Paul and Barnabas continue this missionary journey through Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe with great success and at great peril. Paul is a very convincing preacher for the gospel - he was very likely the most brilliant of his age as a Pharisee and now he is turned loose to preach salvation through faith in Jesus Christ! The preaching of the Word is accompanied by signs and wonders that follow, and the crowds grow and grow.
Some of the pagan worshippers of Zeus begin to mistakenly attribute Paul and Barnabas as the incarnation of their god's. Paul, of course, will not hear of this and turns the moments into a revival!
Paul and Barnabas backtrack through the areas where they have preached, and ultimately return to Antioch - the city where they were commissioned from - to report on the success of the ministry. God is opening doors for the gospel message, and persecution naturally follows. Do not be surprised friends when all manor of evil is spoken about you - in fact, perhaps we should examine ourselves if we are not under attack....
About Me
- Pastor Bill
- I am a committed follower of Jesus Christ, a happy husband, father and grandfather!
3 comments:
I love your comment on examining ourselves if we are not under attack from the enemy.
I heard a story once (maybe from you), about a young Christian in college who was taking classes in Christian theology (or whatever it is called in college).
Anyway, the student approaches the teacher and tells him how badly the enemy attacked him during the first semester of the class.
He went on to boast that the second semester was much easier for him, and he was grateful the enemy was no longer attacking him.
He asked the teacher's opinion, and the teacher replied that he would be MORE worried about the lack of attacks.
He stated that perhaps the enemy no longer saw him as a threat.
I have used this story to monitor my spiritual growth as I learn and exercise my faith.
I WANT to be a threat to the enemy.
Now I also remember you telling me that sometimes God will prevent attacks so the believer can rest up, restore his strength and go back out with the armor firmly in place.
I relish the resting periods, but I know I am on the right track when I am being oppressed by the enemy.
I just need to learn to do MORE reading, learning and witnessing during the resting periods.
I love God's plan and I love you for helping me understand His ways, motives and love for me.
God Bless You.
I never realized/remembered before that Paul was actually stoned - he just survived it. What a thing to go through! I love his response to the people treating them as gods. He doesn't belittle what they have believed - he just reframes it in a way to show them something different and deeper. Indeed, persuasive.
We had a healing service in worship today at Franklin Lakes - and I was talking about faith and how it is our faith, not our goodness or worthiness, that makes God able to work with us despite our brokenness.
Wow - it really sticks out to me that Paul gets stoned here. Just a few moments ago, he was the one stoning people that follow Christ, and now he was the receiver. How crazy is that? Not only that, but the people are sure that he is dead, yet he survives, and is able to continue preaching the Good News.
I had my bachelor party this weekend, and we had an awesome cookout, camp out, swimming at the beach, cards, fire, and fellowship. It was awesome. The enemy however, was what came up when people realized that I would be having a bachelor party that did not involve strippers or alcohol. Pretty crazy. What's awesome is that doing so opened the door to have many positive conversations about faith and marriage because of the context, that wouldn't have come up elsewhere. Little bit of the enemy, lot of Christ's successes. I will keep showcasing my faith in my life, and I plan on being persecuted for it. I'm not too excited about it, but I know it's all of God's plan for me as a believer.
God bless,
Marshall
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