Barnabas and Paul - Part 2 (Acts 13:13-52)

Announcements & Greeting

Pastor Daniel and Natalie will be out of town April 21-22, in case of emergency, please contact Deacon Tom Medzie.

Josh Dickson will be preaching on April 23 during the Sunday AM Service.

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 84:1-4)

Our Call to Worship is Psalm 84:1-4. It is a psalm written by the Sons of Korah possibly to be utilized during the Feast of Tabernacles. The idea would be that the psalmist would sing this psalm as he walked into Jerusalem and it reflects joyful worship of the Lord as a person comes to Jerusalem for a festival of praise. Please stand and read with me Psalm 84:1-4—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses. After which, please remain standing as we recite the Apostle’s Creed together:

Psalm 84:1–4 ESV

1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God. 3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. 4 Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah

The Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty,       creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,       who was conceived by the Holy Spirit       and born of the virgin Mary.       He suffered under Pontius Pilate,       was crucified, died, and was buried;       The third day he rose again from the dead.       He ascended to heaven       and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.       From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,       the holy universal church,       the communion of saints,       the forgiveness of sins,       the resurrection of the body,       and the life everlasting. Amen.

You may have a seat. Tara, can you read our Scripture Readings this morning?

Old Testament Reading (Gen 24:45-67)

Genesis 24:45–67 ESV

45 “Before I had finished speaking in my heart, behold, Rebekah came out with her water jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, ‘Please let me drink.’ 46 She quickly let down her jar from her shoulder and said, ‘Drink, and I will give your camels drink also.’ So I drank, and she gave the camels drink also. 47 Then I asked her, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ She said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him.’ So I put the ring on her nose and the bracelets on her arms. 48 Then I bowed my head and worshiped the Lord and blessed the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me by the right way to take the daughter of my master’s kinsman for his son. 49 Now then, if you are going to show steadfast love and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand or to the left.” 50 Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing has come from the Lord; we cannot speak to you bad or good. 51 Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has spoken.” 52 When Abraham’s servant heard their words, he bowed himself to the earth before the Lord. 53 And the servant brought out jewelry of silver and of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave to her brother and to her mother costly ornaments. 54 And he and the men who were with him ate and drank, and they spent the night there. When they arose in the morning, he said, “Send me away to my master.” 55 Her brother and her mother said, “Let the young woman remain with us a while, at least ten days; after that she may go.” 56 But he said to them, “Do not delay me, since the Lord has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.” 57 They said, “Let us call the young woman and ask her.” 58 And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.” 59 So they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant and his men. 60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!” 61 Then Rebekah and her young women arose and rode on the camels and followed the man. Thus the servant took Rebekah and went his way. 62 Now Isaac had returned from Beer-lahai-roi and was dwelling in the Negeb. 63 And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening. And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, there were camels coming. 64 And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she dismounted from the camel 65 and said to the servant, “Who is that man, walking in the field to meet us?” The servant said, “It is my master.” So she took her veil and covered herself. 66 And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. 67 Then Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

New Testament Reading (Acts 13)

Acts 13 ESV

1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them. 6 When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. 13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. 18 And for about forty years he put up with them in the wilderness. 19 And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ 23 Of this man’s offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie.’ 26 “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. 27 For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. 28 And though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. 32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, 33 this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “ ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you.’ 34 And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way, “ ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ 35 Therefore he says also in another psalm, “ ‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’ 36 For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, 37 but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. 38 Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, 39 and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. 40 Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the Prophets should come about: 41 “ ‘Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if one tells it to you.’ ” 42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Congregational Singing

Brethren We Have Met to Worship (334)

How Firm a Foundation (364)

All Glory Be to Christ (133)

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 13:13-52)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Acts 13:13-52.

As you turn there, let me explain where we’re at in the text and where we’re headed. As you can tell (and this is why I had someone read Acts 13 for our Scripture Reading), our passage for this morning is rather long. So, let me help you as we prepare to dig into the passage by showing you the overarching structure of the passage, which will be our structure for this morning’s sermon.

The first section that we see, is really what gives us the setting for the rest of our text. The Setting (13-16a) and in the setting, we’re told that Paul was asked to speak. From 16b-41 is Paul’s Sermon (16b-41), which utilizes the history of the Jewish people to point the Jews to Jesus Christ. This passage of Scripture then ends with The Response (42-52), which ends the passage by showing us how the Jewish people (for the most part) rejected the message, so salvation then moved to the Gentiles. What we’ll see as we work though this passage is that the Gospel message remains the same regardless of who you’re proclaiming it to but not every responds to the Gospel message in the same way. It’s a reminder that you aren’t responsible for the response of others towards the Gospel but you are responsible for proclaiming the message of the Gospel.

Prayer for Illumination

The Setting (13-16a)

Acts 13:13–16 (ESV)

13 Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem, 14 but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. 15 After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.” 16 So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said:

Our text starts by giving us the setting for what Luke records next.

Remember, Paul and Barnabas are on a missionary journey, they’re on their first missionary journey and they really haven’t really gone too far but they’ve started to essentially saturate what is referred to as Asia-Minor with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So, they started in Seleucia or Antioch of Syria and they traveled by boat to an island that the cities of Salamis and Paphos are on.

Then they traveled by boat in Pamphylia, which is a coastal region on the northeastern portion of the Mediterranean Sea.

Since that point (where we are now in the text), they’ve traveled by road into the region of Galatia and they’re now in Antioch of Pisidia, which is the furthest point that they travel to on this missionary journey.

They have a few more stops to make but they’re just over halfway through this first missionary journey.

And as is their custom, they decided to stop in the synagogue on Sabbath. There could be two reasons for this (and let me be clear, I lean more towards the second than the first):

The first reason could simply be because they knew that there would be people in the synagogue worshiping Yahweh and they wanted to be a part of the worship of the Lord.

The second reason is that they as Jewish people themselves, know that the people in the synagogue already have knowledge of God, and thus, they’re easier to speak with about Jesus because they’re already familiar with the Old Testament.

Regardless, they enter into the synagogue, and they listen to the readings from the Law and the Prophets (meaning the Old Testament or what they would call the TaNaKh) and the rulers of the synagogue then ask for them to give a word of encouragement for the people.

You might ask why the rulers of the synagogue would do this, but remember who Paul is—he is a self-proclaimed pharisee of the pharisees who was trained under Gamaliel, one of the most important Jewish rabbis of all time.

Paul had a reputation, and that reputation alone would be a sufficient reason for the rulers of the synagogue to ask Paul to speak.

And of course, Paul is not one to decline an opportunity to speak and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ—so he stands and he gives an impromptu sermon all about Jesus in vv. 16-41. Now, I’m not going to reread the whole sermon for sake of time, but let me give you a bit of a synopsis of the sermon.

Paul’s Sermon (16b-41)

Paul over the next twenty-six or so verses uses Jewish history and really the Old Testament Scriptures to point them directly to Jesus. And he does it in a way that connects with the Jewish people in a relational way.

He speaks of how God chose the forefathers of Israel and made the nation of Israel great.

This started, of course, in Egypt and God led these people out of bondage with an uplifted hand. He was with them in the wilderness, and He led them as they received the land of Canaan.

Paul reminds them that their ancestors had judges given to them by God to rule the poeple, but they kept asking Him for a king, so God initially gave them King Saul and eventually king David.

Of course, despite David’s sin at times, the Bible does tell us that David was a man after God’s own heart who sought to do the will of God and Paul reminds them of a covenant that God made with David, that through David’s seed, the Savior would be born.

And without beating around the bush in v. 23 we see this blunt and bold statement, “of [David’s] offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.”

This Jesus, is the promised Savior and John the Baptist had made proclamation about Jesus as well.

Jesus is the person who they were were waiting for and Paul continues in his sermon, again, not beating around the bush in vv. 26-32. Jesus is the person who they were waiting for and they murdered Him on a cross.

They didn’t recognize him nor did they understand the Old Testament prophets.

Despite the fact that they read the Old Testament prophets every single Sabbath, they completely missed the truth.

And they condemned Him and executed Him and laid him in a tomb.

Note that Paul points out a bit of irony in v. 27, that despite that they completely missed Jesus, they fulfilled the Old Testament by condemning him and murdering him.

Of course, Paul can’t stop at the death of Jesus, he continues in vv. 30-31 with “But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people.”

Paul continues by presenting the good news and he ties this good news into the Old Testament.

In v. 32, “we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus.”

There is additional evidence concerning who Jesus is and it’s found in Psalms 2 and 16 and Paul quotes them, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.” and I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David” and “You will not let your Holy One see corruption.”

And Paul makes it abundantly clear that though they originally understood these passage to pertain to David, it’s clear that they couldn’t have been about David because David did die and he did saw corruption, but the one who God raised up from the dead (meaning Jesus) didn’t see corruption.

Thus and this is what Paul is driving towards: salvation is found in Jesus Christ who forgives sin.

The forgiveness of sins is granted by and through the man who Paul is proclaiming to them—Jesus.

And anyone who believes is then freed from the consequences of sin, which is something that the law of Moses couldn’t do.

Or in other words, Paul gets down to the end of his sermon and his point is rather simple—Jesus is the one who we’ve been waiting for, thus, believe in Jesus or you’ll be like those whom the prophets warned about.

They’ll be like those who scoffed at the truth and died in their sins.

They’re going to be like those who miss what God is doing simply because they refuse to believe even when people tell them that God is working.

Now, despite that little warning at the end, what we see in the last eleven verses is that not everyone chose to believe. In fact, only a few believed, the rest rejected the Gospel. Let’s read vv 42-52 and I’ll show you where we can see that some believed but most chose not to.

The Response (42-52)

Acts 13:42–52 ESV

42 As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. 43 And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. 44 The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. 45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. 46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” 48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. 49 And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district. 51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. 52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

The Response of Belief is primarily seen in vv. 42-43 and 48-49.

We see that when Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, some of the people wanted them to come back the following week to talk about the Gospel at greater length.

Even in v. 43, we get an impression that many of them were already believing in Jesus based on the first week of Paul’s teachings because Paul and Barnabas “urged them to continue in the grace of God.”

Meaning, they experienced God’s grace and should continue in a way that they continue to experience God’s grace.

We then see, a week later, that the “gentiles heard [the Gospel]” and they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, “and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”

Meaning, there were Gentiles who believed in the Gospel and believed in Jesus. In fact, one of the overarching ideas in this passage is that since the Jewish people are rejecting Jesus, the Gentiles are now going to be the focal point of Paul’s ministry.

So, we have Jews and Gentiles believing in Jesus, but note that the majority of Jews and the majority of Gentiles don’t believe.

The Response of Disbelief is seen in vv. 44-47 and 50-52.

Vv. 44-47 shows us that when the large crowds came out to hear Paul and Barnabas, in sin, the Jewish leaders started to verbally contradict what Paul was saying.

They saw the crowds and they were jealous that Paul was able to draw such a large crowd to hear him speak, so they reviled him and they tried to turn the crowd against them.

Clearly, their jealousy and really their sin is a result of their disbelief in Jesus—they were more concerned with themselves and their inability to draw together a large crowd than they were about Jesus.

We see their lack of belief come out again in vv.50-52 as well, when the Jewish leaders incite “the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city” and they “stirred up persecution” to drive them away from the area.

In their jealousy and their sin, instead of hearing the Gospel and repenting and believing, they pushed Paul and Barnabas out of town.

This brings us in our remaining few minutes to our application for the morning and our application is built on a simple premise.

Application

The premise is this—the Gospel elicits a response or in other words, when the Gospel is proclaimed accurately and correctly, there are only two responses:

Either the person hears the Gospel, accepts the Gospel and then repents of their sins, believes in Jesus, and follows Him.

Or, the person hears the Gospel, rejects the Gospel and continues in their sins.

What we see in Acts 13:13-52 is that in the proclamation of the Gospel:

Few actually believe whereas most continue in unbelief.

A handful of people in Acts 13:13-52 actually accepted the Gospel, repented from their sins, believed, and followed Jesus (a few of the Jews did and a few of the Gentiles did).

The majority responded in unbelief with some of the Jewish leaders digging their heels into their sins—the majority denied, rejected, and pushed back on the truth.

And the reality is that this is precisely how people respond to the Gospel today:

A handful of people alive today will accept the Gospel and they’ll repent from their sins, believe in Him, and follow Jesus.

The majority will respond to the Gospel in complete unbelief—they’ll continue to dig deeper in their sins, they will deny the truth, reject it, and push back on it.

To the extent, that some will vocally and vehemently oppose the Gospel just like the Jewish leaders did.

I know that this might be hard to believe because we live in a country in which religious freedom has given us the ability to construct massive church buildings all over the country and even though we seem to be struggling with church attendance in some areas of the country, many of those church buildings are still full but consider the statistics. According to Pew Research:

Only 40% of Americans claim to be evangelical protestant believers and participate in weekly religious gatherings.

And just for your own information: of the 40% of evangelical protestant believers, only 61% have actually bothered to attend in-person or watch online a church service (with only 42% of that 61% actually attending in-person).

Or in other words, the majority of Americans don’t claim to believe in Jesus at all and even with these massive church buildings all over the country that seem to be full, most Americans aren’t even bothering with God and even those who claim to believe in God aren’t bothering to be with the church.

Now, you might hear these numbers and you might be thinking, “ok, so what? Why would I care about any of these statistics?”

There’s this idea that the United States is a Christian nation, but the reality is that Christianity is a minority in the United States. Regardless of where we were at 50 years ago or 100 years ago or when the nation was founded in 1776, the reality today is that the United States is a nation of unbelievers.

We have millions of people who claim to believe but they don’t actually act like they believe; and we have millions of people who don’t believe at all and would openly oppose the Gospel rather then accept the truth.

The reality is that we live in a country that is primarily unbelievers not believers.

Taken into conjunction with the idea that we are to proclaim the Gospel like Matthew 28 exhorts us to, you need to let this knowledge do two things in you:

First, it should cause you to realize the urgency behind the proclamation of the Gospel—there are millions of people who don’t believe in Jesus and they’re not even pretending to believe anymore.

And if you truly believe the Bible, that there is an eternal destination for everyone and where that eternal destination is is dependent on their belief in Jesus, you’re heart should break for these people.

You should have compassion for them and you should be concerned about them.

Or in other words, there are millions of people all around us in the United States, in Pennsylvania, in Philipsburg, Houtzdale, Morrisdale, Grampian, Woodland and so on that don’t know Jesus and need to hear the Gospel.

And if you don’t proclaim the Gospel, they may never hear the truth. Let alone the fact that you would be disobeying Jesus’ command to go and make disciples of every nation.

If the statistics for the United States given by Pew Research are correct—with the number of people that live 15 miles around Philipsburg, what we can deduce is this:

Only about 22,000 people around us actually believe in Jesus; over 33,000 of the people around us don’t believe in Jesus.

And can I be blunt? That number, 22,000 it’s actually probably a lot smaller.

You need to proclaim the Gospel because there are millions who need Jesus and most of them aren’t even pretending to believe.

And second, it should stop you from being discouraged when you proclaim the Gospel and there is no response or there’s an unfavorable response.

We live in a country filled with unbelievers, we live in a state filled with unbelievers. We live in communities filled with unbelievers.

We shouldn’t be surprised when unbelievers continue to reject the truth—we shouldn’t be shocked when unbelievers continue to act like unbelievers.

Paul and Barnabas weren’t surprised—and when they were run out of the city, what did they do? They shook the dust of their feet, they kept going, and the simply praised Jesus for those that did believe.

Sometimes when we talk with others about Jesus and they reject the truth, we get upset as if their rejection of Jesus is a rejection of who we are or what we’ve said or what we’ve done. Paul and Barnabas could’ve felt the same way, but they don’t. And the reasoning for them not to is rather simple—they recognize that these people who’ve rejected the Gospel aren’t actually rejecting Paul and Barnabas, they’re rejecting the Gospel—they’re rejecting Jesus.

You are to proclaim the Gospel—do you? Do you do this even when the response is disbelief and rejection?

Put simply, what we learn from Acts 13:13-52 is that there are only ever two responses to the truth—the hearer either accepts it or rejects it. And assuming that you’re a believer this morning and you’ve been proclaiming the Gospel as you’ve been called by Jesus to do—what Acts 13:13-52 shows us is that we’re not responsible for how people respond, we’re only responsible for proclaiming the Gospel (just like Paul and Barnabas did).

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

To God be the Glory (19)