Jew then Gentile

Good evening, good evening, good evening. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. It's so good to have you with us tonight. This is where every day we get together, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the... Grow together. And this year, 2022, we'll go from the book of Acts to the book of...
Do you remember? Ecclesiastes? Nope. Philemon. Philemon. Okay. Well, I'm so glad to have you tonight. Why don't we go ahead? I'm going to have a little bit of coffee. You want some of my coffee? Everett's decaf. It is decaf. You want to try some? Sure. Tastes like lime. Tastes like lime. Okay, well.
We'll have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word. Lord, we thank you so much for this day. And we thank you for the power of the gospel to reach all sorts of people. We pray that we would follow in your paths, that we would have hearts to believe in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, here we go. We are at Acts chapter 13, and we're going to go 42 through the end of the chapter. So you want to read verses 42 and 43?
When the Jews went out of Saigon, of the synagogue, the Gentiles began, the Gentiles, begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now then, when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devote, devout, good job, proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in grace of God.
And they preached and a whole bunch of people believed. And so they asked them to come back. And so now they've come back and they're begging them to continue. They're urging them, come on, come on, come on, come on, come back, come back. And so Paul and Barnabas encouraged them to continue in the grace of God.
Okay, so on the next Sabbath, we're going to read, I'm going to read this part, ready? On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy and contradicting and blaspheming. They opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles, For so the Lord has commanded us. I have set you as a light to the Gentiles That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth Now I'll read this part and you could read the last part now when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord and As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed All right, so they get there.
It's the next Sabbath. I And the Jewish people show up, and who all's at the synagogue? Almost the whole city. It's like the whole city's there. Do people take it kindly when someone takes their pew at church? No. No, right? They're not happy about it. They're just crunched about it. They don't like the message they're preaching. They don't like all these Gentiles who are there. And so what do the Jewish people do? Yeah, they start blaspheming and contradicting. They reject him. They reject the message of Jesus Christ. They don't want to hear from them. They speak badly against them.
And so it's interesting what it says here. This is it really reminded me of what Paul writes in Romans chapter 11 about the gospel going to the Jew first and also to the Greek. But the Jewish people had to reject it. So it could go to the Greek people. And that's what he's saying here. It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you rejected judge, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life." So if someone rejects the good news about Jesus as the Messiah, what are they judging themselves as? Unworthy of what? Unworthy of everlasting life?
Yeah. And so this is where he goes in and he quotes Isaiah 49, 6. He says, I have set you as a light to the Gentiles that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth. How did the Gentile people respond? It's right here in verse 49. How did the Gentiles respond? They were glad. Yeah. They're glad. They glorify the word of God. They're happy, right? Yep. Wonderful. Salvation. They can be saved. They can have eternal life. Is that good news? Yep. That's good news, right?
And here is one of the most bold statements in all of the Book of Acts about a topic that many people don't like about election or predestination. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Who's able to believe? Anyone God picks. Yeah, anyone God picks, right? The idea here of being appointed is like being written on a roll, or being written in the book. So the people who are written in the book, those people are going to what? Heaven. Yeah, they're going to believe, and so they're going to be in heaven. You want to read at the very end? This is kind of the harsh thing about what happens. Do you want to borrow my reading glasses so it's easier to see? Sure. probably be a little bit big on you. Okay, here we go. Okay, verses 49 to the end of the chapter.
And the word of the Lord was beginning, was being spread throughout all the regions, but the Jews stood up The devout and prominent woman and the chief of men of the city raised up a procession against Paul and Barmas and expelled from their region. but they shook off the dust from their feet against them and came to Iconium and disciplined. The disciples were filled with joy in the Holy Spirit. Alright, so they preach the message and everyone loves it, right? Really? Not the Jews. Everybody else likes it except the Jews. Well, what do the Jews do?
They get some of the devout women, some ladies who really liked being Jewish and they got them and some of the leading people of the city and they persecuted them. They chased them out. Yeah, they ran them out of town. But it's interesting here, even though they're running them out of town, but they, that's Paul and Barnabas, but they shook off the dust from their feet against them. You know who had commanded them to do that? Jesus. Jesus. That's right. Jesus said in Luke chapter 9, Jesus was the one who told them to shake off the dust.
If somebody wouldn't receive the gospel, What were they to do? Were they to be super concerned about it? Yeah, not everybody's going to believe. Yeah, now does that hurt our hearts sometimes? Yeah, it's sad. Paul says he would be willing to go to hell that his fellow countrymen might believe. but they need to shake off the dust from their feet because they need to go to the next place to tell the gospel to. How do the people in the city respond? How do the disciples in the city respond? And the disciples were filled with joy in the Holy Spirit.
But aren't they being persecuted? For good cause. Aren't they being talked bad about? Yeah, for good cause. So why are they being filled with joy? Because it's full of good guys. How can they have the Holy Spirit if things aren't going well, if persecution is there? Doesn't that show you that something is going wrong if persecution is there? They had tears of joy because they were in Jesus. They had tears of joy because they were in Jesus?
That's right. What did Jesus say? If people hated Jesus, they would also what? Hate them. Because if they hated you because you did a stupid mistake, they'd probably think I'll make the same mistake too. Did they believe the good news that Jesus was preaching? the Jewish people?
No. No? And so would they, was it a surprise that these people weren't believing? No. No? Is a servant greater than his master? No. No? And so if Jesus suffered, do you think that we might suffer? Yeah. But can we still have joy? Yeah. Even when things are going hard?
So do you think there's a difference between joy and happiness? What do you think the difference between joy and happiness is? I think joy is when we're um, we're joyed at not, when we're joyed we have like a happiness that can't be found in anything. Because happiness is having everything. But you can't have everything because you have to have joy to have everything. Well, maybe if your happiness is based on material things or temporary enjoyments. But where is our joy? Is our joy in things or in enjoyments?
It's in God. That's right. We rejoice in the Spirit or we rejoice in the Lord. It's good news, right? We can have joy everlasting. Yep. That's right. Well, do you know that joy? Do you rejoice in the Holy Spirit? Maybe you've been one of those who have been talked against, blasphemed. You've been chased out of friend groups or relationships or maybe even have suffered persecution in your workplace, being put out of a job because you wouldn't do something that you knew was against the scriptures. Where's your joy? When the hard days come, Where do you find lasting contentment?
Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. For in Christ Jesus, we can do all things. You ready to pray? Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you so much for Jesus Christ, the one who has saved our souls, who has written our name in the Lamb's Book of Life with the ink of his blood. Lord, we pray that we might live with joy. and with the Holy Spirit, in Jesus's name, amen. Well, may you have a great night. May you rest in Jesus Christ, and we'll see you tomorrow. You wanna say bye? Bye! Bye, and press it.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural Southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.