Join us as we recount our recent mission trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico! We had the privilege of working with i68 Missions, where we helped train over 70 ministry leaders to enhance their preaching and biblical interpretation skills. Our teaching approach blended lectures with breakout groups, fostering an environment of active learning and collaboration. Hear how the pastors' newfound skills will not only benefit them, but also have a ripple effect on their respective congregations. We'll also share a glimpse into our upcoming trips and teachings, so stay tuned!
Shifting gears, we'll take you on a journey through the book of Acts, specifically focusing on Paul's First Missionary Journey. We'll discuss why the Jews were the first to receive the Gospel's message and the challenges the apostles faced in spreading their faith. From disbelief among the Gentiles to divisions caused by the Gospel's message, we'll trace the apostles' path as they navigated these hurdles while spreading God's grace.
Finally, we unpack a significant event from the scriptures - the healing of a man lame from birth. We delve into the varied responses this miracle received and the misattribution of power, exploring the notion of God's common grace and its accessibility to all. Whether you're looking to disciple others, evangelize, or simply deepen your faith, this episode offers a wealth of insights and lessons to aid in your walk with Christ.
Join us as we recount our recent mission trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico! We had the privilege of working with i68 Missions, where we helped train over 70 ministry leaders to enhance their preaching and biblical interpretation skills. Our teaching approach blended lectures with breakout groups, fostering an environment of active learning and collaboration. Hear how the pastors' newfound skills will not only benefit them, but also have a ripple effect on their respective congregations. We'll also share a glimpse into our upcoming trips and teachings, so stay tuned!
Shifting gears, we'll take you on a journey through the book of Acts, specifically focusing on Paul's First Missionary Journey. We'll discuss why the Jews were the first to receive the Gospel's message and the challenges the apostles faced in spreading their faith. From disbelief among the Gentiles to divisions caused by the Gospel's message, we'll trace the apostles' path as they navigated these hurdles while spreading God's grace.
Finally, we unpack a significant event from the scriptures - the healing of a man lame from birth. We delve into the varied responses this miracle received and the misattribution of power, exploring the notion of God's common grace and its accessibility to all. Whether you're looking to disciple others, evangelize, or simply deepen your faith, this episode offers a wealth of insights and lessons to aid in your walk with Christ.
Welcome to the Be Disciples podcast. With your host Calmors, dakota Smith and David Glavin, we're going to be continuing our study in the book of Acts. Welcome to the podcast, guys.
Speaker 2:How's it going, brother? Good to see you all this morning, yeah we just got back from. Mexico, yeah. Puerto Pena, yeah, we loved it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a great trip. We went down there to vacation. Yeah, vacation, pastoral vacation, that's what it was.
Speaker 1:The beaches were beautiful, oh man, no, we went down there to train pastors. Yeah, this is our second year in a row. We're making this an annual trip to go down there, partnering with I-68 missions, where we go down every March to do a house build. The leader of that organization, scott Swartzentruber, and we went down there. He gathers pastors together in a room about 70 or more. We filled this church room up with tables. We bring people from our church, including pastoral staff, and we go down there to teach on biblical interpretation and preaching. That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what we do is essentially give them the tools that we're using to train men here in our own church. So I'd say a third of the workshop with all the pastors and lay leaders there in Mexico we give you know it's like a lecture format. And then the other two thirds of it is breakout groups where they have to work on passages themselves and they essentially have to prove their answers and justify it before us. And then we have other translators that you know help us in the communicative efforts of that ministry. But I'd say my number one highlight was there was guys that returned from last year and were well improved.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That means that their congregations are also hopefully being well equipped with the word of God.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so this was our second time going for Dakota, and I, yeah, but David this was my first time. So what were your initial thoughts? What did you think going in and then now coming back home?
Speaker 3:First time going to Mexico, first time going to this conference, this forum, and I really didn't know what to expect going in and I'd never tried to teach or lead with a translator before, which made it interesting. But it worked better than I thought and I with the table that I got. I had a table of five or six guys and they were just so genuine and earnest in their faith and we had great conversations. One of the things that I noticed was that there there was a tendency we did have to really hammer that the structure of the method and not jumping to, not jumping to application, not getting outside too soon, yeah.
Speaker 3:And and they really they are a very fluid culture and time wise that we did have a conversation I actually did. It was interesting I had with my guys. We were talking through the, the passage in Matthew, a passage in Matthew, and they were convicted about their, how loose they are, on time to let your SPS and your no be. No, oh, wow. And they said, well, in our culture it's like we might say, hey, we'll be over at nine and you know it's a, you know we may show up at 10, if we show up at all, and they're like that's our culture, but you know, I think we should. And then I heard from another leader that was at a table who said that the the people at his table said we're kind of scoffing. The American culture, like you guys, are so structured and it's like why do we have to make sure that we're doing all these things? And it was kind of like the opposites, like they were leaning into their culture, and the other was like you know.
Speaker 3:I think maybe that's something we could work on is yeah yeah, better, but it was great conversation at the table, great men. I hope to keep in contact with them and hope they come back next year too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, relationally, I loved it. Given hugs to guys from last year, just seeing them, their faces smiling, glad to be there. Yes, glad to see us.
Speaker 2:They so humbly received instruction. It was incredible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was. It was so nice. I may have got myself a little trouble talking about women wearing things on their heads. Nobody said anything, but I was trying to point out a cultural principle and in one of my lectures. But other than that I think it went pretty smooth. My table was all Americans for the most part because you had the missions board.
Speaker 1:I had the board of I68 there and they did a fantastic job. There's something there that do preach on a regular basis and then others that don't, but they all did the worksheets. They were prepared, they came in ready to go and you could tell they had Bible knowledge, and that's always helpful when you're, when you have a table that's studied in God's Word and faithful to it.
Speaker 2:So and we've been invited back for next year in September again, and this year we're going to be walking or sorry, when I say this year, I mean next year we're going to be working through the book of Revelation, and all of the people were really, really excited about that. So we've got some preparation to do before that comes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, talk about getting in trouble, oh man yeah may have some eschatological differences, but we'll find out.
Speaker 2:We'll have to model how to disagree in a godly way. Yeah, it'll be good.
Speaker 1:But if you're like wow, this trip sounded amazing. I want to, I want to go to something like that. Well, you're in luck, october 14. We have our OBC Academy Ottawa Bible Church Academy the 14th from 9am to 12pm here at our church in Ottawa, kansas. So Dr C L Mitchell's coming, pastor C L Mitchell. How many more titles can we add? Bishop, bishop.
Speaker 2:C L Mitchell Churches in the US and Europe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no big deal. The guy is super smart. He's been a mentor to Pastor Dakota for years. Very humble worked alongside him as well. So if you want to do a workshop like this, come to the OBC Academy October 14th and you will get that sort of training for yourself in reading God's Word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would just say this to add, and maybe we can get into the text I learned more from C L than I did from seminary, and I loved seminary. I mean, I loved every bit of it. But I've probably learned 80% of what I know from him and 20% from seminary, and that's just the honest truth. He has a very, very strong gift in teaching and preaching God's Word and he will show you the golden nuggets of the text that you did not even know were there. So the genre we're going to be in for this OBC Academy is the Four Gospels and he's going to help lecture at that Academy and give us tools that we need so that we can understand the Four Gospels to a better extent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so you can preach this Sunday, so they don't remember mine from this past Sunday.
Speaker 2:When C L approaches, yeah, that's very kind of you. I appreciate that. Yeah, definitely All right.
Speaker 1:Well, let's pray and then we are going to open our Bibles and start Acts, chapter 14, today. Father, thank you for this opportunity to open your word, to record it, to equip, to encourage people to continue in your word. Thank you for these brothers here. That we get to spend this time together in the word Helps us grow in our faith, equip us for the ministry and allows us to be an example of what it means to disciple. So be with us this morning, open our hearts to your word, lord, and I thank you for all those who listen in. In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 2:So where we were in the last episode was we closed out with Paul's essential sermon to the people during his first missionary journey, and then we see that a ton of Gentiles come to the faith to conclude chapter 13. The theme of you know, verses 44 to 52, which is what we would call today. Our pretext is the Word of God, the Word of God, the Word of God, the Word of God. There's the ministry of the Word of God continued to multiply greatly and I think it prepared people for eternal life. The other translation would be the word appointed, but the same word could also be prepared. I think the Word of God prepares people to believe and have eternal life. So that's where we've been. But we now move on to, I guess you could say, the continuation of Paul's first missionary journey, where he goes to Econium.
Speaker 2:So chapter 14, verse 1, says in Econium they enter the synagogue of the Jews together and spoken such a manner that a large number of people believed both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Therefore they spent a long time there, speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord who is testifying to the word of his grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided, and some sided with the Jews and some with the Apostles. And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of one Lyconia, two Lystra and three Derby in the surrounding region, and there they continued to preach the gospel.
Speaker 2:I think those first seven verses is a good place for us to camp out for a little bit before we move onward. Guys, what are your initial observations of the text? Things that you're not superimposing on the text, but things you're pulling out of the text. What do we have?
Speaker 1:Well, we have them first going into a Jewish synagogue. This is something we saw Jesus do. Yeah Right, he went into the synagogues to preach, to give the word, and so Paul and Barnabas are kind of following that same method of ministry going into a town, going to the Jewish synagogue, preaching in that synagogue the truth, and then from there, like Jesus's ministry, there's all kinds of different responses from all kinds of different people. That's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what comes to my mind right away is even Paul said you know, the gospel is first for the Jew and then for the Greek. It's not that the gospel was in particular just for one group of people, but it's the people of Israel that held the promises and the covenants of God, and they were the ones looking forward to the Messiah first. I think it's just natural that they receive the message first, since they were the ones who, at least, should have been expecting the message.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're the ones who had all of the prophecy Right. All they had the law they had God choosing them to work through. So they should have been the ones to recognize the Messiah is kind of the point. So they should have been the first to see what was happening, whereas the Gentiles are also able to participate in the gospel Right, all the nations. But yeah, it's definitely there's a focus on Jesus's ministry. Right was first to the Jews. He came, he was in Israel, and then also Paul and Barnabas. They go to the synagogue. So there's a pattern of ministry that's happening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think maybe the word a courtesy may be an understatement, but I think it was a common courtesy to give them the gospel first. But what I find really interesting and this just came to my mind because of what I'm preaching this Sunday, what you preached yesterday is Israel reached a place of uttermost rejection of Jesus, to the point where they crucified him on the cross. They blasphemed the Holy Spirit. But here you see the gospel of the kingdom still being given to Israel. They still got almost like the second chances after the resurrection, the sign of Jonah. And even after the sign of Jonah they're rejecting. Not that everybody's rejecting, but….
Speaker 1:Well, I think that was the point of the blasphemy discussion in Matthew, chapter 12, right, he says you can blaspheme against the Son of God, you can do all those things, but there will become a point in which you will blaspheme the Holy Spirit, which is having an unrepentant heart. So I think the point in message is you better watch out. Yeah, pharisees, you need to check what you're saying, you need to check what you're claiming, you need to check your accusations, because there will be a time where you'll be too late for you.
Speaker 2:Well, basically it comes down to this when you have no excuse, when you have no excuse but to say that that work must be the work of the Spirit of God. And even in spite of that obvious knowledge that's the work of the Spirit of God, because of your hardness of heart, you're still asking for signs, you're still blaspheming that's the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, where it's an ultimate rejection of. I know, I know better. That is God working, but no, I'm still too prideful to Humble myself. So that's what's happening in the nation of Israel. Romans says that until now, a partial hardening has come upon Israel. So in the last days that would no longer be the case. But we're kind of getting off on a tangent. Either way, we're talking about the nature of Israel as they're receiving the Gospel and David. Any additional thoughts?
Speaker 3:And I think it's an intentional. You had said a courtesy, but I think the other side of that is the intentionality of Christ when he, you know the first call for the disciples to go, go out to the Jews you know, and he says to the Jews first, to men, to the Gentiles.
Speaker 3:But I think the intentionality in that also is to for that separation, because Jesus talks about this separation, you know, the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff. They have to be presented with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to make that those divisions, and they make the divisions themselves in their, either their willingness to accept or their denial.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's also a depiction of there is a distinction between Israel and the church Israel has rejected. The church is now being raised up, which implies to me that God will bring back Israel one day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, in the text that we're reading we have the message of the Gospels being proclaimed. The unbelieving Jews are poisoning the minds of the people, but the apostles aren't just preaching the gospel, but what is the Holy Spirit doing through them? Yeah, they're doing many wonders.
Speaker 2:That's right, granting that signs and wonders be done. Verse three.
Speaker 1:So there's like an extra stamp on the gospel. That's being, that's being preached, that's what Jesus was doing Signed right, healings, casting out demons, preaching the word, fulfilling prophecy. The apostles, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the acts of the Holy Spirit, are showing and and kind of giving that stamp of yes, this is the truth, this is God working through us. Why would you not believe? So they continue. But we have these unbelieving Jews that are clearly doing the same thing that they did to Jesus, the same unbelieving hearts who do not want to accept Jesus as Lord, who are going to continue to push the apostles out of towns, out of places, just as Jesus was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe just something else I'm noticing in the text. I know that we're harping on Israel here for everything that they're doing, but the text seems to give indication that both Jews and Greeks are either believing or both. You know, jews and Greeks are the ones being stirred up and becoming better. So just because Israel has an issue does not also mean that the Gentiles themselves don't have an issue, because obviously, you know, there's rejection all around here. Like I'm looking at verse four, but the people of the city were divided and some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. Well, the people of the city encapsulates both Jews and Greeks, as you see from verse one. So then it goes on to verse five when an event sorry, when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mystery and to stone them, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lyconia, lystra and Durberry in the surrounding region. There they continued to preach the gospel.
Speaker 2:So what I think is interesting here is we also consider Paul as this individual who went through much pain for the sake of the gospel. But I think I wrongly see Paul at times as this guy who's just willing to be persecuted, you know, like almost asking for it and that's not true. Like here. He obviously fled. He fled multiple times in his ministry, right. So the persecution he received was things that he was not manipulating, but they still came upon him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they didn't stop right, yeah, no, they didn't.
Speaker 2:It kept coming.
Speaker 1:They, yeah, and they kept preaching the gospel says right at the last couple words. And they continued preaching the gospel Right. And so, yeah, they fled, but they didn't stop doing what they were called to do. They were just like, well, we're about to get stoned. So let's get out of here and just keep doing what we're doing.
Speaker 2:And later Paul will be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he will. I mean, he'll be like more than that he has. There's all kinds of persecution that that Paul undertakes, and so, but yes, he does flee here. Or maybe it's because they got word of it this time, right, yeah, they knew that this was being talked about and so, hey, let's get out of here, let's dust our feet off and keep going. Let's move on.
Speaker 2:So let's pick it up in verse eight, and I think I'm just going to read from eight to 18. But maybe we can break eight to 18 up as we go. It says at Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother's womb, who had never walked. This man was listening to Paul as he spoke who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, said with a loud voice stand up right on your feet. And he leaped up and began to walk. When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lyconian language the gods have become like men and have come down to us. And they began calling Barnabas, zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
Speaker 2:The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In the generations gone by, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, and yet he did not leave himself without witness, and that he did good and gave you reigns from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Even saying these things with difficulty, they restrain the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
Speaker 2:Okay, guys, a lot to work with in verses eight through 18, but I guess you could say you have the healing and the response to the healing. So let's do some observations again. What are we finding in the text?
Speaker 3:Well, there's a kind of a mixed positive and negative response, not an aggressive negative, but a kind of a misdirection of the, giving the glory to the men instead of to God. On Jesus Christ, whose name they're speaking. So, but you have them a miracle. In previous chapters you have a miracle, and then you have rebuke. You know you have the. They're attacked, but here they're praised, falsely praised, but they take that opportunity to give glory back to God.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we see, we see miracles done in front of the Jews, which then their responses are like well, that must be because of Satan's power through you or whatever other excuse that they want to give, but not to God. Yeah, Then we have healings in front of Gentiles, specifically Greek influenced Gentiles, right, who are like well, it must be our gods that are doing this, that have come down and are walking among us like both are blasphemous, but in different ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so one of acceptance, one of denial, but right yeah.
Speaker 1:And so it's. It's just so interesting, no matter, no matter the evidence right in front of your face of wonders. It doesn't matter the people group. They seem to initially attribute those things to something else other than God himself. Even though the message that Paul is giving is that of Jesus Christ and what he's done on the cross he's risen from the grave they still aren't making the connection. They're still attributing it to what they believe, not what Paul's saying. So I just find that interesting that there's always this moving away from what's actually being done when wonders, healing and those sort of things are happening, because we today want to be like why doesn't God just show up right here and heal all these people and do all these amazing things? It's like, well, he already did that and people still said that's not God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they still had inappropriate responses, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:I just find that always interesting and that people and I would probably I don't know, I don't want to think I would be any different than these people that the culture would influence me, to try to rationalize this healing or try to attribute it to something that I've always believed in. I think it would be a pretty common response. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well it's. I kind of find the contrast here in that in verses one through seven it was the word of God that was being rejected and now it's the power of God that's being rejected. And I think you see even another contrast between the individual that Paul fixed his eyes on and saw that, this individual who's been lame from his mother's womb. The text says that Paul saw that he had faith to be made well, which is really interesting that you can Paul was able to physically see that. Maybe it was his posture or his countenance or whatever it might be. I mean, you guys know, from doing ministry long enough.
Speaker 2:It's not hard to look out into you know the congregation, or to look out into a ministry setting and there you are delivering the word of God or teaching people about the Bible, and it's not hard to see the difference between somebody who's interested versus disinterested. I mean, your body language says everything. Maybe there was something more supernatural to it. But we've got an individual who believed, followed up by an entire crowd who falsely attributed this power to their gods. And then Paul goes on this tangent of speaking about general revelation, like no, you've known this real God from the beginning, but you're still not seeing him, you know correctly.
Speaker 3:I think there's a contrast in Paul and Barnabas' response too. I think we see them. It seems to me that we see them respond in a different way in verse 14. But when the apostle Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes, rushed into the crowd, crying out, saying men, why are you doing these things? This isn't us, this is the power of God. I mean before when in the message is rejected they just left.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they just left and they didn't have this inward sort of response that caused them to tear their clothes and to cry out, but I think it's because of that. Well, I'm reading into it now, but my first response is that it's this people are rejecting God. There's a difference in their heart between rejecting God's word and then attributing God's work to them. So I think there's their heart to making sure that God is receiving the glory and not them, but not in just like a cerebral way, like no, you're not understanding this. It's like this is an emotional response.
Speaker 2:You're right on with that. That was a great observation. Yeah, when they're the ones being worshipped now, they stop and tear their clothes and say, whoa, guys, hold up. We need to talk about this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think, even as somebody who teaches on a regular basis, I want the message to be communicated clearly, god's truth, not some other message Like if anybody was like, hey, you said this, does this what you meant, like I'd want to correct that.
Speaker 1:Be like oh no, I'm sorry I may have said that wrong or it may have come off, come across different, but God's word says this.
Speaker 1:And Paul and Barnabas, they, the whole the crowds, are attributing these wonders to different gods and they're like wait a minute, it's it just like spurred an emotional response to them, like we want to communicate truth clearly and you guys are not getting it. And they like have this moment of like ripping their clothes off no, this is not what we're saying, this is not the God that we're not, we're not gods, god, these gods haven't come among you, but only one God has come among you and died for you. And so they, they, they almost get real bold in this moment, a different type of response. And I mean I get that way emotionally in preaching and in teaching because I truly want to communicate the right thing, the truth, and not something different. So I can see the Paul and Barnabas just being so dedicated to the word and to the gospel that they don't want misinformation getting out there. They want to. They want to cut it off right as it happens.
Speaker 2:You know what I find interesting? I have a footnote in my Bible that says in verse 12, and that began calling Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes. The Latin actually translates it as they were calling Barnabas Jupiter and they were calling Paul Mercury. And I have a little footnote in my Bible that says that Mercury was considered the messenger or the spokesperson for all the pagan gods of Greece and Rome. So maybe they were even preaching in that setting and they saw the particular or gifting of Paul's preaching ability, one by way of Holy Spirit, two by way of, you know, that's just his, his specific spiritual gift. But there was something uncommon about these two men, because God was the one who sent them and because all they knew was pagan deities. I think they were responding in in the flesh, of course, rather than by faith, but they saw something different and unique.
Speaker 2:Maybe, to close out this podcast, let's look again at verses 16 through 18, because I think 16 through 18, there's something going on here that that we need not leave behind. We need to pick up on that just a little bit more. So verse 16, this is, you know, mid mid speech, mid rebuke. In the generations gone by, paul said he permitted all the nations to go their own ways. And yet he did not leave himself without witness in that he did good and gave you reigns from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Even saying these things with difficulty, they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them. Why would Paul be taking the argument of general revelation here? Special revelation is is the Bible, but general revelation points to creation for the witness of God. Why would Paul be going this route? What do y'all think?
Speaker 3:Well, is he addressing their lack of recognition of the power of God and what they're doing to say that in generations past God let you go your own way and you're not recognizing God for who he is anymore and you're attributing it to these other gods. But it's been the one true God all along who has given you what you need the reins, the fruit and its season and calling them back to recognizing that is God who's provided all along.
Speaker 2:You don't recognize him anymore because Because you've continued to worship your deities, right? Yeah? Verse 17 would say, yes, god allowed them to go their own way, but verse 17 would say that he did not leave them, however, without a witness. So let's keep talking that out. What do you think?
Speaker 1:Well, I think we can also talk about common grace that everybody has received from the Lord. He brings the reins, he brings provision to all people, not just to the Christian, not just to the believing person. But Paul is stating something like God has always been the same God. There hasn't been all these other gods. The same God that we are preaching has provided for you and your nation, even when you walked against him. He is still provided.
Speaker 1:So there's a common grace which goes in, I believe, with general revelation that allows somebody to see, no matter where they are in the world, the work being done by God generally and just in a provision type of way. Doesn't God take care of the birds of the air? Won't he also take care of you? So there's a common grace on all men here that Paul is talking about, and I think that's pivotal to the message that Paul is giving them that what you have always had, the blessings that have been in your life, the provisions that you've had, have always come from the God Jesus. Jesus has been that one. So he's making a point. He's drawing them away from their gods, which? What did their pagan gods do? The God of the sun, the God of all of these different elements of creation. No, there's one God that provides all of those things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a difference between common grace and salvific grace. Salvific grace salvation is based in Christ alone. You have to hear the gospel, you have to know of him especially. Common grace is not just, by the way, a provision that God has given, but common grace is also found in what we are able to enjoy, so a good meal, a sunset, a intimacy with your spouse, whatever that might be. Those are all forms of common grace that all people can experience.
Speaker 2:And so this kind of gets us to the question that all of us have received in ministry so many times what about the people living in the Amazon who have never heard the gospel before? What does God do with those people? And the answer is well, when given God's provision and when given God's common grace. If, after those things, they are still not left asking the question of who God really is, it's actually an exposure and an indictment to their heart that they didn't care enough to ask. Right, so they were. They, as Romans once says, are left without an excuse for not knowing God. And if they had pursued him, if they had asked for him, then God himself would do anything necessary to bring them the truth, whether that was Old Testament Judaism or whether, of course, that is New Testament, the message of Christ by way of dream vision, whatever it might be, and I think God is still doing that today for those who are seeking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we see tons of stories out of the Middle East with those who are Muslim who are receiving dreams of Jesus. I think there are people who are truly seeking. They're seeing what's going on around them and they're asking God who are you? Show yourself to me, and we're seeing God work in special ways that I think sometimes, as an American, we seem to dismiss.
Speaker 1:We like to be practical, we like to keep things black and white, we like to do all of those things rather than ask God to reveal himself to us and then be open to whatever. That would be A dream, an individual sharing the gospel with me, some turning on the radio to K-love and hearing the gospel, whatever that may be. I think sometimes as Americans, we shut ourselves off to God because we really don't want to know. I think that can happen, and then we're shutting ourselves off to that revealing, that drawing of the Spirit, and so, yeah, I think, anywhere you are the jungles, the middle of the in the Middle East, in the mountain, desert, mountains to a big city in America call upon the name of the Lord and he will reveal himself to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think maybe a good word just to part with is in both of these accounts we looked at today, acts 14, 1-7 and Acts 14, 8-18. One we see the preaching of the Word of God and we see acceptance by some, but we see a heavy rejection. That's why they had to flee. From 8-18, we see a miracle done by Paul in Barnabas, specifically Paul, to raise up this individual lame from birth. He believes by faith. And then we see a massive rejection. Only that massive rejection. Like verse 18 says, even saying these things to them with difficulty, they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them. It's another type of rejection, just almost an indirect or passive rejection. And so in both cases I think you see the principle of what Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount. Right Like wide is the path to destruction and many follow it, and narrow is the way to eternal life and few find it.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much for listening to the Be Disciples podcast. We just ask that you would go on whatever platform you're listening and leave some comments, rate us five stars, share this with your friends. Just a way for people to stay in the Word throughout the week. Another avenue to walk through scripture. Our hearts is that we would use this podcast to help you equip people to disciple others, to go get some coffee and open up God's Word and do that with other people as much as you can. Fill your calendar with opportunities to evangelize and disciple the nations. Thank you so much and have a blessed week.