 Amen. Alright. Acts chapter 13. So Acts chapter 13, especially starting in verse number 4, which we're going to start tonight. We looked last week at the ascending out of the Holy Ghost. Paul and Barnabas, or Saul and Barnabas as it is at the beginning of Acts chapter 13 are sent out by the Holy Ghost himself. So we looked at the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit's interaction with us in our lives today. We're going to start here in verse number 4. Acts chapter 13 is the beginning of what's known as Paul's first missionary journey. And I have in front of you in your seats tonight. I have a little map that's printed out with the kind of the spots that they stopped that are pointed out. Most of these spots, except for the last one, are pointed out in Acts chapter 13. It pretty much encompasses the whole missionary journey. I just want to give you an idea. I think it's important that we see the things that they went through and how far they went and where they went to give us some context of what's happening in this story. If you look down at verse number 4 with your map in your hand, the Bible says, so they, of course, verse number 3 says, and they sent them away. Well, where did they send them? Okay, so verse number 3 says, and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away, verse 4. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Salucia. So Salucia, Antioch is right on the western coast of the Mediterranean Sea, on the east side, I guess, of the Mediterranean Sea. And Salucia is the port city that is next to Antioch. Antioch is set a little bit inside. You know, we're looking at what is, what today would be modern day Syria. Antioch is set just inside, it's not a coastal city, but Salucia is the coastal city. And it says, and from thence, they sail to Cyprus. So they go to the coastal city, and right away they get in a ship, and they sail to Cyprus, which is the large, the large island in the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, just south of what we would call modern day Turkey today. Okay, so if you look at verse number 4 to verse number 5, we've basically traveled about 200 miles by sea, just between those two verses right there. So they went from Salucia, and they sailed to Cyprus, and when they were at Salamis, Salamis is a city on the island. Okay, on the eastern side of the island, you can see it marked on your map there. And here they start preaching. Okay, and when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God and the synagogues of the Jews, and they also head John to their minister. So here we have a couple of things that we need to point out, because there's a big, there's a couple of big events that happen in this first missionary journey that we need to point out. And the first one is in verse number 5 where it says there's two things I need to point out in verse number 5. First of all, it's not just Saul and Barnabas, there is John Mark with them at this point. Okay, so that's the first thing we need to kind of take note of. The second thing is they start out preaching to the Jews. So that's another thing that we need to recognize because there is a very important doctrine that is actually put into place, or put into, that is demonstrated in this first missionary journey. So we need to first understand as we get into the preaching of Saul this evening that they started preaching in the synagogues to the Jews. They were preaching specifically to the Jews. Look at verse number 6. So we have Saul, Barnabas, and John Mark is there with their minister, meaning he's kind of the apprentice. He's kind of the helper. He's not the main evangelist. He's there to just help them out, do what they need to be done. He's there to be a servant, so to speak, a helper to them. Look at verse number 6. And they got through the Isle onto Paphos. So there we go again. Now we've traveled another, I don't know, 100 miles or so. Yeah, above another 100 miles. They've gone now from verse 5 to verse 6. They've traveled all the way from the east side of the island of Cyprus all the way to the west side of Cyprus. They found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God. So I've already talked about Bar-Jesus. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on him. I've compared him with the sorcerer that we've already seen in the book of Acts, and we looked at, you know, why Paul or Saul at this point was so hard on Bar-Jesus and not so hard on the other sorcerer because basically Bar-Jesus was trying to stop somebody from getting saved. He was literally an enemy of the Gospel here, which is why Paul calls him out basically as a son of the devil. All right? So he's going after, Sergius Paulus is a ruler. This is kind of a similar situation to the Ethiopian eunuch. So this is a ruler. He's some sort of man in charge of Cyprus. It calls him a deputy. So he calls for Barnabas and Saul, and he desires, he wants to hear the Gospel. All right? He wants to hear the truth. But Alimus, this Bar-Jesus, tries to stop them. And then look at verse number nine. Now this is where, this is the last time we, you know, we start, we stop calling Saul, Saul, and we start calling him Paul at this point. I'll tell you why I believe that that is, but I believe that it's actually up in verse seven. You can see the deputy of the country. His name was Sergius Paulus. So here was a, he was a Roman ruler. His last name was Paulus. Basically, Saul is, is Paul's Jewish name, and Paul's like a Roman version of his name. Okay? And I believe that this is very symbolic that, you know, this isn't like John chapter one where Jesus literally renamed Simon. Okay? This is a different situation. Jesus literally says to Simon in John chapter one, he basically says, you know, I'm gonna call you Cephas now. Cephas meaning Petros in Greek, meaning Peter in English as it's in our Bible, you know, from then on out. But, you know, Jesus literally renamed Simon. Here it just says that Saul, you know, is called Paul. And then from this point on in the Bible, I don't think it's an accident that it's this way in Acts chapter 13, that in Acts chapter 13, we start calling him by his Roman name. We start calling him by his gentile name in Acts chapter 13. I don't think that is an accident. Turn to first Corinthians chapter nine and verse number 19. Turn to first Corinthians chapter nine and verse number 19. So all that to say this, Jesus didn't rename Saul into Paul. He just started using his, his gentile version of his name, his Roman version of his name instead of using Saul. But it's interesting to see in first Corinthians chapter nine, look at verse number 19 where Paul says, Paul kind of has this philosophy in his life. Paul is a very persuasive man. I mean, he's a very good evangelist. He's, he's very persuasive. He's good at what he does. We'll see that again in this chapter. But look at verse number 19 in first Corinthians chapter nine. The Bible says, for though I be free from all man yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. What this is saying is Paul saying, I mean, Paul has done some, some thinking about how to reach people. Paul has done some thinking about how he can relate to different people from different places. Look at verse 20. He says, and under the Jews I became as a Jew. Well, Paul was a Jew. So that was easy that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law as under the law that I might gain them that are under the law. So Paul is saying in verse number 20, he's like, hey, when I'm talking to the Jews, he's like, I'm going to come at them in ways that they can understand. And that's what he's trying to do when we see him preach his sermon tonight. What is he doing? He's trying to come at the Jews as a Jew. He's trying to talk to the Jews as, you know, children of Abraham. That's why he starts talking about all the prophets that he's going to talk about, not to get ahead of myself, but Paul is very good at relating to knowing who his audience is. Let's put it that way. Look at verse number 21. He says to them that are without the law, these would be the Gentiles as without the law. Being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without the law. So he's saying, look, I'm going to be as a Jew to the Jews and to the Gentiles, I'm going to be to the Gentiles. And so you'll see after Acts 13 is over, you'll understand why he's going by the name Paul. Okay, because after Acts chapter 13, you can see that he is largely preaching to the Gentiles, not to give away, you know, the whole sermon tonight, but there's a definite shift in Acts chapter 13. There's a definite shift that takes place in this first missionary journey from the Jews to the Gentiles. And I don't think it's an accident that it's that chapter that his name is not changed, but he goes by Paul instead of Saul in Acts chapter 13. Alright, go back to Acts chapter 13. Go back to Acts chapter 13. And of course, where do we leave off? Verse number 10. So now he's dealing with Bar-Jesus. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time here. He calls him thou child of the devil. Look at verse number 11. He says, Behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shall be blind. He strikes them with blindness. I talked about that as well. God has used blindness as a definite way to both help the Gospel and to, you know, further his kingdom on earth in many different cases. I talked about that in a tale of two sorcerers. Go ahead and, you know, refresh that sermon not to get back into that. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness and he went about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. So he basically strikes this man with blindness. And then he talks to the deputy in verse 12. And the deputy, when he saw it was done, believed being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord. So he gets this guy saved after he does this miraculous striking of blindness to the sorcerer. Now look at verse number 13. The Bible says, Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, so loosed meaning they set sail again. Okay, they unloosed, they untied the ship, they set sail, they came to Perga in Pamphylia. Now look at your map and you'll see where they went. They went out from Paphos and they went to the northwest as it would be to a coastal city called Perga. And something very important happens here. And it's not an accident that it happens at this location. Look at verse number, the last part of verse number 13. So they sail another 150 miles or so to the southern border of what is modern day Turkey today. And they end up in this port city called Perga. Alright, so so far they've gone from Antioch, they've gone to a port city, they have sailed 100 some miles to the east side of Cyprus, they have traveled all the way across the island of Cyprus, they have preached to the deputy, one of the rulers of Cyprus, gotten him saved, and then they have sailed another 150 miles north to the southern coast of Turkey or Pamphylia as it's called here. And then the Bible says, and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. So I want you to look at where Jerusalem is on this map, and I want you to look at where Perga is on this map. They've just gotten, you know, they've traveled, I don't know, 300 plus miles so far they've been gone for I'm sure what is several months at this point, the Bible doesn't say a timeline, but they were gone for probably over a year on this whole journey. They've been gone for several months. And at this point, Paul, where's Paul going? Paul is going further north into Turkey at this point. And there's two Antiochs too. So it's kind of that can kind of be cute, you know, confusing to people. But the next Antioch that they stop in is not the Antioch that they came from, they're heading further into Turkey or into, you know, Pamphylia as it's called here in the Bible. And before they head further in further away from Jerusalem, this John, John Mark says, Hey, I'm heading back. Okay, the Bible doesn't tell us why. Okay, the Bible doesn't tell us why John left, but this does cause a lot of controversy in about a chapter and a half from where we are today. And I'm not going to get into that controversy. I will preach through that controversy when we get there. But I just want you to note the location for now where John Mark headed back. It's a very interesting point. And I think we can kind of get into the minds of these men, get into the minds of John Mark on why he left at that point. Now look, that in mind, look at down at verse number 14. It says, Now they departed from Perga. And they came to Antioch in Poseidia and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. Okay, so here John leaves and they head north another 100 miles or so into this other city in Turkey called Antioch. And now they go into another synagogue. And this is where Paul is going to, you know, start preaching his big sermon in Acts chapter 13. Look at verse 15. After reading of the law and prophets, so they're in the synagogue right now. After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them saying, He men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on. It's kind of like, oops. So it's a couple of things are interesting here. Okay, so they're reading, what are they doing in the synagogue? These are the rulers of the Jews right here. What are they doing in Acts chapter 13 and verse number 15? They're basically having church. They're basically having church. They're reading the Bible. They're reading the law and the prophets. Okay, so note that as we go forward. Okay, what does Paul do into his sermon? What does he reference in his sermon? He's going to reference the law and the prophets. So he's basically speaking to them on their level. He's speaking to them on something that they should know, they should understand. They were just reading it before they said, Does anybody have anything else to add? They kind of said like, Hey, men's preaching night. And Paul is like, I'll go. And Paul gets up and he just starts, you know, exhorting Jesus to them. But he does it in a way that is exactly on the level that, please understand this. He does it on a level that they should understand. He's trying to give them every chance to the Jews. He's being a Jew here. Okay, just like he said in 1st Corinthians chapter 9. So look at verse 16. They said, Anybody want to give a sermon? And Paul says, I'll give a sermon and he stands up and Paul stood up and beckoning with his hand said, men of Israel and ye that fear God give audience. He's saying, listen up. The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers and exalted. Notice how he says our fathers. He's saying, I am a Jew too. He's relating to them. Paul is very persuasive and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt and within high arm brought them out of it. And about the time of 40 years he suffered either their manners in the wilderness when they destroyed the seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot. He's kind of preaching through the Bible here. He's kind of just telling them the history of where he's saying, this is where we all came from. He's like, this is my history. This is your history. And after that, he gave unto them judges about the space of 450 years and tell Samuel the prophet, Samuel being, of course, the last judge right before King Saul. And he talks about King Saul in verse number 21, verse number 22, when he removed him, he raised up to them David to be their king, to whom also he gave their testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart which shall fulfill all my will. Of this man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a savior. Now he drops it right here. Okay, so everybody look, the Jews know that the savior, look, they don't believe it was Jesus, but the Jews know in the law, if they know the Bible, they know that the savior is going to come from the line of David. So this is what he's saying. He's like, look, here's our history. He talks about Moses. He talks about, you know, the judges. He talks about, you know, the judges had prophecies. He talks about all these different things. He talks about Samuel the prophet. Then he talks about David and he references the promise to David to have the Messiah come from his line. Remember, remember the lower kingdom of Judah. They were all sons of David. The northern kingdom of Israel, it was a mess. It was just dynasty after dynasty after dynasty, but as God promised, it was all a son of a son of a son of a son of a son in Judah, even until they were carried away in Babylon. And of course we know that Jesus was of this line. And so he drops it and he says, look, the savior was Jesus. And look at verse 24. He says, when John had preached before his coming, now he goes to John the Baptist, preached before his coming to baptism or repentance to all the people of Israel. So he says, hey, John the Baptist, he was here to prepare the way for Jesus. And as John fulfilled his course, he said, whom think he that I am? I am not he, but behold, there cometh one after me whose shoes of his feet I am not worthy to loose. Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. Now verse number 27, verse number 27, for they that dwelted Jerusalem in their rulers because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day. You hear what he just said right there? You know what he's, you know what he just said right there? They literally just read the prophets in verse 15 like five minutes ago. And he's saying the reason that you, you didn't know Jesus was because you sit in the synagogues and you read the prophets every Sabbath day and you don't know them. So you condemned Jesus. I mean look, if you don't believe Jesus as the Messiah, these are fighting words to you. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they pilot that he should be slain. So he's like literally just calling them like even look, even if you didn't believe that he was Jesus, you murdered him. You just, you just murdered somebody. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepiculture. But God raised him from the dead. Look at verse 31. Look at verse 31 it says, and he was seen many days of them that came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are his witnesses unto the people. He's talking about just like, you killed Jesus. Jesus was the seed of David. Jesus was the Messiah. You killed him. He went in the grave. Notice how he doesn't get into any heavy doctrine here. He doesn't bring up Jesus' soul going to hell as Acts chapter 2 did. He says, and we declare unto you glad tidings, the promise which was made unto the fathers. God has fulfilled the same unto us their children and that he had raised up Jesus again and also as is written in the second Psalm, turn to Psalm chapter 2. Thou art my son this day, have I begotten thee? So now he starts quoting David. Now he starts quoting the prophets and he starts quoting prophecy about Jesus. All right? So he basically, he relates to them through their history. He relates to them through prophets. He relates to them through, you know, the promise to David and then he's going to start bringing up prophecies about Jesus. Look at Psalm chapter 2 in verse, well let me turn there myself. In Psalm chapter 2, look at verse number 7 of Psalm chapter 2. This is what he's quoting here where he says Psalm chapter 2, sorry, in verse number 7 where he says, I'll declare the decree the Lord has said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. So he's bringing up all these things that David said in Psalms that were messianic prophecies is what he's doing. Look at verse number 34. And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. So now he's going to talk about this idea that David when David said, you know, talked about in the Psalms, Psalm chapter 16 in verse number 10 where before he said in another Psalm verse 35, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. He's literally telling them David wasn't talking about him. David was talking about the Messiah. He's relating David's comment in Psalm 1610 to the resurrection of the Messiah after three days. And then he explains why. He says it couldn't have been David. Why? Look at verse 36. For David after he served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep. It means he died and was laid unto his fathers and saw corruption. What he's saying here is that David's bones, his grave is here. He's rotted. Corruption means his body decayed literally. That's what he's talking about here. And the Bible says in Psalm chapter 1610 it says, Thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Meaning David was talking about Jesus not himself. Because God raised Jesus from the dead after three days and three nights. But he whom God raised again, again, saw no corruption. He's like David was talking about Jesus. He's literally like speaking as David is not only, you know, King David, not only the David that God promised the seed of the Messiah that would come from, but David a prophet here. David had many prophecies. Look at verse 38. Be it known unto you therefore, man, and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by all, now this is interesting. And by, you gotta kind of put a bracket around verse number 39 because verse number 39 relates to another verse going forward. Verse number 39 says, and by him, what? By him, here's the gospel right here. By him all that believed are justified from all things. He just lays the gospel out there. He's like okay, Jesus is the Messiah. It's not just, okay, Jesus is the Messiah. It's all that believe on him, all that trust in this Jesus. He's saying are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. So what he's saying is, I mean, they're in bad shape on so many levels here. Number one, they don't understand Moses. They don't understand the law of Moses, what it was for, because they think they're justified by the law, but he's saying you can't be justified by the law of Moses. The law can't save you, he says. It never could, by the way. Turn to Romans chapter 8. Turn to Romans chapter 8. He's basically saying Jesus did what the law could not do. Look at Romans chapter 8 in verse number 30. So not only does he say that it was Jesus, you killed him, this is who David was talking about. It had to have been him. I mean, another importance of the resurrection right there fulfills that prophecy that David prophesied in Psalm chapter 16. Look at verse number 3 of Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, look at verse number 3. The Bible says for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. What does that mean? What does that mean? The law can't save you. Why? Because it's, what's the weak point of the law? Think about this for a second. There's two ways to heaven. The first way is never sin. Then you're not guilty. The first way is never sin. Except no man can do that. Why? Because we're weak through the flesh. That's why. So that's why we're out soul winning, you know, and I'll talk about this in detail on Sunday night. We're out soul winning. It's really easy to explain to somebody that if I go out and I steal a car in Fresno, if I steal somebody's car, and somebody that just believes in workspace salvation, they believe, if I'm pretty good, I'm going to go to heaven. But then you explain to somebody if I steal somebody's car and I ruin their car and I get arrested and I get taken in front of a judge in Fresno and that judge says, Pastor Jared, did you steal and ruin Bob's car? And I said, well, judge, I sure did, but I'm really nice. Everybody laughs when I say that. I said, do you think he's going to let me go? And they go, pfft. People laugh because it's silly. Well, judge, yeah, I burned the guy's house down because I was mad at him. I ruined everything. Oh, I murdered somebody and oh, but I helped a little old lady across the street yesterday. It was like pfft. Everyone knows that that's silly. That's the problem with the law, right there. Is that our guilt, our good deeds can't cover our guilt. I don't care how many good deeds you have. I don't care how great you are, it can't cover up what you've already done. Why? Because the flesh is weak. That's why. So the law is weak through the flesh and that says God, what are we going to do about this? God sent his own son. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemns sin in the flesh. So look, all that, all that to say this, Jesus did what the law could not do. And this, look, it was always the plan. It was always the plan. The Messiah was, I mean, everybody knew the Messiah was coming at some point. Paul was just saying, hey, it was Jesus and you killed him. Look at verse, verse number four of Romans eight, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Just saying like, hey, we should walk within the Spirit. Now that we're saved through the Son, we should walk in the Spirit. That's what the law is for. The law is a school master to teach the unsaved that they need a Savior and then the law is there for us to clean up our act after we're saved. It's not there to save us. It could never save us. Okay, go back to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13, then look at verse number 40. Just remember verse number 39 though. We're going to come back to verse number 39 in a few minutes, but go to Acts chapter 30 and look at verse number 40. Let's continue. So now he just preaching, continues preaching here and he says, beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of the prophets. Now he just starts laying out more prophecy. Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which shall you shall in no wise believe. He's quoting Habakkuk 1.5 here, though a man should declare it unto you. How's that for a sermon? He stands up and he's like, how what if I just stood up in a sermon and I said, look, I'm going to preach this sermon and none of you are going to listen to me. He's saying, the words are even worse than that. I'm going to say, I'm going to preach this sermon and none of you are going to believe me. What I'm going to say, that's exactly what he just said to them. He just quoted the prophecy that Habakkuk said in Habakkuk 1.5. He said, someone's going to get up and declare this to you and you're not going to believe it. But look, they don't know what Habakkuk 1.5 means. They probably don't even know what it says and they just don't know what it means. They're just, they're blinded to it. Okay, look at verse 41. Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which he shall in no wise believe though a man declared unto you. He quotes exactly Habakkuk 1.5. Look at verse 42. And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles be sought that these words might be preached unto them the next Sabbath. Very interesting right there. So, this created quite a stirrer and the Gentiles that weren't in the synagogue, they heard about this and they said, we want to hear this too. They said, they heard what Paul did in the synagogue said to the Jews and they're like, we want to know what this is about. And they said, come back next Sabbath day and tell us too. Look at verse 43. Now, when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas who speaking to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. So, some of them believed. Okay? And that always happens. You know, some of them believed but the mass mainstream Jewish leaders did not. Okay? And look at verse 44. And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. It's Gentile day now. This next Sabbath day is all the Gentiles coming to just hear the word of God. Now go to Romans chapter 11. What we have happening here is replacement theology being demonstrated right here. Is what we call replacement theology. Meaning, you know that you know, the unbelieving Jews were grafted out and the Gentiles were grafted in. Okay? Basically, Israel is anyone that believes. Look at Romans chapter 11 and verse number 11. But it's really cool because in Acts chapter 13 you see it, you see it historically happening right in front of our eyes here in Acts chapter 13 when Paul was preaching in Antioch. Look at verse number 11 of Romans chapter 11. I say then, have ye stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather, so he's talking about you know, the Jews. He's like, why did they stumble? He's like, should have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather, through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy. You have your place. Keep your finger in Acts chapter 13. Look at verse 12. It says, now if the fall of them be the riches of the world and the diminishing of them, the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. For I speak to you Gentiles in as much as I am an apostle of the Gentiles. Notice what he says there. He's an apostle of the Gentiles. I magnify in my office if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of them. Now go back to Acts chapter 13 and look at verse number 42. What he is saying is, is that look by the Jews not believing, by these Jews not believing, this made room for this provoke the Gentiles to come in. The Gentiles, and then the Gentiles are going to believe and it's going to provoke the Jews to emulation. What's that mean? It means it's going to provoke some more of the Jews to believe too, is what he's saying. And look, look at what it says in verse 45. And when the Jews saw the multitudes they were filled with envy. Look, it is provoking them. It's provoking the Jews that so many people, look, most of the Jews it's just making mad. It's just making them upset and they're going to start persecuting the Christians in the Book of Acts. But the Bible says that it is provoking some of them to believe. Okay. It might save some of them. Some of them is the word used in verse number, or the phrase used in verse number 14 of Romans chapter 11. So go back to Acts chapter 13 in verse number 45. So we see that Paul preaches to the Jews. Paul preaches to the Jews. Some of the Jews believe but the major event here is the shift to the Gentiles. The next Sabbath day the Jews that believed are telling them, hey, just continue, come back and all the whole city of Gentiles comes to them and he preaches the gospel to them. Look at verse 46. But verse 45, they were filled with envy and they spake against those things which were spoken by Paul contradicting and blaspheming. So now these Jews are fighting against Paul and Barnabas. Look at verse 46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold. I mean, it's going to take some boldness. I mean, notice how it says like, you know, they waxed bold. Well, weren't they bold before? But here's the thing. People are fighting them now. People are actually against them. They're trying to get them. They're trying to persecute them. They're trying. It doesn't say specifically what actually they went through here. I'll give you a little bit of a taste about that in a few minutes. But it says they waxed. It means they grew stronger. They grew bold. And look, that's just true. When you go through hard times, you either fall, you either quit, or you'll get stronger. That's just how it goes. That's just the truth of everything. But these guys, they didn't quit. They didn't turn back. They didn't go to Jerusalem. They waxed bold. And they continued. And said it was necessary that the Word of God should first be spoken to you, but seeing He put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. Romans chapter 11, right there. That's replacement theology. Look, replacement theology is, it's just what the Bible says. It's like one of the most demonstrated, I don't understand how people can't understand it or see it in the Bible. All right. Look at verse 47. It says, for the Lord commanded us saying, now He quotes a couple more Bible verses from prophets. He says, for the Lord commanded us saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles. That thou should us be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. He's quoting Isaiah 42,6. Jesus quoted the same thing in Luke chapter 2, verse 32. But He's saying that, look, this is going to be, the gospel is going to be a light unto the Gentiles. And Paul's saying, this is what we're doing. And He literally tells the Jews that are persecuting Him that. He says, you're persecuting Me that, but I told you first, but you're just fulfilling Isaiah chapter 42 and verse number 6 that we're going to, you know, first preach to the Jews and now we're going to be a light to the Gentiles. Look at verse number 48. Look what the Gentiles though, they say. It says, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. They were happy. They were joyful. It's exactly what the Bible said was going to happen and glorified the word of the Lord that as many were as ordained to eternal life believed. They're like, hey, we can be saved too because what were the Jews? What were these religious workspace Jews, you know, doing to this point? They were just enlarging their borders, pretending like they were better than everybody, made up this fake workspace religion and just like, you know, look at Peter's cultural attitude at the beginning of the book of Acts. This was, you know, the attitude of the Jews towards the Samaritans, towards all the Gentiles. It's just that they were low. They couldn't, you know, they were outside of God. Now the Gentiles here, hey, anybody that what in verse number 31, anybody in verse number 39, anybody that believed. They're like, this is great. This is great news. Of course, they think it's great. Anybody that hears this thinks it's great. I mean, if you're a soul, what do you know? You tell somebody this and they understand it, they're going to be glad. All right, look at verse number 49. And the Word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. But here's the Jews. The Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city. What does that mean? That means they stirred up the people that were in charge. They went to the city councils. They went to the politicians and they got everybody all worked up. Honorable, you know, we can put that in quotes here. Like honorable meaning the people that were high up, that were officials, all these types of people, the people that were loved by the people. Look at it that way. And the chief men of the city and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coasts. But they shook off the dust of their feet, grabbed your map and came into Iconium. So Antioch was a tough town. All right, Antioch, you know, basically we see, you know, the replacement of the Jews with the Gentiles grafted in. We see this happening in history. I mean, this happened. I mean, it's not the only time it happens. I mean, it's happening for thousands of years now. But we see it demonstrated here. And then they move on. They move back towards the east to Iconium. They shook the dust off their feet and came to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost. So all that to say this. Look at, there's one more thing I wanted to point out in Acts chapter 13. And I was going to reference, I was going to reference the Gentile. Let's see. So he look at verse number 39. There's a verse. I can't find it right now, but it's a verse where where the Bible says the Jews, you know, they talked about, you know, how, you know, you need to be ordained to. I'm losing my place here. But the point is, the point is, is there, there was a Calvinistic sounding verse here. But I was just going to bring you back to verse number 39, showing what it means to be, to be called by God, what it means to be ordained unto everlasting life. It says ordained to everlasting life. Where is that verse? Somebody help me out here. Verse 48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, as many as were ordained to eternal life belief. So, you know, that's another one that people could say, oh, you have to be ordained, you know, to eternal life. But it literally says like, you know, that, you know, before they believed, they had to be ordained to eternal life. No, what do you have to do to be ordained to eternal life? Verse 39, just believe. That's it. It's believe. All right. So it's just a silly little thing there. Okay. So first of all, what I want to point out here is looking at the map, looking at the map, think about this, this trail that these guys went on. So we're, I tried to measure it with Google Maps. It's, it's over 600 miles. All right. That they have gone so far. It probably took over a year. I would guess that they were on this journey for over a year. But 600 plus miles, two, two journeys, just one way. I mean, this is, if you went to all trails, this would be like a 600, this would be a 1200 mile out and back trail. All right. Because you got to go all the way there and then you got to make your way all the way back. All right. So, you know, they got to go back to Perga. They got to go back to these port cities to get back to where they came from. All right. So this was a long journey. But here's the interesting thing. As you look at this map, this is just a side note. As you look at the map, you ever wondered, like you ever thought in your mind, like, why Jerusalem? Like, why this part? Why would God pick this area to, you know, have, you know, the children of Israel settle, to have, you know, the Kingdom of Judah, to have the land of Canaan. Why this area? I don't know, the interesting thing about the Holy Land though, if you want to, I may, you hate to use the word Holy Land, but the interesting thing about the promise land is a better way of saying it, is that it's like a gateway to the whole world. If you just look at this map, it's a gateway. I mean, if you look at, if you look at Syria, where Antioch starts out, Syria is like a gateway to Asia. I mean, if you just head to the east, you're in all of Asia. You're out into China. You're into India. You're into all these different places. If you look at Turkey where they were at, like modern-day Turkey, Turkey goes up into the Balkans. It goes into Russia. You look at across, if they keep going west, into Greece. You look at Greece, which you can see on your map. And then you look at Italy. That's a gateway right into Europe, all those places. This area, this area, and then you look at South. Where did everybody run to South all the time? Everybody was, you know, scared in Jeremiah and everybody, you know, even Joseph, Joseph and Mary to get away from Herod. Where did they run? They ran South to Egypt. So there's a gateway to Africa, too. It's interesting about this part of the world. It's just like a, it's a gateway to almost the whole world. And I believe that that's not an accident on why God did that. But the point is this, if you look at what happened in this missionary journey, you look at where they started going. Here's what I'm trying to say. Look at Isaiah, go to, turn to Isaiah chapter 42. Christianity. We're trying to get Christianity to the world here. Paul was literally, I mean, look, he was literally sent out. Paul and Barnabas were literally sent out by the Holy Ghost. They were literally sent out by God himself. Okay? Christianity. Look at verse number seven of Isaiah chapter 52. Let's read this. It says, the Bible says, in verse number seven of Isaiah 52, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings. That publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth what? Publisheth salvation, that sayeth undesigned, thy God reigneth. In Romans 10 15 it said, and how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Notice how it says in both Isaiah 52 and Romans chapter 15, or Romans chapter 10. It says, how beautiful are the feet. The point I'm trying to get at is, it's really interesting that when you look at how the gospel is spread. You look at how the gospel is spread in the book of Acts, and you look at how the gospel is spread today. Christianity is, it was, it is, and it always will be a ground game. It will be a ground game. I don't care. You can put all the airplanes. You can put all the trains. You can put all the automobiles that you want into it. But at the end of the day, it is always going to take a man or a woman walking around with a Bible and talking to people. Christianity, as demonstrated here, is always going to be a boots on the ground situation. And look at that. I mean, that's timeless. It is always going to be that way. It says it in Isaiah chapter 52, how beautiful are the feet of them that bring salvation. It talks about preachers. You know, look, even mission trips and all these things, it's going to come down. You know, we go off to the Philippines. We go off to different countries. It's going to take people walking around with a Bible. It's always going to come down to that. You know, we take for granted. You know, we read one chapter in the Bible. And we take for granted. That's why I passed out the maps. We take for granted the effort that went into this chapter, this missionary journey in the Bible, you know, is over a year. It was over 600 miles one way. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. And you know what? Quite frankly, they don't give you a lot of detail on what these men went through. As far as, you know, what they dealt with as far as the Jews persecuting them and kicking them out of these places, they don't really give you a lot of detail in Acts chapter 13 on when, on what they went through. But Paul kind of tells us. Paul kind of discusses a little bit in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. You know, what, you know, some of the things that he went through. I mean, granted, this was the first missionary journey. But look at verse number 23 of 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. He gives us an idea of what this traveling was all about. And look what he says. He says, Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. He says, I am more. In labor's more abundant in stripes above measure, in prison's more frequent in death's oft, meaning, threatening of death, meaning his life is in danger. Of the Jews, five times received I 40 stripes. Save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and day have I been in the deep. In journeyings often, we can see that. In perils of waters, we can see that here. In perils of robbers, people are trying to steal from him. They're trying to rob them. In perils by my own countrymen. He's talking about the Jews trying to kill him and beat him. In perils by the heathen. He's talking about the Gentiles trying to kill him and beat him. In perils in the city. But then when we escape the city, we're fine. No, in perils in the wilderness too. In perils in the sea, in perils amongst false brethren. In weariness and painfulness in watching. They're sleeping with one eye open all the time. When they're out camping, they're always like, it did someone follow us and is trying to kill us now. In hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily. He's saying like, then he says, you know, just think about this. He's telling you about the ground game what it's like here. Okay, he's telling you about the feet on the ground preaching the gospel. And he says, oh, by the way, beside this, then I gotta worry about all the churches too. And guess what? The more travelings I go on, the more churches we plant, the more worry I have. You know, he says in care of all the churches. Now look, we don't know, we don't know why Mark left. We don't know why Mark left in verse number 13 or wherever that was when Mark departed. But here's what we do know. Here's what we do know. Here's what we do know with how the gospel is spread from Isaiah 52 with what we see as soul winners from what we see from this missionary journey. Here's what we do know. We don't know why Mark left, but we know one thing. Someone had to continue. It was important that someone continued and went through all these things in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. The gospel, and look, I'll give you my opinion on the argument that took place in Acts chapter 15 when we get there. But all I want to say tonight is the gospel and the kingdom of God. It depends on the polls. It depends on the people that continue. And we always have to remember that. Look, the way to build has always been the same. Look, I'm all about I'm all about creativity. I'm all about, you know, YouTube channel and we put the sermons up on YouTube and we've done some neat little creative things on YouTube. But here's the thing. The way to build the ministry is the ground game and that is going to take people that continue. That is going to take, you know, polls. Look, the people in Antioch, they wouldn't have heard what Paul had to say if he didn't go there. If he was like, hey, John or Mark, we're going with you. Yeah, sounds good. We'll go with you. Look, all I'm here to say tonight is like be thankful. Look, we are here. I'm telling you, we are here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here personally because someone continued. You are here because someone continued. Look, I don't know who that was. If that was a pastor in your life. If that was a teacher in your life. Look, your children, your children should be able to look back at you and say, I'm here where I am here today because my dad and mom continued. Someone in your life continued. Look, all these people, I'm thankful for the pastors, the teachers, the evangelists, the parents throughout history that continued because that's what it takes to move the kingdom of God forward. And look, anybody that's here, anybody that saved, they're saved. They heard the gospel because somebody didn't go back and they went to Antioch. They kept going through all that trouble. Through all that trouble. And look, here's the thing. I'm thankful. I'm thankful that Paul did continue because not everybody will. And look, I'll even say not everybody can. Maybe, maybe we don't, like I said, we don't know why John Mark left but maybe not everybody can take it. Maybe not everybody could go through what Paul and Barnabas had to go through. Maybe some people just aren't willing to go through that. I don't know why but look at your map right now. Look at your map. And here's what I want you to take away tonight. If you take away nothing else tonight, there's a reason that John Mark left at that point. Why? Why did he leave at that point? Because as soon as, look, I've been out in rough seas. I've been, I've been out in weather. And look, when you get back on land you're happy to be back on land when you're in, you're just like, Brother Trevor and I were out in a day like that. And when we got back to the dock you're happy to be back to the dock. But more than that, more than that, they were about to go further. They were about to go further. And John Mark, I don't know why, but he saw a way back. He saw a way back. And I just want to point out to everybody tonight, the devil is always going to be offering you a way back. Always. Maybe that's, that's a way back. Maybe that's a doubt that you have. You know, many people will say, like, oh man, you know, I have doubts about my faith or I have doubts about, you know, my Christian life going forward. Look, that happens to everybody, first of all. Don't be all like, oh, I'm some, you know, weird Christian or something. It just, look, that's, that's the devil. You know what that is? That's the devil. That's the devil seeing that you're in purga. And he's trying to offer you a way back when you get those doubts. You just have to remember, you know, where your anchor is, what the Word of God says. That's all you have to remember. The devil's, maybe it's a job. Maybe it's a job that's like, you get some amazing job, you know, three states away or somewhere else. And you're just like, you know what? I mean, is this, is this Christian life really, what I should be doing? Look, the devil is going to offer you a way back. A way backwards is a better way of putting it. That, that's how he operates. I've seen it so many times with people that I love, with people that I know well, with people that I don't know that well. But I know, I've seen the pattern. I've seen the trend. I see the same trend with John Mark. I don't know what the reason was, but he had a way back at that point. He was on land. It was close. He didn't want to go further. The devil offered him a way back. And look, he went. Be careful for, you know, having that way back put in front of you is all I want to say this evening. Because look, remember where you came from because you are only here and your kids are only here because somebody continued. Somebody continued and planted that church in Sacramento. Somebody continued and planted that church, you know, in Fresno. Somebody continued and planted that church in Arizona. Somebody continued 200 years ago and planted a church somewhere in the United States. Somebody planted a church that planted a church that planted a church that planted a church that sent out men of God. Then those men of God continued. And they continue with their families and their children continued. That's why we're here. So, the way back, the devil, that's how the devil can stop, stop this chain from going is by offering you a way back constantly. And you know what? Some people will take it, unfortunately. But just don't forget this. We are only here because people continued. Just like Paul continued and you know, John Mark was the one that went back. Alright? So just don't abandon. Don't just don't forget that the devil's going to constantly want you to abandon continuing forward in your Christian life. But everyone depends. Everyone depends on us going forward. If Paul and Barnabas didn't go forward, those people in Antioch, those people in Iconium, those people in Leistra, they wouldn't have heard anything. And think about it, the whole city. And then these churches get planted and Paul writes these great letters in the Bible. Think about this. That we study and we go through you know, all these epistles that Paul, he wrote to these churches that he planted because he continued. You're like, man, he's adding a lot of stress to himself. Yes, but I'm thankful that he continued and we should do the same. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.