Welcome to this podcast from Harvest Community Church of Huntersville, North Carolina, where our vision is to make disciples who make disciples. I'm your host, Liz Stefanini. Today, we're going to look at Acts chapter 9, verse 20 to 31. In business, A partnership is an entity that is owned by multiple people. Like a sole proprietorship, the partnership is legally and financially inseparable from its owners. And there are different types of partnership I've found, as I did a little research on that this week. I'd heard some of these terms of the fourth type of partnership I had not heard of. There's the general partnership, and that's where, of course, the ownership and the profits are split evenly among the partners. Each partner has the ability to bind the business legally with contracts, with debts, and that sort of thing, and each one bears full responsibility or total liability. Then there's a limited partnership. There is at least one partner who is one kind of general partner or managing partner who runs the business. And then there are other partners who are involved. Maybe they provide money for the partnership, but they don't actively run the business. Then there's a limited liability partnership. There's at least one, it kind of operates like a general partnership with all the partners actively managing the business, but it limits the partner's liabilities for each other's actions. The partners still bear full responsibility for the debts and the liabilities, but they're not responsible for the errors, for instance, of their partners. Hence, limited liability partnership. A newer type of partnership that's available in some states is a limited liability limited partnership. It operates like a limited partnership, but it has at least one general partner who manages the business, but it limits the general partner's liability so that all the partners have liability protection. That's partnership in business. Today, we're going to talk about another kind of partnership. We're going to talk about gospel partnership. Gospel partnership our text for today acts chapter 9 verse 20 to 31 paints a beautiful picture of gospel partnership This is what is a gospel partnership. This is where a lot of people bind together and and none of them own it and They're all stewards of the good news of Jesus Christ. They're stewards of the gospel, but they work together in different ways to advance the cause, which in this case is the gospel. And it's all partnering together and working with and for the honor and glory of the owner, the Lord himself. That's what gospel partnership is. We're preaching through Acts. We come to Acts chapter 9, verse 20. Let me set the context for you before we start walking through the passage. The first part of Acts chapter 9 had told us about this man, Saul, who was very advanced in Judaism of his day, and he was very passionate about his religion so much so that he did not want to believe in Jesus as Messiah. He did not want Christians to spread the news about Jesus. And yet Acts 9 records a dramatic conversion of this man, Saul, who we also know as the Apostle Paul. After this dramatic conversion, He quickly encountered opposition because he started preaching and announcing that Jesus was the Messiah. And Acts, the passage for today, talks about how God brought to Saul the training and the people necessary for ministry. Let me give you an overview of what happens and then we'll I'll not read the whole passage yet We'll read it as we go through Saul is converted. He begins preaching about Jesus right away The opponents try to kill him. They want to put him they want to they want to stop it and so here he is he's in the city of Damascus and There they want to kill him and he has to escape, but how can he escape? So some believers gather together and let him down in a basket through the hole in the wall to the city and he escapes. And he goes to Jerusalem where he wanted to go. And yet the believers there are scared of him because this is the guy who was persecuting us. And a man named Barnabas comes along and helps introduce Saul to them and vouches for him. And yet there again, he encounters opposition. And so once again, he has to flee to Caesarea and believers help him do that. What I want you to do today is focus on team ministry. Now, I was trying to think of an analogy for this. I like most all sports. I admit, I am not a NASCAR fan. I'm not an auto racing fan. But as I thought about the way that sometimes one person gets the attention and the focus is on them, but a whole team must be doing it, I thought of NASCAR. I thought, you have to have a driver, right? But you also have to have a pit crew who is going over the wall and changing the tires and keeping the car running. And there actually has to be an engine that makes the car run and a team of engineers that design it all, it all works together. Now what I wanna encourage you to do is as we go through this passage, I want you to see the team ministry. I want you to see the different aspects. There are three components of team ministry or three components of gospel partnership that we find in this passage. And the first one is a committed, passionate servant of Christ to share the gospel. Let's start at verse 19. We find this in verses 19 to 22. In 19, Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once, he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the son of God. At once. at once, immediately. It's interesting that often some of the most powerful witnesses for Jesus Christ are brand new Christians. As soon as they are converted, they begin telling other people, this is what happened to me. Now, Saul was a bit unusual, of course, in this case, because he had already studied the scriptures. He knew the Old Testament scriptures backwards and forwards. So it wasn't like it was all new to him by any stretch of the imagination. But notice what he's preaching in verse 20. He is preaching in the synagogues what? That Jesus is the son of God. Now in the Old Testament, that's a term we're pretty familiar with, Son of God, but let's unpack the meaning a little bit. In the Old Testament, the Son of God referred to the people of Israel at times. It also referred to the anointed king of Israel, who was called the Son of God. And it referred to the ideal king of the future, the Messiah of Israel. that was gonna come from the line of David. He was called the Son of God. Here in this place, when Paul is preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God, he is the true representative of God. He is God's anointed king. The Messiah that had been promised. But it also stresses Jesus' special relationship with God the Father. Notice the reaction that Saul got to that preaching in verse 21. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, isn't he the man? who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on his name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priest? I mean, this guy was an opponent of Christianity and he is preaching and they're shocked. It would be like in the last general election, if the democratic convention came up And all of a sudden Donald Trump walked out on stage and said, you know what? I'm now a Democrat. And I think you should elect Joe Biden. Or if the Republican convention came around and Joe Biden walks in and says, you know, all these things I've been saying are not true. I'm now Republican. I think you ought to elect Donald Trump. I mean, really, it was that drastic. I mean, here was somebody who was totally one way against Christians, and now he's saying, oh, you know that man that the Christians are following? I'm following him too. And they were shocked about it. Little side note, notice there how Christians are described, just in verse 21. He raised havoc in Jerusalem among whom those who call on this name. Prayer is a defining characteristic of a believer, so much so that it can become an offhanded description of Christians, those who call on this name. Well, verse 22, yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah. Saul was now engaging in what we now call apologetics. Apologetics is not the same as evangelism, but it can lead to it or be a part of it. Wayne Grudem gives a simple definition which I think is good about apologetics. It's the discipline that seeks to provide a defense of the truthfulness of the Christian faith for the purpose of convincing unbelievers. That's what apologetics is. It's not apologizing for anything. It's showing how Christianity is true, and it's defending it so that unbelievers can see, because often unbelievers have some crazy ideas about the Bible and Christianity and God. They've heard things, they've grown up thinking something, and their objections are not based in fact, and that's what apologetics is trying to do. It's trying to show the fact. You know, there are different styles of evangelism, right? Now, evangelism is sharing the gospel of Christ with unbelievers, but there are different styles or different aspects, different ways. There's proclamation, like Billy Graham did for so many years, right? Somebody verbally proclaims the gospel to one or a large crowd. There's intellectual. That might be apologetics. That might be helping defend the faith to those who have objections. There's testimonial. You just tell your story. I once was this, and then here's how I met Christ, and now here's what he means in my life. There's interpersonal, that's just what we call friendship evangelism, building friends with unbelievers, hanging out with them, letting them see you in life, and you get to know them to where they trust you, and you're able to speak the words of the gospel at appropriate times. There's invitational. Maybe you invite someone. That's a way to do evangelism. Hey, I've got a group of Christian friends that are getting together. You don't necessarily say Christian friends. I got a group of friends that are getting together. Hey, would you like to come go with us? Like to come to this barbecue or special service at our church or something like that? And then there's serving. There's just doing good deeds. that unbelievers can see and benefit from. So there are many styles of evangelism, and in this case, Paul is engaged in proclaiming, and he's also involved in defending. He's doing apologetics. So the first component of team ministry or gospel ministry is a committed, passionate servant of Christ to share the gospel. You know, ministry happens. Now there is ministry that happens within these four walls, but it's not all of our ministry. Our ministry needs to be out in the marketplace. We need to be engaging the culture and people in our world. None of us are the same as the apostle Paul. None of us have the same calling or giftedness that Paul had as the apostle to the Gentiles. But every believer is called to follow Jesus, right? Remember Jesus said, follow me and I will make you what? fishers of men, fishers of people. So it's part of following Christ is engaging in evangelism. So it requires a committed servant. Evangelism requires somebody who's willing to say, yes, I will share the gospel. But that's only the first component of team ministry in this passage. The second one is a supportive, nurturing body. There's a body of people that come around Saul and help Saul and welcome Saul and give practical help to Saul. So as we walk through this passage, I want you to notice all of the people other than Saul who were doing ministry, okay? Think about all of the other people and all of the ways that they helped get the gospel out other than Saul himself, verse 23. After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him. But Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall. This is the first description of other people who are working to help make the ministry a success. Let's just call them the basket team. Hey, I'm on the basket team, not the basketball team, not the basket case team. I am on the basket team. I am gonna help Paul escape. Would you say that was important? I mean, if he was killed, He wouldn't have had much of a ministry in Jerusalem, or the first missionary journey, or the second missionary journey, or the third missionary journey. This group of unknown, we don't know their names. We don't know how many there were. We just know they were like, hey, we want Paul to preach the gospel. We want him to have this ministry. Look what he's, how God has saved him, and look what he's doing. So let's, they're people trying to come, we have to help. And so they lower him. through the basket. Well, here goes the next one, verse 26. When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. I don't blame them. Because remember, they're in Jerusalem and their Twitter feed wasn't working during this. If you go the history of Twitter and even Facebook, all of it, all of it, there was a breakdown in the first century. So they didn't have it and they didn't know what was happening down here in Damascus. All they knew is this is a guy preaching and we're afraid of him. We don't really believe he's a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. Isn't that sweet? Here's Barnabas like, hey, I am gonna take Paul. Paul, I'm taking you. and bringing him to them and say, Hey, he's okay. Let me tell you what happened. Let me tell you how he's been speaking for Jesus. It's okay. You, you don't need to be afraid. You don't need to worry. This is, this is hands on ministry. This is Barnabas. I, I, it doesn't say, I believe Barnabas may have showed up with his arm around Saul and said, this guy's okay. The Christians in Jerusalem had to deal with challenges to their comfort zones. Here they were. They were going around preaching everywhere that Christ is the way and that they want people to be converted. And now all of a sudden a high profile opponent gets converted and it's like, oh, how do we, how do we integrate him? Well, enter Barnabas. Barnabas name means son of encouragement. And he, and he lives up to his name here. He is an encourager. He is a helper. He's smoothing the path. And as we observe people like Ananias in Damascus, when he first came to Saul and now Barnabas in Jerusalem, sometimes the best ministry is just being an encourager to people. just coming along beside them. Larry Crabb and Dan Allender wrote a book called Encouragement, The Key to Caring. They say, encouragement is the kind of expression that helps someone want to be a better Christian even when life is rough. I think it's a good definition of encouragement. So what happens? What does Paul do? Verse 28, Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. It's the same story. He's evangelizing, he's doing apologetics, and he's being opposed. But now he's in Jerusalem. He's not in Damascus anymore. When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. Again, believers whose names we don't know. None of these believers' names are recorded for us in the Bible. But we do know this, God used them to get Saul And, you know, sometimes I'll say Paul, sometimes I'll say Saul, it's the same person. Luke will tell us later when we get to Luke 13, Saul, who was also called Paul, but it's because he had a Hebrew, Hebrew, Hebrew name was Saul. And the Roman name, Hellenistic name was, was Paul here. They take him and they're going to help him. They're going to be a part of the encouragement team. They're going to be a part of the protection team. And it's amazing. Sometimes we often think about, oh, look what a great ministry God gave Saul. And he did. But he didn't do it by himself. There were people all around him. There were people helping him. There were people protecting him. There were people encouraging him. So really, whether you sing the songs on Sunday morning or you set up the microphones that for the people who sing, both are valuable. Whether you study the word and lead the Bible study or you open your home to host a Bible study, both are valuable. Whether you give financial gifts to help people go overseas and share the gospel or you're the one that actually takes the gospel overseas, both are valuable. Whether you preach the sermon or you pray for the one preaching the sermon, both Valuable So what we have here in Acts chapter 9 is a Highly visible person Saul, right? You read through Acts and you see it over and over. Here's Paul. Here's Paul. Here's Paul You have a highly visible person doing ministry and sharing the gospel you have some barely visible people behind the scenes. We don't know their names. We don't know anything about them. We just know that they helped him succeed in the gospel. But there's one more person involved in this team ministry. And this person is not highly visible or barely visible, this person is invisible. The third component of gospel partnership is a sovereign God at work, training and empowering servants for ministry. You see, you don't really see, in big bold letters, the name God in Acts 9, 20 to 31. but he's all over it. God was using all of this to train Saul. He was training him, he was equipping him, he was preparing them. Let's go back to verse 23 and we get the first area that he was equipping Saul was humility and weakness. Look at verse 23. After many days had gone by, There was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. That goes back to the beginning of the passage, right? He's converted, he starts preaching right there immediately in Damascus, but then there's many days, and it's not defined how many days that is. But there's a place in the New Testament that defines what that many days is, and that's Galatians chapter one. Galatians chapter one. Paul, the apostle, is writing about his conversion and his ministry, and look, beginning in verse 13, here's what he says. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how I intensely, I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, My immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later, I returned to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him 15 days. Think about this. In Acts, the story's kind of condensed, it's summarized, right? Paul gets saved, he's the persecutor, he gets saved, he starts preaching in Damascus, and then they take him to Jerusalem after many days. Now in Galatians, Paul is giving them the fuller details of the story. And the fuller details was that he was there and he went into Arabia. Do you know what's in Arabia? Desert. Sand. Camels. Sand fleas. Heat. And the indication is that this may have been three years. Now Saul did start preaching right away where he was in Damascus, but it seems like there was a long period of time. There definitely was three years before he ended up going to Jerusalem, as we read about in Acts chapter nine. Maybe all three of those years or much of those three years, he was out in Arabia. Does anybody else come to your mind in the Bible? I think of Moses, right? Moses went out in the desert for 40 years. God was preparing him for something. And that's what's happening with Paul here. God is training Paul. God is teaching Paul humility. He was advancing in Judaism above everybody. He was, you know, one of the leading guys. And now, He meets Jesus and he's blinded. And for three days, he has to be led around. And Ananias comes to him and lays his hands on him. And then he doesn't go like, hey, I'm gonna be an apostle now. Ananias said, you're gonna be the apostle. I need to show you what this man is gonna suffer for my sake. And he's gonna preach it to the Gentiles. He doesn't immediately rush to the apostles and say, here I am, the new apostles here. He goes to the desert. And God is training him. and teaching him. In fact, later Paul is going to talk about that in 2 Corinthians. He's going to talk about weakness. He's going to talk about humility. And he's going to refer to this very event in Acts chapter 9. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying in What's the next word? Damascus. The governor of under King Eretus had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. That's what we read about. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands. I go back to the previous verse. What is Paul doing? I will boast in the things that show my weakness. You know what? This great man, the fact that he had to be lowered in a basket, it was great. It was an escape route, but it was humbling. And God was showing Paul, Paul, you're weak without me. He also was showing him not only humility and weakness, but related to that was dependence on other believers. Paul needed others. He wasn't going to do this by himself. He wasn't going to be able to do this by himself. He needed others. That's what God was doing. The sovereign God is at work. And then the sovereign God was filling him with the Holy Spirit. We saw last week, Acts 9, 17, Ananias went to the house and entered it, placing his hands on Saul. He said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So think about how all of these ingredients work together. And notice in verse 31, here's the ingredients. There was the compassionate servant to share the gospel. There was the supporting, nurturing body. There was the sovereign God at work. You had all of these things happening. You had Saul out there preaching. You had a body supporting him. You had Barnabas encouraging him and encouraging others to receive him. You had a sovereign God at work behind it all in verse 31. Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. It increased in numbers. What a beautiful thing. When there's team ministry and people are preaching the gospel and people are supporting those who preach the gospel and people are praying together and discipling. They did help disciples Paul and brought him along and loved each other and provided practical assistance for him. Here's God's word. When God builds his church, a lot of people partner together in the work that God is doing. When God builds his church, a lot of people partner together in the work that God is doing. I could mention tons of ways this happens at harvest, but let me just mention a few this morning. Children's ministry workers work to spread the gospel. They are part of the support team. They are sharing the gospel. Right now, as we're in here, we have trained, loving leaders that are sharing the gospel with the children. So they're sharing the gospel with them. They're also sharing the gospel with us, especially for the youngest ones, so that it can be relatively peaceful in here. Right. And that's, that's part of the ministry. It's a ministry to the children. It's also a ministry to all of us. Pastors, prayer partners, Carol Garrett. I don't know if you know Carol Garrett, but Carol, raise your hand. Those who are here in person, they can see her for years. Carol has initiated and led and organized a team of pastors, prayer partners that pray for the pastor and the ministry of this church on a regular basis. And we share, we share requests, we share ways to pray together specifically that, that go, they go beyond, uh, like what's put out publicly. It's, it's an incredible team of people. It's an incredible ministry. What a support, what a blessing it is to have pastor's prayer partners. How about the AV and tech team? They're behind you, you never see them. But they work hard, they get here early and stay late to make sure that those who are here and those who are watching by live stream can hear and see the words of the gospel and sing the words of the gospel, right? What a great part of the support team. What about financial givers? Week after week and month after month, the people of Harvest give their tithes and offerings to support the work of God that goes on at Harvest. Not all of them are going out to Papua New Guinea like Chris Bousman and Mary Bousman who are there and are here with us and Lord willing are going to be with us several months as part of this furlough. So you've got people like Chris and Mary out there on the field, but we have people that are giving of their financial resources so that people like Chris and Mary can do what they're doing and that we can pay all the expenses for having a campus like this and support our staff and support our 16 missionary families and our local outreaches. That's partnership. All of these ways we partner together. So whether you give of your time, your spiritual gifts, or your financial resources, the elders and I deeply appreciate your partnership in ministry. And looking at a passage today and seeing the way God uses all different kind of people just reminds me that this is a great time and occasion to say thank you for being a partner on the team. to keep it up, to not worry about what others are doing or not doing, not worry about if God asks you to play shortstop or right field or be the designated hitter. It's team. And it's we're working together for the same thing. And let me throw out a couple of points of application in addition as I start to wrap it up. How many Saul's of Tarsus are out there in 2021? How many people are out there today like Saul that are intelligent, that are trained, maybe they're religious, maybe they're strongly religious in one direction, but they're not saved. They're not saved yet. They haven't encountered Jesus personally yet. And so, first of all, would that be any of you? Would that be anybody listening in person or online? You know, we're not talking about Saul or Paul because he's religious. We're talking about him because he met Jesus. And this is the gospel. This is the good news that Christ can save you and change you and that you and I need a relationship with God and it only happens through faith in Jesus. So if that's you, then I would encourage you today to receive him into your life. And for those of you who are believers in Christ, pray for the Saul's in your life. Pray for those who are opposed to Christianity, either overtly or covertly. Secondly, let's not be satisfied when the Saul's become Christians. Oh, it's great, they got saved. All right, let's move on to the next one. This Larger passage that we're dealing with shows how the believers came around this new believer, Saul, and they wrapped their arms around him and they welcomed him and they helped him. And during that time that there had to be times in which they're sharing with him. And that was building him up in his faith. And this is discipleship. And that is the vision of this church to make disciples who will make disciples. Who can you encourage this week? Who can you be the Barnabas for? Maybe that'd be the greatest ministry you have this week. Just putting your arm around somebody and say, Hey, I love you. I'm praying for you. How can I help you? Or let me encourage you in this way. And then for some, you may need to ask yourself a question. Am I, am I a true partner in ministry or am I just a recipient? Am I, am I viewing church through the lens of what's, what's it going to do for me? Or, how can I be used by God to serve others? That's what a partner in ministry is. Somebody who says, I want to be a part of spreading the good news of Christ. So I put these pictures up near the beginning. And I think they fit the passage. I think the driver was Saul. He was the committed servant. Passionate servant. He was the one he was the one that people were seeing out there spreading the message out loud But there was a whole crew a supportive nurturing body that was Like the pit crew that were helping him do it But the true engine and the engineer behind everything was sovereign God He was making it work Because when God builds his church, a lot of people partner together in the work that God is doing. Let's bow our heads together, please. Thanks again for joining us today from Harvest Community Church. 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