12-14-25 Study of Acts Chapter 13:42-52 The Troubling Gospel

➡ This Bible study focuses on the Book of Acts, specifically chapter 13, which discusses the transition of the church’s focus from Jewish Israel to the Gentiles. It highlights the role of Peter, Cornelius, and Paul in this transition, with Paul being the apostle for the Gentile Church. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding the historical context of the Book of Acts and applying its teachings to current situations. It also discusses the different ways Jews, hybrids, and Gentiles were dealt with in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the rest of the world, respectively.
➡ The text discusses the spread of Christianity from Jerusalem to Judea, Samaria, and the Gentile world, emphasizing the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. It highlights the role of apostles in spreading the gospel and initiating change in the societal and governmental structures of cities and towns. The text also underscores the importance of active participation by the church and individuals in seeking change, rather than relying on political processes. Lastly, it mentions the impact of the gospel in different communities, including the Gentile community of Antioch, and the ongoing relevance of these historical events today.
➡ The text discusses the historical conflicts and divisions within the Jewish community, particularly focusing on the influence of Ashkenazi Jews and the Roman Catholic Church. It suggests that these divisions and conflicts have roots in biblical times and have continued into the present day. The text also highlights the role of various figures and groups in these conflicts, including the Sanhedrin, Simon the Magician, and the Apostle Paul. It concludes by suggesting that these historical conflicts have implications for understanding current geopolitical issues, particularly those involving Israel.
➡ The text discusses the historical conflicts between Jews and Gentiles, focusing on the term “anti-Semitism” and its implications. It also talks about the role of the Roman Empire and the UK in colonization, and how these historical events relate to current societal issues. The text emphasizes the divisive nature of the Gospel, stating that it often causes conflict because it presents the truth, which can be hard for people to accept. It concludes by stating that preaching the Gospel can lead to division, but ultimately, unity takes shape through this division.
➡ The text discusses the impact of the gospel, stating it often causes division rather than unity. It suggests that if the gospel was truly preached in liberal communities, it would cause a split. The text also emphasizes the importance of understanding a person’s relationship with Jesus Christ when voting them into office. It further discusses the struggle of finding a comfortable philosophy in life, and how the gospel can disrupt this, likening it to a boulder being dropped into a placid pool. The text concludes by stating that the gospel can initially seem positive, but can cause things to fall apart as its implications are processed.
➡ The text discusses the importance of being a good teacher, particularly in the context of teaching the Gospel. It emphasizes that a great teacher makes people want to learn more and encourages them to study independently. The text also highlights the importance of being open to learning, being persistent, and acting immediately on what the Holy Spirit is asking. Lastly, it suggests that it’s better to accept Christ in the present than in the future.
➡ Paul and Barnabas taught people about the Holy Spirit and the importance of testing its authenticity. They emphasized the need for clarity in understanding whether it’s truly the Holy Spirit speaking to you or not. They also encouraged people to continue in the grace of God, highlighting the importance of changing belief systems from law to grace. Lastly, they stressed the need for boldness and courage in establishing one’s ministry and effecting change in their community.

Welcome. This is Sunday Morning, our Bible study. We’re into the Book of Acts and this is going to be, I think, the last discussion we have on chapter 13. Now chapter 13 is a transitional chapter from the focus of the Jewish, the Jewish Israel side of the church, moving directly into the Gentiles. This is the transitionary book we looked at. The first part of this was Peter and Cornelius, the first Gentile to be saved and the process of salvation, which is the calling. We’ve gone through that in, in a significant amount of detail so that you understand calling happens one way.

And now we have moved in the middle of chapter 13 into Paul. And Paul being brought in as the apostle for the Gentile Church. And along with him are five other individuals in the city of Antioch for the creation of the first Gentile Church. Now the ministry of Paulo Bartimas in the city of Antioch was in a region called Pisidia. Now we’re going to talk history. Okay? That’s all we’ve been talking about in Acts anyway, is history. All right? There’s nothing here other than a historical reference in what took place in history in the creation of the church.

So, so throughout the Book of Acts, this is a history book and the history book it, because this is a living Bible, the history book never goes away. All we’re doing is re writing our own chapter in Acts. Okay? So you need to make sure that when you study Acts, you study it from a historical reference and not some narrative that has no, that has no character in, associated with what’s going on today. Because exactly what happened then is exactly what’s happening today. Okay? So when you study Acts, you need to put it in a frame of reference that allows you to come to the conclusion that you understand what’s going on today.

And why is that important? Because the only way that we can make a change today is to follow what the apostles did in the Book of Acts. There’s no other way to change the environment unless we change it in accordance to what the Book of Acts gives us as the reference point that Paul did in creating the Gentile Church. That’s very important because I, I loved a news commentary last night. No, it was this morning on Fox and Friends when they were talking about the, the, the murders or the terrorist attacks and murders in Australia. And the guy that came on Fox and Friends said, you know, we have a problem.

We cannot, we cannot correct a 2025 issue using a 2005 tool set. What have we talked about? Okay, you have to bring up, bring forward the tools that are provided in scripture into current technology. Time to fight the evil in that time. And we’ve talked about that. Now it’s coming out on mainstream media. The fact that basically people are understanding that you have to deal with current situations in current technology times using the ancient scriptures of how you do it. That’s what we’re living in. That’s what we got to do. That’s what this book of Acts does for us.

So Paul and Barnabas were two of the five pastors, if you recall, at the Church of Antioch of Syria, A different Antioch than what you understand today. And they had been called by the Holy Spirit to come out of Antioch of Syria and carry the Gospel to the pagan world, to the Gentile world. The creation of the Gentile church. Now their first adventure was on an island of Cyprus. We’re just doing a little history because they’ve not been together for a while. And I’m going to lay some foundation here. And that we saw in the first 13 verses of chapter 13 the gospel spreading to the Gentile territory began its conquest in Cyprus.

Cyprus in the Old Testament is the same Cyprus today. They had a, they had a wonderful time doing it in Cyprus because the church began to group and they also ran into conflict head to head with one of Satan’s demonic possessed sorcerers. Okay, what do you have today? Same thing, head to head, demonic possessed sorcerers. We have that today. You have it in the pulpit of the church today, the corporate church. They saw victory in the life of Sergius Paulus who was converted. This was the demonic possessed sorcerer that they came into, into face to face in, in Cyprus.

Now they went on from there to the second stop of their first ministry journey and that was the city of Antioch. Now arriving in the city of Antioch, Paul preached in the Jewish synagogues. This is important. We talked about the reasons why he done this. We’ve given a lot of positioning on why he did that. Number one, it was a captive audience. They knew Paul was number two. He wanted to show respect to the Jewish leadership so he’d always go to the synagogue first. And number three, there were Jews that were converted into Christianity that were part of the synagogues because that was the only corporate church at that time.

So they would go to the synagogue to listen to the rabbis, read the scriptures and worship that way. But, but Paul went first to the synagogues before he went into the Gentile community to preach the Gospel. Now there was the fact also that they knew well the Old Testament scriptures, right? They knew all about the Old Testament Scripture. Why? Because that was the law. So and Paul was Jewish. Paul was educated at the highest levels of knowledge base from the most knowledgeable scholastic teachers at that time. And Paul knew the law and he was part of the Sanhedrin.

So he had all of the credentials for the Jewish synagogue to listen to him. And he did this in a way know your audience. He did this in a way that he went in with that as his background and came out with teaching them the Gospel. Remember what I said? God doesn’t change you in regards to who you are, what you’ve done in your past. He uses it and molds it for his glory. And that’s exactly what he did with Paul the. Our. The. Our main example of the apostle for the Gentile church. And they made him a part of the ready audience to allow them to speak because that was the protocol at the synagogues.

If, if you went in and sat and they recognized you after the rabbis, even today, Jewish tradition, even today, if the Ra, when after the rabbis read the scripture, whatever they’re reading for the day, if they notice somebody in the audience that they recognize, they will invite them to speak. That’s done today. So when he arrived at the synagogue, he was invited to preach. And Barnabas and he setting in the congregation were noticed by the leaders. And Paul was invited to preach in the gift. He started off by making sure that they were on the same page with him.

He began talking about the Law, the Old Testament, and migrated real quickly into the Gospel. He changed it on them during his preaching. And what happened, it was most devastating to the Jewish leadership. Matter of fact, it was shattering. And it happened in the city of Antioch, say Jewish leadership at the time, and I want to say at the time, because you can filter it directly into the cultural of the Jewish community today. They endeavored under their leadership to maintain some kind of a placid equilibrium and some kind of a balance that was absolutely shattered by the preaching of Paul.

They want to maintain that balance in the Old Testament law and not the New Testament Gospels. That is done today in the orthodox Jewish communities. But before we be too surprised about this, we would call to mind the fact that the Gospel, whenever it was purely proclaimed in the midst of sin, period, didn’t matter. And wherever there are unsaved people is bound to have results that are going to be shattering. Pentecost. So in the book of Acts provide you a systematic chart, not in short format, but in verbiage, a systematic chart of exactly how the church was established.

So Acts being rhetorical is a history book of the church in its early years. And it began in Jerusalem, right? The Great Commission. It will start in Jerusalem with the Jews. It will go to Judea Jews, it will go to Samaria, transitioning into Gentiles to the. To the hybrids, Jews marrying Gentiles. And then it would be taken into the rest of the world Gentile Church. So that is what the Book of Acts gives you. You also got to remember this when you study the Book of Acts. Every one of those, Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, to the rest of the world, have different dispensation periods.

The Jews are dealt with one way in Jerusalem. Remember John the Baptist. The Jews are dealt way differently in Judea. The hybrids are different, are dealt with differently in Samaria. And the Gentiles are dealt with differently in the rest of the world. All different dispensations of coming to faith in Christ. All different methods of process. Okay? You don’t have one process that people like to throw out today of Acts 2:38. That is not the same process for Jews in Jerusalem, for Jews in Judea, for hybrids in Samaria or the Gentile world to be used as their dispensation to come to salvation in Christ.

So the Gospel was preached and Jerusalem exploded. You got that in Acts 2 with. With Pentecost, there was havoc among the leaders. Okay, you got that by Stephen, right? Stephen went in front of the leaders, if you recall. And we’re closing this transition up, so we’re going to migrate through a lot of this history. Stephen went in front of the Jewish leadership to proclaim their knowledge of the Messiah and the fact that they had rejected the Messiah and this was their last, last time that they would be have the opportunity to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

Stephen in preaching too, or you might call it providing an expose of his trial in front of the Jewish leaders. So in this process, there was chaos among the people. What’s going on today? No different in the church today than what it was then. Church leadership back then was Jewish leadership. Church leadership today is corporations. Whatever religious faction you want to put to a corporation, that is your church leadership. There was persecution that came about at that time, and there was bitter opposition to what the apostles were teaching. What do we have today? No difference. In fact, the leaders hated the apostles.

They hated what they were teaching. They hated Christianity. And it all began with their hate for Jesus Christ. That began to change the times. But the reaction was just like a grass fire through Jerusalem. Once the apostles begin to preach after they had saturated Jerusalem. And everybody came to Jerusalem to hear what this change was going on in the world. The people who were taught to receive the message in Jerusalem begin to go home. And when they went home to Judea and to Samaria, they began to tell others what they had heard. And it was the dispensation that was required to allow them to actually receive the faith and salvation from the teachings that these people begin to teach in their home countries.

And that was why John and Peter, okay, went to those areas to what, lay hands on them and pray over them. And upon that process, they were able to receive salvation. Now, you got to remember, we’re talking about not only salvation as a belief, we’re talking about the. The concept of the Holy Spirit coming inside of them and sealing their fate. Because this was after Christ’s death and the Holy Spirit had already come at Pentecost. So the dispensation to allow them to receive salvation was culminated with the process of the Holy Spirit coming inside of them.

Okay? Because remember, the Old Testament saints didn’t have that. The New Testament faith believers were the ones to receive that. So the, the process after Jerusalem was an apostle had to go to that area to witness the fact of the conversion process and to provide the vehicle to allow them to receive the Holy Spirit. That was what’s going on. So the gospel moved from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria, and as Jesus Christ put forth in scripture, it spread into those areas and with devastating results, revolutionizing the cities and towns. Okay, let’s stop here a moment. Let’s make sure we connect the dots.

When the Holy Spirit came into those cities and towns, so did their government change? Right? The apostles. The second reason the apostles had to go into those cities and towns, not just because of the dispensation process of the individuals receiving the Holy Spirit, but, but they were to move out. They were to exercise the pagan system and move it into hell and place God’s governmental system into those townships and cities in order for the church to be governed in accordance to the rules that God had set in place for the church to be governed. Okay, so let’s stop with it.

Today we got a government. We got cities and towns that go. That govern outside of the church. So we’re back into the process of exactly what the apostles did away with when they took the gospels into the town. So I’m bringing this point up for one more confirmation to you that the only way that we will be able to turn our cities and towns around is to do it just like the apostles did. In Acts, okay? You can’t do it any other way. You can’t vote them out. That doesn’t happen, okay? This is a spiritual component.

You have to change the system. We think we can vote people in to change the system and walk away and say, okay, it’s going to take care of itself. That is not how this works. You must be involved as the church, like the apostles were involved as the church and in the times of Acts in order to create a change environment that the Holy Spirit can take over and change. I’m going to give you just a point. The Holy Spirit doesn’t go change anything. I want you to hear me. The Holy Spirit sends a calling, right like you sends a calling to whatever they are trying to change, whatever it is trying to change.

And the people have to respond in order for the Holy Spirit to do what it’s asking to do. God works through man. He doesn’t come and take charge of anything in this world. The fallen state. This is Lucifer’s fallen state. If you want a change, you must seek the Holy Spirit as the change agent and then wait upon the Holy Spirit to do its thing. That is how the apostles went into the area. Because the what the people changed. They requested salvation. They got the Holy Spirit. And in that process, the Holy Spirit said, we will change the cities and townships government from a pagan rule to a holy rule.

Those cities and towns that were not on the conversion path of salvation never got changed. Okay, so we can’t have a mindset as we talked this past week, we can’t have a mindset that says, oh well, let’s just elect somebody else into this and we’ll be good to go. That will not make any change. Say when the apostles took the gospel into Judea and Samaria, the same devastating results begin to happen in those areas. It revolutionized the cities and towns and turning. Here’s something else. Turning things upside down. That scripture, turning things upside down. Where did you first get that? In the Old Testament that says everything is upside down.

You need to view this world upside down. So what was he, what were they doing in the New Testament? They were, they were writing the wrong of the Old Testament prophecies by turning things upside down, meaning right side up DNA. And we’ve, we’ve said that everything has a DNA. I want you to think about it. Everything has a DNA. Your trees have a DNA. Your grass has a DNA. Your dirt has a DNA. The bricks that you have on your house has a DNA. The wood that you set in a chair has a DNA, it all lives because it’s all energy.

So what did the apostles do? They went into the cities with the energy of the Holy Spirit. They converted the people. And in the conversion everything was turned right side up. The DNA of the cities in town were now pointing upward. Not like this, okay? People committed to Christ and others hating them and fighting them and resisting them. And the forces of God and good were set against the forces of Satan and evil. The system, the system of control in the cities and towns was what was going on in this conversion, in setting up the churches.

That’s how it was with the gospel and that is how it is with the gospel. You see now we have the roadmap. Now we have the information that we need to create the change agent with the Holy Spirit. What is, is teaching the gospel. It’s teaching the gospel. Once you teach the gospel and people are begin to convert because why people want the truth and the truth will change them. They will be changed as soon as they hear it. Whether or not they’re saved at that moment in time or not, they will be changed. The Holy Spirit does when it, when the whole, when the gospel is spoken, the Holy Spirit is acted upon in any way you change.

You might not be regenerated or transformed at that point, but you’re changed. Just hearing the Holy Spirit words from scripture changes the environment. That’s the roadmap of the change agent for changing your cities in town. It’s the church becoming what again? The church. So now Paul is preaching the good news of Jesus Christ and it reaches the city of Antioch. Antioch was a complete gentile community. It has the same devastating effect in the gentile community as it had in the Jewish community. Paul Barnabas arrive and the whole place blows up in a matter of a week.

And all of the finely tuned equilibrium that somebody works so hard to preserve and keep the various racial factions. Okay, racism is not a current day event. Racism happened in Old Testament. All you’re doing is is need to identify the fact that that’s your history and not something that was created in today’s society. And then you can go to the Old Testament and understand how they dealt with it so that you can understand how to deal with it today. They tried to find out some kind of way to bring about sort of at least a superficial peace.

Were absolutely thrown apart by Paul Barnabas. That’s the Holy Spirit. Basically. The Holy Spirit crushed culture, crushed culturism, crushed racism in ancient times. See that’s an interesting thing to study of the early church to find that the most cases of chaos that existed then and the persecution came directly from Israel. And it’s a sad thing because you see, Christ was the Messiah of Israel. And Israel were the people of the promises and the covenants. And to them was the adoption and so forth and so on. All right, let’s stop here a moment. The Ashkenazi Jews came into play in the Israel nation of Israel in Malachi before Matthew.

Yashkenazi Jews, as you will learn when you get into Daniel, became aligned with the Roman Empire. To thwart the nation of Israel and the acceptance of the Messiah as the Messiah in Christianity. You think the state of Israel is something brand new? No, it is not. It is not. The concept of the Roman Empire Catholic Church and the concept of Israeli, not Israelite Israeli happened in Daniel’s time. He was there with Jeremiah and Ezra and Nehemiah and. And Ezekiel. It was there at that time the biggest faction over the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, was Israel itself.

Why? Because the infiltration of the Ashkanazi Jews in Malika. Not today. Not today. Back then, Romans 9 and 4 and 5, everything that God had designed, he had designed initially for Israel. And yet all throughout the early church and all throughout the life of Christ, Israel played the devil’s advocate. Why? Because it was the Israelis, as we know today, State of Israel, not the Israelites, that were in control over the leadership of the Jewish people. What did Christ say to the Sanhedrin which were the Jewish leadership care of your father the devil? And then he goes on to speak to them as not being Jews.

So the infiltration had already happened. And Israel was given everything. They rejected it and and fought against it all. And really played the part of Satan’s advocate throughout all history. That’s the reason why Israel, when it became captive in the Babylonian empire of Nebuchadnezzar, has never come out of captivity. Today. You can go to Jerusalem, for example, today. And the early church in Jerusalem in chapter 4, 5 and 7 charts persecution. And all of that persecution is directly from the Jews against Christ and Christians. Ashkenazi Jews that infiltrate, excuse me, the nation of Israel and took part of charge of its leadership.

So the Gospel moved into Samaria in chapter eight. And you come to Samaria and you find antagonism. And the man who antagonizes is Simon the Magician. Recall now, here is the foundation of the Catholic Church. Simon Peter was not the founder of the Catholic Church. Simon Peter’s bones are not in the walls of the Roman Catholic Church. Simon the Magician. Simon Petra Trans. Translate. That last name is Peter. There is the law of duality that exists in front of you that many of you never even heard this before that that was the creator of the Roman Catholic Church.

That is absolutely true. Not Simon Peter the Apostle. I know something just came to me that, that to. It was on the news today again at the same thing talking about the terrorist attack on Jews in the time of Hanukkah. Hanukkah’s this week. And they spoke about the fact that this is coming from Islamic. Islamic. I want you to think about this Islamic religion. And what, what I’ve tried to get you to focus on a little bit is the difference between a biblical Muslim from Ishmael’s twelve tribes that God granted him to the Islamic state that was created by the Roman Catholic Church with Muhammad to do what? Go after Jews.

So think about this. If the Ashkenazi Jews infiltrated the nation of Israel in its leadership at the time of Daniel, Then the transfer of that infiltration to a societal culture became prevalent by the Roman Catholic Church in establishing Islam as a religion. So since the days of before Muhammad when the Roman Catholic Church got a nun out of Saudi Arabia called Kadidra to seduce Muhammad to bring him inside the church to to be the leader of this Islam religion cult, the Roman Catholic Church was fueling the infiltration of the nation of Israel. And if you don’t believe me, just go look at the days of Christ.

The Jewish leaders over the Roman Catholic Church at the time went to Pilate and says what you got to kill this guy? Paul says I don’t see anything that he’s done wrong. It was the create this founding of the Roman Catholic Church that actually put Christ on a cross. That sink in a moment. So Simon the magician was neither a full Jew or a half Jew. So you come a little further into the city of Damascus and the conversion of the apostle Paul takes place. Paul is there in Damascus and immediately finding the Jews are filled with wrath and with persecution begins and it is again generated by what the Jews.

How best to change the world than infiltrate the people who are supposed to be the light of the world. The nation of Israel. Now so if you go a little further into chapter 12 and go back again into Jerusalem. Herod the king of Israel begins the persecution and Peter is thrown into prison. And then you come into chapter 13 at the very beginning and remember we saw how that Paul and Barnabas arrived in the city of Pephas on the island of Cyprus and they met a conflict. And the conflict was with a sorcerer and a magician by the name of Bar Jesus.

And it says very simple, in verse six of chapter 13, they met a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus. Now, I’m going to stop here and I’m going to revert you back to geopolitical stuff. Today. The head of the snake is Jews. The head of the snake is the state of Israel. The head of the snake state of Israel is owned by the Rothchild, who was the one of the original founders of history of the Sanhedrin. And the head of the snake owns the territory given to them through a proclamation called the Balor Agreement by the United Kingdom.

This is a repeat of exactly the condition that existed at the time of Christ. Setup’s the same. Setup is exactly the same, but in a 2025. Technical. The theological environment that has got us so wrapped up in society norms and handouts from people that we have lost our way as the church. All along. This way, sadly reversing the plan of God. Initially, Israel was playing the devil’s part against God and against his Messiah, for whom they had waited incidentally for hundreds of years. They knew who he was, Peter. John even told them Peter. Peter went right out.

You know who this guy is and you still killed him. You’ve seen his miracles, you’ve seen everything. You’ve seen the fulfillment of ancient of Old Testament prophecy. He grows putting it in their face every time he preached. So as you go further in the book of Acts, you, you’re going to find it continues to be the Jews all throughout the Book of Acts, the establishment of the church, the persecutors of Christians are Jews. Getting this no different than today. In chapter 14, verse 2, unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles. Well, what do you think’s going on with Israel? First people today, they’re in your congressional seats saying we have to support the the state of Israel.

Why? Because it is the dual opposite of what God says. As the nation of Israel and you, we think we ought to be supporting the state of Israel. Why? Because we know no. So here’s Paul and Barnabas and they met a certain sorcerer, a false prophet Jew whose name was Bar Jesus. There was assault made both on the Gentiles and the Jews with the rulers to use them spitefully and stone them. Stephen. And there again the Jews are in on the persecution. In chapter 14, verse 10, certain Jews chased them from Antioch all the way to Leria.

They stoned Paul. And threw him out of the town, expecting him to be dead. Who did that? The Jews, the very people that he was part of in Jewish leadership as part of the Sanhedrin. Chapter 17. When we get there, you have the same thing again in verse five. Jews who believe not moved with envy, took unto them certain believe vile fellows of the baser sort, which is the King James way of saying hoods gangst and gathered a company and set the city in an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason, etc. Etc. Etc. You find that Acts tells you exactly what’s going on today.

Foreign. Verse 13 Again, Jews of Thessalonica stirred up the people in persecution. Over in chapter 20, Jews laid wait for Paul. And so again repeatedly, it is the Jews antagonizing the gospel and the things that they had prayed and dreamed and hoped for and waited for years and years and years, they now reject and playing the part of the adversary, The state of Israel. You know, you’ve been taught and we think a lot about this term called anti Semitism. That’s a term that was created, paid for by the Rocha. Go to the League and look at their website.

They give you the story about that term. And it was created in order to again further our knowledge base that we need to support the state of Israel as the nation of Israel. Biblically speaking, without even even studying the difference and understanding history, we buy in at hook, line and sinker. Well, there’s not a, there’s not a son of Noah to create the new beginning called Semi. There’s something called shim. And if you wanted a term to describe the persecution of, of the nation of Israel, it would have been Shemites, as they were called in scripture.

So it should be shemitism, not Semitism. Anti Semitism is a despicable and terrible term. A ungodly thing that it is. Its ramification is sinfulness. You’re going against Scripture. In a real sense. In the early church, it wasn’t anti Semitism. It was the very opposite. See, it wasn’t the Gentiles trying to persecute the Jews, it was the Jews that were persecuted, persecuting the Gentiles. And they called it anti Semitism. You get what I’m saying? When you understand history in the Bible and apply it to today, today’s society is completely different than what you have been taught. Anti Semitism is pure evil.

So Paul arrived in this town, and this town, incidentally, was a tinder box to begin with as a city on a road, a very prominent highway back then. It was a, it was, if you looked at a map, this, this Was a, a trade route. Okay, this Antioch was set up on a trade route. It had a cross of population that was mixed from a lot of places being a trade port. There were many Jews in the area. There were Greeks, there were Romans, there were native, other groups of people whom historians say they were unstable, irritable people.

And all of this cross pollination, oh, think about this. Think, think, think. All of the cross pollination of nations, migration, migration, okay, it happened then, it’s happening now. It’s the same thing. All of the agitation, the unstable environment, the irritable people, chaos was done because of migration. And in doing so it created a rather volatile situation. What’s going on in today? That only demanded a small spark to light the fuse. That’s the end. What’s going on today? No difference guys, no difference. So the Romans had made Antioch a colony in 6 B.C. okay, colony. The Romans colonized every area that they had control over.

They didn’t have control over all the points of geographical territory, but they had the majority control over this world during their, their dynasty days. And they colonized everything. Oh, what do you think the UK did? Did the same thing. They took the Roman Empire because the Roman Empire was scattered and created all of these governmental groups in various countries, ending with the Byzantine Empire. By the way, that’s, that goes back just a little ways in histories that you can grab a hold of, you know what the Byzantine Empire was. But it goes back much further. When the Roman Empire dispersed itself throughout the world, it created these factions in the uk having the predominant role over the relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, begin to colonize the world under its rulership.

Just another, another little time in history of the Roman Empire recreating itself. And they brought some semblance of order. Well, the Roman Empire was, had order too. It was dictatorship, which is exactly what the United Kingdom’s government is today. But all it needed was the right spark and it would explode. What’s going on today? I want you to see your history in a light that you haven’t seen before. It is just another day in the kingdom associated with what’s going on in acts. And the spark happened to follow Paul everywhere he went. And today we’re going to see the response that the Holy Spirit made and that we’ve done with foundation for an hour today we’re going to move through and see the Holy Spirit’s response to all of this madness.

You want your change agent to change your cities and towns? We’re now going to talk about it. So what did they Do. How did they react to Paul’s preaching? Now you got to understand Paul preaching is nothing more than historytelling because he connected the Old Testament prophets to the Messiah and showed that he basically fulfilled the Old Testament. He gave them the gospel associated with dispensation over receiving Christ as their Savior and the Holy Spirit. And then he changed their government. Okay, that was the process. So he announced that Jesus was the culmination of history, the fulfillment of prophecy and the justifier of sinners.

And he wrapped it up with a warning and an imitation. So the initial response of the people during that time was positive, as you probably would think it would be. In a group that wanted to listen to someone speak of Jesus Christ, everything at the very beginning really looked very good. But the subsequent response was split. Once, once the infiltrators got hold of those people and began to, to utilize their influence over those people. Think about yourselves, influence over those people. They begin to doubt what they had just been told. Oh, you, you guys don’t do that.

Sure, you don’t do that. So this, the, the, the subsequent response after the initial conveyance and message was split negative and positive. The results on one hand was negative and the results on the other was positive. Law of duality, guys, here we go. We’re fighting a spiritual war. That is going to be the response today. Now, anytime the Gospel is preached, you’re. You’re bound sooner or later to have a split in reactions. Everybody’s asked, okay, when is everybody going to wake up? They’re not. Those that will awaken will awaken, and those that will not, will not.

You may have an initial positive response. You may be a trickling of the fancy. There may be a basic interest in what you’re being told, but eventually the issue going to come down to a commitment to either Christ or yourself. And the thing is going to split. And that’s exactly what happened in the city of Antioch, as it always does, even today, even in this family. We have that. Now, just to give you an idea of what Antioch happened, what happened in Antioch, and why Antioch exploded, we’re going to pick it up from one point that we’ve already discussed.

The Gospel, always, always, always. You hear me out. The Gospel always will create trouble. Why? Because it’s the truth. And people do not want to understand the truth. They want to live in their fantasy, their mindset. When we have these classes and we talk about the truth and we’re studying history in a different light so that you understand the truth about your history, I can tell you there’s a lot of blowback. I cause trouble. And in some cases it blows certain things wide open. And in other cases it’s caused some problems. This happens. I expect it to happen.

If the gospel is clear cut and defined, if I am telling you the truth, I have no reason to fear the issues that the Holy Spirit is going to cause. In other words, you must expect when you do your ministry, which is what I’ve said yesterday and today on your responsibility is to minister. You must expect the outcome of your ministry to create fractions. Christ said, I came not to bring peace, but a sword. And what he meant was the preaching of Christ doesn’t bring everybody together in a big lovely Dovi toleration. This love fest that some of you still living in, it fractures things, it splits it.

It cuts things apart, it creates a little chaos, It creates division. And through division, unity takes shape. No different than a family, no different than your family. A person gets saved. All of a sudden it severs something in their family. No longer if that person is. Is truly saved and has become regenerated, a new creature and the old things are thrown away, the new things take shape, it’s going to create division in the family. You’re not the same person. Oh, in a lot of ways I don’t like you this way take. But that’s what the gospel does.

And at this point in time in history, it was most particular in the Jewish context because they knew the law. Why did God sin Melchizedek? To teach the Jews of something that was going to be new to come in Jesus Christ? Because it was so ingrained in the law, they had to begin to change. If not, if not they the nobody would accept them. Now the gospel then, in this period of time is shattering things. It always creates trouble when it’s clearly presented. Now all of the liberals who are getting everybody together are just proven doing for once and for all that they’re not preaching the true gospel because the gospel splits.

You hear what I’m saying? If the gospel was taught in liberal communities, there would not be a consensus in the liberal communities ever again. Are you hearing what I’m saying? Do you understand why we have the issue today? Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, Denver, Dearmont. Do you understand why we have issues there today? Because the gospel is not preached. If it was preached, the cities would split. Because that’s what it does say that’s your change agent and you’re. And if you look just outwardly to the fruits, you would understand that something is missing because you can’t change it.

And it’s not your vote that changes it. Yes, your vote is what you need to do, but you need to vote the right person into office. Understanding their relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s all that matters. Say gospel splits. It doesn’t get everybody under this community love fest umbrella, Tolerant of everything. Oh, as long as, as long as they’re, you know, doing this, I don’t really care. As long as they don’t do this to me, I don’t really care. That is not the Christian way. If you want to minister that kind of message, you get everybody together.

It’s not the gospel because the gospel never does that. History tells you in scripture that when the gospel was preached, the town split. Well, if your town is not splitting, then somebody’s not preaching the right message. The gospel automatically divides between the saved and the unsaved. You see, it separates them. That is done by design. We’re not to associate with this world, Right? That’s what scripture says. Do not love anything about this world. Do not associate with this world. Think on the things above. Be like Christ. Think like the mind of God. It separates sin, saved and unsaid.

If your communities are not being separated, the gospel is not being taught. You will not change those cities or towns until the gospel begins to be taught. The people who accept it and the people who reject it. It’s a shattering thing. It’s not a unifying thing for all people. It’s a unifying thing for believers, but it’s not unifying for every geographical territory. Now, part of the reason this happens is because men usually, and I’ve done this perhaps in our past, before we knew Christ, we usually try to figure out a rather comfortable philosophy. Say we’re not a Christian.

We’ve got to figure out some kind of rational reason just for living. We’ve got to come to a philosophy, philosophy of how do we do things. Now, if you don’t wind up with something like this, you become a drug addict, you become an alcoholic, or even you kill yourself. Why? Because you have no way to conform. We must. We’re born to worship. Get you get this now. We are born to worship. You need to worship something. Well, first off, you need to figure out what you’re going to worship. If you can’t even identify that to a philosophy or a way of life or whatever, you have a mindset that is dangerous to you.

See, that type of individual never gets comfortable with anything. He never found a philosophy he could live with. So he either drowns his sorrows, goes or kills himself. And here some of you are fighting this today because you can’t find that something that creates comfort in your life. But see, most people get rather a comfortable philosophy, and in doing so, they block out certain things and they concentrate on other things. They begin to compartmentalize, and they sort of gather together as a group of people, rather as an eclectic pieces and bits of everything, and they want.

Somebody says, I’ve got my thing. Somebody else says, I got my thing, and your thing and my thing could be okay. Together they begin to. To cultivate, and it’s sort of placid, and they’re like a little pond of fish. They’re sitting there resting in their little philosophy of morals. Have you ever seen a tiny pool like that? And, and then picture this, seeing some kid drop a boulder in it. See, that’s what happens when the gospel hits somebody’s placid philosophy. You walk up to some nice comfortable guy who after 20 years of struggling with this, has found his comfortable place, his philosophy of life, and he’s finally comfortable.

He finally can have some semblance of his own peace in his life. And you say, oh my gosh, let me tell you something. You’re on your way to hell. That’s the boulder. And then watch what happens. You’re a sinner before God, you’re unrighteous, you’re doomed. And unless something happens in your life, you’re going to spend your eternity without God, without joy, without happiness, without peace. You throw that into somebody’s life and watch, watch the battered chaos that begins to exist. That boulder of information has shattered everything about his comfortable philosophy that he has. And now he’s back to square one.

See, it’s dropping a boulder inside his placid pool. And that’s exactly what the gospel does. Men struggle to find a comfortable philosophy, and we invade their lives with the gospel, and it disturbs them, and it’s our hope it does. See, because an undisturbed man is an uncommitted man. I want you to think about your family and I want you to think about you and whether or not you maintain an undisturbed life or not. An undisturbed life as the head of a household means that you’re not in control, Man. Your job is to be disturbed. Your job is to look ahead and see where your family’s going and make sure that you get so disturbed that you make a change where change is needed.

You know, I just. I sat here last night a little bit this morning again. Misty said, are you prepared? Last night Says, no. She says, that’s unlike you. I said, yep. And this morning I sat here and finally heard what the Holy Spirit was telling me of why I was not prepared. Normally last night, Say, I become complacent in a couple of things that I needed to be disturbed about. And this was going to hit me on a level that was going to shatter some things. I just compartmentalized. And that’s the reason why I wasn’t prepared.

Because had I been prepared last night, I don’t think I’d have got any sleep. Say, well, this, this is what happens. Guns were blazing in Antioch and Paul was firing at all. He was sending the bullets of the Gospel to the people. And the people were hitting the deck fast. The gospel shatters. It blasts people out of the placid pool that they’re finally waiting, wound themselves into. That’s really a rough thing for anyone to take. How would you like to know today that your life that you living is a complete lie? When did you finally get that from me? Years ago.

I told you everything that you had been living your whole life was a lie, other than maybe the love for your, your spouse or your children or something like that. But this environment that you’ve been wrapped up in, this comfortable place in this world that you thought you were living in was a complete lie. And oh, do you remember the level of response that you had when that was taught to you? I do. I do. Say for some 30 something years I’ve been figuring this thing out. And then you guys come in. And I was asked to educate.

And in the process of education, I was wiped out. Why? Because I was reliving everything that I had learned, giving it to you. And it was regurgitating itself upon me every single day. That wipes me out. I had to deal with it every day when you guys only dealt with it when I said it. See, that’s the disturbed man. I wasn’t too happy about it. Some of you can relate. Some of you said it was understandable, some of you said, I can’t understand what you’re saying, But at the heart of this, the Holy Spirit was just saying, continue, continue, continue, continue.

Knowing that I was going to get varied reactions and knowing that was always going to be volatile. And then some of you wonder why I get frustrated sometimes. But I want you to notice something here. In this case, initially it didn’t appear to be B. And let’s look at its initial response in verses 42 to 44 because it was very positive. That’s typically what happens because it’s not sunk in yet, okay? It’s just on the surface. You heard something, you got to process it. As you process, so does the effect of what you’re processing. Happens, mindset.

And in fact, through verse 44, it could have been a revival. If you just stop there, it could have been a fast, fantastic thing that was going on in this city called Antioch. But when you get to verse 45, you really see things. Things fall apart. Now, in verse 42 to 44, we find the beginning and it looks good. I really think as I looked at this, that I were the evangelist in this case, I would at this time have been thinking, man, this is fantastic. I’d be walking on water thinking that I was doing a great job.

That. Have you ever knocked this town for a loot? Your town, have you ever done that? They’re all going to get saved. We’re going to have the first safe city going. That’s if you read verses up to 44, that would have been a very easy response for somebody who really didn’t think it through because of the good features that were being exhibited. Now think about your life. You’re to give thanks for all good and bad. You’re not to dwell on all things good, you’re to dwell on all things. When you look at your life through rose tinted glasses, you’re not going to be disturbed.

You’re not to get fractured. You’re not going to grow. Therefore you are not going to become mature in Christ. So growth and maturity happens in adversity. Doesn’t happen in good times. Now I’m going to give you four things that were tremendously positive. One, they were pleased. The people were very pleased. Look at verse 42, Paul has just finished his sermon. And when you notice, I’m going to make a couple of corrections in dispersed, because I have to. The term the Jews and the Gentiles is not in the manuscripts. Okay, that was put in by the translators.

That was just put in to clarify the statement of the original canon. But it really is not accurate. And what it should read is this. And when they were gone out of the synagogue, they refers most likely to Paul and Barnabas. By the way, the Greek word word is just they referring most likely to the Jews who were in the synagogue. They besought for these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. In other words, they wanted these same words to be preached again the next synagogue day, the Sabbath. So when Paul finished, Paul and Barnabas went out.

And as they went out, the Jews said, would you come back next week. We want to hear this again. Process. They were trying to process what they were saying. They wanted to make sure they hear. Heard it clearly. They wanted time to digest the first time so that when they came back they could be in a better position to overcome. You see, they can either overcome for the good side or that they overcome for the bad side. What they were wanting to live like anyway. See, the greatest compliment that a teacher of the Gospels could ever have is to say, and which I.

I love, say or see you come back again and again and again for more punishment. See, I love you much. So that’s why whenever you teach somewhere on a subject, you always want to make sure you quit before you said everything you know about the subject. Why when we come back? Because if you get invited back to talk, you want to be sure you can pick it up from there. Well, we’ll take our time. If you want to know the truth, they’ll come back. Now, I could go on and on about that, but I’m not. That means he’s at the end of his material if he doesn’t hold everything back.

But anyway, they were placed. They were very pleased. They said, we want you to hear more about this. Would you please come back next week? Now, I want you to come to verse 52. And it says, that’s great. But what happens in verse 1 to 14? What would happen when they left town? That’s the question. See, I want you to have an interest in what I’m saying. And I want. And I want you to hear more. I want you to study more. And that’s the desire of any teacher, of anybody who wants to move people, to make a commitment or a decision in a certain way.

I want you to get all the information you need from whatever angle you can understand. That’s the reason why we stay in a scripture for so long, looking at all the rocks. And then I want you to study it so that it sinks into you the way you need it to be affected in your life. And these Jews had responded. Everything that Paul said was very Jewish. He’d given them the history of Israel in a nutshell. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re not trying to give you the history of Israel. We’re trying to. Trying to give the history of your life in a nutshell.

Every time we get into Scripture. I was talking to Misty about that this morning. I said, I read this, that I wrote many times this morning because I wanted to make sure that I was going to hear the Holy Spirit talk about history. He had talked about the God of Israel, he had talked about David, he talked about the Old Testament prophets, he even quoted the prophets. He exalted the Messiah. The only questionable issue was that all of it resolved in Jesus Christ. And whether or not Jesus was the Messiah was the question of the day.

Now they weren’t so plugged into Jerusalem that they had the same hatred for Jesus. They were out, they were in. These were guys were in the Gentile land. Remember they had no idea what the law was. So they weren’t plugged in to this Jewish Old Testament philosophy of life called the law. So just maybe it was worth hearing some more. And so they said to Paul, please come back. I believe Paul being the apostle of the Gentile church, not the corporate church, you being, being your apostle. I believe Paul is a, the greatest example of a great teacher.

Because a great teacher makes people want more. And a good teacher can do the same thing. I remember teachers going to school and I. And I don’t remember all whole lot about other teachers, but I remember certain teachers going to school. Grade school, elementary school, middle school, high school, college. I remember certain teachers and I can even quote what they said in class because why they were great teachers. Sherry, my, my friend, her sister was my ninth grade English teacher. She made us read the book A Tale of Two Cities. And I can remember the analogies or allegorical statements in that book that was about the French Revolution.

So clear. All right, but. But I can’t tell you what the math teacher told me that day or any other day. When Paul had that ability to make people Interested in Acts 17:10, the brethren immediately sent him away. Paul and Silas by night until Berea, who coming there, went to the synagogue of the Jews. Why? Because they always went there first. That was Paul’s mode of operandi. And there were more noble men in Thessalonica in that they received the word with readiness of mind, mindset. He preached the Jews there and they really received it well and they were really open and they listen to it and search the scriptures daily sanctification, whether those things were so test the spirit.

See that’s the thing you should be doing. You want to present something that drives people into the scripture, the themselves to make sure that what you’re telling them is true. If you do that, you become the change agent for your cities and towns. The absolute compliment to a teacher is to go home and pursue what he told you on your own. That’s what I hope you do. Because the scripture says study to show your you’re self approved. I don’t need to study for you, you need to study yourself. And Paul had the ability to do that.

Verse 32 had similar effect to the same chapter there. And when they had heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said we will hear thee again on this subject. They wanted more. And if you go to the 24th chapter of Acts, Paul had just shared the gospel with a man named Felix. And he reasoned of righteousness, self control and judgment to come in. Felix trembled. He was so scared that he just shook about judgment to come. Man, that’s how you should be with your family. He said go that way for this time I can’t take you anymore.

Get out of here. He says when I have convenient season I’ll call for you. I want to hear more. Got a process. And by the way, Felix did call in. And put them. Paul came back and spoke to Felix again. So it’s not always right to wait procrastination. You should act immediately upon whatever the Holy Spirit is asking you to do. Second Corinthians 6, 2 says now is the day of salvation. Hebrews 3, 7 and 8 says the Spirit says this today while you’re still hearing, harden not your heart. And so from the teacher’s point of view it’s great when everybody wants more.

It’s a better way to receive Christ now in the present than the future. Second point, they were persistent. They were not only pleased, they were persistent. See that’s good. It’s better that they just formed a little trail and followed them right out of place. Here comes Paul and Barnabas like, like Peter Piper where the whole trail of Jews, Gentiles, God fearing on their hills. They wanted to know more. They were so interested in this they just would not quit following Paul wherever he went. They wanted him to continue teaching constantly. That is a terrific sign to not only the teacher, but it should be one for you.

See. What we need to do is we need to really be cognizant of what the Holy Spirit wants to do. So you got to be cognizant of the Holy Spirit and you need to be very careful because many of us are so gullible in a new Christian life that we think that everything that we’re hearing comes from the Holy Spirit. That’s not true. And you won’t be know where you’re being led or what you’re being led to do if you don’t test the Spirit. And I want to bypass that. So the only way that you’re going to truly know who’s speaking to you is to continue the process.

See, if you let it go for a day or two, you move past that which was happening collectively at that particular point in time, and you try to pick it up and you lose in the process. So when the Holy Spirit is talking to you or when you think the Holy Spirit is talking to you, you should continue the process of whatever the conversation is until you reach a point of clarity. Clarity in the knowledge that, yes, the Holy Spirit is actually talking to you or understanding that what you’re being talked to about is deceit. You need clarity.

So Paul and Barnabas apparently acknowledged that they had made a profession of belief believing. And Paul says this. Validate the genuineness of your confession by continuing in the grace of God. Persuade you to continue. That is what this translates into. Do not procrastinate. Now, for the Jews, there was a special problem. The Jews did not know how to live under the grace of God because why they live so long by the law. And so they had to come to an understanding different than the Gentiles, because the Gentiles didn’t even know the law. At the crust of this is the concept of your belief system.

And it’s in your belief system where you justify yourself and you justify yourself either in the ways of the world or you justify yourself by listening to the Holy Spirit. See, Paul was offering him a new way. It’s grace, not the law. And they had to change their belief system in order for them to even understand it. And see, the great temptation of a Jew was to make an intellectual ascent into Christianity. And then under the pressure of his Judaism, under the pressure of tradition, under the pressure of his friends, he pulled back to Judaism, thus invalidating his faith.

Oh, my gosh. That’s your life. Take the word Judaism and put in self. That’s you. Paul was actually saying this. I want to see that it’s real by you continuing in grace. Right. If we’re to live like Jesus Christ, we need to live in grace. We have to first give up our grace in order to receive Christ’s grace. Right. Were to anoint him before he anoints us. That means you’re going to give up your grace for him and he’s going to anoint you with his grace. That becomes a level of fruit. And see, that’s precisely the problem of the writer of Hebrews Speaks Up.

It is writing to the Jewish community on intellectual convincement on their belief. No different than your struggle today. All right, I’m going to wrap this up. I’m going to allow you to pull down this, this Bible study and get the last two, but I’m going to wrap it up for safe of time because we’re, we’re at the, we’re at the end of the subject matter where you get the context of where we’re going. It’s now up to you to study. So the, so the, the point that we need to make here is that we need to live in boldness.

We need to be the change agent. We need to understand that what is the basis, the process of the change. Agency is the gospel of Christ and we need to begin to teach that. You now need to set your ministry up and how you deal with your own community. And as the fury breaks out in splitting your community, which you now know is what will happen, you need to gain more courage. You don’t need that community to surround you and convince you that what you’re doing is wrong. So as the fury gets higher and more persecution exists, you have to get bolder.

Say Paul finally gave them the plan. It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. That’s ministry. We spoke it to you first because say that’s God’s plan. If you do not accept his plan, Ephesians 4, 5 and 6, in applying his plan before the foundation world, Ephesians 1, 2 and 3, you cannot neither be bold or courageous. And in a lot of ways that means that you will not establish your own ministry for your community, causing then your community to not be changed and living in the chaos in which it finds itself today.

And the majority of you can relate to your own community and see that the gospel is a divider. God is your protector, Jesus is your source, and the Holy Spirit you your knowledge base. You got to get yourself out of the way. If you’re going to want to change your community. You want to live in your total chaos, then just stay and do what you’re doing. But that’s not going to change the environment by which you live in. We’re going to stop there. Any questions? Comments, Norma Jean? Well, thank you because once again, as you’ve done many times, you inspire me to dig deeper.

So, one, I have two questions. The first one there at the end, you said, I need to give up my grace. Can you explain further what that means? Because I’m a little confused. Sure. Just like the alabaster oil, the three women that had the alabaster bots, they had to anoint Jesus Christ before Jesus Christ anointed them. If you want grace from Christ, you must give him grace. What’s grace is praise and worship. If you want Jesus Christ to give you his grace, his praise and worship, which is his blessings, you must first bless him through your grace, your praise and worship towards Him.

Okay. So giving up my grace is giving it first to him and letting go of my own ego and my own pride. And through that, he’s going to grace you and what you do. Okay. He’s going to anoint you for whatever purpose he’s called you to do. Okay. Sometimes I just get hung up on wording. That’s fine. Yeah. The second question is. And it came to my mind when you were talking about Antioch, because I got up my map and looked at Antioch, I realized that there are two Antiochs. So I guess I was originally confused that the.

The original term for Christians, when it was said came from Antioch, I was thinking that that was from the. The region in Asia or so. Yeah. So this kind of cleared that up. I had no idea that there were two of them. Right. There are two. Good talking. You got a question? I don’t know if your hand’s up from before. You got something else? Yeah, that was from before. Jim, thank you. Okay. Anybody else got anything? Sure. All right, let’s pray. Father, thank you again for allowing us to come to your table. Your table that holds your spirit.

Our. Our home for you with this temple of sin that exists. This. Father, give us the ability to take away understanding from your scripture, providing us the wisdom and the ability to take that wisdom and apply it to our life so that you can reveal yourself more and more and more to us. Father, we give you the thanks, we give you the praise, we give you the Lord. We just ask that they. Basically, you constantly work on us. You constantly prune us. You constantly mold us into that which you want us to become. And we know that we’re going to waver.

But, Father, just continue to bring us back on track. Because it’s only through you that this life is meaningful. Matter of fact, it’s only through you that we have light. So we want to give you praise and glory for that. We want to thank you for all of the things you did with the sonship in order to allow us to go home. Without that, we would be lost. And we just want to give you the honor and glory that you completely deserve. And we ask all these things in your sins now.
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