Good evening.
We're gonna be finishing X, chapter 12.
Dan was kind enough to leave me with Herod's violent death. Which I appreciate. And we're going to be starting X chapter 13 tonight.
I thought it would be appropriate to
I enjoy chess when you sit down at the chessboard and the games in the middle of it, you want to Survey the pieces, try to understand what's going on before you.
Do anything so I thought we could. Kind of take a moment to survey all the pieces where we're at in the and the narrative here.
Before we before we move forward.
James the Apostle James was just killed by Herod. He was trying to kill Peter, but Peter miraculously escaped And.
Peter really kind of takes . The spotlight isn't on Peter anymore. For the rest of the book of Acts he makes some more appearances, but really the narrative shifts away from the original apostles.
And, Peter. And is now switching gears to, saw. Call. And Barnabas and their missionary journeys.
And. So, the, early church is moving. The gospel is starting.
To go out into all the world. And. And.
This is where we find ourselves. Tonight. And so we're gonna start in. X, 12 verse 20.
Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon.
But they came to him with one accord. And having made blasts the king's personal aid their friend.
They asked for peace because their country was supplied with food by the king's country.
So I would like to play a little game. Herod that name is mentioned all throughout the Old Testament.
New Testament and I was wondering if you all knew how many herds there were. In the Bible.
Does anybody know? How many different herds?
There
So there's at least. 5, maybe 6. Her the Great. Who was the one who renovated the temple.
And he was a herod. That he was The ruler in. Israel at the time of Jesus's birth.
So those would have been the that would have been the herod that again renovated the temple that he would have been the one who The wise men would have come to and spoken with.
He would have been the one who was responsible for the massacre of the innocence all the killing the all the the babies in The area of Bethlehem, around the time that Jesus was born.
So. That's one her the great. There's.
And to pass who was the ruler when Jesus was being crucified. So Jesus went and stood before Herod and this is that's the Herod.
That it's referring to. There is this who is responsible for the death of James. Persecuting the church and who will find out, his gruesome end.
There's another Herod who's mentioned. A little bit later on. Here the Tetriarch.
And then there is. King Agrippa or her to grip of the second who Paul stands before.
At the end of the book of Acts. And who he defends himself before who almost Almost as converted to Christianity comes within a A hair's breadth of being convinced by Paul to become a Christian.
And then there's possibly one other. I don't know if he's mentioned or not, but I think he's mentioned as being the father of somebody.
I think it's in the book of Mark. So I think that there's 6. And all.
But the main ones are her the great. Haird Antipas, Herod Agrippa, and then King Agrippa.
So those are the 4 main sort of herods. If you're just reading through the book, through the, the New Testament, you just keep seeing Herod Herod.
It's kind of like in the Old Testament you see Pharaoh, Pharaoh. Just cause it's the same name doesn't mean the same person.
So. This is the herod that we're talking about here at Agrippa.
He's the one who's responsible for killing. James and we're gonna see what happens to him So again, as we're understanding where everything is at in the world.
In chapter 12
Sorry, chapter 11. Antioch one of the prophets said that there is going to be a great famine throughout all the world And so.
When we get to this point and Herod is very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon.
They seek peace. Because their country was supplied with food. By the Kings country. So.
And if there's a worldwide famine, food shortages. And the people who provide food for you.
Are angry with you. It's important to make peace, right? We don't. I think sometimes living in the United States, we don't.
We don't really rely on other people for food, so. It's not, I don't think sometimes I think like some of these concepts can be difficult, but if you come from a very small country.
That is very reliant on. Importing. Major resources like food. You have to get along with you have to get along with your neighbors because
If things go wrong, then. They can cut you off and it's a bad time. So.
Tire inside on. Those are in current day Lebanon. They are, from the old country of Phoenicia, from way, way back.
I was thinking about just like how old the rest of the world is compared to us.
Tire inside on. Are mentioned. Way, way back in the Old Testament. The.
Including when when Solomon is building the temple and he's building his palace he he goes to Hiram or Hiram the king of Tyre and and he gets all the lumber for the the temple from this king so I mean we're thousands and thousands of years these some of these places have been before.
You know these were these were old places in the world thousands of years ago and so like they've just been around forever.
And, it's, it's funny. The rabbit holes you can you can kind of go down i was thinking about tire in Ezekiel there's proclamations against tire inside on and There's the king of Tyre, which is a specific.
Prophecy or or speaking out against It's an image of Satan himself and and he's referred to as the king of Tyre.
In the New Testament, we see There's a There's a specific time where Jesus goes into that region, tire inside on and he has an interaction with the sirophonician woman.
Who is begging with, he was just. Begging him to heal her daughter whose demon possessed and It's a confusing, to confusing scene, cause he's like, well.
I was sent for the lost sheep of Israel and She's just pleading with him, please, heal my daughter.
And he eventually does. But, I mean, some of these places, like I said, I've just been around forever.
And it's interesting to go back into to look at some of. The history of some of these places and the people and how the Lord has specifically reached them.
And here they are showing up again. In the book of Acts having a conflict with Herod. And they're looking for peace.
Because their food will be cut off if there isn't peace. So in verse 21, so on a set day, Herod arrayed in royal peril.
Sad on his throne and gave an oration to them the people kept shouting the voice of a god and not of a man.
Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.
That's awful.
But the interesting thing is in verse 24 it says but the Word of God grew and multiplied. Dan was joking about we're gonna sing Come All You Faithful and that's contrasting with Herod who's not a faithful person.
But I was interested by this contrast. The voice of a god. Contrasted with the Word of God.
And, and, CS Lewis has a book called Till We Have Faces.
It's a fiction book. But. In it.
He, The god of the mountain who is a depiction of Christ speaks to one of the characters and the character says there's times where a man's voice might trick you and something to the effect of a man's voice my trick you into thinking it's the voice of a god but A God's voice is never mistaken for a man's.
Like if God speaks, you always know that it's God. And if man speaks, sometimes it might trick you, but The voice of God is never, is never.
You're never fooled by it. You always know that it's voice of God.
And I was, I was just interested by this, the voice of a God and the Word of God.
I was thinking about Isaiah chapter 40. 6 through 8. When says all grass is like
The voice said cry out and he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. All of its loveliness is the is like the flower of a field the grass withers and the flower fades because the breath of the Lord blows upon it.
Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever.
The voice of a god. There's this moment where Herod, you know, Stands up gives us great speech and everybody's really moved by it.
I'm thinking if it's the same people of tire inside on. Who he's speaking to, perhaps they're just What's the expression blowing smoke up a skirt just like just trying to to praise him so that he'll give them.
What they want. So they're You know, they're lavishing all this praise on him.
And he doesn't turn around and glorify God. And so in this this moment of exultation for him, he's essentially killed and you know all of his glory withers and fades and it's gone But the Word of God grew and multiplied.
The word of the Lord endures forever. If we if we know nothing else we know that a life invested in the Word of God.
Reaps eternal rewards. It's always an investment worth making because it's the thing that we know that will endure forever.
Everything else is temporary. Everything else in this life. Here today, gone tomorrow. Every one of us could be gone.
We could all die. We could be raptured. We could you know, whatever, whatever it is.
But the word of the Lord is going to keep going on. And so every investment we make into that is worthwhile.
So I thought that. I thought that contrast was interesting, the voice of God and the Word of God.
First 25 and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem. When they had fulfilled their ministry and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.
So again, you know, there's the famine in the world. And. These brothers had been entrusted with a gift to bring down to the believers in Judea.
So they had faithfully. Done their ministry. And now they had returned to Antioch. After they had taken the gift to the brethren they had returned to Antioch so If we're gonna sort of understand the movement here.
Antioch is. Up in like right near Turkey. Syria border. And so They're not in the land of.
Israel and so that's about where they are so they go back to Antioch And now, in chapter 13 in verse one.
Now in the church that was at Antioch there were. There were certain profits and teachers.
Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger. Lucius of Cyrene.
Nene, who had been brought up with Herod the Tetriarch, and saw. So.
Again, we're Axe is not a book of What's the word? Doctrines, but but it it's interesting that like Luke here records that there's profits and there's teachers in this specific gathering.
So even from the very beginning we have We see these spiritual gifts at work in people in the body of Christ.
And here they are. The body of Christ is moving and they're specific individuals who have been given very specific gifts and they're and they're using them.
We see that in verse 2 as they ministered. To the Lord and fasted. The Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
Then having fasted and prayed. And laid hands on them, they sent them away.
I thought verse 2 was interesting that it says as they ministered to the Lord and not as they ministered to each other.
It's like when Saul is on the road. To Damascus and the Lord meets him and he says Saul saw why are you persecuting me?
Not why are you persecuting my people? The Lord took it very The Lord took it very personally.
What Saul was doing. And here again. The Lord takes it very personally when we when we minister.
When we're doing his work As we're ministering to each other. I think this is a good perspective to keep.
We're not really ministering to each other. We're ministering to Jesus. So.
When when you're busy in the local body doing whatever it is that you're doing. That's That's a perspective that we can all keep.
I know that I can lose sight of that sometimes. And this is this is a a timely reminder for me that we're not We're not ministering to each other.
We're ministering to Jesus. So do whatever you would do as you would under him. It's like, you know, that passage in Matthew where Jesus is talking about in the end whenever he comes back and he says you know You fed me when I was naked or you fed me when I was hungry you called me when I was naked all that sort of stuff you visited me when I was in
prison, they're like, when did we ever do that? And he's like, whatever you've done to the least of these, you've done it to me and I think he's trying to.
Perhaps instill that into his that mentality into his followers and Again, it's sort of reiterated here.
Everything that we do is as unto the Lord. It's not as unto men. And I hope that you all are encouraged by that as I as I was whenever I sort of saw that here.
I also thought it was an interesting contrast how in chapter 12.
You know, Peters and Prison. And they're praying. The church is gathered and they're praying for his release and then He comes to them and they almost don't believe it.
And. They're like surprised and i think that's an interesting I think that's very telling on where our like.
Kind of where our faith is like have you ever had an answer to prayer and you were like Really?
I didn't think that was actually going to happen. And that's happened to me before and I've thought, man.
I'm actually surprised that the Lord answered my prayer. Like, why am I praying if I don't actually think he's going to do something, right?
And like, It's interesting here that they kind of have that sort of a response. We're like, really?
Like Peter, like I know that we were praying for it and I know that God hears our prayers and I know that he's interested in us, but like really he answered.
But here we have kind of a contrast where they're praying. And the Holy Spirit says, do something and they just obey.
They just do it. And, there's no, there doesn't seem to be the same sort of shock factor of like, okay, like there's something that we need to do.
Let's just do it. And there's this. Kind of like obedience that.
Goes right along with the answer to the prayer. Which I thought was again just sort of an interesting contrast to the previous previous chapter
So down in verse 4, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit. They went down to Seleucia.
And from there they sailed to Cyprus. So Again, geography. Antioch is inland.
Seleucia is right on the sea. Right on the Mediterranean so as this would be Paul's first missionary journey.
And so we're going to track him starting in Antioch to Salusius, Lucio to Cyprus and then whoever's after me is going to take it from there because we're only going to go to bursts.
12 tonight. We'll get, we'll get on to the island of Cyprus and See what happens there.
So. They go to Selui and from there they sail to Cyprus.
And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the Word of God in the synagogues to the Jews.
They also had John as their assistant. It's interesting because Paul is the you know, is the apostle to the Gentiles, but he always goes to the Jews first, always.
Like everywhere he goes, he's trying to reach the Jews with the gospel. Of course, whenever he goes to a new place, goes to the Jewish synagogue, tries to reach the troops.
And then they also had John as their assistant. That's John Mark. Not John the Apostle.
Now when they had gone verse 6, now when they had gone through the island. To pay foes, they found a certain sorcerer A false prophet, a Jew.
Whose name was Bar Jesus. Who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man.
So
This individual is a sorcerer. He's a Jew. He's a sorcerer, which tells us something right away.
He's a false prophet. Which means that he was claiming to be a prophet of God.
And he was calling himself bar Jesus and as We probably know bar means son of so he was calling himself the son of Jesus.
And he's a false prophet. And He's a sorcerer, so Our hackles should be raised as we interact with this individual.
Something's clearly not right. So this man. Called this man which is Sergius Paulus who is the pro console this man called for Paul and Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
But L. So that name means. Either the enlightened one or a wise man maybe.
So, sort of where this guy's at, he. His name. Is significant even.
He has set himself up as as being This very important person to Sergei's polis. And Barnabas and Saul.
Have now been asked to. To. Bye, Serge's policy. He wants to hear the word of God from them and this guy, Ellie, is very opposed to that.
That's typically Sure sign. I think Dan was talking one time on Wednesday night about if you want to spot a false teacher ask them about Jesus?
Like what did they say about Jesus? And like, I think that's kind of Kind of what we have here is this.
Really wise man the sorcerer this this individual who was claiming to be a prophet calling himself the son of Jesus had surges Paul's ear and he was He was telling him, you know, He was the one who was going to enlighten him.
He was the one who was going to be teaching this guy and he was the one who was going to be teaching this guy and he was going to, you know.
So he had a lot of skin in the game because his position his proximity to Sergei's Palace was He was a very important person and now these new people are coming in.
And they were going to tell surges Paulus the Word of God and he did not want that to happen because he was going to be exposed to the fraud.
And so he's trying to resist this as much as he can. And that's always a clear sign of.
Somebody who is not going though not teaching something that they ought to teach you not going the way that they ought to go.
Is when the truth, when they're confronted with the truth, how do they respond? And so.
Here's how L. Responds but LMS the sorcerer For so he his name is translated withstood them.
Seeking to turn the pro console away from the faith. Then Saul who was also called Paul.
So this is a pretty sure the first time that he's referred to as Paul. In The book of Acts, fall, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil.
You enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight way of the Lord?
And now indeed. The hands of the Lord is upon you. And you shall be blind not seeing the sun for a time.
So. Paul can talk some serious trash.
But it's significant, right? Oh, full of all the seat and all fraud. So here's this man who's saying his name means the wise one or the enlightened one.
Paul's refuting that. You you're you're not the enlightened one you are full of all the seat you're full of all.
You're a fraud. You are the son of the devil. You're not son of Jesus.
Like this, like you're claiming to be something, but you're actually the exact opposite. And so, immediately.
Continuing on and immediately a darkness fell on him and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
Then the pro console believed. When he saw what had been done being astounded at the teaching.
Of the Lord. So,
The As often was the case before we had. Before we had the the full Word of God. In, in the early days, the signs were to validate the teaching, right?
They, it wasn't just to, it wasn't a wow factor. It was because the signs were to authenticate.
What it was that they were there that what they were teaching and and what they were telling was the word of god and that was validated by the fact that this Very.
Seemingly very powerful, very, this person of prominence had essentially been shut down.
And and It's interesting that the pro console believed. Being astonished at the it was the teaching of the Lord that was astonishing to him it wasn't the fact that they had this.
Miraculous power to to make somebody blind for a time it was it was hearing the word of the Lord that was so critical to Sergei's policy.
And I thought that was interesting as well.
The next section, it was too long to go into because it's kind of a doesn't really have a break for a while.
So I thought whoever would go next could could delve into the next part, but it's interesting that the the pieces are moving the word is is going out to the ends of the earth.
The The original apostles. Are starting to. They're starting to be killed they're starting to sort of If you will take a back seat.
And As far as the axe narrative goes. Luke is following as the the inkblot is spreading into the rest of the world and as the the gospels going into to new regions, new lands.
Just like it said in the beginning, you know, Stay in Jerusalem, go on to Judea, go into Samaria and go to the ends of the earth.
And so this is This is a continuation of reaching the ends of the earth. It's going into places it's Never been before and We're gonna follow Paul.
As he sort of now is stepping into the. The driver seat of the narrative for the pretty much the remainder of the book of Acts is as he's taking it to new places further places than It's ever been taken before.
And I was just encouraged to be reminded again that
It's the word of the Lord that endures forever. And as we minister, we're ministering to the Lord, not to men.
I hope that you all are encouraged by that as well. Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity that we've had to open your word.
Thank you. That
It's the quality of. The gifts that we give, not the quantity and that, you can do a lot with a little.
And Lord, we just pray that these Simple thoughts, these simple remembrances. Of.
Your word would be honoring to you and that we would. Just take whatever bit of. Truth or knowledge that you've and parted it into our hearts and that we would live.
We would live for you in a way that is pleasing. It's in Jesus name that we pray.
Thank you. Luke. Some good guidelines for us there. And, We bless the study of the Word of God tonight.
And.
1, 2, tell you about.
Or schedule. Coming up, and that is on Sunday. I don't know if the ladies are meeting on tomorrow.
No, no meeting for the ladies tomorrow. For the break I'm sure. And also next Wednesday?
No, we'll have a meeting next Wednesday, but not the ones day between the 2 icon.
N, not between Christmas and New Year's. Hey, but Lord willing on Sunday we have all Sheriff from Friends of Israel.
He's been here. Recently this year or he's been here this year He and his wife Linnet will be here and if there's a song leader in the audience, they will be taking.
The songs his wife is going to sing 2 songs for us and the beginning and one at the end. So I don't know if we need.
Any others we're gonna make up for that by singing lots of songs on on Christmas Day So please or Christmas Eve.
And. And so that's. The plan for this coming Sunday with Paul Sharp.
He's going to give a Christmas type or method message on the theme and Friends Viseral Coursewood.
Like their ministry and they're I'm sure quite involved in the the difficulties that are going on and Gaza right now.
And fair requests. Involve prayer for the Killer kids, Esther Serena and Noah on the plane probably as we speak flying from Bogota to New York City.
Through the long night and then Getting on another plane from is it are they in JFK? From JFK to Chicago.
Dan will pick them up Lord willing tomorrow at 10. So we look forward to hearing. Their news of on their weekend Columbia with our brother on us.
Was Panida.
And. So it was over hearing a bit about Joel Hansen and his recovery from this. A cancer.
That he has on his tongue. And quite an extensive surgery 9 h. This is at the Mayo Clinic.
And Joel is. But his sister and and And so in your basets aunt, uncle, when he does his uncle.
And so we know the Hansen family. Really well out of Sheboygan and Joel was here for a time.
When he was at UWM. And we pray for his. Health and his family and his recovery here.
On the sick. Perilous if you could pray also for my brother-in-law, Alec Crawford.
He had double pneumonia. And around Thanksgiving time, our Thanksgiving time.
And has been in the hospital ever since trying to get over this. He's still having difficulty. Walking at 86 and And so Ruth and I are going over to see him.
In the will of the Lord next Thursday and we'll be gone for little over 2 weeks hoping that you'll be at home and we can get him situated and understand his situation.
So. Put us in your prayers. Also like you to pray for my friend Dan Murns who's making this big trip to India with his wife Charlotte.
They have a long time ministry. In the country of India and right now they are in Bangalore with some believers there.
And coming back in and I think the twentieth.
Still no word on, car situation after that car was total in the in the. Desperate collision they had fortunately minor injuries it appears to Dan and Laura but still shaking off some bumps and bruises, I believe.
Do you have other prayer requests?
Yes, Mary.
So, Yeah, Okay. Yes.
Any others? Oh yes, I'm sorry. The request is to pray for Mary's, brother George.
We've seen here from time to time. Over the years past and and hasn't heard from him.
He's in the Milwaukee area and Mary would like to make contact with them for the Christmas time.
And And. Yeah. He'll be all right, George.
Batnik is that I said. Personage. Okay.
Joel Schultes traveling, I believe, in Texas, business. Trip bread and tonight so
Go from there. Chef Takis is scheduled to be our preacher at the last Sunday of the year coming out of Montana.
We back and be around here the Christmas week if you like to have fellowship with him. I'm sure you like that.
And. With day 13. We can look in the book.
For.
Or
Well, for the country, Poland. We'll do, the country of Poland.
40 million people right on the border of Ukraine involved with a lot of that activity.
41 assemblies. And.
20 different languages. Can you believe that? It's hard to. I know one of them is what's the name of that language, Ruth?
Hmm.
Polish, nobody. But the other one.
And think of it.
Northside Bible Fellowship commended. Merrick and Beata Marzik There's son Adam is 18 years old.
And he they're from Alberta and been in the books since 2,002 in the city of Ruklov.
Broke glove. And then. And, and, and, Good Polish name. Also their son Daniel is 20.
And there, they've been there since. 1998. Commended from Wheaton, Illinois, Bethany Chapel.
And so there's the country of Poland. The, the people we've known in the past.
Are the Hughes, Patrick and Cindy Hughes, they're located in Marion, Illinois.
And they are refocused. And commended also from Bethany Chapel. They served in Poland from 2,004 until just recently.
So, Poland. And then. Yeah.
Keshubia, that's it, the Kashubian language. You know that one from Poland?
It's a kind of a. A major language really in sub-group. Yeah, I'm Poland.
Unreached people group day 13 are the Kermis, Kermis are in India. Seem to be sort of near.
New Delhi that area toward Nepal and toward Bangladesh. 22 million unreached.
They have the complete Bible written. Yeah, estimated Christians a little bit greater than 1, one tenth of a percent.
And probably in an area where the persecution is. Considerable. So, on reach people group.
Just making a note of this, sorry.
Well, Father, we bless the Word of God and the teaching by our brother Luke this evening and we are Hmm.
Impressed by the. Fact that ministry you people is is essentially ministering to the Lord. Lord, that helps us.
And get over some, get over difficulties possibly and menacing to those in need and yet, difficult.
To. A fellowship with can I say and we pray Lord for our, the great wonderful work you've.
Giving us here at Wala Tosa Bible Chapel over the years. And on.
And the brothers and sisters here and the families. We ask you Lord to guard us during these long.
Evenings and short days and we. We pray for safety and on the roads in the night times and and also for Just encouragement to warm our hearts around the Word of God.
And your people as we meet. Throughout the week and we bless the ministry on Sunday. And the opportunity to remember you Lord Jesus.
As the earliest disciples. Did so and through the long centuries. We continue to do this in remembrance of you.
Lord Jesus Christ and and proclaim your death in May.
Maybe do it graciously in the days ahead. Thank you for giving us the grace of God and showing us your love, Lord Jesus.
And really condescending the come down from heaven and take. The framing body of a man and become true man and born of a virgin as prophesied and And yet,
Mard more than any man as we. Looked at last last Sunday. So, we. Thank you for loving us, Lord.
Jesus and communicating with us or your spirit. And through your word. And now we also want to pray for all those people who participated in the so-called, well, the talent program last Sunday and Christmas.
Themes of your birth, Lord Jesus, and we bless the like children for being interested in.
In communicating. Who you are and what you've done and and how you. Can save save souls.
To so