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October 9 - Acts 14 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends. It is Sean here it is Holiday
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  Sean here. I am having a week off so I
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  don't have to go to work. I just get to sit around all day
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  and read the Bible for you and for me and for anyone who's
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  interested in listening. That's not quite how it works,
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  but I hope you are doing well and that Monday artist isn't too
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  bad for you because it's pretty great from where I am.
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  This week is a good week. We are going to continue reading
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  through the week in the book of Acts and that's going to be
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  great before we of course finish off with the Psalm on Friday.
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  And this is the part where we really are going to be hearing
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  about the mission outreach of this new church as it really
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  starts to spread and then start to grapple with big questions of
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  what does church look like if this is going to be a really
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  large expanding group that centralized control is kind of
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  losing their grasp on. So grappling with these big
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  questions of church and just seeing the Holy Spirit doing
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  incredible things. So why don't you come with me,
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  folks, back all those millennia back to see what Paul and
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  Barnabas and Co are doing. As we read together in Acts
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  chapter 14, 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 stayed there a long time, preaching boldly
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  about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their
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  message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and
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  wonders. But the people of the town were
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  divided in their opinion about them.
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  Some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles.
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  Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders,
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  decided to attack and stone them.
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  When the apostles learned of it, they fled to the region of
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  Lycaonia, to the towns of Lystra and Derby and the surrounding
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  area, and there they preached the good news.
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  While they were in Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man
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  with crippled feet. He had been that way from birth,
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  so he had never walked. He was sitting and listening.
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  As Paul preached, looking straight at him, Paul realized
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  he had faith to be healed. So Paul called to him in a loud
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  voice, stand up, and the man jumped to his feet and started
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  walking. When the crowd saw what Paul had
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  done, they shouted. In their local dialect, these
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  men are gods in human 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 it. 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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  Persidia, where they strengthen 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 have
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  appointed elders in every church with prayer and fasting.
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  They turn the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they
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  had put their trust. Then they traveled back through
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  Passidia to Pamphilia. They preached the word and
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  perjure, then went down to Italia.
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  Finally they returned by ship to Antioch of Syria, where their
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  journey had begun. The believers there had
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  entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work they had now
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  completed. Upon arriving in Antioch, they
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  called the church together and reported everything God had done
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  through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the
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  Gentiles too. And they stayed there with the
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  believers for a long time. Jesus, the truth about you
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  demand such massive change in our life.
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  We can't continue living the way we always did when all of a
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  sudden we realized that you are the prize.
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  You are The great goal of our life.
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  And so confronting was that for these folks, back when the early
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  church was beginning, that they just didn't know how to respond.
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  I pray that the power and the influence of your message
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  continues to burn in us today so brightly that we can't just put
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  you on a shelf, Lord quietly tuck you under the sheets and
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  leave you there through the day. But that you in our hearts would
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  just burn, shaping the way that we make every decision, sharing
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  your love and telling of your presence and forgiveness to all
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  those we come in contact with. Use us mightily in your Kingdom.
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  We pray this in your name, Jesus.
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  Amen.