, is the first place in Galatia. Germany is the last place in the region of Galatia. And he hits all these, and he does this with each church, verse 22 says. And not only is there this preaching the evangelism, but there's this discipling that takes place as well. So verse 23 says, they appoint elders in every church. So here is someone who's going to continue to proclaim and preach the word of God. And so what this means is that there is going to be a need for these people to continue to have leadership, preaching, So the missionary's journey starts with the proclamation of the gospel far and wide. There's a concern for eternal souls. But we see that on the return back there's establishing the churches. Turn with me please to Ephesians chapter 1. You notice verse 23 says that they were appointing elders in every church. Why was this so important? Well, the way that the church is set up by the Good Shepherd, by the Catholic Church, and gifted with the Holy Spirit, is that there are others that the Lord gives to His church. to teach and preach. So I'm going to read Ephesians 4, verses 11 through 16. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 11 through 16. So God has given, verse 11, himself, he himself gave some to the apostles, whom we call the marvelous will now. Some prophets, those who proclaimed the word of God, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. So why did God give these gifts to his church? The evangelists, prophets, pastors, and teachers. Why do we have the foundation of the apostles? Well, first of all, for the equivalent. to help Christians know what to do. For equipping the saints for the work of ministry, the Bible, proclaiming the Bible, teaching the Bible, explaining what the Bible teaches us to do and commands us to do, so that these pastors, these teachers, these prophets, evangelists for the lost, apostles, are edifying the body of Christ, building him up, helping him to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. That is equipping and edifying. Not only that, we see that they're going to have a good fruit for their life work. This is going to be persistent, verse 13 says, until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. We need to be teaching of God from the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit needs to be opening our understanding. When we come to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect name, to the measure, the stature, the fullness of Christ, oh, to know Him better, oh, to experience Him more. that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro, but carried about with every blade of golf by the trickery of men in cunning and craftiness of deceitful farming, but, speaking the truth of love, may grow up in all things into Him who is ever in us. Of course, Christ is from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by whatever joint supplies, according to the effect of working, by which every part does its share, we mean everybody in the Church, everyone, whatever it gives, which every part does its share, causes growth of the body, for the edifying of itself, one another, this is loving one another, helping one another, growing one another, in love. So pastors have the duty of teaching faithfulness, faithfulness to the truth, love for God, worship to Him, so that those in the Church aren't carried away by every bad or false teaching. We need to grow and discern what is true and what is false. So pastors have the responsibility for 2 Timothy 4-1-2 to preach. They care for the flock, for the people of the church, first and foremost. So both preaching and praying are prioritized. And so we see these men preaching throughout this mission. Secondly, I want us to see that not only are they preaching, but they are healing, they are helping. Once again, the priority of the missionaries was to proclaim the gospel. They came to proclaim salvation to sinners. This is a mission, in this mission trip, much of Acts 13 and 14 is simply sermons. I didn't read that because the message is not involved. But you see two noteworthy sermons. The first is in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, Acts 13 verses 15-14. And so this was addressing those who knew the Bible, who knew the Old Testament, but rejected the Messiah of the Scriptures. A second major address was to unbelievers of Lystra. It was shorter. Here the Creator God, with His witness in nature, Preaching is the highest priority, blending lost souls. And as the missionaries return home, they continue to disciple new believers with comfort from the scriptures, as we just saw in chapter 14, verse 22. But what I want us to see here in this second point about how we were healed, is that they were like their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in Jesus Christ's early ministry, Jesus did not ignore physical and spiritual needs. Right? Jesus fed multitudes and proclaimed that He came as the Bread of Life, the Bread of Heaven, to meet both physical and spiritual needs. Shabbat shalom, Shabbat shalom. He came as a great physician and healed the blind. He healed the lame. He healed the paralyzed man after he told him your sins. He helped the leprous, those under death sentence. He raised the dead. As the Lord, in the Old Testament, gave Elisha's servant Gehazi leprosy when he took Naaman's possessions, it appears not he will be loosed. How does she know that? Just like the Lord gave Elisha's servant Gehazi leprosy, Paul reveals the spiritual blindness of his icon. There's a physical parallel to the spiritual blindness as he approaches the gospel. So, Rosh Hashanah and Eizad are second Kings 5, 20, 23, 27. Blinding, hellness, Acts 13. But I want you to point out two other things. Missionary knowledge, including the important healers of the Roman Catholic ministry, in Acts 14, verse 17. So what I want us to do is, with the right priority of the Gospel, the congregation, we need to join with self, with miracles of healing, with leading beings, physical beings as well as spiritual beings. So Acts 14 verse 3 says what? Acts 14 says, it says, 14th precept, they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord. Who was bearing witness to the Word of His Word? What rampant silence did they watch to die? There were miraculous provision for physical needs and other needs of the flesh. God cares for us more than the body does. He cares for us entirely. And so, this is she, this is the subject, this is the subject. And so, I think that was this, from a sad point of view, to a good point of view, as honest people. You don't need to care for one another. It's harmful for ourselves, but also for our own existence. God has made us into this image. So it's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your brothers. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your brothers. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your brothers. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your brothers. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's a good thing to talk about it with your sisters. It's Because as they went through each city, making disciples, establishing them, encouraging them, exhorting them, we see that they appointed an elder to every church and prayed for the pastors, commending them to the Lord. All the martyrs did one thing for the pastors. They committed the leaders of their churches and churches themselves to the Lord. It says there, the first hundred committed to the Lord. The church did not want to take care of Jesus Christ. He's the food shepherd of sheep. And so they commend the leaders to the Lord in prayer. Can you imagine the diligent, fervent prayer for the Lord as they fasted in prayer? How these men must have needed the wisdom of God as they led. Young churches full of new believers. These men need courage to be bold as lions among hostile Jews. They had been charged, be faithful Christians. So how earnestly those prayers must have been that these men would grow in their faith, grow in grace, grow in knowledge of God, grow in understanding of the Scriptures as they had to expound those Scriptures to their people. And they doubtless prayed not only for the church pastors, those elders there, but they prayed for the church people. How they must long for these people to grow in their knowledge and understanding of the Scriptures, and to grow in their love for one another, to grow exponentially in their love for their Redeemer. How they must have prayed that God would preserve them from their adversary, Satan, with all his wiles. How full their hearts must have been for their spiritual children entrusted to them. When they had preached the word of God, they went down to Attila, this is a different port, and from there they sailed to Antioch, home city, home church, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. Now when they come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, so they stayed along with the disciples. Brothers and sisters, let's rejoice in God's goodness. Scriptures aren't horrible. This is the Word of God. Let us love the Gospel. Jesus Christ came to save sinners like you and me. Let us not only love the Gospel, let us proclaim that Gospel. More than that, let us regard the Scriptures, the Bible, as the bread of heaven that will nourish our hungry souls. Let's be both hearers of the Word and doers of the Word. And as we minister to one another and love one another, let's look for opportunities to be a blessing to brothers and sisters in Christ. Above all, let us pray for one another. Pray for those who minister to you, those who minister by praying, by interpreting, by teaching, by helping with the recording, by playing the music. Pray that all of us would be preserved from sin. kept close to the Lord and have a good success, both spiritually and in our homes. Let's have compassion on our hurting, those in the hospital, our shepherds, and seek every means to show God's mercy. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your children. not by the words we have heard, but because Christ fulfilled all our wishes through Christ. Lord, we thank you for all of these men, all of the martyrs. We thank you for how you proclaimed the gospel in all its unity to sinners. And we thank you for souls that are saved as the gospel is proclaimed. Lord, that's not just 2,000 years ago. The gospel is just as powerful today, and that sword is just as sharp today as it was 2,000 years ago. Father, I pray that you would use your abilities, Jesus Christ, to bring a host to heaven in our generation, a host here in Korea, in Asia, and around the world. Lord, send forth your angels. There are laborers there, and laborers often seek salvation. Father, I pray that you'd help us as a church to love one another, to serve one another, to be a blessing as we seek to edify and encourage one another to God in Christ. And Father, we pray for those who have burdens. You are the great physician. We pray for you and for those who have burdens. Lord, we also pray, for the time of prayer that follows. Bless this time of message. We pray that great works will be done for your good work, that you will be very generous to our cause. Amen. Jesus.