Day 332: Barnabas and Paul On Mission (2024)
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Having his father maximum. And you're listening to the bible in the year podcast where we encountered god's voice and live life through the lens of scripture. The bible in the year podcast brought to you by a sentient using the great adventure bible.

Al tilly will read all the way from genesis to revelation, discovering how the story of salvation on foot and how we fit. And at that story today, IT is a three hundred and thirty two. If you are following, along with the great adventure bible year year reading plan, you would know that this is the second to last day on the second to last page of the year, which is pretty phenomenal.

If you ask me, we're reading on day three hundred and thirty two, ask the first chapter eleven. First, Quentin s, chapters three and four. Well as probably separate twenty seven versus twenty three, three twenty seven. As always, the babel translation i'm reading from is the revised standard version, the second cathos division. I'm using the great adventure able for action.

And also you can download your own bible in the reading plan, in which case you would know that we are on the second to last day, on the second to last page of this entire bible in the year reading plan. If you had IT in your hand, you be able to check IT off and say, oh my goodness, all these dates, all these ratings are checked off, except for one, you know, getting net. As I said, you can download your own bible in your reading.

Planted the sentient press that comes slash bubble in the year can also subscribed with this podcast on subscribe and receiving daily episodes and daily updates. IT is day three hundred and thirty two we're reading xb. POS chapter eleven saint polls literal to the quintius his first one chapter three and four and probably chapter twenty seven versus twenty three through twenty seven the acts of the apostles chapter eleven Peters report to the church at jerusha's salem.

Now the apostles, les in the breath man who are in judea, heard that the gentiles also had received the word of god. So when Peter went up to jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them? But Peter began and explain to them in order.

I was in the city of java praying. And in the change, I saw a vision, something descending like a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners. And IT came down to me.

Looking at IT closely, I observed animals and beast of prey and rip tiles and birds of the air, and I heard a voice sing to me, rise, Peter, kill and eat. But I said, no, lord, for nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth. But the voice answered a second time from heaven, what god has closed, you must not call common.

This happened three times and always drawn up again into heaven. At that very moment, three men arrived at the house in which we were sent to me from cesarea. And the spirit told me to go with them, making no distinction.

These six brethren also accompanies me. And we entered the man's house, and he told us how he had seen the Angel standing in his house and saying, send IT to japan and bring Simon called Peter. He will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household. As I began to speak the whole, this spirit fell on them, just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered that the word of the lord, how he said, drawn baptize with water.

But you shall be baptize with the holy spirit, if then god gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the lord Christ, who was I that I could withstand god when they heard this, they were silenced and they glorified god's saying then to the jen tows. Also, god has granted repentance unto life. The church in anti oc.

Now, those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as vanishes and cyprus and anti oc, speaking the word to not accept juice. But there were some of them, men of cyprus and syrian who are coming to anti oc, spoke to the greeks, also preaching the law. Jesus, and at the hand of the lord was with them.

And a great number that believed turned IT to the lord. News of this came to the years of the church in jerusalem, and they sent bar of us to antioch. When he came and saw the Grace of god, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the lord with steadfast purpose, for he was a good man full of the holy spirit and of faith.

And a large company was added to the lord. So barnabas went to target, to look for soul. And when he had found him, he brought him to anti iac.

For a whole year, they met with the church and taught a large company of people. And then antioch, that the cipla were, for the first time, called Christians. Now in these days, profits came down from jerusalem to anti ac, and one of them, named ego bus, stood up.

And tor told by the spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. And this took place in the days of clodius, and the disciples determined everyone according to his ability to send relief to the brethren who lived in judea. And they did so, sending IT to the elders by the hand of one of us and soul.

Saul's first letter to the kentish s. Chapter three on desensitize the kindest church but eye breaths n could not address you as spiritual men, but as meant of the flesh as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for IT.

And even yet you are not ready for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving like ordinary men, for one, one says, I belong to paul and another, I belong to a police. Are you not merely man? What then is a police? What is paul servants to whom we believed as the lord assigned to each? I planted Apollo, watered, but god gave the growth.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only god who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor, for we are god's fellow workers. You are god's field, god's building, according to the commission of god, given to me like a skilled master builder, I late the foundation, and another man is building upon IT.

Let each men take care, how we build upon IT. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is jesus Christ. Now, if anyone build on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, would hay straw, each man's work will become manifest for the day.

We will disclose IT, because IT will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man is built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved.

But only as through fire do you not know that you are god's temple and that god's spirit dwells in you. If anyone destroys god's temple, god will destroy him, for god's temple is holy, and that temple you are, let no one to save himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may become wise.

For the wisdom of this world is fully with god. For IT is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness. And again, the lord knows that the pots of the wise are futile.

So let no one boasts of men for all things are yours, or the paul, or a police, or cafe or the world, or life, or death, or the present for the future, all are yours. And you are Christ, and Christ is god. Chapter four, the ministry of the apostles this is how one should regard us as servants of Christ and stores of the mysteries of god.

Moreover, IT is required of stewards that they be found. But with me, IT is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.

IT is the lord who judges me, therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then every man will receive his commendation from god. I ve applied all this to myself, and Apollo is for your benefit brethren that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be pushed up in favor of one against another for who sees anything different in you?

What have you that you did not receive? If then you received IT? Why do you boost as if IT? We're not a gift already.

You are filled already. You have become rich without us. You have become kings. And what that you did rain, so that we might share the rule with you.

I think the god has exhibited us a puzzle as last of all, like men, sentence to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to Angels and to men. We are fools for Christ sake, but you are wise and Christ, we are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor.

But we in distribute to the present hour, we hunger and thirst. We are poorly closed and buffer and homeless, and we labour working with our own hands. When revealed, we bless.

When persecuted, we endure. When slander red, we try to conciliate. We have become, and are now as the refuse of the world, the drugs of all things fatherly. I did not write this to make you ashamed, but to admit you as my beloved children, for though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became me, your father, and Chris jesus through the gospel, I urge you then the imitators ors of me.

Therefore, I sent to you, Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere, in every church. Some are arrogant as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the lord will ls, and I will find out, not the talk of these arrogant people, but they're power for the kingdom of god does not consist in talk, but in power.

What do you wish, should I come to you with a rod or with love in a spirit of gentleman? The book of proverb chapter twenty seven versus twenty three through twenty seven. No, well, the condition of your flocks and give attention to your herds for riches do not last forever.

And as the crown endure to all generations, when the grass is gone and the new growth appears and the orbit of the mountains is gathered, the lads will provide your clothing and the goats the Price of a field. There will be enough goats milk for your food, for the food of your household and maintenance for your madness. Father and having to give your prays and thank you so much.

Thank you for the gift of Grace and thank you not only for the gift of your Grace, but also for the gift of your messengers, the Peter and paul who we and barn of us we hear of today. We just ask you, please help us to live like them, help us to continuously say yes to you and to whatever IT is that you want to do in our lives, whatever is that you want to do in this world, or that we say yes. And we ask you to please help us to say yes to you and your will and your plan, and to say us to love with everything we have.

In jesus name, we pray a men and the name of the father and of the sun and of the holy spirit and so and we have um he Peter had this incredible revelation, right? And cornea is the whole thing we heard yesterday and then today what do we have? We have Peter reporting and that god wants to extend this holy spirit on the gentiles.

And there are folks who do not like this idea. In fact, we can often forget, as as mother day Christians, we can often forget the thing we have talked about so many times in the last three hundred twenty days. We ve talked about how krystian ity is not a new religion.

IT is the filming to judy ism. So all of those first Christians were jews, every single one of them. And we forget that because now there's this division right between judaism and Christianity.

But that wasn't always the case here. In chapter eleven, IT revealed the heart of what's gonna en in the early church. And what's going happen in the early church is there's this disagreement. The question is, is going to come up and maybe a dare to.

The question is, care those people, those details who are becoming Christian, do they first have to be circumcised and then received into the church and then be baptized? That's going to be a big, big question in the next couple days. But you see here, even the fact that god has opened up his Grace to the gentiles is something that chAllenges the preconceptions and the three ideas of many, many people.

And so Peter has to explain, here's this vision I saw here, not just the vision I saw, because that's one thing, but he is also the miracle that happened. These men and women who I preached to the holy spirit came upon them. And remember when jesus himself said, john baptize you with water, I will baptize you with the holy spirit.

That happened, I thought. And that's so important because, again, this as we continue to grow and move forward, this is going to be a rule, big deal. It's going to stretch a lot of people here now, the church anti ac, again, some proclaiming to the juice, but also claiming to the greeks.

This is the first place that the disciples of jesus were called Christians. And so that's a little backside yid for you. That anti was the first place called Christians.

Up to this point, there were followers of the way that actually will still be called followers of the way. Kind of a capital tea, the capital W A. And yet home in in anti oc.

We have our second snapshot of a guide, an bar of us. We heard bn of us. He was the one who was sold property and gave me to the apostles born of us. His name means son of encouragement. And this is so important, I just think this is remarkable.

Um he says in chapter eleven, first twenty three minutes as when he came and saw the Grace of god he was glad and he exerted them all to remain faithful to the lord with dead past purpose for he was a good man full of the holy spirit and a faith and Barnes and polygon become coworkers as well. And I always, I might mention this a dozen times between now and the end of three hundred and six five days. But I always think a bar of us again, son of encouragement.

His name wasn't bone of us. His nickname was bound of us. His nickname was sun of encouragement.

And I love this description. Imagine, imagine the hawash, the lord describing you in this way. In chapter eleven, he says he was a good man. Imagine the bible is scribing you. He was a good woman full of the holy spirit and a faith.

The person who was the son or daughter of encouragement in vantis, this case IT, makes so much sense that he in paul would be traveling companions. Politics becomes known as the apostle like capital the capital a apostle is the second time you've done that today. Um but pause is the a possible you can imagine why paul would need to barn of this with him.

Paul is gna go out and is going thread the gospel. He's going to be rejected a bunch so many times. You imagine how many days paul tried to spread the the good news and was completely rejected.

If you were a poll, you would absolutely need a born of us in your life. If you were the person who was getting out there and you're trying to proclaim god's word and you're constantly being rejected, you need someone whose nickname is a kind of encouragement. You need someone in your life.

Who is that truly? You need someone again. Everyone has their whole, you know, paul writes this so often.

He talks about how not everybody has the same gifts in the church that the eyes cannot say to the hand. I don't need you the full say to the hand, I don't need you all these things. And paul couldn't say to born of us.

I don't need you because he absolutely did need him. Even if born of us isn't the one who's gonna all the main messenger. You have the fact that he is a playing a very specific role.

And the truth is you have a specific world as well. You have a gift that the lord needs. And you know, he makes himself need us. He doesn't really need us.

But he he humbles himmels so much that he kind of put himself, not in our dead, but in our mercy, in so many ways, because he trust you, and he desires to be known in this world through you enter me. And just because someone might not be A V A postle doesn't mean they don't have a role. Maybe they are the encourager and maybe they're the cheerleader.

Hope that makes sense. So I mentioned yesterday that I was going to talk about current and what corinth was like. Corinth was a metropolitan city, right? Cup of politian city. He was a very diverse IT. Had there was a saying back in the day, apparently, to live like a currently an and to live like a current tian meant that you did not have good morals and meant you were willing to do anything to make a buck when you were willing to do anything when I came to obsess or relations, current was the city of sin back in the day, and think paul goes there. Remember, he went to athens first at the area.

Op gist, mars hill had this philosophical argument about jesus and then said, know, when I go to current, I will know nothing except jesus Christ, him crucified, and he's going to this place where there are bad habits. In fact, there was the temple to the god dede's afford. Di, in court and court.

I ent, I was there once. I mean, I went to the city of court, and they set up down the hill. That's where the temple to affordable was.

I don't think there was anything there anymore, but once upon a time there was and um so here's what going to church, quote, going to church in the temple of affordable. Looks like this is kind of pg thirteen. So keep this in mind.

You would bring your sacrifice, and you know whether that would be a goat or rather a, and whatever the thing was, you'd bring that sacrifice. And there were three parts out to a lot of these temples. The first part was where the sacrifice to be offered. The second part was where you there be culture prostitution. And so the second part of your is loosely saying, going to church, going to this temple, offer a sacrifice, then have the sexual tions with a temple prostitute.

And then the third part was, by the time you were done with all that, the part of the sacrifice you had brought would be barbecued, you know, and you'd have be a restaurant on the back of the temple, and so basically going to the temple area offer this sacrifice culture, prostitution, and then have dinner. And and IT was one of those situations where I think I remember there was something at the height of this incorrect, but of f dd. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of uh, temple prostitutes there.

You know I was I I think was pope bendit to rote about this. He talked about how niche said that Christians signalled the death of arrows. So, aris, that love of desire, right? There's four kinds of love.

Aras is one of them. The love, desire. And the nig said that Christiani killed arrows, pointed to these cute prostitutes, put temple prostitution, and the the cult of average I and the cult of Venus put bending points out, he said, is okay.

So if that was the death of eras, and that was a bad thing, according to ni gam, let's explain the full gaming of temple prostitution. That, okay, here are the people going to the temple to engage in this. Okay, so eras for them, if with the death of destruction of the temple of flight or Venus, uh, yeah, for them, that eras was needed to be curtailed.

But people, any points out, he says, but what about the people who served the temple? What about those who are brought into prostitution for the sake of those people who were dedicated to the cult of Venus or the cult of affordable? And he points out, yeah, for maybe for some of people who would show up to the temple and we're free to leave, oh, they had to have the death of areas.

But for those who are stuck there, who essentially sexy slaves that did not signal the death of aras, what is signalled was the recognition that they are human beings made up of image and lightness, and they were, they did not deserve to be treated this way in any way they perform. IT was, in fact, the affirmation of their dignity, not just the dignity of those who would show up, but the dignity of those who were being forced to serve in that kind of situation, that that kind of trap, that slavery, my point of that out. And so this is the the context in which same paul is writing to these people because now there's the sense right now, but the next chapter in chapter five, saying polls going to describe a very, very will the subtitles called the sexual immorality defiles the church um there is going to be he's going to call out some folks for basically going back and living like clintons.

He'll say IT like that. But today we have the detention. Who is a polis? Who is paul? Basically here, paul gan is saying that, listen, we laid up for ivb foundation, a police built on IT.

And now be careful because you're building something too. I'm not highlight two things. Quick is just is so important, two quick things. One is in a first thing about three sample says, now if anyone builds on the foundation, tions is verse twelve with gold, silver pressure stones, would hair straw, each man's work will become manifest for the day will disclose IT, the day is a capital d day, so the day of the lord will disclose IT, because IT will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

Now this is one of the, so we've mentioned before, the doctor perforator, and that recognition that if you die in relationship with god and friendship with god, then of course you're welcomed into heaven. It's you, dia state of Grace and that right relationship with god, and get at the same time. This first in thons, kind of at least alludes to this notion that the day of the lord, which is the day you stand, we forgot, or the day of the lord's judgment, whether that's all at once, are your particular judgment.

That day will disclose how you've lived, right? How you've built. And he says, because it'll be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work you when each one is done.

If the work, which any man is built on the foundation survives, he'll receive a reward. If any human's workers burned up, he will suffer loss, though he, him self will be safe, but only as the fire. So the process of percent ory is simply pure fiction.

Is that sense of, okay, there are things in my life that can be my life. No, there's good things in your life. Those give got glory. But there are some things that I ve created a life of straw.

And hey, and that stuff needs to be burned up in order to be able to enter and the fullness without glory, and simply radiate his glory back to him and live in his glory for all eternity. Again, IT doesn't like prove the reality of programs ory, but IT does point to the reality of a process of purification of some sort. Hope that makes sense.

Because, again, this isn't to cause division between catholics and in non conflict. This is meant to say, while united on this, that there is some degree of pure fiction. We all have to go through that same all is talking about right now.

And hopefully that is more unifying than IT is dividing just because we see, here's what god's word points out. Hopefully that makes sense. The last thing I want to point out is maybe also unifying, but also is a kind of a catholic thing. There are so many incredible things that sample has said today, but one of the things he has said is helps someone like me. For example, I always say my name, father mike.

And sometimes we have brothers and sisters who were Christian, who say, jesus said, call no man your father and we already addressed that in previous, looking at the gospel, how he is also said, call no one teacher and yet, uh, we do that anytime. We call someone doctor, that the word doctor means pastor, who means shepherd, even though jesus is the good shepard. Here is think paul in the end of chapter four, who says that though you have countless guys in Christ, you do not have many fathers, but I became your father and Chris jesus through the gospel, even called Timothy, my beloved and thankful child in the lord.

So paul refers to himself as father. And he's not contradicting what jesus has taught us, because jesus was making a clear that ultimately, ultimate fatherhood comes from god. Father, ultimate teacher is jesus Christ himself.

The ultimate shepard is jesus, the good shepard that we participate in god's fatherhood, we participate in godde's teaching, we participating god's sheering. But he is the one true father, but he is same paul who is referring himself as father. So hopefully again, especially if you ever have A A tough time, you're like, okay, I like this boy has to everything, but I really hate that he caught himself, father mike.

And I would say, hopefully this helps a little bit because he is think for all I referring to himself as a father, hopefully again, I don't see these things to cause division. I see them because hopefully we can hear those things and say, oh, okay, I see where catholics get some of these things. I I see where this isn't contradicting scripture.

I see that we're more united than we are divided. That's my prayer. That's my hope.

And hopefully you see that too. Hopefully you know that you're loved. Hopefully this my last hope of of the day. Hopefully all of us who are catholic or not catholic, that we just rejoice in the fact that we get to be united in this way. And hope second the last, hopefully, here's the last hopefully.

And hopefully no one feels like I am speaking of them as a second class Christian, you belong to the lord, the same polys today. He begged to the lord, the holy spirit is in you. You are his children.

You're the temple of the holy spirit. We continue to pray. God lead us closer and closer to you, less closed, closer church leaders, closer and closer to the truth and the fullness of truth, as revealed in scripture and in the church, in scripture and in in tradition.

Man, okay, guys, long enough today, I am praying for you. Please pray for me what a gift to what today when his father like, I cannot wait IT to see you tomorrow. Get bless.