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Let’s go ahead and dive into God’s word this morning. We’re going to be in Acts chapter 15 again at the very end of Acts chapter 15. So if you have your books or if you want to follow along sadly, I’m not smart enough to figure out how to put it on the app. You know, the notes on the app. I don’t even think I have access to it. But anyway if you’re used to doing it on the app, I apologize. We only have it on pieces of paper this morning, so. But that’s okay. You can still figure it out. So there are some notes to keep track of. But listen, the last, the last few weeks. And I’ll pull up some maps here because I think it’s a little bit helpful for us. But the last few weeks we’ve been following Paul and Barnabas as they went on that first missionary journey. And we saw how they, they, they were set apart by the church in Antioch of Syria, which is over on the right side of the map. And and they went out there and they man, they they had all kinds of challenges, right? They they sailed to Cyprus and they spent some time in Cyprus, and they went up to Pamphylia, up a little further north, and went to several cities and everything in the Pamphylia and Galatia area. And then they come back to Antioch of Syria now. And then last week we found them back at Antioch of Syria.
And these guys come down from Judea and they say, you know what? It’s not enough just to trust Jesus. You also have to be circumcised in order to really be saved. And Paul and Barnabas are saying, that’s not right. You know, they’re challenging them and and they decide, you know what? Somebody’s got to go up to Jerusalem, and we need to figure this out with the leaders of the church. So Paul and Barnabas go up to Jerusalem and pastor covered all this last week, but they they decide, no, that’s not the case. You don’t have to be circumcised. They write a letter. They bring the letter back down to, to Antioch. And and the church in Antioch is all excited. I mean, things are going well. They they’re encouraged by the letter. They’re they’re encouraged by all the guys. Judas and Silas and some other guys come down from Jerusalem as well. And so it’s just a great time. They’re rejoicing. It says in chapter 15, and then we get to the end of chapter 15, and it kind of blows up. It’s really kind of an odd thing, but it just goes crazy on us. So I want to read these first verses of the section we’re doing. These are actually the last few verses of chapter 15. It says, after some days Paul said to Barnabas, let us return and visit our brothers in every city where we preach the word of the Lord and see how they’re doing.
That’s a good idea, right? Let’s go back and see how they’re doing, see how things are faring for them. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, who is also called Mark. But Paul thought it was not good to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia, and not gone with them to the work. Then there arose a sharp contention, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus again, and Paul and Silas. Paul chooses Silas, and and Paul and Silas depart, being commended by the brethren to the grace by the brethren, to the grace of God. And we went through Syria and Cilicia and strengthened the churches. That just means they went straight north through Syria and back up to Cilicia, and back to those churches in Galatia and Pamphylia. So a really interesting thing, and I’ll bring something to to remind you of. But we see as they’re going through, we see the, the places where they would go again, if you might remember in Acts chapter 13 and verse 13, it says this, it says, now when Paul and his companions set sail for Paphos from Paphos. So Paphos is down in the bottom of of the island of Cyprus, and they set sail from Paphos, and then they come up to Perga, which is part of Pamphylia, back up into the modern day Turkey.
There Asia. And it says, And John departed from them and returned to Jerusalem. What in the world? I mean, we don’t know anything about why, but John took off Whatever was happening, John said, I’m not doing this anymore. I’m taking off. And so now here they are back in Antioch, and they’re deciding we’re going to we want to go up and check on these churches, see how things are going, see see what the Lord is doing in these churches. But Barnabas wants to take John Mark. And Paul says, no, he didn’t go with us to the work before. I don’t want to take him. They get into this big contention and they split up. Now some people will say, that’s okay, because now we got two groups going out and taking the gospel out to people, and that’s true. But we want to see what that means for us. How does that help us? Because because when you think about it, this kind of messes us up. We don’t get this in our heads. Right? Because you got two godly men and they’re having the same kind of troubles we have. And you think about it. We know about Paul, right? I mean, the intensity of his ministry, the way he was converted, Just the everything that Paul did, the way he defended the gospel, wherever he went. Paul was an incredible Christian. And we always say that we talk about probably the greatest Christian that ever lived, right? I mean, he wrote a good chunk of the New Testament.
Amazing guy. And in Acts chapter 11, verse 24 says this about Barnabas. It says he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. That’s a pretty good description of Barnabas. It just makes us like, how do these two faithful guys, if we had a top ten of Christianity, these guys would be in it. And yet they’re acting like you and me, having contentions with each other have been in a disagreement. And, and and instead of figuring out a way to do it that they split up. I think it’s I think it’s really interesting when we see that we don’t know why they did it. We get a little bit of we, Paul. Paul explains a little bit about where he’s coming from. Barnabas. We don’t know why he’s so, so determined to take John Mark, but we can guess. Just understanding his personality a little bit, right? I mean, Barnabas is a son of encouragement. That’s what his name means. He’s an encourager. Like he’s going to be thinking the best of everybody. He thinks we can take John Mark. He’ll do better this time. I’ll even help him. Besides, he’s my cousin, right? We’ll learn that in a minute. But Barnabas says we can. We can make it work out this time. I know it didn’t the first time. We can make it work out.
And then you can look at Paul and you see where Paul’s coming from. John left him before things even got messy last time. Right? I mean, last time they were on that first missionary journey, Paul’s thrown out of cities. He’s he’s beaten and left for dead. I mean, missionary work for Paul was very dangerous, and they hadn’t even got to the dangerous part up in Lystra and Iconium and all those places before John left them. And Paul’s got to be thinking, listen, you know, if he left once when things weren’t even a challenge, what’s he going to do when they really get to be ugly again? I think you’ll leave again, is what Paul felt like. And so you see this same kind of thing. Paul went through so much. But I think we also get a lot of help for us out of this. Not I mean, it messes us up that these faithful guys do this, but it also helps us, right? We talk about Peter all the time. Peter, Peter, he blurt stuff out. I mean, he just he’s just being like us all the time. And so we say, well, we can relate to Peter. That’s nice. Well, I think we can relate to these guys too. I think we can relate to to Paul and Barnabas having this contention, splitting up. And because we do that, we have disagreements with each other and we’re going to figure out that we’re going to it’s just going to happen.
It’s people, it’s ministry. And sometimes we even separate from each other for a while. Sadly, sometimes we also try to get other people to separate with us. That’s when it goes really off the rails. But we can learn a little bit from these guys. And part of it is because the questions often ask, and you’ve probably asked it before yourself, did Paul reconcile with Barnabas? And the other question is did Paul reconcile with John Mark? Whatever happened with that? Because Acts 15 leaves it there. What ever happened with it? And so we’re going to talk about how these guys handled their disagreements, because I think it’s going to help us. And so Paul and Silas now Paul Silas is with Paul. And so Paul and Silas, Silas maps a little harder to read, but they take off and they head out to that second missionary journey. And it’s important to see that it was approximately 50 A.D. and we don’t know all the dates, real specific, but approximately 50 A.D. when they head out on that second missionary journey, and in the process, they’ll go back through Lystra and Iconium. And in Lystra they pick up Timothy, and we’ll read about that in a minute in the chapter 16, the first part of it. But so in the process, as they’re going along, they’ll eventually come up to Troas, which is at the top center of your map, and then they’ll cross the Aegean Sea.
And as they cross the sea, they’re going to come into Neapolis and then then go from Neapolis into Philippi, and then start down this coast of, of of what’s modern day Greece. And, and as they come down through there, they’re eventually going to end up in Corinth. And you know about Corinth. Paul and Silas spent about a year and a half in Corinth, and then they went from Corinth over to Syria, and then they come over to Ephesus. And they were in Ephesus for over two years. And while they were in Ephesus, Paul writes his first letter back to the Corinthians. The Corinthians had sent him a letter asking him a bunch of questions, but they were also challenging Paul a little bit. And we can see in in chapter nine of First Corinthians, Paul is defending his apostleship and one of his one of the ways he defends his apostleship is he does this verse. He says, there’s only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working. Now that that seems like an interesting verse. I mean, he’s obviously he’s been challenged about working and who is paying him, and I mean, how all of that was working. Was he living off the church? You know, I mean, there was big challenges about that. And and so he’s being challenged about that. But I think the thing that’s kind of fun for us to see is like somewhere.
And by the way, First Corinthians was written around 55 A.D. so somewhere in that five years, from 50 to 55 A.D., all of a sudden Paul seems like the way he’s mentioning Barnabas seems like he’s okay with Barnabas, right? I mean, whatever challenges they had, Paul’s willing to mention Barnabas in a positive way and somehow the church in in Corinth was able to. They knew Barnabas. He mentions him like they knew him. They knew who he was. He and Paul. It would appear that he and Paul actually ends up ministering together again, right? The way he’s talking about Barnabas and mentioning Barnabas. And so I think it’s pretty it’s not as clear as with John Mark, but it’s pretty clear that they they ended up reconciling and maybe even ministered together again, which is pretty, which is pretty fun to think about. Now the the way the things went with John Mark is even better than that. I mean, it’s pretty cool. Listen to some of these verses. First Corinthians chapter four and verse ten. Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you with Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. That’s where we learn about it. But then look at this parenthetical reference. It says, concerning whom you received instruction. If he comes to you, receive him. What a cool statement Paul is now saying of John Mark, you’ve received some instruction of him, and if he comes to you, receive him.
Paul often said, receive him like you would me. That’s the idea behind it. Receiving as if he was me. And so it’s pretty clear. And not only that, but he calls him a fellow prisoner. In first Timothy 411, he says, only Luke is with me. Now listen to this. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. Wow, that’s a pretty big turnaround. And then in Philemon, verses 23 and 24, it says, Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greet you, as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow laborers. What a fun thing. I mean, we see John Mark go from I don’t want nothing to do with him to a fellow prisoner, a fellow laborer, somebody who’s profitable, useful in the ministry. That’s a big difference. Paul and John Mark definitely reconciled. And I think it’s a beautiful picture of, of of for us to see how that goes. As a matter of fact. Colossians, when you think about it, the the book of Colossians wasn’t written until about 12 years after Paul and Barnabas separated. So things have gone on. It’s so fun to see the way God did it and took care of it. So we learn from Paul and Barnabas and John, Mark and all these guys that that like, we’re going to have disagreements, right? We really don’t need to be told that. We all understand that because we probably are in the middle of one right now.
We’re going to have disagreements, but we’re going to want to stay away from people. We’re going to want to say, you know what? We just need to not talk for a while. It would be best because the talking we’re doing isn’t helpful. So we’re just we’re just going to not talk to each other for a while. But our goal, and this is what I hope you get from it. Our goal needs to be reconciliation. That’s what’s going to glorify God is when we reconcile, especially as believers. It’s so critical that we have this desire within us to have right relationships with believers, because that’s what people are watching. Think about it. Paul or Mark? Excuse me, John said back in John chapter 13. He said this. He says, our love for fellow believers is what’s going to show the world that we belong to Jesus. Not good. It’s not just love for people in general. And that’s important because Jesus said that love others, love God and love others. So our love for other people is important. But very specifically, John is saying it’s our love for each other that’s going to show those outside the church that aren’t a part of the church, that we belong to Jesus. That’s why reconciliation is so critical. Paul constantly talks about in verse after verse. If you read Paul’s writings, unity in the church, unity in God, unity in the body.
I mean, he’s just constantly talking about unity. Unity is so important. Reconciliation is so important. God wants us to live in harmony with each other. Our desire should be to get back together. And if you’re if you’re keeping track of your notes, that’s the first point in your notes this morning. There it is. And we’re going to get it from Romans chapter 12 and verse 18. This verse is really unique. It says if it is possible as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Wow. If it’s possible, and it is if it’s possible as much as it depends on you, how much do you figure? It depends on you and me. It all does. I, I have full decision whether I’m going to live at peace with somebody or not. It all depends on me. He. He does it kind of rhetorically. If it depends on you, or as much as it depends on you. But it does. It depends on us. The fruit of the spirit is what? Love. Joy. Peace. Right. We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. We have the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling us. And he says he is peace within us. So if I decide not to reconcile with people, not to have peace, what does that saying? I’m quenching the Holy Spirit. I’m quenching what I already got. So he says, as much as it depends on you, live at peace.
And that’s that’s your point in your notes. Live at peace with each other. If you want to fill in the blanks, live at peace with each other. Listen, Ministry is about people, right? And you get people involved and what’s going to happen. We’re going to have problems, get people involved. We’re going to have challenges and we’re going to have disagreements. The question is, is are we willing to set those disagreements aside and still minister for the Lord for his glory? That’s the big That’s the key. That’s the important part of it. Now we’re going to go on to Acts chapter 16 as we get ready to see what God has in this. But Paul and Silas are are back up through the churches in Galatia and Pamphylia, and they get again to Lystra, and they pick up Timothy there. And and it’s unique that God points out that Timothy’s mother is Jewish and a believer, but his dad is Greek, and that’s going to come into play a little bit. But look, first here, what it says about the about Timothy and the map shows you so you can see where they were going again a little bit if you can see it. Well, but it says about Timothy and this is so good to me, it says that he was well spoken of by the brothers who were in Lystra and Iconium. And I think that really affected Paul, because it the very next verse says that Paul wants to take him with him.
He said they decided that he wants that wants Timothy to go with him and be a part of this ministry, a part of this second, this second missionary journey. As far as they’re going to go. But look what happens. And I think this this kind of messes us up a little bit too. It says so he took him and he circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places. For they all knew that his father was Greek. Now, I don’t know if you remember it in the book of Galatians in chapter two Paul and Titus now are in Jerusalem. And this goes on starting in verse three, it says, and even Titus who was with me, even though he was a Greek, was not compelled to be circumcised. So they were saying they had to be circumcised again. Right? And they weren’t compelled to be circumcised. He said this happened because of false brethren who were secretly brought in, who sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage right back to the law, into bondage. That’s what the book of Galatians is all about. He says, we did not yield to subjection to them, not for one hour that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. And so the point that he’s making that Paul is making is that the Circumcising Titus would have totally thrown their whole message off.
It totally it just totally takes out this this God. Gospel of justification by faith through grace and no works, right? It would have just thrown it out the door if they decided that Titus had to be circumcised and had to become a Jew, just so that he could be a part of the of Christ’s Church now. Right? This took place, and there was some contention about the timing of this, whether it was the, the a little bit before Paul took a trip, taking some money up to Jerusalem or whether it was the, the thing, what was the council that we talked about in Acts 15 earlier yesterday or last week? But either way, it was before the second missionary journey. And that’s the key is, is that it gone on. And so Titus it was a it was messing up the gospel to circumcise Titus. But now here he takes Timothy and circumcise him a little bit conflicting, a little bit of a question. But here’s what we know. Titus. It says Titus was 100% Greek, 100% Gentile. And for him to get saved or for him to have to be circumcised, was them just trying to make him Jewish. And that’s what Paul was challenging these false teachers coming in and wanting to say, you got to be Jewish too, right? And so there was no reason for Titus to be circumcised.
Timothy’s a whole nother story, Timothy. You remember it said that his mom was Jewish and a believer, so he understood he was half Jew, at any rate. But his father was a Greek. And here’s what we remember and get out of it. And everybody knew his father was a Greek. Well, that changes the situation a little bit, because if Timothy is going to go with Paul and Silas and be able to minister effectively, then he’s got to not be the one that’s calling everything into question. If they’re going to go and minister to Jews, the first thing they’re going to say, well, we don’t care what you have to say because you got this Gentile with you. And so it was important in order to be able to spread the message that they had to spread to the Jews, that Timothy be circumcised. And I think, I think this is one of the places where we really get a chance to see what Paul’s heart is as an apostle. I mean, he’s an incredible man, and he has this, this wonderful heart as an apostle. And so we go back to first Corinthians and that first letter that he wrote to the Corinthians, and we’re back to chapter nine, because he’s still trying to justify his apostleship, trying to defend his apostleship. But he says this starting in verse 19. He says, for though I am free from all men, I have made myself servant to all, that I might win even more to the Jews I became as a Jew that I might win the Jews to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law, to those who are outside the law, as outside the law.
Being not without God’s law, but under Christ’s law, that I might win those who are outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak, he says. I became all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. This I do for the gospel’s sake that I might partake of it with you. What a unique thing. Paul says, I become all things to all people because I want to win some. And this doesn’t mean that Paul is using this for an excuse to live how he wants and do whatever he wants and all that kind of stuff. He’s saying, for the sake of the gospel, I’m going to do what I gotta do so that God might use me to save some. And so the second point in your notes, if you want to write this down, but the second point is live for the sake of the gospel. Live for the sake of the gospel. You know Timothy. Timothy was circumcised for the sake of the gospel. And it made me wonder, what am I doing? Like, what am I doing for the sake of the gospel? You think about that.
I mean, am I watching what I say and how I treat people? Am I? I mean, people are watching. I mean, they see what I do. They see how I act. They see the kind of things that are important to me. Am I conscientious of all of those kind of things for the sake of the gospel? Not to make me look good, not to to, you know, make me seem like something, something different or somebody different than I am or any of that kind of stuff, but for the sake of the gospel so that some, maybe some might get saved. It’s good to think about it. It’s a good thing to to ask ourselves. Here we go on in Acts 16 and Paul and his companions, they eventually go up to Troas. I don’t remember if I have a map. We do eventually get up to Troas again. It’s up on the coast of Asia, up in the center of your top center of your screen. And Troas is right there on the edge of the Aegean Sea and weather in Troas. Paul, it says that Paul had a vision, a night vision, and a guy in Macedonia is calling him and saying, hey, come over and help us come over to Macedonia and help us. And, and as you cross the Aegean Sea and go over to the other side, that’s that’s Macedonia. And so, Paul, understanding that this is God calling him and saying, we need to go over to Macedonia.
So they set out from, from Troas and they sail over to Neapolis. And then, then their next stop is Philippi. Neapolis is on the coast. Philippi is about ten miles in. But it’s interesting to see what it says about Philippi. Oops. Now I don’t want it to change. And it didn’t. Good. The first service I wanted it to, and it wouldn’t. But we won’t anyway. It says this about Philippi says it’s a main city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we stayed there several days. And what that helps us learn is, is Philippi was on a main route from the sea back over to Rome. And so very large city, very much a main route going through Rome. But the interesting thing is Philippi was called a colony because it was under Roman rule and because it was under Roman rule. Who actually ruled? It was Roman soldiers. Roman. Roman military guys were the leaders of this colony. And so it was they pointed that out because it it makes what happens to Paul and Silas there pretty egregious, pretty messy because Paul’s a Roman citizen. We don’t know if Silas was, but we know Paul was. And we’ll see that and talk about that in just a minute. But you remember when Paul was on his first missionary journey, every time they went to a new city, where did they go? They went to the synagogues first, right? I mean, that was their first stop.
Always was looking for a synagogue and they looked for a synagogue because that’s where people were talking about God and worshiping God. They knew about the one true God in the synagogues. And so that’s where he went. Well, when they get to Philippi, things are a little different. It takes on a little different form for them in Philippi. So look at verses 13 and 14, it says, and on the Sabbath we went out to the city, to a riverside where prayer was customarily offered. And we sat down, and we spoke to the women that were assembled, and a woman named Lydia, a seller of purple fabric of the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. That’s important hurt us. The Lord opened her heart to acknowledge what Paul said. So these guys, they’re always looking for where God’s at, right? They’re always looking for people that are worshiping God, that are praying to God, that are seeking God. They’re always looking for that. And so they even go hang out at the edge of a river. I think it’s fun to note in this section real quick that, you know, the author of Acts is Luke pastor brought that up a long time ago. Luke was a physician, and he was understood to be the personal physician of of Paul. And so Luke traveled with them, but not all the time.
There were times when Luke was doing the narrative, but he wasn’t actually there with him. He would have got it second hand. But we can see in this section and what you what you see is when he’s not with him, he’ll talk about they and them. When he is with them, he’ll talk about we and us. And so you see that he says, we went down to the river and Lydia heard us. And so you know that Paul or that Luke is, is explaining stuff that he’s sitting there watching. He’s seeing it all take place. And and Lydia listens to what Paul has to say. Get saved. And later on, her whole household gets baptized. And she encourages us, Paul and and Silas in the group to stay with them. I just think this is an encouraging section for us because Paul and his companions, they just went where they knew God was working. And that’s our challenge. And that’s your third point if you want to write it down, but go where God is working, go where God is working. And and you think about it. And sometimes we go where we think God is working, and then we sit there and do nothing. But that’s not what the example that we ever get out of Paul and his group and the people that traveled with him go where God is working and then dive in and be a part of it.
Join up with them. Participate. We. You think about it, and it’s a huge praise that we don’t have to go very far to find God working. I mean, God’s working right here. God’s working it out by Bible church. He’s working in northern Utah County. God’s working in Utah right now. God’s doing a bunch of stuff. And and we can come and be a part of it. Join in and participate. And if you just think about some of the things that go on here, and I’m going to talk about some of them because I think it’s cool what God is doing. I think about the food pantry all the time. If you’ve come and participated in the food pantry, it’s just cool to you. It’s fun, right? I mean, you see God doing stuff. The thing that strikes me about God working in the food pantry. We’ve been doing our food pantry for over five years. Five years last November, if I remember right. And all of that time, almost every week for five years, we’ve always had food to give away. Always. It might not have been as much as we wanted. It might not have been as much as some folks hoped. But we always have had food. There’s never I don’t I can’t remember a time when we’ve had to put a sign up and say, we’re out of food. Sorry. It’s incredible. God’s provided every week, all that time.
That’s amazing. That’s God working. And you really you got to come and just participate in it and see. It’s amazing. I think about our kids ministry and we mentioned the kids ministry, the luncheon, the dinner later tonight, come and hang out at that if you if you’re able to. But I think of the kids ministry. The people that work in the kids ministry are incredible. You think about some of these rooms and how small they are. If you know about them, you know how small they are, and they get 20 kids packed in there and they’re trying to teach them something. And yet, just a few months ago, one of the little guys come out of there and said, I need to be saved. I need to understand what it means to get salvation because or not understand it. He already understood it. I just need to do whatever that step is. And so he got saved that day at church because of the people that work in those rooms. Can you imagine one day. And this is what strikes me as amazing. Can you imagine one day, 20 years from now, some little guy comes up to you and he’s not little anymore. He’s grown a bunch and he says, because of you teaching me all those years ago, I’ve decided to, you know, join the ministry. I’m going to. I’m going to be a pastor. I’m going to maybe I’m going to start a church.
I’m going to start it out of ABC, because that’s our heart to start more churches in this valley. Wouldn’t that be incredible that you just think about? We’re training as teachers of kids, the next leaders in the church, and you’re helping them understand who Jesus is to get that firm foundation. It’s just it’s so unique to me to be able to teach kids, you can do it in VBS. You can do it all in various ways to teach kids at the church missions. We get involved in missions because we go to India and we go to Uganda because God’s working in those places and we go and participate in it. We get involved in bringing coins in for in baby bottles, because God’s working at the pregnancy clinic. At the pregnancy clinic. By the way, do you know what Keras is? The Greek word for grace. That’s the cool thing about that name. Kerry’s pregnancy clinic. They just changed their names. So anyway, it’s just God’s doing so much. We do a car show and our on our harvest festival. We get to buddy up with another with another Christian ministry, the Christian Motorcycle Association, and worked together in it. And it’s all because we’re trying to be an encouragement to our community, trying to show them the love of Jesus. We hand out Bibles. We do all kinds of stuff at that. It’s so fun. We have tons of ministry going on on Sundays.
Y’all come on Sundays. And it’s like the music is incredible and everything is all set up nice outside. I mean, the kids know where to go. There’s ushers helping all of that stuff is because of everybody working so hard every week to make all that stuff work. We had connections group, men’s and women’s ministries. There’s just so much going on. Did you know that we have a prayer ministry. I think I said that earlier, but a lot of people don’t realize we have that. You can be involved in it. You can say, I want to help with that. I’ll pray for people. We have a care ministry. That’s a unique thing. There’s people in our church that have said, I’m going to sign up for Care Ministry, so I can just be a blessing to other people, whatever they need. I’ll make a meal, I’ll help, a move. I’ll do. We got guys that have signed up to help blow snow if we ever get any. I don’t anyway, we won’t get into that. But so much going on here, conferences, events, there’s there’s so many ways to dive in and help. And that’s the encouragement. Paul and the gold. Those that were traveling, traveling with him went where God was working, and they dove in and were a part of it. And that’s our encouragement. Go where God is working. And by the way, you’re going to see when you make when you choose to dive in and be a part of those things, you’re going to see this.
You’re going to see a relationship affected with God, and you’re going to see your relationship with other believers affected in a positive way. It’s good. It’s good to be involved. It’s good to be a part of the things. The final section in Acts. Goodness. The final section Paul and his group are still in Philippi, and they come across this this lady that’s got this evil spirit, this evil spirit of divination, and she makes her owners all kinds of money. I mean, it’s it’s incredible. But I want you to see what she says real quick, because this is amazing. She followed after Paul and us. Luke says, shouting, not just saying, shouting. These men are servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation. Can you imagine that an evil spirit shouting day after day about who the Most High God is, and about his way of salvation? That’s incredible. Now Paul eventually gets a little bit fed up with it, and we can kind of understand why, but he gets a little fed up with it. So he drives the the demon out. He says, I command you in the name of Jesus to come out of her. And so the demon comes out. And obviously this doesn’t make the guys happy, that owner, because now they’re this big flow of cash is gone.
And she can’t she can’t tell visions or anything anymore that she used to do. So they come to the magistrates and they complain. The magistrates agree with them. They beat Paul and Silas, they throw him into prison. The jailer takes him and puts shackles on him and sticks him in the very depths of the prison. So there they are, sitting there hurting. You know those stripes the way they did that open up skin? I mean, they’re just going to be in pain, and this is what they’re doing. And this is incredible to me. Verse 25 at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God. That’s pretty amazing. It says, and the prisoners were listening to him, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundation of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were open and everyone’s shackles loosened. And you can imagine how the jailer was feeling about this. The first thing he does, the Bible says, is that he took out his sword to kill himself, because that’s what’s going to happen to him if the prisoners escape. But instead, Paul calls out and says, we’re all here. We’re all here. Don’t hurt. Don’t harm yourself. We’re all here. And the jailer runs in and bows down at their feet and brings them out of the prison. And guess what he says to him? What must I do to be saved? How many of us would love to hear that? Wouldn’t you just love somebody to come up? And I’ve just been wondering what I got to do to be saved.
What a fun thing. Here’s the answer. And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and your household will be saved. And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and all that were in his household. And in that hour the member. It was midnight. In that hour of the night he took them, and he washed their wounds, and immediately he and his entire household were baptized. They had a midnight baptism. How fun is that, right? Just such a unique and an incredible story. And you think about everything they’ve been through. I mean, they were thrown in prison for doing a miracle. They cast a demon out of the lady, and yet they’re thrown in prison, and they’re they’re in pain. They’re hurting, and and they’re praising God. That just amazes me. They’re praying, and they’re praying God to the point that the prisoners that were in the prison, when the doors were open, the shackles were off. They didn’t leave. They could have bolted. We don’t know anything about them, but they could have left and they stayed. That’s amazing. And you and I probably won’t go through anything like Paul and Silas went through. I mean, we we have pretty comfortable lives when you really think about it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have stuff going on in our lives.
We have trials. We have challenges. We have times when we’re hurting. Times when we don’t know what to do next. We don’t. We don’t know where to turn. I mean, there’s just so much going on. But listen, even in our struggles, God’s still good. God’s still on the throne. God’s still in control. God doesn’t change just because we’re having a bunch of trials and a bunch of challenges. He’s still there. He says, I’m there with you always. He’s still with us. There’s just nothing’s going to go on that’s going to cause him to leave us to deal with these things alone. And that brings us to our final point. But the final point in your notes is always praise the Lord. And the reason I always praise the Lord is so important to me. And and you guys know this. We have so much to praise the Lord for. I mean, we we just do. And everybody has their own list and it’s incredible. We have so much to praise the Lord for. But the other thing thing to think about is who knows who’s listening. You never know who’s listening. The jailer. His whole family got saved and baptized because he heard Paul and Silas praising the Lord. The other prisoners. We don’t have any account of what happened to them, but it affected them enough that they didn’t bolt out of the prison when they had the chance.
We we don’t know who’s listening to us. Always be praising the Lord. And I know it’s hard. It’s not. It’s not simple to always be praising the Lord. But yet we think about it deeply enough, and we know we have every reason to always be praising the Lord. We have reason after reason after reason to praise God. So much going on for us. So just quickly to summarize, man, I hope you’ve seen how we can see what goes on with Paul and Silas and Barnabas and just everybody involved. But we can see how that that we can live at peace with all men. Right? I mean, even in even if we’re having disagreements, we can live at peace, especially with each other as believers. If we can live our lives for the sake of the gospel, right. Just so that maybe one might get saved and it’d be worth it, it’d be all worth it. And go where God’s working and then join the work. Don’t just say I’m hanging out where God’s working every Sunday morning. That’s great. Join the work. Join in. Be a part of the work. It’s so rewarding. And again, it affects your other relationships. And finally, praise, praise the Lord. Doesn’t matter where we’re at, what’s going on? We all have reason to praise the Lord and we have no idea who’s listening. Somebody might be listening that needs to know about Jesus. And if they hear you praising God, maybe they’ll ask that question what must I do to be saved? What a cool thing that would be.
I think this message has been brought to you by Alpine Bible Church in Lehi, Utah. If you’d like more information, please visit us online at alpine Bible.com.