Acts 14

I mean, this is Jesus fasting in the wilderness before he begins his public ministry, It's the church in Antioch in Acts 13, fasting and praying before they set aside Paul and Barnabas for this first missionary journey.

It's Paul and Barnabas fasting and praying before they ordained elders in the churches in Acts 14.

So I think those, biblically speaking, are the two great occasions when there is some desperate need that the people of God are facing because of some calamity, disaster, sin, times of backsliding when people have strayed from God and need to return, or when they're anticipating some advance of the gospel and preparing for the future work of the church.

That biblically seems to be the two primary occasions when God's people fasted.

And look at the sermon ideas and...

And the air that you breathed in the 80s and early 90s in big churches, mega church scene, was how can I make your sex life great in your marriage as a Christian? How can I make sure that you're wealthy? And again, I feel like that's a long way from Acts 14, that we will suffer many hardships in order to enter the kingdom.

It just doesn't feel the same.

And I think it's refreshing that Gen Z are there, but also I had a good weekend experience with about 20 of them, happy about it.

The Jews, the Jews, they were after him.

In Acts 14:2, look at Acts 14:2, "But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren." The Jews.

In verse 19 of that same Acts 14, Acts 14:19, "Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitude, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead." The Jews.

The Jews.

Does that relate to us? That sometimes when we become new converts, people who are kin to us can be used even by the devil against us.

And I think this works on two different levels.

One thing Paul probably has in mind, he's thinking about the nations in Acts 14 and Acts 17.

In Paul's preaching, it talks about the times of ignorance and how God had overlooked.

He had not fully judged the sins of the nations.

He was thinking about, how can I share the gospel in this situation? You see other instances of open doors.

The book of Acts 14 says Paul and Barnabas describe how God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

And then 1 Corinthians 16 says because a wide door for effective ministry has opened for me.

And this connects back to what we talked about last week about living on mission.

Look with me please to the book of Acts chapter 14, the book of Acts of the Apostles chapter 14, please.

In Acts 14, verse 23, when the apostles were planting churches through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, and they were strengthening these churches that they had planted, when they had appointed elders for them in every church, they appointed elders.

a plurality of presbyters, presbyters.

I once saw a Roman Catholic priest lying through his teeth on television in America, the United States, and he was basically taking the Greek word presbyter and translating that as priest, priest.