To the Ends of the Earth | Acts 13:13-43

And good morning. Good morning. Hey, I hope you have your Bibles with you and this morning and your journals. If you're brand new with us. My name's Boyd.

I get to be the lead pastor here, get the great honor to preach the Bible every week to you if you are new as well. In the. In the lobby, there are some journals there that you could grab. They're just a ESV study journal Bible where you could write down notes as God speaks to you this morning. Today's gonna be one of those sermons where I need you to go ahead and, like, grab your phone.

I know some of you are, like, really hip and cool and you read on your phone, but just go ahead and turn those notifications off and turn off all distractions because we have a lot to dive into this morning. Acts chapter 13 is really become one of my favorites lately as I've gotten to dive into and really see what God is doing in the book of Acts. So get your journals, your pens, all those things ready. Turn notifications off. If you prayed last week, you didn't pray hard enough because we lost last week.

The Jaguars lost. So now I'm trying to figure out if I'm going for Denver or the Seahawks. So Seahawks, come on. If Seahawks win, then you can buy me a steak. So.

All right, if you're a Denver fan, you can buy me a steak, too. So there's not a lot going on outside of here. And really, while you're here, anyways, when we open up the Scriptures, man, it's for you and me to receive and to hear from God anyways. And so I want you to be attuned to what God has for you today. Our backdrop for this sermon are two key things.

Acts, Chapter one, verse eight, where God says to his disciples, for you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, to the end ends of the earth. And what we're seeing in the Scriptures now is the gospel going to the ends of the earth. We saw last week in Acts 13 that it gave us a model of multiplication. Right? Let's kind of recap if you weren't here last Sunday.

Acts 13 gives us a great model for multiplication. The church did three things. They worshiped together. They did whatever God said to do, and they sent out their best. And we said, hey, like our heart and intention.

And when you think, think about our mission, right? When we say we want to see gospel awakening happen through all of Utah, what that means is we want to see you and I come together, worship Jesus, hear his word, do whatever he says. And then go out to plant churches. And we said that there will be a day where we'll send out our best, right? When you look at Acts 13, they didn't send out the JV players, right?

Like, as a pastor, like, some of y' all are the best people. And I'm like, man, I don't want them to go anywhere. But there may be a day where you're like, hey, I feel God has called us to go. I feel like God has called us to go plant and pioneer, work in new places. And there'll be a day where you guys will come here and be like, hey, this whole crew of people are going to plant a church somewhere.

And what we're going to do is we're going to clap our hands and we're going to cry a little bit, and we're going to celebrate that God is granting us the ability to multiply. Acts 13 gave us that model of multiplication as we pack that, right? Acts 13, verses 13 and 14 are going to give us a little inspiration to want to charge the hill. But here's the reality. How many of you are hikers, right?

Like, you're like, you're a great weekend. You're like, we're going to hike 87 miles today. It's going to be awesome. You don't just set out to do that, but you train and prepare for it, right? You fuel your body for endurance.

If we're going to see God multiply the church, then it has to be rooted in endurance. Because when we endure in ministry, it leads to gospel fruit. So look at Acts 13, verses 13 and 14.

Now, Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they went out on from Perga and came to Antioch in Poseidon. Look at this for a moment, right? If you're a casual Bible reader, and at times you'll read verses like that, and you'll be like, all right, cool.

They set sail. Cool. What's next? And I was like, man, I don't want to do that with this particular scripture. And so I kind of dug into this and I got really into the maps.

Like, if you got a Bible you ever see in the very back, there's these maps, and you're like, man, that seems cool. And you don't really think through geographically how far some of these things are. But as I dug into this, I was like, man, this is a lot here. There's a lot that we can miss. At first glance, this isn't like, all right, these brothers got his companions, they hopped in the truck.

They're like, let's drive to Moab and back in the day. It's not like that.

There's no lodging along the way. There's not like cracker barrels along the way. If you're from the south, you're like, oh yeah, no cracker barrel. Like, none of that's going on. Write this down.

As you look at Acts 13 and 14, I'm actually in April speaking to a bunch of church leaders. I'm going to preach this text to them. Write this down. Ministry is not for the faint of heart. And hardships along the way are not obstacles to the calling.

They are part of God's preparation for it. Like, ministry is not for the faint of heart. And hardships along the way are not obstacles to the calling. They're part of God's preparation for it. Now look at this map, right?

Like, I had Chatgpt do me some, some wizardly on this because every map out there for the Bible is not that great. And so this one was the best I could do. Like, like Paul's first missionary journey, right? They started at Antioch, they sailed to Cyprus. They crossed 90 miles on that island by foot.

They hopped in another boat to go to Perga, and then they hiked up to Antioch, Posada. Now just looking at this map, it looks very short, but in reality, here's what it was. It's a 90 mile hike across that island from Paphos to perga is about 200 miles at sea to get from Perga to Antioch and Poseidon. It's a hundred mile hike. You ever watch some of those in those ultra marathons?

And you're like, I could do that, I could do that. Like, what's the big one that we always watch? 100 miler leadville. Yeah, watch it. I'm like, I'll take it.

Tap out at mile two and a half. Like a hundred mile hike. So 200 miles at sea, right? This ain't Carnival cruise ships where you get a drink in on the way and then they tell you when to show up to eat lobster. This is like, hey, I don't know if we're gonna make it.

Like, I hope the boat doesn't sink and it's 200 miles at sea. We don't know. Like, there's no motors. So they're going hoping that the wind's in their favor. Could take a few days, could take a couple weeks.

Then they hike some hundred miles, right? Antioch itself Sits up in the Highlands, so 3,600ft above sea level. When I moved here, I was talking to my former executive pastor, and they would take all these brothers on hikes, and I'd be like, where you going today, bro? You going on a hill? And he's like, man, we're going 3200ft up.

And I'm like, dude, my house sits at 5,000ft, bro. Like, don't care. So you got to think, man, they go from sea level, they hike 3,600ft up.

Like, my son tomorrow, he's like, hey, man, you want to hike with me tomorrow? I'm like, no.

Hundred miles. It's not just physically challenged, but what they said was this path, right from Perga to Antioch, Poseidon, like, the Romans couldn't even control the crime. So here you have the disciples. God said, Acts 1:8, Go, make disciples. Go be my witnesses.

And. And they go. So they're on this 100 mile journey. Now, the Romans couldn't control the crime, and so they're just like, hoping. Best case scenario is they make it there and they're not robbed, they're not mugged, and they're not dead.

Now turn to 2nd Corinthians 6 and 2 Corinthians 11.

Some of my favorite passages of scripture. All of a sudden this week I'm like, oh, you ever do that before? You ever read the Bible? And you're like, oh, that makes sense now. Like, I don't know.

But I got pretty fired up thinking about this this week, right? Think about 200 mile journey at sea, hundred mile hike, trying to not die, trying to not get mugged, trying to just make it. Because what, God put something in them to go preach and proclaim Jesus. Second Corinthians 6, verses 4 through 5. But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by what great endurance and afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights and hunger.

Look at Second Corinthians 11. Now, three times I was beaten with rods, Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Acts 13, 13, 14.

Here we go from Cyprus to Perga to Antioch, Poseidon all of a sudden, I'm just seeing what Paul is saying in this. He's like, man, that's what he's talking about there. Like, we're just walking this road, hoping we don't get beat up. We're just hoping the ship doesn't fall down. And then all of a sudden, I think, man, because my AC breaks or I don't get a good parking spot, and I'm like, man, I called my friends, hey, man, pray for me.

Why spiritual warfare is happening. And here's these brothers. They're like, man, look at what God is doing. Because God has called us to go advance the gospel to the nations. And here we are reading Acts 13, 13, 14 from Perga to Antioch.

It makes me think that we have to come back to our senses. Like, I don't know what's going to happen. I think God is going to give the apostles in the New Testament, the New Testament apostles, a little freedom in heaven when I show up and they're going to be like, hey, man, we get like seven minutes to just make fun of you. Like, we were like on a boat trying to not die. We were, like, hiking up a mountain trying to preach the gospel.

We didn't even know if there was food along the way. And yet you're mad or crying because you get a bad email because you don't get your way. Like, I feel like God's going to be like, hey, man, you got seven minutes. And then we're going to zap your memory and bring it back to holiness. So I don't know, but as I think about this, these are three things I've been praying for you, right?

Like, all this happens because you got to think Acts 13 happens. That kind of faith, that type of endurance happens because of Acts 1 through 12. When you see the church getting together to pray, three things that I want you to have in this is, we need Holy Spirit dependence and leading. We need devotional lives that overflows into mission, and we need one another to keep going. Acts 13 happens when those things come to the surface.

Let me ask you, what's truly leading your life right now? Like, what has complete control of your mind and attitude? What has complete control of all of your thoughts and emotions? For some of us, it's not the word of God. For some of us, we're more lead and fueled.

All our emotions, all of our actions are heightened because of what we see on the Internet. You know, one of the best things you could do is just delete your Instagram account. Just get rid of it. Who cares? Like, it's just the same things over and over again, right?

Something political in somebody's dinner plate. Or a really bad sunset or a really great sunset with the inversion. Like, that's really it on rinse and repeat, isn't it? I was talking with a friend the other day who. He's a new church planner in town.

I was like, man, people just love to complain about stuff, and it's all over the Internet. It's like, the inversion's gonna come, it's gonna go, right? It's just gonna happen and it's gonna leave. My daughter would ride in the car and she's like, yeah, well, at least we get really, really good sunset photos. You know, it's like, nice filter, right?

But Holy Spirit dependence, when Paul's saying that out of a great endurance, we went, if you're not. Secondly, right, this is how you get Holy Spirit dependence. And leadership is devotional loves that just overflows into mission, right? Like, if we are going to accomplish our mission, if we're going to accomplish the task of seeing people meet Christ, it's going to come with us. Filling our lives with the word of God.

During our team rally this morning, we talked about prayer and just said to our team, I was like, hey, just for the next several weeks, team rally, we're just going to be praying for each other. And my wife led in. She said, hey, what's the one area you want to grow in? You know? And some people like, it's prayer, some of it's the Bible, some of it's just disciplines.

And for me, it's like, man, I just want my life lately. And I'm just kind of in this spot where you go ebb and flows. I'm like, man, I just want to be in the Bible. I want to be in God's Word. And there's other days where I'm like, man, I haven't read the Bible in seven days.

And it's like, I should probably go do that. But I'm just in this spot now where I was like, I want my mornings and my life to just be filled with the Scriptures. So that way it overflows into everything else I do. So what I'm praying for us. And then third, as you see this, it's Paul and his companions.

Two things you can't do. You can't do life alone, and you can't do ministry alone. Like, this is why we need one another. Like, look around for a moment. Like, these are the people you just Kind of stuck with, like, this is our crew.

Like, these are the brothers and sisters you get to kind of lock arms with. And we need one another. Right. There's a little interesting thing in the text here. When you look at Acts 13.

It says that Paul and Barnabas and his companions left and John Mark went back to Jerusalem later on. That's going to backfire on John when Paul and Barnabas set out for another mission. But we need to be praying towards that end of Holy Spirit dependence and leading. What's truly leading you? Is it the Spirit of God?

Is your devotional lives overflowing with just a love for Jesus that overflows into mission? And are you walking with one another? Why? Because ministry is not for the faint of heart. And there will be obstacles along the way, and God will use those obstacles to produce endurance and strength.

It's when everything in your life just doesn't make sense, when everything's right, everything's going wrong. What's God behind the scenes? He's like, you have no idea. You have no idea what I'm doing in this. Like, I love it.

I was talking to the guy earlier this morning and he's like, man, life has just been hard, late. And I'm like, yeah, that's just life. Life is hard. But God is good in the midst of it, and we need to be aware of what he's doing through it. Because I don't want to get to the heaven and walk to Paul and be like, hey, man, how was that boat riding?

How was that hike up the mountain? And he's like, how was your ministry? I was like, I don't know, man. It was cold sometimes and we couldn't get to church because of the snow. He's like, that was your excuse.

Don't want to be there. Ministry is not for the faint of heart. It's going to cost us something. It's not going to be easy all the time. It's.

Whereas we need to go to this end of praying that God would just give us strong shoulders and backs to carry the burden with Him. And here's the beauty of it is we don't even have to carry the burden. It's Jesus who does it through us.

Because what you're going to see next week in this text, if you want to, like, cheat and jump ahead. Acts 13, verse 44 and 45, after Paul goes in, he starts preaching his heart out. And the people, I mean, can you come back tomorrow and tell us about these things again? What's going to happen is Opposition. Now jump to Acts 13, Verse 14, Part B. I never really know as, like when I'm writing these, I'm like, this is part A, this is part B of the text.

And nobody actually says that anywhere. You just kind of make it up. So says, and on the Sabbath day, right, Paul and his companions, Barnabas, now they're in Antioch, Poseidon. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. And after reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.

If you have any encouragement. Like, you gotta understand context wise. Like, the whole gospel was birthed and sent out from Jerusalem and it kind of traveled around into Judea and Samaria. And these people, like, they don't have social media and Instagram, they're not like in updates. So the synagogue, like some of those people in there may have not known that Jesus had come yet.

And so Paul, in his typical fashion, he goes and he's like, hey, I'm going to preach to the Jews first, then the Gentiles. And so he rolls into the synagogue and they're like, hey, where you from? We're like, oh, we're from Jerusalem and we're just here on this journey. We're here to tell you about Jesus.

And so this follows Paul's typical pattern of ministry. Now when you think about this, right, the synagogue was not just a place of worship, but it was kind of the hub for the Jewish community. It's kind of like the central spot for them. It was the center of worship, but it was also the center of education, Judea, or Judaical center as a social gathering. It was like kind of like a civic center for the Jewish community, right?

Like for us, we call those rec centers, right? Place where you go work out, ice skate, sit in the sauna and go on the slip and slide, you know, like, this is just kind of the place. So if you were Paul, you're like, hey, where do I want to go and find these people? That's where you would go. Missions is wherever you are and whoever God has placed around you.

Paul was very like, methodical, right? He'd go to the Jews first, try to tell them like, hey man, you guys killed Jesus. You need to repent of that and turn to him. And they're like, we don't want to listen to you. He's like, all right, cool.

Did my job. Now I'm going to go to the Gentiles for you. And I I want to continually remind you you're not here by accident. Like, you're not in Utah on purpose by accident, but you're here on purpose. You have a specific skill set, you have a specific job.

You have a specific reason for why you're where you're at. Because God, in his great cosmic plan for you, has placed you in these places. And it's not by accident. And the people you run along to and the people that you interact with, it's all because God is doing something. And this is why we have to be aware of it.

This was Paul's strategy. What's yours like? What are the things that you enjoy doing? Like, I share with you every time. It's like, man, it's where you live, who you raise, most important, where you work, and where do you like to have fun and breathe into those things.

The mission of God. Here's the reality, here's why we're doing the 500 gospel conversations is because I want you to be actually sharing the gospel. I had a joke in our team rally. I was like, I'm just gonna count how many people are at church today. I'm gonna share the gospel.

And I'm just start pluggin. Plugging away, but go right. This is like why we have in our church and why we support folks like the Winklers. They're like climbers for Christ. I don't think of a greater.

Can't think of a greater evangelism strategy. You're like 8,000ft up in the air, hang on by a rope, and you're like, hey, man, if you were to die tonight, where would you go? Great strategy, but just infusing the mission of God where you are, where God has you. They say, hey, brothers, anything to say? Like, they're the foreigner right now in this small town.

And they're like, hey, man, you got anything to encourage us with? And Paul's like, I'm glad you asked. I'm glad you asked. Pray for opportunities like that. Pray for opportunities for people around you to be like, hey, like, why are you the way that you are, right?

Office reference, Paul sermon and Posada, Antioch is very similar. If you were to like, go back into Acts 2, go back to Acts 8, very familiar kind of storyline of Peter and Stephen's, right? They would use Old Testament history to show the rebelliousness of the Jews towards God, towards God's word. And Paul's going to use that and say, hey, let me show you how God's been faithful, though. Let me show you how he's been kind to you.

Let me show you how he has fulfilled his promise to you. Because I want to believe at some level where Paul's in the synagogue here, that some of these people kind of maybe heard some rumors about Jesus on the scene. And then some of them are like, man, we never heard this before. Like, that's one of the beauties I love about what you and I get to do in our city is that we get to sit with people like, man, I've never heard the gospel in this way. I've never heard about forgiveness in that way.

Like getting to tell people about who he is. So it's much in line with Peter's sermons and Stephen's. If you want to kind of outline, because we're about to get deep on some things here, here's kind of an outline of where Paul goes in verses 16 through 25, he's going to give kind of a sketch of the Old Testament. He's going to go verse by verse in here and it's going to like represent bunches of stories and like history. Acts 13, verse 26 through 47 is going to say, Paul's going to be like, hey, but God's ultimate provision for you is in Christ.

And then at verses 38 through 41, it's going to be his invitation for them to place their faith in Jesus. So sermon, a lot of stuff going on, a lot of data, a lot of content, but it's kind of summarized in these three things. Pick up with me in verse 16 says, so Paul stood up, sitting, brother, you got anything to say? And then he stands up. Paul stood up, motioning with his hand, said, men of Israel and you who fear God.

Listen, so he's got two people in this audience here. He's in the Jewish synagogue. There's Jewish people and then there's Gentiles, right? These are people that are like, hey, we can't fully be Jewish, but we want to be a part of what God's doing created some complexity here. Just kind of side note, like, like that's the beauty of doing ministry together here in Utah is it gets very complex.

Like we have folks in our church from various Christian backgrounds, various non religious backgrounds, LDS backgrounds, and it creates some complex complexity. And I want to just kind of like push here for us as a church, like the desire for us to see God awaken a city requires one thing. It requires humility among God's people. Because for some of you, you come from different backgrounds and you get kind of like angsty with each other. It's like, man, those people are a little bit more loud.

I'm a little bit more reserved. Those people come from this kind of church. From this kind of church. And it creates a sense of like, ah. Like, look at what Paul's doing.

He's like, hey, there's two people here. But the central message for all of us is Jesus, right? Like, if you want to know if you're a mature Christian, the most mature Christians in our church are not the ones that know the most and do the most, but it's the ones that walk in humility towards all people. Like, man, these people are a little crazy. Yeah, but they're our family.

They're. These people here hurt me. Yeah, but we're gonna point each other back to the gospel and extend forgiveness, extend grace. It's the ones who walk in Christlike character. It's ones that walk with attitudes of like, hey, man, it's really not about me.

Like, we all walk into a room, we walk into a place, and the first thing we think is like, how's this gonna impact me? I walk into my house, I walk into your house. I'm like, man, it's all about me. And God's like, no, it's not. So when we think about this, what's going on here?

Paul's like, hey, there's some Jewish people and there's some Gentiles. And then his sermon begins. Acts 13, verses 17 through 22. And I promise you, I'm going to actually read a larger chunk here and not stop.

Paul stands up and he says this. He says, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and. And made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with uplifted arm he led them out. And for about 40 years, he put up with them in the wilderness.

And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance. All this took place about 450 years. And after that, he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king, and. And God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years.

And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart who will do my will. All right, so there's some like five or six verses, and it's very, like, quick. But guess what? That's covering a lot, right? So I kind of like, nerded out on this and I just want to showcase for you what Paul's doing.

Like, when I said it's a sketch of the Old Testament, it's not like, oh, that was cool. But it's literally like books of the Bible here. So if you're taking notes or want to take a picture of this, here's what's going on. In verse 17, the God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay. What Paul is looking back on, he's saying, hey, the entire book of Genesis, one verse in a quarter of Exodus, he's like, man, God created all things.

We rebelled against him. God took a guy named Abraham. He's like, hey, man, I got a promise for you. You're going to be a great nation. And Abraham's like, bro, you don't know how old I am.

And look at my wife, she's old too. How are we going to have a kid? God's like, I've got this. And he makes an entire nation, right? And this is Genesis in the Exodus.

When we get into the book of Exodus, what we see is Israel gets enslaved to Egypt. Egypt's ran by this really, really bad king. And then this guy Moses rises up and Moses is called by God. He's like, hey, I need you to go set my people free. And he's like, I don't know, man.

I'm not really good at speaking. I'm not really good at these things. He's like, man, I got you covered. I need you to go tell Pharaoh to let my people go. This is the Exodus event.

This is what Paul is referring to in verse 17. And then in verses 18, he's covering Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, right? This is where God delivers Israel from Egypt, sustains them in the wilderness, and forms them into his covenant people, right? Like the wilderness experience. The people of God, Israel are freed from slavery.

They're out in the wilderness, and next thing you know, they're complaining about it. They're like, hey, Moses, what did you do, man? Like, why'd you bring us out here to die? And Moses is like, man, I'm just doing what God said to do. And then Israel's grumbling and complaining and they're like, hey, at least if we went back to slavery, we'd actually have some food.

It's 40 some years of their lives. And then you get into verse 19. This is the book of Joshua. Because God loves his people, he conquers the nation of Canaan and gives Israel the promised land as an inheritance. This is Where God is looking at Moses like, hey, you're going to take the people to the promised land.

Moses in one act missed out on that opportunity. And it says that Moses died seeing it. And then Joshua is raised up, and Joshua takes the people into the promised land. Acts 13, verse 20. Like, you got to remember, Paul is sitting in a room with people that know these things.

And so, like, well, we'll read them. Like, oh, yeah, I think I know what he's talking about. These people are like, oh, that's what you're talking about. Acts 13, verse 20. This is the book of judges, First Samuel.

God repeatedly would rescue Israel through Judges and prophets as a cycle between rebellion and repentance. Like, this was just the Old Testament on repeat. And this is kind of where we're at, too, as a people, you know, like, they're like, man, I love God. He's awesome. And then all of a sudden, they'd rebel against him.

And God's like, what are you thinking, man? You had it so good over here. And the people of God, like, all right, I need to come back to the Lord.

Acts 13, verse 21, 2nd Samuel, 1st Kings, 1st Chronicles. Right? this point, like, they were walking with God, like, God was king. And then what happened is Israel is like, hey, you know what? The nations, they got somebody ruling over them.

That's what we want. This is like, where our heart started manufacturing things. Like, we want something to rule and reign over us rather than it being Jesus. And God's like, man, like, what's wrong with me and the people? I know we want an earthly king.

And he's like, okay, but you get what you ask for. He raises up a king. Acts 13, verse 22, book of second kings, second chronicles. What you see is God removes unfaithful kings and he upholds his covenant and his promise to them through David's lineage. Like, when you think about the Scriptures as they're weaving the story of God through it, right?

God's like, hey, I'm going to send you a Redeemer. That's Genesis 3. 15. And I'm going to send you an even greater king. I'm going to send you an even greater redeemer, one that's going to do what the law could not do.

And then you see this process, right? This is why he mentions King Saul and then David. And then if you were to go from these books into the New Testament, how many of you read the Book of Matthew and you just kind of skip the first couple chapters, right?

You're like, Genealogy. Jesus is like, no, I'm just going to go on to where it talks about him. And all of a sudden you see God's promise in Matthew, right? Like, I'm going to send a redeemer. He's going to come through through these kings and into the lineage of these guys.

That's where Paul picks up in verse 23, God's ultimate provision of Jesus, of this man's offspring. God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised. I love that as he promised. Don't ever, ever, ever for a moment, you in your life, when everything doesn't seem to be working out. Like, I know, like, some of y' all are going through some stuff.

Like, you walk in this room and you're like, man, I don't even know if I want to sing. I don't even know what I want to do with the things of God. Because right now life is chaotic. And I just don't think God is good. And is he ever going to fulfill his promises to me?

He does time after time after time. And what we perceive as his delay. This is what was wrong with Israel of the New Old Testament Israel. I mean, God has forgotten about us. God's like, I haven't forgotten about you.

Just patiently waiting for you to come back to your senses, or you don't even realize what I'm doing along the way. People in this little synagogue here, they're like, oh, yeah, we've heard about these things. And here's Paul about to be like, hey, here's the fulfillment of all those things. He sent Jesus as He promised. Verse 24, Before his coming, right?

This is before Jesus comes. This is Mark, chapter one. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, what do you suppose that I am? I am not he.

No. But behold, after me is one coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Brothers, son of the family, Abraham and those among you who fear God to us has been sent the message of this salvation. I love it. Like, here's Paul.

He's like, hey, like, you've heard of all of these stories. You've heard of all of God's promises, and they were fulfilled in the sky, Jesus.

And they're like, they know. They've heard of John, John the Baptist. Mark chapter one. He's out there, right, eating locusts and eating honey. And he's like, hey, man, there's a guy who's coming who I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes.

What John the Baptist is saying in that, he's like, man, I ain't nobody. And every time, every single one of us, right? This ain't just for, like, leaders. This is for all of us. Anytime we start to think we're something and we're like, God, like, owes us something, we got to look back at what John the Baptist saying.

He's like, hey, man, he must increase and I must decrease because I can't even untie this dude's shoes. And what John is saying is this. He's like, hey, I don't even deserve being a slave or a servant that would go and wash the feet of somebody else. He must increase. I must decrease.

Here's John the Baptist writes. They've heard of John the Baptist, brother son of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God. He's to us has been sent this message of salvation. And then what you're going to start seeing, this is where you buckle up, man. Because he just starts preaching the gospel.

He sets the stage for it. He like, kind of brings them in. He's like, man, you heard all these stories, man. Well, guess what? This is what it all points to, the Gospel.

Look at this next section. Verses 26, 28, 29, 30 and 38.

For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterance of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him. Antioch, Poseidon, right? A couple hundred miles away from Jerusalem. Like, Paul's like, hey, I was there. And guess what they did?

They murdered and they killed Jesus. I don't know how that fell on these people. If they're like, man, did they miss it? Like, did they completely, like, not see who Christ is in this? I don't know.

But Paul's like, hey, in Jerusalem, the Jews completely missed it. Jesus, some 33 years of his life lived and walked among them. But when you look at the Gospel of John, it makes sense. John, chapter 1, verse 11 through 13, says, and he came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

So Paul's just echoing here. The Gospel of John. Jesus shows up, hey, it's the Messiah. Like, I'm here like the Savior. This is me.

And Paul's telling this synagogue in Daniel, because, like, him and the Jews in Jerusalem, they totally missed it and they couldn't see it. And then he starts preaching the gospel, verses 28 through 35.

And though they found no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. And when they had carried out all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid them in a tomb. But God raised him from the dead. And for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people. And we bring you the good news that what God had promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, the children, by raising Jesus as also it is written in the second psalm, you are my Son, today I have begotten you.

And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessing to David. Therefore he says also in another psalm, you will not let your Holy One see corruption. Here's Paul preaching the gospel.

Acts 13:26. Hey, God sent a promise. God made a promise and he sent a redeemer. Acts 13:28. Jesus lived the perfect life that we could not.

Jesus did what we could never do on our best days, lived in perfect obedience. Acts 13, verse 29. Jesus died for our sin and instead of us. Because the Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Acts 13, verse 29 says.

Or Acts 13:30. But Jesus rose from the dead, proving that he's more powerful than sin and death. And then in Acts 13:38, that forgiveness and freedom is available to all who would believe. So here's Paul, sketch of the Old Testament from Genesis to Kings comes in. He says, hey, that Redeemer, is this God, Jesus.

Some of y' all never heard of him before, but I'm here to tell you about him. Why? Because Acts 1, verse 8, I went from Jerusalem to Judea, Samarit, to the ends of the earth to proclaim to you this message that forgiveness and freedom is available to all. Who would believe when we preach the Bible around Church of the Valley, what we're saying is that the only pathway to salvation, the only way that you and I could be justified right before God, is through Christ and Christ alone. That's good news for the soul.

That's good news that we don't have to try to earn anything, we don't have to try to work towards anything. But has all been paid in full. This is why I love when Jesus is on the cross and he stretches out his arms. He says it is finished and that he came and he fulfills the law. He fulfills the perfect requirements for God.

And he says, hey, let it be known. Jump down to verse 36.

He mentions, Saul comes back to David. He says, for David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you cannot be freed by the law of Moses.

Love it. He's just like, hey, man, let it be known. Hey. I know for years upon years upon years upon years, our people, man, they had to work really, really hard to try to be in right relationship with God. But now you get to be in right relationship with God by faith through Christ and Christ alone, through grace alone.

And this is what Paul is going to continue to preach over and over and over again. He's looking at a bunch of people who were conditioned to believe that that meant if you kept the law as best as you could, then that was your metric. But now he's like, hey, the metric of salvation is just Christ alone. It's that when Christ looks on you, if you have placed your faith in him, when Christ looks upon you, he sees his perfect perfection of his son, Jesus. And that alone.

This is what we talk about when we say, hey, like, he has imputed his righteousness onto us that Jesus is the propitiation for sin. This is what Paul is preaching and he's saying, hey, the Jews sought to deal with their sin through living through the law of Moses. This is why over and over again, like, there's combat in the New Testament because they're preaching this message of Christ crucified. And they're like, no, no, no, man. But Moses gave us this.

Moses is our hero. Paul's like, no, man. Moses was just there to point you to a greater person, and that's Christ. So how are you seeking to be justified before God today? Like, what do you keep pointing to?

It's like, man, I hope I'm good enough. I hope I do enough. Well, I showed up here today, and the Gospel would say, hey, man, you just keep telling people it's Christ. It's the whole Alistair Begg piece. It's that man on the middle cross, man.

He said, come. So I'm here, don't deserve to be here. I don't even know why I'm here, but that guy said I could come. And then in verse 40, right, Paul's speaking to these people, and he says this. He says, beware, though.

Beware therefore, lest what is said in the prophets should come about. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I'm doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe even if one tells it to you. And they went out and the people begged that these things might be told to them the next Sunday, Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed. Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with him, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

And what you're going to see next week is you're going to see how opposition arises against this. Here's these people, probably never heard about Jesus, probably never heard the gospel. And they're like, hey, can you come back next week? Can we have dinner tonight? Can you, man?

Wouldn't that be awesome if that was what was said about Church of the Valley, that people are just begging you, like, hey, man, can you cancel your plans? I'll grill you a nice steak. I just want to know about Jesus. Hey, can we hang out this weekend? Hey, can we go run together?

Because I just need to know more about this. I just want to know this Jesus that, you know.

Paul ends this sermon right, hey, be like, the Jews in Jerusalem, like, they're. They have, like, really no excuse. Like, it wasn't like Jesus was just mentioned in their city. Jesus literally walked among them. And with their people, he's like, don't be like them.

Don't totally miss this. How Jesus is the fulfillment of all these things.

So I started with saying the ministry, this is not for the faint of heart. And hardship's gonna come along the way, and the obstacles that you and I are gonna face are just part of the calling. The obstacles that you and I will face as a church are just gonna be the stories that we're gonna look back on and be like, yeah, man, that wasn't fun, but it was awesome. That was tough. That was a tough season.

But because of that season that we went through as individuals and as a church, those are the things that make it awesome. So as I think about Acts 13 and I think about what God has set before us, I want to do two things in our response time as I just want to ask you this morning, if you've never responded to the gospel, if you've never surrendered your life fully to Jesus, just do it today. Like all your sins, past, present, future, nailed to a cross, buried in a tomb. Jesus has proved his love for you through his resurrection. And so God just wants you to surrender fully to him today, to make him Lord of your life and the Savior of your soul.

And so what I want is for you to be like, hey, I'm just going to do that today, right where you're at. And then for the rest of us, if you're brand new here, welcome. We'll pray for you whether you like it or not. If, when I start praying, if you're like, man, I ain't having nobody pray for me, you go ahead and like, be like, I'm going to sneak out.

But what I want us to do is pray for one another is that God would strengthen our shoulders here, just have these broad shoulders to endure that looks like this is that the decisions we make today, the way that we kind of press into this together is going to determine the health and the longevity of this ministry 20 years from now, 40 years from now. And so what that's going to look like is I'm just going to ask you, like, if you're an introvert, this is probably your worst nightmare, but I'm just going to ask you to just be humble, don't be scared, but just there's some people around you and you're just going to pray for one another right where you're at. And you're just going to be like, hey, this is what I need endurance in. Hey, hey, this is the thing that I need to deal with. For some of you, it might be a time of just confession.

Hey, like, I'm like, just getting caught up in this over and over again and I want to be freed from it. For some of you, like, man, I'm just weary and I'm just tired and I need the spirit of God to comfort and strengthen me. For some of you, you're like, hey, man, I got to have some hard conversations. I've just kind of been avoiding that I need to do. For some of you, like, hey, I need to just be set free from something.

For some of you, it's like, man, I just want to endure in the gospel for the sake of the kingdom. And for some of you, maybe you're like, hey man, everything's good. Like sometimes again, these moments are like, hey, I gotta like make something up. And you're like, life ain't too bad right now. Like, I feel very fortunate about where I'm at right now in life.

I told my wife this. I was like, man, I'm just very humbled. And so maybe that's you. And you're like, hey, maybe what I'm doing is I'm gonna pray for Boyd. I'm gonna pray for the elder team.

I'll pray for the spirit staff. I'm going to pray for this church, that we be united, heart and soul, for the sake of the gospel. Maybe for some of you, it's that, but I'm going to say a quick prayer, and I just want you to, like, look around the people around you and, like, make some awkward contact eyes, like, hey, what's up? Here's what's going on. And we're just going to fill this place with the prayers of God's people, and we're just going to ask him for endurance.

Because I want Acts 13 and 14. When our little story in church history is played out, that that little story, there's a little asterisk and there's a lot of footnotes. A lot. Look at what they did. Look at the endurance that they had to go through.

Look at the stuff that they had to deal with. Look at how they pressed into Jesus and didn't run away from hardship. So, Father, I pray that you would grant in this room, surrender for those who need to surrender their life to Jesus. I pray for those that need their shoulders broadened to endure, that you would grant that. I pray, Father, for the things that are on our hearts right now, that we would lay them before you, lay them before our church, so that you would have your way in these things.

In Jesus name, Amen. So find a couple people around you if you want to just come forward and just pray at the altar. You if you want to ask somebody in the back to pray for you. But we're going to give you a few minutes, and then after that, we're going to come out of prayer and we're just going to boldly and loudly declare the goodness of God.