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November 26 - Acts 14 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:11
  Hello friends, Sean here. Great to have your company.
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  I hope you're going well on this Tuesday the 26th of November.
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  Boy, less than a month till Christmas now we are getting
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  close to the pointy end of it all.
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  I bet your weeks are starting to fill up.
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  Your Friday nights and Saturday nights are getting full of
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  Christmas functions. Oh isn't this great?
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  Lots of time with friends and colleagues and family and all of
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  the the good things that we get to enjoy at this time of year.
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  Boy, loosen your belts in anticipation of all the good
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  food coming your way. But we are not going to be
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  eating well. You might be eating right now,
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  but for most of us, probably not.
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  As we read the next chapter of this book of Acts and you are
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  starting to see a shift in the story.
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  Now the whole of the church to this point has been blossoming
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  out of Jerusalem where the the kind of the hub or the apex of
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  this movement has become. But now, now we see as these
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  apostles head out and preach and the church starts to grow
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  elsewhere, that the church is not, I guess, domiciled in
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  Jerusalem anymore. But you're getting these other
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  areas that are becoming home bases for these apostles.
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  And one of these is Antioch that you will see begin to get
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  mentioned as a home base. So this is when the church
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  really is starting to spread and take shape beyond its origin,
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  but to become a force of its own as the Holy Spirit moves and
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  builds up both Gentiles and Jews to become a church that will
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  spread to the far reaches of the world.
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  So this is an exciting story. Let us continue read it together
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  as we read today Acts chapter 14.
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  The same thing happened in Iconium.
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  Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached
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  with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks
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  became believers. Some of the Jews, however,
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  spurned God's message and poisoned the minds of the
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  Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas.
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  But the apostles stay there a long time, preaching boldly
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  about the grace of the Lord, And the Lord proved their message
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  was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders.
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  But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about
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  them. Some sided with the Jews and
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  some with the apostles. Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews,
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  along with their leaders, decided to attack and stone
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  them. When the apostles learned of it,
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  they fled to the region of Lyceonia, to the towns of Lystra
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  and Derby and the surrounding area, and there they preached
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  the good news. While they were at Lystra, Paul
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  and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet.
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  He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked.
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  He was sitting and listening as Paul preached.
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  Looking straight at him, Paul realised he had faith to be
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  healed. So Paul called to him in a loud
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  voice. Stand up.
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  And the man jumped to his feet and started walking.
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  When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their
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  local dialect. These men are gods in human
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  form. They decided that Barnabas was
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  the Greek God Zeus and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the
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  chief speaker. Now the temple of Zeus was
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  located just outside the town, so the priest of the temple and
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  the crowd brought bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town
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  gates, and they prepared to offer sacrifices to the
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  apostles. But when the apostles Barnabas
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  and Paul heard what was happening, they tore their
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  clothing in dismay and ran out among the people shouting.
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  Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings just
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  like you. We have come to bring you the
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  good news that you should turn from these worthless things and
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  turn to the living God who made heaven and earth, the sea and
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  everything in them. In the past He permitted all the
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  nations to go their own ways, but He never left them without
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  evidence of Himself and His goodness.
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  For instance, He sends you rain and good crops, and gives you
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  food and joyful hearts. But even with these words, Paul
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  and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from
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  sacrificing to them. Then some Jews arrived from
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  Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side.
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  They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was
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  dead. But as the believers gathered
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  around him, he got up and went back into the town.
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  The next day he left with Barnabas for Derby.
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  After preaching the good news in Derby and making many disciples,
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  Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch of
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  Presidia, where they strengthened the believers.
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  They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them
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  that we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom
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  of God. Paul and Barnabas also appointed
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  elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they
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  turned the elders over to the care of the Lord in whom they
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  had put their trust. Then they travelled back through
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  Presidio to Pamphylia. They preached the Word and Perga
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  then went down to Italia. Finally they returned by ship to
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  Antioch of Syria, where their journey had begun.
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  The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of
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  God to do the work they had now completed.
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  Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and
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  reported everything God had done through them.
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  And now He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles too,
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  and they stayed there with the believers for a long time.
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  Lord, thank you for your good news and for your love and for
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  community. And Lord, we see that as your
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  church grew, they gathered together and supported each
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  other and created a safe space. Our Lord, I thank you for your
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  heart of inclusion and love and grace and acceptance.
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  And Lord, I pray that as we live in Christian community that we
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  would model this to each other so that we can create a space
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  that not only nurtures each other but shows the world a
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  different way of being. So that as they see the way we
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  live, they can be inspired to wonder how this can be.
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  And Lord, that we could point them to you.
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  But more importantly, Lord, I just thank you that no matter
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  how well or poorly we do this, that you do love us, and that
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  you do throw open your arms and invite us into your family.
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  Thank you, Jesus, that you did everything that was required for
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  us to be saved and that with you and through you we stand before
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  your Father and his arms are open wide, accepting us home as
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  that prodigal son or daughter to a dearly loving Heavenly Father.
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  We thank you and we praise you. And it's in your name that we
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  pray all these things. Amen.