Get ready to dive deep into the teachings of Paul in the book of Acts on this episode of the Be Disciples podcast. Join us as we explore the urgency of the people to hear more, the transformation from a works-based life to a grace-filled life, and the rejection of Paul's teachings by the Jews. We discuss the shift in Paul and Barnabas' efforts towards the Gentiles, aiming to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Discover the significance of discipleship and the role of both mature and less experienced believers in the faith.
In this thought-provoking conversation, we delve into how believers can actively participate in the Great Commission. Discover the importance of speaking truth to those straying from biblical teachings and using the Bible as a powerful tool for evangelism. Reflect on the role of discipleship and how it can strengthen believers in their faith journey. Don't miss out on this discussion that will inspire you to live out the call to share the Gospel.
Join us as we reflect on the impact of Paul and Barnabas' preaching on those around them. Explore the rejoicing of the Gentiles and the Jews' retaliation, highlighting the power of the Word and its ability to prepare hearts. Discover the joy that comes from ministry and the imperative for believers to actively participate in the Great Commission. Get ready to be encouraged and inspired to boldly proclaim the Gospel and make a difference in the world. Tune in to this engaging episode of the Be Disciples podcast!
Get ready to dive deep into the teachings of Paul in the book of Acts on this episode of the Be Disciples podcast. Join us as we explore the urgency of the people to hear more, the transformation from a works-based life to a grace-filled life, and the rejection of Paul's teachings by the Jews. We discuss the shift in Paul and Barnabas' efforts towards the Gentiles, aiming to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Discover the significance of discipleship and the role of both mature and less experienced believers in the faith.
In this thought-provoking conversation, we delve into how believers can actively participate in the Great Commission. Discover the importance of speaking truth to those straying from biblical teachings and using the Bible as a powerful tool for evangelism. Reflect on the role of discipleship and how it can strengthen believers in their faith journey. Don't miss out on this discussion that will inspire you to live out the call to share the Gospel.
Join us as we reflect on the impact of Paul and Barnabas' preaching on those around them. Explore the rejoicing of the Gentiles and the Jews' retaliation, highlighting the power of the Word and its ability to prepare hearts. Discover the joy that comes from ministry and the imperative for believers to actively participate in the Great Commission. Get ready to be encouraged and inspired to boldly proclaim the Gospel and make a difference in the world. Tune in to this engaging episode of the Be Disciples podcast!
Welcome to the Be Disciples podcast. With your host, cal Morris, dakota Smith and David Glevin, we are studying the book of Acts. Welcome, guys. How are you doing this morning? How are you doing? How are you doing?
Speaker 3:How are you doing?
Speaker 1:How are you doing?
Speaker 2:How are you doing? How are you doing, how are you doing, how are you doing, how are?
Speaker 1:you doing.
Speaker 2:How are you doing?
Speaker 1:How are you doing?
Speaker 2:How are you doing?
Speaker 1:How are you doing?
Speaker 2:How are you doing? How are you doing?
Speaker 1:How are you doing? How are you doing, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:How are you doing? How are you doing? How are you doing If we remember where we were Paul's preaching. Verse 42 and 43 also says the following as Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people kept begging that these things might be spoken to them the next Sabbath. Now, in the meeting, of the synagogue had broken up. Many of the Jews and of the God-fearing proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who, speaking to them, were urging them to continue in the grace of God. So we know that another Sabbath is being anticipated. The people want to hear more. Before we actually dive into the text, any other thing that you guys would want to add, as it pertains to where we've been the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 3:Well, one thought, as you were just recapping, that was their urgency that they speak the next Sabbath, and they're hungry for the Word, they're hungry for the truth, probably with some sort of fear and trepidation, like you know. We need to know this. This is a message that was missed, and we're hearing it and we're accepting it. We need to know more because we don't wanna miss out, but I think there's power in their response where they say go in the grace of God, god will provide you what you need. Like, don't worry about what you're missing now. You will hear what you need to hear when that time comes. That's what I heard, that as you were recapping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean they were urging them to continue in the grace of God, right, and you see that phrase, the grace of God, actually a lot in Acts.
Speaker 1:So Well, I mean all of the different people that he's mentioned, the deliverers, you know, the examples of God's grace for the people, helping them understand who those people were in their history and breaking that down for them and then for them to really understand what it means to continue in the grace of God instead of, you know, so structured under the law, under continually doing these things, but living, you know, almost a faithless life or not a grace filled one, but just this works, works, works, works, works. And he's urging them continue in what we're saying, continue in the grace of God. Don't allow these other things to pull you back from having a listening ear to what Jesus has done on the cross. I mean, he's really trying to change the Jews here. He's really trying to change and persuade them to say you know God, you've seen God work. Now keep in that faith, keep in that grace.
Speaker 1:And so I think Paul is really he knows, because he is a Jewish man who's well trained in the ways of that they're living, and so he's really pushing them and he's obviously the way it's responding. They're following him, they wanna hear more, they're excited. So he's gonna keep going and I can't even imagine being a Jew in this situation like, okay, what you're saying, I get it, I'm connecting with it, I understand our history. Now you're telling me about Jesus and I'm trying to make this connection and I wanna continue to learn more. So I think there's a building up here in the preaching of the gospel and they're excited.
Speaker 2:I think too, maybe at a larger level, it seems like the book of Acts has now taken the official pivotal turn. You know the first 12 chapters, you saw the majority of the apostle Peter's ministry and, yes, there was preaching, but there was also a ton of healing in divine miracles. But I think now you're gonna start to see, the greatest emphasis of the book of Acts is Paul's ministry first missionary journey, second missionary journey, third missionary journey, and in each of those you're going to see these long discourses of Paul preaching, paul preaching, paul preaching, paul preaching. And it's like the focus is now turning towards what the word of God is doing for people who have not yet heard of the good news. And I think that point right there is what ushers us into today's passage, versus 44 to 52. What is the word of God doing to people who haven't yet believed? So we begin verse 44,.
Speaker 2:The next Sabbath, nearly the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. And I think that's the main idea that catapults us right the whole city assembled to hear the word of the Lord. That's the focus, verse 45,. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said it was necessary that the word of God there it is again be spoken to you first, since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles, for so the Lord has commanded us. I have placed you as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth.
Speaker 2:Guys, this is halfway through our passage. But verse 44 to 47, any initial thoughts that you might have, I mean, how does 44 to 47 just kind of strike you in the face, for lack of a better way to put it? This morning we're studying the Bible. We see the immediate rejection of the Jews. How can we get the plane off the ground? Let's go.
Speaker 1:Well, we have two groups of Jews, because we just read in 42 to 43 that there are some Jews who are listening and who are learning and wanting to hear more. And then we have a group of Jews that are clearly going against Paul and Barnabas here, who are reviling them, contradicting the things that they're saying it says here, and so we definitely have two groups of Jewish people you could kind of break them off One's who have a listening ear, who possibly are being converted, and we have a group of Jews who are clearly going against him. So the crowd is mixed when it comes to what they're accepting, when it comes to this message. So I just see the tension there between the Jewish people. Some are believing, some are not believing, and that is riling them up. But I also think it's cool that almost the whole city is gathered. Yeah, what an amaze. Just to be a fly on the flying around seeing that happen. Paul's preaching to a whole city that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and maybe in ancient times that might be the size of a city like ours right now, ottawa. We don't know the exact population, but I know cities were not necessarily as they are today, but I mean Ottawa is like 13,000 people. Even if the whole city of Ottawa gathered, that would be a sight to see. Yeah, imagine that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it'd be a big crowd. We have the car show coming up this weekend. That's true here in Ottawa.
Speaker 1:And we're going to evangelize. Yeah, that's a lot of people. That's probably one of the biggest events in Ottawa. So you can imagine the streets lined with people all the way down Main Street into our park, at the Enforce Park, which is a massive park, but just people and people gathered. And what if that was all just to hear the gospel? That'd be amazing. And that's what's happening here with Paul. People are intrigued. Whether they like it or they don't like it, they're coming to listen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that reminds me, by the way, we need to make a video this week reminding people of the evangelism training we're going to be doing Saturday morning. And then, david, you had a thought.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean the people, the whole town came out and there's, I'm sure, numerous intentions, reasons for them to come out, like we were talking about the car show. If everyone was coming out to hear the gospel and we can't assume that everyone was coming out In that time they didn't have YouTube and Facebook and all those entertainment things. So when something's going on, you go and you see what's going on, but when you're talking about to hear the word, to hear the word of the Lord, there's two different responses to that. And when you hear something, when you have faith, when you have a zeal for God, you respond. If you hear something that you believe is not true, you be filled with a godly zeal against it, like this is not the truth about God.
Speaker 3:But here it intentionally says they were filled with not zeal, not a godly anger, that this is not true, that this isn't. But they were filled with jealousy and that's a heart condition and that can be seen. I mean, that's not something that you have to be trained. You can see the fruit from somebody's heart and how that's coming out. So how they responded was not because necessarily they were defending what they felt was true about God, but they were defending what they were holding on to in their own works, in their own tradition, and so their response was a false response, it was a fleshy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I do find it interesting that if you just read verse 42, it says you know they were begging them to come back the next Sabbath, right. And then the next Sabbath comes, verse 44,. They assembled to hear the word of God. And I find it really intriguing that the moment that set them off was when they saw, you know, that other people from the crowd were coming that were not Jews, right, they were filled with jealousy, so on one hand, their heart was beginning to be inclined towards the preaching already a week in advance. But the moment you throw some Gentiles in there, I mean they're set off and it's like they changed their mind, which that I mean. That's a form of hatred and partiality and sin that God never called Israel to to begin with, as we see in the next coming verses.
Speaker 1:Well, and Paul even says here it was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. That's right, like guys, we came to you first and it's not like we just like bypassed you and went to the Gentiles. I mean, you know. Paul even points out like we've come to the synagogue, we've come here to preach to you guys, to the Jews, because you need to know this, you need to know the Messiah has come. So, yeah, I find it interesting he even appeals to their arrogance a little bit in what he says to try to get them to listen. Again, I see the persuading of Paul We've come to you first, those who are the chosen people from God, who are Israel, and so it kind of makes that distinction between the Israelites and the Gentiles.
Speaker 2:Well, he even quotes Isaiah 42-6,. I've placed you as a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the end of the earth. He's trying to remind them. This was supposed to be your purpose, but now, because of your rejection, paul uses the actual words. We are turning to the Gentiles You've judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life right, the salvation message that you were supposed to be bringing.
Speaker 2:So, I mean, I just find it ironic. They thought that they were rejecting the message because of the people, but they were also rejecting a responsibility that God had for them, based on the message for those people. So it's like, in a sense, they're rejecting three things. So, yeah, this is pretty bad. So how do we bring that down to application for today, though? Like if our listeners are listening and they're thinking, hey, this show is supposed to be an opportunity for me to learn how to sit down with the Bible at the coffee shop with somebody else. I'm trying to read the Bible with, like, what am I supposed to do with this? How does this get played out in our actual lives? We don't typically live in a context where there's many Jews in a synagogue around the corner. So how do we apply this?
Speaker 1:I mean as Christians, I think we can fall into the same place as the Jewish people, right? So if we're believers in Jesus Christ, we know what he's done for us and so we're saved and we're like, okay, I go to church and I get myself involved in church things and I read my Bible and I just hang around a bunch of Christians Well, if that's all you do, you're gonna end up just like the Jewish people here, where you're not living out. The Great Commission, which was obviously in Isaiah, was already kind of talked about, right, what the Jewish people were supposed to be like. They were supposed to be a light to the world. They're supposed to be examples of holy living, set apart from the world, living for God. And then there's Jesus and the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe the things that I have commanded you baptizing in the name of the Holy Spirit. So I think it's, if we don't participate in the Great Commission, paul's participating in the gospel not just believing the gospel, but participating in the gospel.
Speaker 1:The Jewish people are not participating. They're staying in their own bubble within the Jewish people. Look at us, we're self-righteous and they're not even following God's word and they're not even doing the thing that sets them apart. They're doing the things that sets them apart for themselves. We can get stuck in that too and keep ourselves in a Christian bubble, not discipling, not evangelizing, not an active believer following Christ. So I think our hearts can fall into the same place. So we're no different than the Jewish people. We're still humans and we're still sinners, and we can still fall into that.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, and Paul says we are turning to the Gentiles, which means the Gentiles were now the ones to take the responsibility. But that doesn't mean that the Gentiles can't neglect their responsibility as well. So, david, your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3:I was thinking about the, as Christians, as we are addressing, well, other communities of believers, other individuals, other groups within our realm, well, you know, within our network, and I can think of churches, I can think of ministries. I think we can all think of churches and ministries that we lament are going in a direction that is outside of biblical truth and are being, you know, just sponging up culture and going with the direction of culture and going away from the word. And I think that it's important for us who are seeking to stand firm on the word of God and staying with scripture, to speak to those communities, to to use our voice for that. But we can get stuck in a bubble of arguing with them and, you know, out of fear for them, and to get caught up in arguing that. But I think we do speak the truth and we move on. I mean, I'm thinking of this passage where it says after the Gentiles heard this, they rejo. Well, I don't know what the word was, I gotta look at it, but they were excited.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, it said they were. When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. And it's, you know, the excitement of those who are receptive to the truth, who are tuned to the Spirit. And we can't spend too much time arguing amongst ourselves, as Christians, that we have to. We do have to seek out those who are hungry for the truth and the Word You're dead on.
Speaker 2:I really think that's true. I'm gonna say something that's gonna sound controversial, but it's really just for the benefit of the listener. It's really out of the best possible heart. So take this in context of what I'm saying. The sum total of our Christian life is not a Bible study Like. The final outcome of Christian maturity in your life is not sitting around with other believers, just reading the Bible perpetually and never breaking out and actually reaching people who are lost.
Speaker 2:Now, if you heard, are you saying we shouldn't do Bible studies? No, you need to be in fellowship with other believers, absolutely. Are you saying that you know we shouldn't enjoy time with other believers and we shouldn't prioritize the church? No, none of that's what I said. What I am truly saying is, if you've constantly found yourself in Bible study after Bible study after Bible study after Bible study, with mature Christian after mature Christian, after mature Christian after mature Christian, and you're not discipling a less mature Christian or being discipled by a more mature Christian yourself, or bringing along a non-believer so that the Word of God impacts their heart to become a Christian, then you are essentially setting the bar too low for how God wants you to.
Speaker 2:Keyword participate in the Gospel. If you're in a Bible study with mature Christians all around and it stays that way, something's got to change, because otherwise, you know you just, you continue to edify each other, but nobody else benefits from that. And I think we, as Christians, we know how to play the holy huddle and sometimes we don't know how to break out, and our evangelism tool is the Bible. So let's get people involved. I know that sounds controversial, but what do you guys think? Am I on? Am I off? Like, can we become stagnant?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we can't. I mean I just think of. I mean it's kind of a typical discipleship example in our own church body. If we're not discipling the less mature believers or the younger people, or in that just younger in their faith it could be any age, but just younger in their faith the church won't continue in that location very long, it won't.
Speaker 1:It'll end up dying off. I mean, we're in Ottawa and we're around a bunch of farmers, so imagine a farmer has a few children but that farmer never teaches their children how to farm, but expects them to take over the farm when he's done farming, same as the church.
Speaker 1:If you do not spend time teaching the younger generation or the less mature believer to become leaders in the church, to become teachers in the church, to become those people to continue the church. There'll be no church in that, in your town. That's right. Same thing. So we have to be. We have to be intentional about our discipleship and intentional about our evangelism, because all you're going to see is a bunch of churches getting old, yeah, and eventually they won't be there anymore, and that is not. That's a sad day. I don't want those lampstands to be taken. I know I want those lampstands to shine, as the church is supposed to be a light on a hill and we're supposed to be that in our community. So let's keep doing that.
Speaker 2:The farming illustration was dead on, because if there's nobody to carry on the family farm, who else does it? Nobody's going to just learn on their own. Everybody needs to be discipled, and churches die when they forget about healthy participation in the gospel period.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean, I see that example in this community of generational farms being sold, and I'm not saying someone didn't just choose another life to work something else, sure, but the example still applies. We want our church to be here way beyond us, three right, unless Jesus returns, and then it doesn't really. It doesn't, it doesn't hold the same purpose anymore. But until that time, we don't want this to be a place where this building becomes something else. We want it to be a gathering of the saints. We want it to be a place where we do huddle, but that huddle results in a game-winning play or a game-winning drive where we score some touchdowns, which is people getting saved and people getting baptized. So that's what we want to become and that's the church. The identity that we have is to live sent here at Ottawa Bible, and this is a passage that helps us do that.
Speaker 3:And we're looking for that genuine excitement of coming to faith, the genuine excitement of people who once were not, once did not believe, once were not a part of the fellowship, once did not have the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. The excitement in hearing that, the excitement in being a part of that, the excitement of baptisms, of the joy that the church gets to experience in that, the joy of having a Bible study where a young person just gets it and gets excited and plugs in and we can, in the church, get excited about the wrong things and get focused on the wrong thing.
Speaker 3:Well, not necessarily the wrong things, but put more focus on, like you said, you know, when the good thing shadows, overshadows the best thing, it becomes a bad thing. I think that was Kyle's quote. I like that. I'm looking at this sign that we have up in here make mature and multiply. When the spirit of God multiplies and more people come to faith, we want to make them mature so that then they can multiply and then they can be made mature. One of the most frustrating things for me in ministry is when I'm spending so much time with 50, 60, 70 year old believers and who want to be spoon fed, you know, and dealing with conflicts and things that they should already be living out in their life a biblical model for living, but haven't got it yet. And it's like I'm dealing with the same things with you guys that I am with the middle school, you know. It's like get it and let's go mature, because we need to multiply, we need to be Exciting other people for the Lord.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's it's kind of. It's kind of like the Jews were in a generation of their, their faith being this Individualistic type of it. This is our faith.
Speaker 2:We're the Jews. It's not for the Gentiles, it's not for anybody else like.
Speaker 1:This is my individual faith that I'm gonna live out myself. I'm gonna go to synagogue, I'm gonna follow the law, yeah, and it's it's. It's just individually between me and God, and God's like I. Actually I gave you guys a mission. I gave you guys a mission to reach the world right With who I am, and so we can't do that as a church and we, the church today, has fallen into that.
Speaker 1:In general. I'm not saying auto Bible, I'm just saying the church universally has fallen into a place when we've become more internal than external. It's not bad, like you said, to study God's word, to be equipped to go do the work, but if you're studying God's word not to be equipped to go do the work of the ministry, right, then you're not following the Bible. Yeah, so we have to be equal. I mean right here, as we continue reading it talks about. They began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, the word, the Bible, the scriptures that Paul is teaching them there began to rejoice in the word, and we are also gonna need to do the same thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I was just speaking to Dr Jim Baugh this last week on the phone Trying to get him out here to Ottawa we're talking about a date in the spring yeah, awesome. And you know, for one of our OBC academies and he was saying you know, it's tough in the New Testament to find direct commands where the church is told to go, because the direct commands is to make disciples. It's tough to find direct commands where Jesus said to go, because that was already totally assumed that they would go. Yeah, I mean, the implication is, I don't see Any other option. Of course you're gonna go and when my Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will most definitely be my witnesses and all of Jerusalem, judea, samaria, to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 2:So I mean Jesus For his disciples. He was just assuming they would go, that's, there was no question about it, right, Didn't even need to be talked about. So I think for Israel, because they lost out on that participation, at least as a whole. This is how we're wrapping a bow on this section of the scripture, but Now it's the Gentiles job, and 1 Corinthians 10 tells us that these things happen to Israel as an example for us, so that we may not sin in the same way.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, we're supposed to be a going people Right, always on the move. That's right. I mean I don't know if you said that. Somebody said this recently like, as Christians, you know, a lot of times in America we talk about building roots somewhere in a community, and I think there's a place where God calls you to build roots in a community and stay there, but I don't think those roots should be so deep that you're not listening to God's command to go to the next place, as he Calls you to do so. Yeah, our roots should be in heaven, our citizenship there, not our citizenship on earth, and we should be a going people, moving, moving, moving, reaching more people. That should be our attitude. That should be where our eyes are focused on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not either, or it's both and yeah so verses 48 to 52 we've we've taken the first half of this conversation pretty far. Nevertheless, looking at the example of not to follow with the, the Jews, looking at the example of who to to follow, actually the Gentiles verse 48 when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and Glorifying the word of the Lord. I always I find this phrase really interesting rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And Then it goes on to say and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed and the word of the Lord. There it is again, like the fourth time in our passage, and the word of the Lord was being Spread through the whole region.
Speaker 2:Why? Because they were going verse 50 but the Jews, again the problematic people in this passage Insided the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district. But they shook off the dust of their feet and protest against them and went to Iconium Shaking off the dust of the feet. We find that from Matthew, chapter 10, verse 52. And the disciples were continually filled with joy and Filled, or you could even say empowered, with the Holy Spirit. So, guys, a couple of things that we see in verses 48 to 52. What else are you noticing?
Speaker 1:Well, the word of the Lord continues to go on, that's right. And you, I do notice here that Paul's preaching is being called what he's preaching the word of the Lord. That's right. So we're gonna get Paul's letters later in the New Testament that are God's words that he gives to us, and I'm not saying every word Paul says is the word of God, but his letters are the word of God and he's preaching the gospel, which is the word of God, yeah, and so we know that Paul is being faithful to the message of Jesus Christ and that's what he's preaching.
Speaker 1:Paul isn't preaching the gospel of Paul. Paul's preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and what is it leading to? Where? What is happening in this city? Well, there's a stirring up, politically right of high-standing women and men to To force persecution upon those preaching the word. Yeah. Now, this is this is not rare, yeah, today, this isn't rare. Throughout history, this is a common occurrence of when the gospel is being spread in a place that people will oppose it and depose it to the point where they will want to make it illegal or against the day. So and the culture. So we see that happening here. This is kind of a the persecution of the gospel happening early on in a city, but Paul following scripture in Jesus's words, and what it means to dust off your feet, yeah, and to go to the next city well, and that's just the negative outcome.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, the preaching of the word of the Lord, david you mentioned Earlier, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believe that's a positive outcome of the preaching of the word of the Lord, the. The word of the Lord prepares this phrase here, believe it or not. This, this phrase, this half sentence or so, has been argued about by many theologians from many theological camps, because it says and as many as had been appointed, or literally selected, to eternal life, believe so. Someone take the predestination route.
Speaker 2:Others would say, hey, the word appointed here can actually be translated as prepared, and it was the preaching of the word of God that Prepared the heart, so that then of course, they believe they had been prepared for two weeks in a row, and so on and so forth. So, and this passage specifically, I actually think, contextually the word Prepared works better than appointed, because you see the emphasis on the word of God being preached over and over and over the, the preparation of the Bible, right, and then of course I think God, the Father, uses that to draw and woo a person's heart, but I I think it's better to see this is people had been prepared because the word of the Lord has been preached, and Paul says how will they Hear or excuse me, how will they believe if they have not heard? And I think this is the very thing happening. The preaching is the preparing.
Speaker 3:Think, especially here. You see, you have to work a lot harder against the word of God Then you do to just speak the word of God, like there's this, paul is just speaking. The word of God is sharing the gospel truth about Jesus, ministry, life, death, their resurrection, and People are responding to it I In the two ways either, you know, with excitement and vigor or with, oh, we have to fight against this. Yeah, the word has power.
Speaker 3:I mean that's all he's speaking is the word. But then if they're kicking against it, they've got to drum up all this, all this earthly support Against it. But we need no other support than the Spirit of God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's very well. That's very well said. They've got to drum up other support, earthly support. That's well said, and I think the outcome of this type of ministry is Joy. They're filled with joy and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, guys, I don't know about you, but I enjoy my job. If you could call it that, it's almost unfair. But there are tough days. For instance, yesterday I felt like I had a really tough day, but those are the outliers like. For the most part, I love what I'm doing and feel like I'm consistently filled with joy and Empowered with the Holy Spirit as I do so, and I think all of that is tied to word-based ministry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I love the joy here. I remember, you know when there's times I remember being at Walmart with you and there was that guy that rejected the gospel like pretty hard yeah, but like you leave, even in the rejection you leave like yeah, yeah, badge of honor. Like you're just the Holy Spirit's like we got rejected.
Speaker 1:Yeah like there's an encouragement, even though you don't want that guy to reject it. Your heart is like, no, I want you into the gospel, yeah, but I think the Holy Spirit in you goes. You, you were obedient, mm-hmm. You were obedient to what I asked you to do. And then there's joy that comes in obedience to the Lord. I think people miss out when they look at Christianity and they think of well, you got to follow rules, or God says you have to do this, and that, like I don't think you understand. When you're obedient to God, it is the most joy filled experience that you can ever have in this life is doing the will and desires of God. I don't, I can't explain another joy that's greater than that.
Speaker 3:This could be seen as just wanting to look at every situation with rose colored lenses, but the that walk away, the walk away. When you share the Lord with somebody, either way, if it's the harder, the harder they reject it. I Mean, look at Paul. I mean he, he fought against Jesus hardcore, but then he turned hard too. And you don't know what the Lord is doing in somebody's heart. When they reject hard, they might walk away from that and that truth is still sitting on their heart. If there's any receptive part of their spirit, any ounce, if they have a desire for the tree, that is gonna work its way into their heart, although if it's hard to reject it. But there is still hope that the Lord is gonna work in that seed. And then you walk away from somebody who You're just not sure you're like. Well, they were kind of on the fence, they were really wobbly again. Still, the Lord is working on it. We're working with the spirit and the spirit doesn't stop working when we walk away.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope that today you are encouraged by the word of God in Acts, chapter 13. You're encouraged to go share the gospel. You're encouraged to go disciple, because it's what we're being taught, it's what Jesus commanded us to do. So thank you for listening to the be disciples podcast. We hope that you join us each week as we tackle a book of the Bible, as we grow, as we become equipped to go do the Work of the ministry. Thank you so much for listening. Have a blessed week, you.