Tag: paul

Published November 14, 2022

Unity in Christ

Last Sunday we learned some valuable lessons from the church in Antioch in how to deal with controversies and conflicts within the church. As you recall, there was one group of believers who believed and taught that Gentile Christians must be circumcised and follow the law of Moses like the Jews in order to be truly saved. But there was another group of believers – which included Paul & Barnabas – who believed and taught that faith in Jesus Christ was the only requirement for salvation – for both the gentiles and the Jews.

Because this issue was of such great importance – having eternal ramifications – the church in Antioch took this issue to the church in Jerusalem to seek the wisdom and guidance of the Apostles and elders there. To make a long story short, after much debate and at the leading of the Holy Spirit and following the counsel of Scripture, the decision was made that the Gentile believers did not have to become like the Jews to be saved. But rather, they affirmed that we are all saved the same way – by the undeserved grace of God. Jesus Christ did all that was necessary for our salvation – we simply need to believe and accept!

So with that issue settled, you might expect the church in Antioch to enjoy a long period of peace and unity. But unfortunately that was not the case. Even after seeing such a great example of conflict resolution within the church, Paul & Barnabas of all people – have a bit of a falling out. They have – what the Bible describes as a “sharp disagreement” and in the end, they wind up going separate ways. It seems to be a very different outcome compared to last week’s conflict which ended with everyone being in complete agreement.

Which makes us wonder – if the whole church can come together and arrive at a unified decision on such a terribly controversial issue – then why can’t these two key leaders of the church – missionary partners who had served God side by side for years – why can’t they seem to arrived at a unified decision concerning their issues?

Well, that’s what we’re going to look at today. We’ll start at verse 32 – which is still part of the story from last week as Judas & Silas (who are representatives from the church in Jerusalem) spend time encouraging the church in Antioch.

It reads like this:

32 Then Judas and Silas, both being prophets, spoke at length to the believers, encouraging and strengthening their faith. 33 They stayed for a while, and then the believers sent them back to the church in Jerusalem with a blessing of peace. 35 Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch. They and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord there.

36 After some time Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit each city where we previously preached the word of the Lord, to see how the new believers are doing.” 37 Barnabas agreed and wanted to take along John Mark. 38 But Paul disagreed strongly, since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work. 39 Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. 40 Paul chose Silas, and as he left, the believers entrusted him to the Lord’s gracious care. 41 Then he traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches there.

Acts 15:32-41

So let’s begin first of all, by noticing that verse 34 seems to be missing from this passage. Verse 33 says that Judas and Silas were sent back to Jerusalem. And then it jumps right to verse 35 which says that Paul & Barnabas stayed in Antioch. So what does verse 34 say and why is it missing?

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published November 7, 2022

Controversy in the Church

Last Sunday Paul & Barnabas safely returned to Antioch after completing their first missionary journey together. And what a journey it had been! They had travelled over 1400 miles and preached the Gospel in dozens of towns and cities. They had done amazing miracles – such as healing a lame man who had the faith to be healed, as well as blinding the eyes of a sorcerer who had blatantly opposed the Word of God. They had also suffered persecution – they had been run out of town, plotted against, and Paul had even been stoned and left for dead!

But through it all, they faithfully preached the Word of God and completed the work that God had given them to do. And as they preached, crowds of people – including both Jews and Gentiles – came to hear their preaching and many became believers. These new believers formed brand new churches in many cities and so Paul & Barnabas appointed elders in each church to continue teaching and equipping those new believers – so that they might grow and mature in their walk with the Lord.

And so having done all that, they entrusting those new churches and new elders to the care of the Lord, and they returned to Antioch to report all these things to their home church – who had originally commissioned and sent them out.

And if this were the end of the book of Acts, we would probably conclude by saying “And they all lived happily ever after.” Acts chapter 14 kinda ends on that sort of note where the missionary journey was a great success and Paul & Barnabas settled down in Antioch for quite some time!

But that isn’t the end of the book of Acts, and as we get into chapter 15, we quickly see that they didn’t all live happily ever after. Before too long, the church became enveloped in great controversy!

And it wasn’t even the new baby churches that Paul & Barnabas had just planted who were embroiled in this controversy – it was their own home church of Antioch!

Now I know that we can hardly imagine having controversy within the church – especially coming out of these last few years of covid! We know nothing of that sort of thing, do we?

Of course we do! As long as there are people in the church, there are going to be controversies as well. That’s just the nature of different people with different perspectives all coming from different backgrounds and experiences – but all trying to work together to serve and honour God to the best of our abilities! With all those differences, there’s going to be some conflict! And that’s ok! The important part is how we deal with those differences. It’s how we work together though the conflict that really matters.

And that’s where this next chapter in Acts can be very helpful for us! As we watch this church in Antioch work through some of their controversies, I think there are a lot of principles that we can take and apply to some of our own situations here in the 21st century! The specific issues are likely different, but the principles for working through those issues remain the same.

So let’s take a look!

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published October 31, 2022

The Power of the Word

This morning we want to tackle a fairly large passage of Scripture – approximately two chapters in the book of Acts – but we are going to go through it fairly quickly. Today we want to take a bird’s eye view of the first official missions trip recorded in the Bible.

You’ll recall from a couple of weeks ago, the church in Antioch was told by the Holy Spirit to appoint two men – Barnabas and Saul – for the special work that God had called them to. At this point, we’re not told exactly what this special work would be, but as we read on, we discover that it would include traveling over 1400 miles to visit dozens of towns and cities, preaching the Gospel and planting churches all along the way.

This would be no small task, so to assist them in their journey, they would take along John Mark – who was a cousin of Barnabas and the eventual author of the Gospel of Mark.

This first missionary journey is recorded for us in Acts chapters 13 and 14 – and as I said, that is a lot of Scripture to cover in one sermon, so we are going to go though it fairly quickly. We won’t be looking at each verse in detail, but rather, we want to zoom out and try to see the big picture. What are the themes and what are the principles that we can learn about life and ministry as we look at this first missionary effort?

So naturally, there will be lots of good bits in these verses that we just won’t get a chance to look at today, but that just means there are lots of great things for you discover in your own personal study of these chapters later on!

Now we have already looked at some parts of Acts chapter 13. Two weeks ago, we went through the first 5 verses that talk about Barnabas and Saul’s commissioning as missionaries. Then last Sunday, Mike took us through a big chunk of Paul’s sermon in the middle of chapter 13. So we won’t rehash all that stuff. But there are four main stories that come out of these two chapters, and so that’s what I want to look at today.

The first story takes place in Paphos, so let’s begin reading in Acts chapter 13, starting at verse 4, as Barnabas and Saul first leave Antioch. It reads like this:

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published September 19, 2022

When God Calls

Since early this summer, we have been traveling through the book of Acts and today we find ourselves in Acts chapter 9. This chapter records one of the most significant events in the history of the early church – perhaps second only to the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Very few other events have changed the course of Christianity (or even the course of history for that matter) like the event we’re going to read about today.

Today, we’re going to read about how a man named Saul came to know and follow Jesus. And while his story seems fairly dramatic and out of the ordinary, the things he experienced and the process that he went through – bringing him to faith in Christ – are actually very similar for all of us who come to acknowledge Christ as our Saviour.

There is a certain pattern – a certain sequence of events that need to happen for any of us to experience God’s salvation. Of course, the exact details and the timeline and how it all unfolds are likely different for each one of us, but the process and the pattern that God uses will be the same.

And so even before we get into the passage today, let me just give you the four-point pattern of Salvation that we’re going to see in this passage – that way, as we go through Saul’s story, looking at the process that he went through, you can see if you can identify that same process in your own life and your own story.

So really quickly, here they are.

Jesus Christ reveals himself to you. In Saul case, it’s quite a dramatic reveal – but that may not be the case of you. Your introduction to Christ might be a little more subtle. Either way, Christ makes Himself known to you and calls you to respond.
You respond by acknowledging Jesus as the resurrected Son of God. This is when you begin to see Jesus for who He really is. There’s a recognition and acknowledgement there that wasn’t there before.
Having acknowledged who Jesus really is, you willingly submit your life to Him and seek to be obedient to Him. As your Lord and Saviour, you want to serve and obey Him with your whole life.
As a result of your trust in Christ and your willingness to be obedient to Him, God begins the process of transformation. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within you – changing you into a new person. You are adopted in the family of God as His child, and you begin to live a new life.

And of course, as I said before, the exact details and the timeline and how this all unfolds are likely different for each one of us, but the process and the pattern that God uses is the same. He did this for Saul, and he does this for us today.

So on that note, let’s take a look at the story of Saul and see how this pattern plays out in his experience.

But before we begin, let me just quickly review what we’ve already been told about this man named Saul. Back in Acts chapter 7, we read about the stoning of Stephan – the first Christian martyr. He was the first person to be put to death for his faith in Jesus. And Acts chapter 7 verse 58 tells us that as his accusers…

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published April 20, 2020

The Source of Our Joy

It has now been over a month since we last met together in person as a church family. I don’t know about you, but I’m really beginning to miss those times together. Its one thing to miss church for a Sunday or two – but it’s another to away from your church family for weeks on end.

God designed us for relationships. In fact, he describes the church as being a body and we are all parts of it. A hand was never designed to function apart from the arm. A foot cannot fulfil it’s purpose without being connected to the leg.

It’s the same in the body of Christ. God has designed us for relationships with each other! The Christian life was never intended to be lived out in isolation!

In light of this pandemic, it’s certainly been good to gather virtually like what we’ve been doing, but it’s sure no replacement for meeting face-to-face.

There is something about seeing people’s faces when we communicate. I think it was Shakespeare who said “the eyes are the window to the soul.”

Well, I miss seeing into your souls! I miss seeing whether you’re joyful or whether you’re discouraged. I miss that personal connection with you and I’m certainly looking forward to when we can again meet face-to-face.

However, until then, we’ll just have to keep doing the best we can with the technology we have!

So this morning, I’d like to ask you a question. You can think about this and email me your answer sometime later this week if you like. I can’t see the answer in your eyes, but here’s my question: How much joy do you have these days?

If joy was like a gas tank – how full would your tank be? Is your joy-tank full and overflowing – or when it comes to joy, are you running on empty these days?

And I suppose this question might be best answered by the others in your household. Your joy (or lack thereof) is not something you can hide very well when you’re stuck at home with the same people for weeks on end! The people you live with can easily see just how joyful you are.

So maybe here’s what we’ll do. Let’s pause here for a minute and I want you to ask the others in your household that are watching this along with you – maybe your wife or husband, maybe your kids, or your roommate or whoever’s there with you right now. Ask them this question: “On a scale of 1-10, how joyful have I been in the last week?” – with 1 being about as joyful as a wet blanket and 10 being an absolute delight to be around.

So how joyful were you? Were you an absolute delight to be around this week – or were you more in the wet blanket category?

Well, if you find yourself in the ‘wet blanket category’, don’t be too hard on yourself. In fact, I would guess that most of us have probably had quite a few highs and lows when it comes to joy in the past few weeks.

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment

Published July 4, 2018

Preoccupied with the Kingdom

Nearly three months ago we began looking at how life in the kingdom of God is very different from the life in the kingdom of this world. We’ve used the analogy of immigrating to another country – you have to learn a new language, a new culture, a new set of values, there are new laws – you even use new currency – it’s all very different.

In a similar way, Paul tells us that when we chose to follow Christ, we were transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God. Colossians 1:13 says…

13 For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. Colossians 1:13-14

As followers of Jesus, we now live in a new kingdom – one that operates very differently from what we’re used to. And making this transition is not easy. In many ways, actual immigration would be much easier. If we could physically immigrate to the kingdom of God, I’m sure it would be a shock at first, but you’d quickly pick up these new values and new ways of doing things because everyone around you would be living that way – you’d be surrounded by this new culture and of course, that would reinforcing those ideas and values and ways of doing things.

But as it is, even though we are now citizens of heaven (as Paul tells us), we still live right here in the midst of the kingdom of the world and so learning to live differently is very challenging for us. More and more our Canadian culture and values do not line up with the values and the culture of the kingdom of God, so it can be a real challenge to live as citizens of heaven while still present in this world. And that’s why we are instructed in Romans 12:2…

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2

And so that’s been our main goal for this message series – we want to let God transform us into new people by changing the way we think – the way we think about our time, the way we think about our money, the way we think about our relationships and so on and so forth. So hopefully, over the past couple months as we’ve looked at a variety of issues, you’ve been challenged to change the way you think in some of these areas and you’ve learned a little more about God’s will for you – which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Today we want to conclude our Kingdom Living series. There’s always more that could be said, but I think we’ll end today with a summary of everything we’ve already talked about.

If I were to wrap up everything we’ve talked about and put it into a short, concise statement, I would say that Kingdom Living means living a life centered around God.

Continue Reading This Article

Leave a Comment