Children—Mark Allan
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Into the Sunday school this morning. Maybe we can start by singing a few children's hymns. The children's hymns are on the back of the hymn sheet #40 to 47. But if there's one that you think everybody might know, or another one, you're welcome to give it out.
Does somebody have a song I'd like to start with? What would you like to sing?
20 What's 20, you know? Are you thinking of come to Jesus in the other one, or are you thinking of 20 in this one?
20 in this one OK.
Behold.
The.
Wedding.
Glad you came to the end of the day. You have to hear it's not all about.
Uh.
00:05:03
That's a very nice song. You know, I, I think we all enjoy spending time together. One of the nice things about being here is to spend time together. And this song in the course is open the door. He'll enter in and Sup with you and you with him. You know, it's nice when we can spend time with the Lord, you know, while we're down here.
In this world, it's nice if we can make a little bit of time to spend with the Lord. He delights in US doing that if we know him as our Savior and you know, we'll be able to spend all eternity with him. I had a, my great aunt Ruth talk to me about this verse a few years ago before she went home to be with the Lord. And it's had special meaning to me ever since. But it's nice. And maybe you should ask yourself the question, did you spend time with the Lord this morning? It's nice when we can spend time with the Lord. OK, somebody else have a Sunday school song.
Go ahead, man, 46, OK.
Cod tidings. You can sing this back when.
I was young and actually at the tent too. I think when Mr. Roach, Tim's father, used to come to the town where I live, we used to sing a song and the girls would sing the line with the girls and the boys would sing with the boys. So maybe we can do that this morning.
But.
I don't know why I'm welcome. Umm, and then I'm really busy with.
Let's see.
What would you like to?
Number for Jesus loves me. OK, Well, I know that that was on here and it is number 40, yes, OK.
Jesus.
So that's all I'm gonna have to be alive.
Umm.
It's not bad.
Umm, 12/30.
Yeah, it's not a lot of things.
You have a frustration coming close to it.
God, why don't you know?
Give us a lovely way of life and I can hear you Grace, doing something and getting up.
And, umm.
Everyone.
Yeah.
Do you have something?
Yahoo.
Umm, well, you know, uh, uh, tell me some.
Excuse me, I'm glad we're going to have a quiet time in the weather application when you're looking at my hotel, Roger, and my name's crying with the sun and the sun.
00700900.
Uh, yeah.
So I'm saying, yeah, I'm getting a lot of things, you know?
It's not one day the whole time I was in the House of the uh.
That was very nice. Maybe we can just pray before we have final story.
Our God and Father, we just thank you for these wonderful songs that we can sing, the simplicity of them. Our Father, we just thank you for the Lord Jesus who loves us and died for us. And Lord, just pray that these things would be real, not just in our heads, but in our hearts. Lord, praise it as we open thy word and read another story, Lord, and talk about another story that it would sink into our hearts and it would have meaning in our lives, Lord.
And that we all realize how great Thy love is for us. Lord, pray for the boys and girls here.
No, the enemy would like to get their hearts. Lord, just pray that they would.
Hear and understand these stories and they think into their hearts. We just ask this in the name of Lord Jesus, Amen.
Well, I'm going to be honest, I wasn't very sure what I was going to talk about this morning.
Umm, But you know, I've been thinking about a story that we had in our Sunday school last week, actually last few weeks in Acts, you know, I always like.
Stories from the Bible. You know, when I was, when my oldest daughter was a little bit younger, she used to ask me to tell her stories that and actually my son did the same thing, stories that he never heard before. And I try and tell stories and you know, sometimes I ran out of ones that they could say they never heard.
And I always felt guilty when that happened because I knew there were lots in there that I needed to dig out and share with them. The story I want to talk about today, I'll be honest, I knew this story for a long time, but I didn't know the details of it very well. And I'm going to ask you guys questions about it and.
Because it was a little bit last minute, I only have I have some Canadian quarters, loonies and toonies.
So if you answer questions.
Umm, you can have, have, uh, one of those. So, umm, what I'd like to do, umm, actually what made me think of this story? You know, we were talking in our care meeting about what verses put up in the wall and one of the verses that was on the wall in the meeting room where I went when I was young was.
Faith, great big letters, umm bills all you payment said, be it known unto you, therefore men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from the which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Big long verse. You know, I used to sit in meeting and sometimes I wasn't as interested as I could be. And I look up at the wall and they were huge. And so I'd read those verses and ask myself, why would they pick that first?
And, you know, I, I, I like that verse because it tells us that we can be justified from we can never do anything too bad to keep this sort of heaven. And it also tells us that anybody can get into heaven. But, you know, the story behind that is a really neat story. And that's the story that we've been taking up in our Sunday school. We've going through the book of Acts. And so I want to talk a little bit about that story.
00:15:00
And it is in Acts chapter 13.
Now here's the first question.
After Jesus died on the cross, the gospel, the good news about Jesus, just went to one group of people. Who was it?
And you know, the Lord used Peter to show that the good news of the gospel wasn't just supposed to go to the Jews, it was supposed to go to the whole world. Matter of fact, that had been umm, the Lord had said that himself before he went back to heaven and umm, And so we read about a man named Cornelius who got saved and umm, then we read a bunch of people in a city called Antioch to cut safe and the Lord raised up. Well, they became.
This Holy Spirit worked and said, we want you to send two men, or he says to separate two men for the gospel. Who are the two men? Can somebody tell me who the two men were that were supposed to vote and preach the gospel to not just the Jews, but to the whole world? Can somebody tell me who the two men were? Yeah, that's a hard question. I'll give a ***** for this one.
Who?
Not quite. That's a very good guess.
1 of them is Paul. That's right. Who was the other one?
There's AB very good, very good, following Barnabas, it says in Acts chapter 13, and we'll just read the verse very quickly, says in the first verse.
Actually in the second verse and the Lord and as a minister to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said separate me, Barnabas and Saul.
For the work were unto I've called them when they had passed and prayed, they laid their hands on going away. So they were going to go. We were We know his name was changed, of course, of Paul. He went on three big trips to spread the gospel.
And the one that we're gonna talk about today was his first trip. And you know, it's nice when the gospel goes out into the whole world and, uh, we can share it, you know, so I'm not very good at sharing, but you know, I, it's been encouraging for me to see other people to who wrote and share the gospel with others. You know, I'm very encouraged last night when we were talking back at our cabin, we're talking about how the gospel is going out so wonderfully in Cago falls to everyone.
Which is very applicable to this story. Well, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas, they're going on their first missionary journey. And can anybody tell me if they started their journey by in a boat or on land? That's a hard question.
Then oh, very good, very good.
They started out in a boat and they saw sailed to an island. What was the name of the island? That's a very hard question. I'll tell you. It was Cypress and umm, they went to a town on one side of the island called Salamis, and they preached the gospel there. They when they went to places, they would start out by going to where they knew the Bible was going to be read, which was a synagogue. That's where the Jews met.
And they would read the Bible and even though they didn't live in Israel, they still had these, these synagogues where they went and met and read the Bible and they went to this town, Salamis. And then I'm not going to, this isn't the story particularly that I wanted to talk about. Then they go to the other side of the island. I think they must have crossed the island. And we read there about, umm, a man named Sergius Paulus and Elias. And matter of fact, I think that man may have even had his picture.
On a coin back in that time, his brother in our meeting was mentioned that several times the Lord umm brought him to the Lord. You know, it's a wonderful story and then.
Actually, there's three of them on the trip. There was another man named John Mark. They got in a boat again and they sailed to age Minor Asia. And they start walking in land to a town to preach the gospel, the first missionary journey of of fall. And, you know, just before they went there, this young man.
John Marquis.
There was a little bit of persecution on the island of Cypress, and so I don't know whether that was the reason or not, but he laughed and was a little bit sad. And Paul and Barnabas go to this town, and when they get to this town, they're going to start preaching the gospel. Where do you think they were going to go to preach the gospel?
Anybody tell me it's the same as on the island of Cyprus? You tell me.
Does anything go very good you went to the synagogue and they I probably should read this just to make sure that it's.
00:20:04
Clear.
This is in Acts 13, verse 14, when they departed from Purga and came to Antioch and Presidio, and went into the synagogue in the Sabbath day, and sat down. And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them, saying, Amen. And brethren, if you have any word of exhortation to the people, say on. So they sat down, and they waited while the Bible was being read. Did they have the whole Bible then? Jordan? No. What part of the Bible do they have?
I'll give you a quarter, for instance, the first part of the question. Can you tell me more?
Old Testament. That's right. Very good.
And they read that part of the Bible and Paul and Barnabas listen at the end of it, the men or they said to these men, they said, do you have something to share with us? Do you think Paul had something to share with them?
He did. He had a wonderful story. So he he stands up and he says he beckons with his hand in acts there. You can read it as I go through it. Umm.
And he he starts telling them a story and you know, I like thinking about the big picture of story and he goes back and he he starts talking about their history. There was two groups of people in the room. There was a whole bunch of Jews who were from the land of Israel be like if the Canadians, Americans in this room, I don't know exactly how many Jews versus Gentiles were in the room. There were those who who were Jews and and valued the word of God and whether heritage and there were those who are Gentiles who fear God in the synagogue.
And uh, Paul starts speaking to them, and who he's speaking to primarily at first is the Jews. And he says.
You uh, and I'm going to paraphrase a little bit and forgive me, but he, he goes back and he starts recalling what, what has happened to him. He says, do you remember how God promised your ancestors, your relatives way, way back things, umm, wonderful things.
What book would that be in the Bible? Somebody tell me.
OK.
Very good guess. It is an excellent book before access.
It was the promises to Abraham and Isaac and to Jacob. OK, Genesis, very good.
He, he reminds about that and then he says after that, he says, he reminds him of the story of, of, uh, the promises. We'll just read it here says the God of this people, Israel chose our fathers. And then he said.
Umm and exalted the people with exalted changes in the land of Egypt. He said, Oh, you remember how they went down into Egypt after Joseph and the Lord? They turned from a very small group into probably over a million people, and the Lord made them very special. Remember that story. This is what he was saying to the Jews and the Gentiles. What book of the Bible is that in?
Where they were in Egypt.
Excellent, excellent.
Very good.
Is an exodus and he tells him about that story. He says oh, do you remember after that how umm with a high army brought them out of that land of Egypt? That story is also in Exodus too, isn't it? And then he says he says, do you remember how for 40 years God put up with them in the wilderness? You know I was talking to someone yesterday and they were talking about how it's a wilderness journey down here and the Lord tests us and you know.
Sometimes you don't like those tests. I know. I don't like them at all. Umm, but he does it to make us stronger. He tested them in the wilderness. It says that he, he, uh.
It says after 40 years, he suffered their manners in the wilderness. Then he said, you remember too, he said how, how God drove out seven nations out of the land of Israel. And he said then he, he took that land and he divided up into parts and he, he gave it to the land of Israel. And I think, I think all the Jews in that room that were listening said, yeah, yeah, we know that story. That's umm, that's that story is in umm, Joshua. And the other stories were in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, in Deuteronomy.
And, uh, then he says, you will, you remember after that he says the story of the, the judges, how after they were in the land, they didn't know the king, but the Lord gave them judges for, and he talks about a period of 450 years right up until Samuel. That's in the book of judges. I'm sure they knew that story as well. And umm, he, he reminds them of all these things. And then he says afterwards they wanted a king. And he, of course it wasn't a very good thing for him to want a king. Who was the first king? You know who the, who is the first king of Israel?
So that's right.
He was the first king of Israel. It says afterward they desired a king, and God gave unto them Saul the son of Sith, a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40 years. So it didn't turn out to be the greatest thing. It says when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony. I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, which shall fulfill all my words. So there's something special.
00:25:24
About David, he was a king who was chosen by God and in his heart he wanted to follow the Lord. And you know, the Lord used David to write some Psalms and through the writings of David, you know these people who are in the synagogue, they knew the writings of David and I think they knew that God had made a promise to Israel. And and the apostle Paul refers to that promise in verse 23. He says of this man's seed.
Have thought according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Savior Jesus. So he said, umm.
God had made this promise to a, to to David that he was going to have a savior come. Now, these people would have known all of those stories up to that point, but they wouldn't have known necessarily who Jesus was. You have to remember they had gone from Israel taking this big boat ride and they were in the middle of of Asia, which is now Turkey in a place where the gospel probably hadn't gone before. And he gets to this point. He tells him all the story and they know all that story. And then he gets to this. He says there's a.
You're supposed to be looking for somebody who's going to be a savior.
And he says that Savior is Jesus.
And he says, I just wanna give you a little bit more of the story. And this is where it's such a wonderful story because they knew all of that up to that point. Maybe you heard about this guy, guy over in Israel named John the Baptist. You know, I think a lot of people must have heard about John the Baptist because he was a very well known prophet. And the Apostle Paul said, well, you know what, it's not, it's not him. He said there was somebody coming after him who shoe lots that he wasn't worthy to want to lose.
And then he started telling me Jesus. And there's a couple things about Jesus that are extremely special. One is that he's alive today and, uh, wonderful right through from this part down to that special gospel verse he talked about. We'll just read what it says. It says in verse 27 for they that dwell at Jerusalem and the rulers because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him and though they found no cause of death in him.
Yet desired a pilot, that he should be slain. And when they have fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But him God raised from the dead, and He was seen many days of them, which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God, have fulfilled the same unto us their children.
And that he has raised up Jesus again. So he says it wasn't this man John the Baptist who you heard about, it was there was this man Jesus who who fulfilled everything that was said about him. And you know what they did to him? He said they crucified hung up on a tree.
But did he stay dead? Jordan, No. What happened?
He rose from the dead. That's right. He rose from the dead. And you know, that's a central part of the gospel. He rose from that. They must have been thinking, we never heard of that before. He said, well, remember, you go back and read what David wrote, and he referred this to several verses that David had wrote in the Psalms. Umm, my son, the day of I begotten thee. And umm, not suffer as wholly when they see corruption. You know, I think they must have known a little bit maybe about those verses. And he explained that, you know what those verses talked about. Somebody was going to come. And when he died yesterday.
In the gospel, Josh had talked with the atheist who said What's going to happen when you go on the ground in Iraq?
But when Jesus went in the ground, did he, did he rot? Did he? No, he absolutely did not. And you know, umm, he didn't see corruption is what it says in this chapter. And and the apostle Paul said this is amazing. He was not only did he, he did he not did God raise him up again? But there's witnesses, a whole bunch of people have seen him. And then he gets to the gospel verse and that's what you know, he goes through all this story, he gets to the gospel verse and you know, really makes me a appreciate this gospel verse more he says.
Be it known unto you men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. He said, you know what, before only this one group, the Jews, could be saved, but now everybody in this room can come to the Lord. He said before when you said, you know what you have to do all these sacrifices and there's all these things I have to do, but now anything can be forgiven by Jesus. Is that a good, a good story? That's an amazing message, you know.
00:30:24
It is an incredible story that here we have have the gospel now, not just going to the Jews, but it's going to the whole world.
And, uh, you know, that's a tremendous thing. You know, it's nice when I hear these stories of, of people coming in the gospel's entire falls. And, you know, maybe things are a little bit chaotic, but you know, the gospel is going into every single person in this world. It doesn't matter who it is, doesn't matter how bad they've been, doesn't matter if they shot somebody, doesn't matter if they've done drugs. The gospel is going into everyone, you know, wonderful news. And this is a beautiful gospel verse. It's a wonderful gospel verse to remember.
But you know, the apostle Paul, I think he realized that there's pride in her, you know, there's pride in my heart. So a lot of pride in my heart. And he says, God, he says, and he said, just beware. He says, beware. He says, it's easy not to listen to this the way you should. You're reading in verse, umm 41. He says, behold, ye despisers and wonder and perish. For I work, I work in your days, I work with you. So you know, wise believe though I mean declare it unto you know, it's sad when the gospel is preached.
And people don't, you know, maybe there's somebody in this room who has heard this story their entire life and they've rejected it. I hope that's not true. I really, really hope that's not true. You know, it's a sad, a sad situation there in this story. Umm, there's these two groups of people, the Jews and the Gent, the, the, the people who fear God. And, you know, I think they understood how important the message this was. But you know, the Jews who were a little bit on the proud side, they leave.
You know, Gentiles are really excited about this and they stayed afterwards. You read that in the next verses.
And it says the Gentiles, the people who they said, please, please, please come back next week. We want to hear about this again. You know, it's nice when there's a thirst to hear the word of God. These Gentiles wanted to hear the story of the word of God. And, uh, you know who comes next week? The whole city.
You don't hear that quite something if the whole city of Akron came to hear the gospel, wouldn't it?
You know, those Jews, and this is very much in my own heart, they were proud and, umm, they didn't like the fact that they weren't quite so special anymore. And, uh, it's sad. They started to stir up trouble and you know, it's nice. In the end of verse 43, Paul encourages those who really believe to follow in the grace of God. No longer was it a set of rules. It was undeserved kindness from God that they were to continue.
Beautiful to see how they were to follow an undeserved kindness from God. You know, I hope there's not pride in our hearts that keep us from doing things that we should do. You know, I speak this very much to my own heart. Well, the gospel goes to the Gentiles and umm, there's a little bit of trouble that stirred up here. But you know, it says in verse 48, and I like this verse, it says there. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad.
And they glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as were deemed to eternal life believed.
And then the next verse is very nice. It says the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region. You know, I didn't really notice that verse before. And I'm telling this story because I probably couldn't have told you this story in very much detail even two or three weeks ago. But you know, the gospel went out into that whole region.
There's some So this is part way into his first missionary journey. He goes to a couple more places. He gets stoned on this, umm mission, but the gospel went out to that whole area. You know, that's wonderful to hear. You know, it is a wonderful story that we have You know, the stories in this book are amazing stories we need to think about. You know, we can just gloss through them and maybe we've read them 10 times, you know, I.
When I was stressing a little bit about talking this morning and I, they said yesterday, I had trouble getting up in the morning this morning. And I, I knew if I don't read this story more, it's going to be hard for me to share in the way that it should be shared and, and just ask the Lord for some treasures in it. You know, there are wonderful things. This is a wonderful message that is unparalleled. And you know, I was just thinking that whole area, you know, in Revelation, we read at the seven churches.
00:35:04
And they were all, I guess they were a little bit to the West of this area, but the gospel went to that whole area. You know, this is a wonderful message. If it wasn't for this message. I don't think there's any Jews in this room that I know of. Maybe there is.
But none of us would be here, you know? I just say that because this is a little gospel story, the story in the Bible, you know?
My dad taught me in history in grade 10 policy, missionary journeys. You know, I've read this through the New Testament. I don't know how many times, didn't necessarily understand the story in as much detail as I should, but it's beautiful how the Lord goes through pointing this out to them. You know, I hope that as you think about that verse, maybe you've never memorized it because it's a great big verse and it's not actually an easy verse to put up on the wall because it's so huge. But just think about what a special verse it is. Be it known unto human and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him.
All that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law. Well, that's all I I had this morning. You know, that's just a little Bible story. And I just encourage you children to ask your dad Bible stories and read them yourself. And sometimes you have to read them and reread them and reread them more to get some real appreciation of them. But you know this message that we have, the message that was given last night.
Is an incredible message that has changed the whole world. And you know, I hope not, nobody here is like those Jews who, even though it was a fantastic message, just sort of pushed it off.
And their pride got in the way and, uh, there was, they just caused trouble. They didn't even help. But I hope that our hearts are like the Gentiles who were there, who feared God and I believe and, and spread it to the area. No, it's, it's a wonderful message. Well, maybe we could just, umm, maybe we could just pray.
Our God and Father.
We thank thee for thy word and, uh, the wonderful stories that are in it, Father, how little we appreciate them the way that we should pray that we get them into our hearts. Lord, we just think of how the Apostle Paul risked his life here with Barnabas and shared this message and how the gospel could go to that whole area and bring such, such blessing. And, uh, Father, how wonderful to know that we can sit here today and realize that, uh, it's not just the Jews who can be saved, but everyone in this room can be saved.
And uh, Lord, that not just from small sins, but from every sin, Lord, we just thank thee. And as we go into this next meeting, Lord, and remember how thou does die on the cross so that we could be saved. It would really have meaning in our hearts, Lord, and that, uh, we would be able to bring glory to thee. Just ask us, pray that these things will be imprinted on the hearts of the children and on the adults. And we just ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus.