Address—C. Buchanan
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The 11Th chapter of the Acts.
My Bible says the Acts of the Apostles.
Sometimes we call it the Acts of the Holy Spirit.
And it is the action.
Of the Holy Spirit.
Through the apostles.
That as produced this history.
And we want to speak of basic things, so we have selected.
This 11Th chapter.
In which the Gentiles?
Are brought into that wonderful place of blessing in the Church of God. Reading then Acts Chapter 11 and the apostles and eld and brethren that.
We're in Judea. Heard that the Gentiles had also noticed that word.
Also because it means the Jews to receive what they receive, the word of God. We have it here now in our hands, in its complete mess in its entirety. And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him saying.
Thou understand to men uncircumcised, and did eat with them. But Peter rehearsed the matter from the beginning and expounded it by order under them saying.
I was in the city of Joppa, praying and in a trance. I saw a vision.
A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet let down from heaven by four corners, and it came even to me, upon to which, when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered and saw four footed beasts of the earth.
And wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter, slay and eat. But I said, not so Lord. You see, he knew that voice was the Lord.
Not so, Lord, for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
But the voice answered me again from heaven, what God hath cleansed that call not thou common.
And this was done three times.
And all were drawn up again into heaven, And behold, immediately there were.
Three.
Men already come under the house where I was.
Sent from Caesarea.
None to me. I can't help but notice that we have three men, that our brother spoke about these three men yesterday.
Very different setting, but here were three men.
Verse 12 and the Spirit made me go with them. Nothing.
Doubting, moreover, these six brethren accompanied me.
And we entered into the man's house. He showed us how he had seen an Angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Sinned men to Joppa, and called for Simon, whose surname is Peter.
Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved?
This is all basic, you know shall be saved. Are you saved? And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning, just to comment.
The Holy Ghost is here this afternoon.
And if you're a believer?
You're sealed with the Holy Ghost.
Verse 16 then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. For as much then as God gave them the like gift, as he did unto us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. What was I that I could withstand God?
When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God.
Saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto light?
Verse 19.
Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Venice and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none, but under the Jews only. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, notice that Antioch spake under the Grecians or the Gentiles, preaching the Lord.
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Jesus and the hand of the Lord was with.
Them and a great number believed and turned.
To the Lord.
Then tidings of these things came under the ears of the Church, which was in Jerusalem.
Then they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch.
Who, when he came and had seen the grace of God, was glad?
And exerted the mall, that with purpose of heart they should cleave.
And to the Lord.
For he was a Goodman, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith.
And much people was added unto the Lord.
Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul when he had found him.
He brought him unto Antioch.
Then it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves.
With the church and taught much.
People.
When the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
And in those days came prophets from Jerusalem, none to.
Antioch, when there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified by the Spirit.
That there should be a great birth throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Then the disciples, every man, according to his ability, determined to send relief.
Under the brethren which dwelt in Judea.
Which also they did.
And sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
Already.
One day has passed and.
In our meetings and more than once it's been referred to the fact.
That there is the man.
Christ Jesus in heaven at the right hand of God.
We enjoyed that view of him even.
This morning.
A tremendous.
Saying it is.
That already there is one man in heaven.
Now I can stand here and say.
In absolute confidence, the word of God.
That just assures that man is there. This man shall be there.
And everyone of you.
That's our destiny. That's where we're headed.
That's where we're going, but we aren't there.
We are in a very bad world.
The two great things of this age are that.
Jesus.
There is a man, Christ the Lord.
Son of Man, Son of God is in heaven for us.
And the Holy Spirit is down here for us, in US, among us.
Another thing is we have the word of God.
We have every resource from the source who is gone.
Being saved, You notice the word Christian came here.
In this chapter for the first time.
And it was a name put upon Gentile believers.
In that city of Antioch.
Called Christian.
And so if you're saved, you are a Christian.
But again, you and I are left here.
In the world that cast out and rejected our Savior, crucified Him.
We're left here to represent him, and there couldn't be a nicer thing said about your eye.
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By people out there that say he's a Christian.
He's like Christ.
Now having.
Jesus, the man in the glory there for us.
And the Holy Spirit down here for us.
And our end, that same place where Jesus as man has gone.
We're going to consider basic things in this chapter as a provision.
For you and I.
To pass through this world.
Be kept and cared for.
There is.
As a resource.
Apostles and prophets.
In their books.
Referring to Ephesians 4, when he ascended on high, he gave gifts in the man. He gave some apostles and prophets. We don't have them living, we have them in the New Testament writings.
And then he gave.
Evangelists, and we certainly have those.
And we have pastors and teachers.
And we have assemblies.
And we have practical Christianity. These things come out in this.
Chapter.
Now I'm going to divert.
Then tell you a story.
Now about a 15 year old, I'll call him a man.
But this happened to him when he was 13.
Possibly have some 13 year old boys here.
He didn't live in the United States.
His name is John.
He told me his story just Monday of this past week.
John was born brought up in Romania.
What happened to him? Two years ago he related to me.
But to go back three years ago in that land?
There are brethren there, quite a number of them.
And they have more or less met underground.
Not openly, as we have a conference in a public school here and meet in meeting rooms known to the whole of the people in our area.
They met in upstairs places that were provided. Now God provided for those.
Christians in a remarkable way, so that they could have some meetings, but.
Very secretly.
Couldn't even sing openly like we do.
Bibles were scorned, despised, confiscated.
But in the persecution.
Of that strong dictator, so says school.
Still, they're lived Christians in that land, and they met.
There was an evangelist.
Walk through that Plaza a Bucharest.
Three years ago.
Praying to God.
That he would open that place up. That the gospel could be preached.
Now you know what happened in the last several months in Romania from the news.
Two of the brethren told me this story.
I haven't forgotten John. We're coming to him.
But they said it was a miracle of God.
But all of a sudden, the people were fearless.
You know the Berean wall would come down.
Communism had lost its power and the sense of it permeated the masses in Romania.
Most of them they rose up against their dictator.
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They eliminated him.
They said the morning at that.
Began to happen that grown men and women were out in the streets rolling in joy.
And down in the Plaza.
Where this dictator had erected a palace.
Putting millions and billions of dollars 2700 men employed for.
Some years to build a thing.
And the people more or less starving.
But down in that palace.
The mob went in there and opened it up and.
A man preached inside the palace to about four or five thousand men, and out in the closet to another one was preaching to 10 or 15,000 men.
But two years ago, John was going to school.
Some of you have started school.
They were under this rigid dictator communist rule.
And John's teacher one day charged him with stealing one of her books.
John said no, I didn't. I didn't see your book. I don't know anything about it, she said. You did.
He stuck with his word. She began to beat him, to whip him.
He would not give up, he would not change his mind. He would not lie.
She called the police.
They came.
And they whipped. John tried to get him to cry. He wouldn't do it.
Charging him with.
Thieving stealing that book and then they changed their charge and said.
You're getting a whole bunch of packages from a foreign country, aren't you? What about them?
Well, he didn't say anything about those.
Said Where are the Bibles in your house? Where are you hiding them?
He wouldn't tell them. You don't hide the Bible in your houses, do you?
John would not tell them where the Bibles were.
In order to get him to cry and to lie, they took his shoes off.
And they beat him on the heels. I never heard of anything like that, but it reminded me.
Now what?
The Lord said about Satan.
In the book of Genesis, at the beginning he shall bruise.
Thy heel.
And people have been stumbling around on the Earth ever since.
They brewed John's heels. He didn't cry. He didn't lie.
Then they beat him on the head.
The back, the heels, the head. He didn't change. He didn't lie. Finally, he threatened to hang him up by the collar on the wall.
Mother Day had worn away and said we'll see something about this tomorrow.
Well, tomorrow nothing happened. Things have changed. John is living over in America now.
And comes to meeting.
You and I don't suffer those kind of things, but we're born in that kind of a world.
What's going on in the area of the setting of this chapter?
Jerusalem and Antioch. Right now you know about Jerusalem, Antioch.
I think was situated about 100 miles north of Beirut and there's been war in Beirut for 15 years.
A three-way civil war and it has not stopped.
The hatred in this world is immense and intense.
And against Christ.
And against Christianity, and even against the earthly people, the Jew.
Now you and I.
Thank God with the mercies we have here in a Christian land in this western part of the world.
I don't know that we're always going to have this.
If the Lord leaves us here much longer.
Breakdowns and turmoil and overturning can come quickly, as we have evidenced in the past year in much of Europe, Asia and Africa.
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But we thank God for every mercy.
And.
We should thank him more and pray more that.
We might have those mercies continued to us.
But what we are looking for is the Lord to come and take us out. But the judgment of the world has been pronounced.
But God has a people down here now that he provides for.
As I look into your faces, young people.
I can truly say.
I think you have the most favorable situation of any people.
Who have ever lived on the face of the earth to this very moment?
It's wonderful to be young. Once I was young, now I'm old. That's what one of the men in the Old Testament said, David. I guess I'm older than David was.
Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor received begging bread?
To be young, to know the Lord, to come to meeting, to know what?
Apostles and brethren are.
To know what a meetings are gathered the Lord's name. To know what a Christian home.
Is.
And to have the blessing.
Of evangelists, pastors and teachers. And they have a heart to care for the Saints.
Is the most wonderful situation anybody could ever be in.
Now the world has developed.
I'm not talking about the world in its wickedness. I suppose it's more corrupt than violent now than it ever has been. Think you've heard that for the second time here in these meetings.
Nevertheless, it was always that.
Over and over again, in every test that God put it through, it ended up violent and corrupt.
The magnitude is more immense than it's ever been.
There's another thing that's tremendous, and that is what research and development have brought in the way of mercy creature comforts into the world now.
Back in the pioneer days of even this country.
The average age of people was much less than it is now. I'm not a man of statistics, but I know that for a fact.
Many of them lived a life of drudgery and hardship to clear the land. I've done a little clearing of the land myself, and what a wonderful thing a bulldozer bought to come along and knock down trees and open it up instead of using the crosscut so on fire to get it opened up. And horses and dynamite.
Well, research and development have produced many things.
And I just think it's amazing.
What men have been able to do using what God has put in this world.
From its very beginning.
And to be given to men, the lordship over and to.
Find out these things. History would tell us of different cultures which have risen up high.
The Tower of Babel is one of them.
In talking to old brethren of Israel in England years ago who worked in the mines.
You find some remarkable things that you don't quite understand.
The past developments and research and what they had, he said. We have found down in those mines.
A cable like thing running for hundreds and hundreds of feet.
Through the coal bed and we don't know what it was.
I said, well, they said it looked like electric cable.
But it wasn't that.
In flying out of Lima, Peru, up over the deserts there north and I tell you it's desert for hundreds of miles.
You can look down from your airplane and see lines that run for hundreds of miles down there in the sand, and I don't know what they are. If you go up at Cusco and see what what wonderful structure they built high up in the mountains, they go over to Stonehenge in England and see what men have produced. You can go to Egypt that haven't been there, but they're pyramids and all these things.
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Now with the research and development.
What's scaring Saddam Hussein is the technology and the power.
Of the American Army, Navy and Marines and he is scared or he would move further.
All of these things they have developed.
And in 1977 they sent away 2.
Satellites explore satellites, they call them.
To gather data from all of the.
Planets.
Outer planets. Not the inner ones toward the sun, but the outer ones from the Earth.
And those two Explorer satellites are just now getting to.
The range of the end of space as men know it, where they can't have any contact with them anymore.
And one of the scientists wrote this about what they had found out when he was asked, what are you going to do with the books that's written 25 years ago in science? He said, just throw them all away. Just throw them all away. They're no good anymore.
And then he came out with a statement that is an admission.
Admission admitting that.
They had found nowhere in the universe.
Anything, not even a smidgen of evidence of life.
Or anything to support life except where you and I live.
In this world.
Now Christ.
Has bought the world.
He purchased the field in order to get the treasure out of it.
He's got me on the way as he got you.
He's going to take you out, he's going to take every believer out before he takes possession of the field of the world.
But oh, the judgment that are going to cleanse this place before he sets up.
His Kingdom shall never be removed.
Meanwhile, you and I.
All of us began having part in the first man.
The first man is of the earth, earthy. The 2nd man is the Lord out of heaven. That's the Bible, the story of two men.
You and I are saved. That part in the second man, Oh, that's the most important. We began on the earth. We're going to end in heaven, but we're not there now. What has God-given for you? For me?
To have where we pass through.
This chapter gives it for us Gentiles.
A bit of statistic about the ratio there.
You notice I said the word also in verse one.
I read verse one.
And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. The other ones were the Jews.
The ratio of Jew to those who are non Jewish.
Is 1 to 3:50.
That's just an interesting fact.
And O the blessing that has come to us.
And this chapter connects with chapter 10. We didn't have time to read chapter 10.
But the way of God bringing the Gentiles into the blessing.
Of the Church and of the Holy Spirit came in chapter 10.
Through Peter to Cornelius and his household, and it troubled those Jews.
In Jerusalem when they heard about it.
And God who worked to keep his work.
1.
To make it 1 and keep it 1.
And so Peter goes up to Jerusalem.
And.
He has six brethren with him. That's verse 12.
That beat seven of them.
And he recounts in order.
What had happened?
When he down to I think Caesarea, at any rate, when he met.
Cornelius in his house and when they came together.
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And when he had gotten that dream, which showed to Peter.
That the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness.
Peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Peter was learning these things he was a Jew and in.
The Jewish thing that had been meat and drink.
But God stops that old Jewish order of things and brings in.
The Gentiles, and has with him Peter, has with him six men.
So that they could go up to the assembly at Jerusalem and recount what had happened.
So he tells that story.
And.
Verse 18.
The church up at Jerusalem listened to Peter.
And it says when they had heard these things, they.
Held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance and delight?
So now we have the basic facts that the Gentiles are put on the same ground as the Jews.
In the House of God introduced there and having the Spirit of God.
A new thing on the Earth?
So chapters 10 and 11 go back and connect with chapter.
Two in a special way. Now I'll just refer to that.
42nd verse of chapter 2. Then they heard the word.
Receive the word chapter verse 41. I guess it is.
Gladly received the word, were baptized, and they were added unto them about 3000 souls, and they continued.
Steadfastly in the Apostles, doctrine and fellowship.
And breaking of bread and prayers, now you and I have brought in on Gentile as Gentiles into the same place.
Can't improve on that basis.
That's the basis for us to stand on.
Upon this word which has come by the Apostles.
And when you and I hear the Apostles doctrine, read it, get it first out and practice it.
I say when we practice it, then we enjoy the apostles.
Fellowship Communion.
And then John says, our fellowship, truly our fellowship, is with the Father.
And with his son Jesus Christ.
Now that's for us Gentiles too, to continue in the apostles doctrine in the word of God, and then to enjoy that fellowship.
So let me go on down here.
In our chapter.
The Gentiles God has granted unto us repentance unto light.
That was the beginning. Now verse 19.
Now they, which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Venice.
Cyprus and Antioch preaching the word to none, but under the Jews only.
And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, speak unto the Grecians.
Preaching the Lord Jesus.
In the hand of the Lord was with.
Them and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. This is so beautiful. Salvation through the evangelist preaching the word.
And turning to the Lord.
This is still happening.
They're still an open door for it.
It's opened up much in Romania.
An effort is being made to go there and carry the word.
Our brethren have sent hundreds of.
Bibles to Romania in their own native language.
Oh, how we ought to appreciate the Word of God.
And those that turn to the Lord and the work of the evangelist. Now this is one thing that's a beginning for every one of us that we have as we're in this world.
There will always be evangelists here, till we all come in the unity of the faith under the perfect man.
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Well, that's going to be wonderful to arrive there.
To that one, who is the perfect man?
So as you go to school.
Is it better to be in school Oregon? Better to have a vacation? I don't know which.
You're in the same world and you can't get out of it.
And you're not going to stay here. You're going to be taken out.
But while you're on the way, while I'm on the way, they're going to be evangelists. Thank God for them, and you can be one of them.
It's working in our assembly.
Down home, I'm not going to say anymore, but it works here.
And it works all over, from young people, children, young people and older ones.
Talking to their neighbors, those they meet in school.
Or wherever.
To get people to turn to the Lord.
So here is the work of an evangelist.
And that reached out and went clear down to Antioch.
That's that place that's up north. I don't know, I think it's just a ruined now. But it was up north of Beirut and when we think of that world over there in the absolute hatred of Christianity.
Deter. You know, 100 years ago in Beirut there were more than one assembly.
Gather the Lord's name in that city, and there were others in that land.
That's all washed away, wiped out.
What a world we're living in.
But we're here, and there are evangelists and there are opportunities.
And we need more than evangelists, and we have more than evangelists. So let's go on and read here verse 22.
Then tidings of these things came under the ears of the church.
I always have to laugh when I smile a little bit when I think of this church having ears.
Now this refutes.
Man's idea of a church.
What church to go to that and over there, that and over there. Well, there are ears on that run on this one.
Now that's that exposes the fallacy of what men have come along and taught, that there are multitudes of churches in God's Word. There's only one.
And you don't join it. You are joined when you believe, you get the Holy Spirit that dwells in the house. Again, I want the state. Our position is a living Christ in glory for us and the Holy Spirit dwelling in the house where every one of us are.
Yes, he dwells in the House of God.
I'll state again mentioning the house, what a wonderful thing you young people have who have a Christian home as a refuge to go to.
If you're going to school.
Stay in that home as long as you can.
If you have to go, stay as near to it as you can. That Christian home.
And if you don't have that very close, look up the assembly that's nearest to you and.
Be there.
Oh, what a protection, what a refuge it is for the Spirit of God dwells in.
That assembly too.
Now they needed more things. Tidings of these things came to the ears of the church, which was in Jerusalem.
They heard about what was going on down in Antioch. I get stirred when I hear about what's going on and over in.
Romania, as well as down in Peru and other places. And once the work of the Holy Spirit, it's really nice.
So what was going on? And they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch.
It's remarkable that the assembly sent this man.
He was a pastor.
We've had a work of evangelists and now we're getting the work of pastors.
I know what a wonderful thing, what a necessary thing, what a helpful thing that is to have pastors. You've got them here.
They're looking out for a whole bunch of people from different places today caring for us.
So Barnabas was sent to go as far as Antioch quite a long ways in those days.
I'll go back and notice what we missed in verse 19, that when the persecution arose.
They started traveling when the Evangelists went. Venice I believe was over on Crete.
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An island over near to Greece and Cyprus was another island.
A little nearer to the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea.
An Antioch was about at that northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea.
Mediterranean. Yes, the Mediterranean Sea.
So I suppose that those evangelists had gotten a boat that was the best way to travel in those days.
Although they might be shipwrecked like PO, but they arrive they carry the gospel to.
Create the Cypress and the Antioch and the Spirit of God worked.
Now Barbus arrives at Antioch when he was come.
When he came, verse 23, I had seen the grace of God, was glad. You know you can't see the grace of God, but what you're going to be glad. What a wonderful thing the grace of God is to save souls and bring them into all the blessing that can be poured out upon us in a world that's going to judgment. Stay out of that which is going to be judged.
We don't even become too enraptured with what technology has developed to make life easy. I got a point right back here when I say that.
Thank God for every mercy.
When I was a young man, 1516, I worked in a thrashing crew.
We had no combines then.
Horse drawn binders and they'd bind up the wheat and you'd put it in the shock and then the big old steam engine. Oh, it's fun to watch those steam engines.
They'd puff out that black and white smoke steam, and the big old belt would turn the separator to go separate the straw from the chaff and the wheat.
But my job was to go out and pitch bundles onto the wagon.
And I tell you, that was hard work.
So I'm glad they've got combines in the north. They can go out and do more than half a day than I did all year long. Now. That's what technology is produced. And I don't want to get too enraptured in it, but be thankful for it and even thank God that they can go up and find out that there's no water on any other planet to support light. Isn't it amazing And not get too worried about men destroying this planet. God has it under his control. He'll destroy it when he pleases.
Meanwhile.
There's not one thing on this planet that hasn't come from God.
And it's all still here. The water makes a circuit, all the rivers run into the sea, and yet the sea is not full.
From the place they came, thither they returned, and so the water goes around and around.
Don't worry, when you have a drought, there's going to come a rain.
This God that we have in control of the whole creation, let's, let's respect it and be thankful for all these mercies, but not get too enraptured with the good things of life because they're not going to be here much longer either. That's what's stirring up the danger of war right now, to lose oil or to have it go way up twice as high and not be able to live as high as you do now.
Well, the heart of man produces these things meanwhile.
For the heart of the Christian God would point us to the Word of God, to the people of God, and to the resources that he has given us.
The basic Word of God, the apostles and prophets in the Old Testament, all included in the Word of God we have right here in this book. Make much of it. Do you read it every day?
Do you read it much every day? Nothing could be better for you. You can dry up in your soul if you don't get the Water of Light.
When I have a bit of a drought down home, I get a little bit concerned about those corn plants.
And they are a lesson to us, and to see them respond when the water comes is tremendous.
You and I can go to the water of the Word of God every day and get it.
So we have evangelists, pastors, and So what did Barnabas teach? He was glad at the grace of God. Verse 23 in the middle, and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they should cleave to the Lord.
Our brother mentioned Daniel yesterday and I think he read that verse.
He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the King's meat. If you and I are going to go on in a course that's pleasing to God, we have to have a purpose, and the purpose is Christ and glory.
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To be as much like him as we possibly can, even now.
So you're going to cleave close to the Lord.
And there will be a reflection of him. Rub all.
Like it was with Moses when he went up to get those.
Commandments the second time.
And was with the Lord.
And the grace of God.
Set them down.
The second time.
In the Ark.
And that grace of God made his face shine.
Not the law didn't, but the grace of God.
Oh, the grace of God that made Barnabas glad. He taught them to cleave to the Lord.
I hope you teach me to cleave to the Lord, and I can teach you to cleave to the Lord. That's pastoral care.
Says a remarkable thing about Barnes. He was a Goodman.
And full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. And the big result comes here.
And much people was added unto the Lord.
Has added unto the Lord.
The truth comes out Paul's doctrine.
Members of His body, that's how near we are to the Lord.
Added to the Lord.
But there was still a need.
We've had evangelist pastors as well as apostles and prophets. We have one more.
Verse 25 Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus. 46 Saul.
What did you get him for?
Verse 26 And when he had found them, he brought him unto Antioch. Saul was brought to Antioch.
Because he had something to do. He had a gift to use for.
The one who had smitten him down on the way to Damascus.
Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. He puts him to whatso will die me to do? Hear some of it. The Lord puts him to work. Don't go to work till the Lord puts you to work. He knows your work, He knows mine, and I don't put you to work.
I do think it's nice that the assembly supported Barnabas from sending him down there, but that wasn't the assembly putting him to work.
But they heard of a need and they said, well, perhaps you can fill it.
Now Barnabas knew about Saul, so he wants to find him, brought him to Antioch. Verse 26. Again it came to pass that a whole year they assemble themselves with the church. Here's the church at Antioch in the midst of a Gentile center. It had only been amongst the Jews, starting in Jerusalem. Now it comes to Antioch.
And he stays there a year.
I suppose this goes with the verse we quoted. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and prayers.
Because you can't continue steadfastly in a few minutes.
It took a year to get this teaching into them.
Oh, what a teaching it must have been.
Value much young people the reading meeting.
The ministry.
From your older brothers.
The chain of getting the blessing Paul states in Second Timothy 2, verse 2, The things which thou hast heard of me, Timothy, the same commit thou to faithful man.
Thank God for faithful brothers. It's not so much a question of how much you know up here, it's your practice.
Who shall be able to teach others also that king comes down to September 1990. We can't improve on the foundation. We as Gentiles have been brought in the same place the Jews had, and it's all one.
They taught much people, and the disciples were called Christians first. In Antioch. We've already referred to this. It's so beautiful.
Or that we might be known as Christians instead of having to say I'm a Christian.
Don't be afraid to say you're a Christian, but when somebody calls you a Christian, it's a whole lot better witness to your conduct as walking in the apostles doctrine. Who told us about Christ?
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They walked with him, they saw him, they felt him, they touched him, they handled him in the word of life, and they give it to us. Now let's continue the Apostles doctrine which directs us to the man in the glory.
Now there's one more point in this chapter. It's very lovely. It's left to the laugh because.
It's the least important, but it is important and it's beautiful when it.
Happens.
There were prophets there at that date, yet there was one.
And he named Agabus. He signified by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of Claudius Cedar.
I think God prophesied this and had a prophet there.
For an example, but to meet a need that they had then.
Because they didn't have the whole word of God.
And he was going to set an example before us in an orderly fashion as to how Christianity.
Carries on, practically. And what was it? Well, the dearth came to pass. A big drought. People were hungry.
Douglas came back and said that in the present distress in Lima, Peru.
Our brethren are hungry.
And the buses weren't running.
The inflation.
The price of gasoline multiplied.
30 times in one day when it goes up for six cents, I get disturbed about it.
Multiplied 30 times.
This is the world we're living in.
There those are in need.
What happened verse 29?
Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief under the brethren which dwelt in Judea.
Which also they did. There's a time for doing.
And sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul, a double witness to tell what they had done with the goods that were sent up to Jerusalem.
Well, we see here a similar thing to what went from Corinth.
Up to Jerusalem.
At a later date.
And it's practiced.
In Christianity Today.
We broke bread this morning.
Afterwards they took up a collection.
It was last. This is last.
In the function of the church in Antioch.
But it's important and it's a great privilege. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Well, you and I have a full supply to carry on in the world. That's going to judgment.
To the glory of God, I think we should sing 264 clothing.
Thou sitst on high, eternal word.
As Son of Man is Sovereign Lord, he's in control of everything. He's working out his purposes and counsel.
Now read the third stanza. Oh, keep us in the narrow way.
That ne'er from thee are footsteps stray sustain our weakness.
Calm our fear to thy presence. Keep us near. Let's sing #264 please.