Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 224 | Phil Robertson's Answer to Cancel Culture and the People in Power Who Want to Silence You

Episode Date: February 12, 2021

Phil and Al share the best response to people in power who want to censor, silence, and punish you. They offer a blueprint for standing up for what's right in a culture where conservative Christians are canceled for their beliefs. But first, Phil gives his Super Bowl review, and it's not pretty. He also talks about the sermon he preached on hope. Al and Phil get a good chuckle out of Acts 5, and Al points out how much Phil's "Duck Dynasty" experience mirrors that text. -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? You watch the Super Bowl. We're recording the day after the Super Bowl. We all made a prediction, which, by the way, Jason's not here. We've got him out on assignment still trying to get more stories to tell us, which I'm sure he will when he gets back. But you and I were right about Brady, as it turns out. I'm just saying what we knew. My Homes is a great player, but you never bet against Brady. That's right. They just had it. They were on a row.

So what were your thoughts about just the whole, not just the game, but the whole experience, I guess you could call it? It became so laborious as time went on with all of these, I don't know what you call them, ungodly principles almost like wokeness propaganda is what it felt like it's like a the sports

our top sports people the NFL NBA and all the rest of my guess but it was so much garbage and so much propaganda it's almost like they're using sports it's just the arm of wokeness, which is really a joke.

Woke is a joke because it offers no hope. That's right. And by the way, you will go broke. And you will go broke watching it. So, I mean, I like to admit it's the worst. It makes it hard to watch. It's the worst Super Bowl I've ever seen put together with all of that propaganda coming out on every, every time you look up. There's one more of them talking about this.

basically saying this is the way to be good and you don't need God right and this group needs to be lauded and this and what makes it so bad is is that the game itself was was great and the Brady story I loved because you know all that just and it used to be when you when you turn on a football game or any game it was an escape from everything going on politically and all that I mean it's just the game you know you played it in college that's right and now it just, and they embedded, what kind of irks me is that at the beginning, you know,

I think it was Nance, you know, the one of the announcers that was like, you know, come on America, let's join together, and this is something we can unite on us football. And then about every third commercial was some kind of wokeism or this group or that group. And I just thought it was supposedly uniting,

but then it's so divisive. Because I didn't notice anything that we support or think is important being a part of the lineup. Did you, ever hear anybody say something about godly principles or, you know, maybe patriotism or, you know, I didn't get any of that. Nope. During all the deals.

So I found it hard to watch for the first time. That's the first time I ever felt that way trying to watch a Super Bowl game. Right. That we had so much of this ideology, ideology, left wing ideology, Marxism, all wrapped up, socialism, all wrapped up in one package and presented to us. Yeah. I got tired of it out. Unfortunately, I didn't.

In fact, I didn't finish. I just turned it off. I didn't say it. Ms. Kay said, I'm tired of watching that, all that negative talk about. That's right. Yeah. And, you know, for mom to say, because mom loves pro football. She does.

And for her to say that first, that is pretty amazing. Well, you know, I, for, and I've talked about on the podcast, for the first, I would say three quarters of the season, almost the whole season. I didn't watch the NFL because of how it started with all this. social justice and stuff on your uniforms. And it just, what offended me was is when some guys tried to put some spiritual things on their uniform or Tebow tried to put a verse on his,

you know, blackout, no, we can't do that. There's no, nothing about God. And so then when they just allowed everybody, and all of a sudden put all this messaging,

you know, on their uniforms and stuff, I just, man, that had a super negative impact on me. I don't hate them, but, but I certainly don't have to listen to

all that stuff that comes out from their lips. Well, my opinion is, is all the major sports, but especially, you know, the NFL as well, is, you know, you've got to realize you've got a big audience out there. And when you go down this road, you're going to alienate a huge amount of that. So if that's what you're doing as your business model, so be it. But it certainly not resonating with guys like me and you. I don't know. Maybe other people, you know, feel differently about it.

But I felt kind of the same way that. And it's just it's just the kind of the nature. of where we are, you know, I think as a country. So what did you what did you preach on yesterday? Because yesterday was a was a Sunday. Yesterday I zeroed in. There's about one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, about ten, ten different verses. Going back to the book of Acts, there's the launch point. The first Luke records in the first paragraph in Acts chapter one after his suffering Jesus he showed himself to these men gave many convincing proofs he was alive he appeared to him over a period of 40 days so the first from the jump start in the

book of acts is a little rendition of what has just transpired Jesus's death barrel and resurrection Matthew mark Luke and John spell it out in minute detail you get to Acts chapter two Peter preaches the gospel beginning in verse about 23, 22, 23. This man, Jesus was handed over to you by God, set purpose for knowledge. You with the help of a wicked man put him to death by nailing to the cross. God is raising from the dead. They ask him what, they're devastated, saying, oh, my goodness, by us murdering him, he's going to save us. Peter said, you get the idea.

That's what's just transpired. They were just crushed. So they said, what are we just? do. He told them to repent and be baptized. 3,000 did. You get to Acts 3, and when they're healing these various people and miracles are being performed. And you handed over in about Acts 3 verse 13 to 14, 15, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our Father has glorified his servant, Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disomely. him before Pilate, though he had done, though he had decided to let him go, you disowned the holy

and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you. You killed the Arthur of life. So he's back on the gospel. Well, throughout the book of Acts, by the time you get to Acts 5, right after the miracles that they're performing from day to day, and people are getting all stirred up about it. Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men. Watch what he goes back to. Every time throughout the book of Acts, and I would submit to you throughout all of the epistles. He goes right back to this, the God of our fathers, raised Jesus from the dead whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand. There's the ascension when he left on the prince and savior he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to

Israel we're witness to thee thing and so is the holy spirit whom god has given to those who obey so the whole treatise of the bible the central message from genesis starting in genesis 315 somebody from a woman would come the seed of a woman that would save the world Satan you're going down Well, fast forward roughly 5,000 years, he shows up. Jesus is coming for 5,000 years. He shows up, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the book of Acts on. He's coming back. He's left, but he's coming back.

Y'all killed him. He died for your sins. He'll remove your sin and raise you from the dead. So what came out of all that, I just took two texts, and one of them where I started, and I'll try to be as brief as a possible. the Apostle Paul is saying, remember that formerly, you who are Gentiles, because you got to remember in the book of Acts, it starts with the Jews. Well, they didn't get to preaching the gospel to the Gentiles to a little later on when the Jews became so obstinate about the message, and they were beating up Paul and them and stoning them and running them out of places, and persecution of breaking out everywhere, starts in that chapter 5.

And it had already been predicted by Jesus himself that the Gentiles would be added in. I'm giving the audience a big picture. Right. So we get to places like Ephesians. You used to be Gentiles by birth called uncircumcised by those who are still called the circumcise, the Jews, that done in the body by the hands of them. Remember that at that time, you Gentiles. That's us, Al, 2,000 years ago, you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel. foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world.

But now, after the book of Acts a few years when this was written, now in Christ you once were far off away, you've been brought near through the blood of Christ. There's the death of Jesus on the cross again. For he himself is our peace who's made the two Jew and Gentile, one has destroyed the barrier. You read all about that beginning in the book of Acts. You say that's when all this conflict between Jew and Gentile, Peter sees a big thing coming out of heaven about food laws and all of that.

It's all in the book of Acts. The law was the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh. The law with its commandments and regulations, his purpose was to create himself one new, man out of the two, Jew and Gentile, thus making peace, and in this one body, to reconcile both of them to God, drew the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, Gentiles, and peace to those who were near the Jews. And through him, we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one spirit. And you read about

the spirit being available to all men in the book of Acts. So you just, you know, turn a couple of pages and I love this. Earlier off camera. That's a good one to start on. So you watch the Super Bowl? We're recording the day after the Super Bowl. We all made a prediction, which, by the way, Jason's not here. We've got him out on assignment still trying to get more stories to tell us, which I'm sure

he will when he gets back. But you and I were right about Braves. Brady, as it turns out. I'm just saying what we knew. Mahomes is a great player, but you never bet against Brady. That's right. They just had it. They were on a row.

So what were your thought, though, earlier off camera? That's a good one to start on. So you watched the Super Bowl? We were recording the day after the Super Bowl. We all made a prediction, which, by the, way, Jason's not here. We've got him out on assignment still trying to get more stories to tell us, which I'm sure he will when he gets back. But you and I were right about Brady, as it turns out. I'm just saying what we knew.

Mahomes is a great player, but you never bet against Brady. That's right. They just had it. They were on a row. So what were your thoughts about just the whole, not just the game, but the whole experience, I guess you could call it? It became so laborious as time went on with all of these, I don't know what you call them, ungodly principles. Almost like wokeness. Propaganda is what it felt like. It's like the sports, our top sports people, the NFL, NBA, NBA, and all.

I guess. But it was so much garbage and so much propaganda. It's almost like they're using sports. It's just an arm of a wokeness, which is really a joke. Woke is a joke because it offers no hope. That's right. And by the way, you will go broke. And you will go broke watching it.

So, I mean, I like to admit, it's the worst. It makes it hard to watch. It's the worst Super Bowl I've ever seen put together with all of that propaganda coming out on every, every time you look up. There's one more of them talking about this. Basically saying, this is the way to be good and you don't need God. Right. And this group needs to be lauded and this. And what makes it so bad is that the game itself was great and the Brady story I loved because, you know, all that just.

And it used to be when you turn on a football game or any game, it was an escape from everything going on politically and all that. I mean, it's just the game. You played it in college. That's right. And now it's just, and they embedded it. What kind of irks me is that at the beginning, you know, I think it was Nance, you know, one of the announcers that was like, you know, come on America, let's join

together. And this is something we can unite on us football. And then about every third commercial was some kind of wokeism or this. group or that group. And I just thought it was supposedly uniting, but then it's so divisive. Because I didn't notice anything that we support or think is important being a part of the lineup. Did you ever hear anybody say something about godly principles or maybe patriotism?

No. I didn't get any of that during all the deals. So I found it hard to watch for the first time. That's the first time I ever felt that way, trying to watch a Super Bowl game. Right. that had so much of this ideology, ideology, left-wing ideology, Marxism, all wrapped up, socialism,

all wrapped up in one package and presented to us. Yeah, and I got tired of it out. Unfortunately, I didn't. In fact, I didn't finish it. I just turned it off. I didn't say it. Ms. Kay said, I'm tired of watching that, all that negative talk about all these.

Yeah, and you know, for mom to say, because mom loves pro football. She does. And for her to say that first, that is pretty amazing. Well, you know, I've talked about on the podcast for the first, I would say three quarters of the season, almost the whole season. I didn't watch the NFL because of how it started with all this social justice and stuff on your uniforms.

And it just, what offended me was is when some guys tried to put some spiritual things on their uniform or Tebow tried to put a verse on his, you know, blackout. No, we can't do that. You know, there's nothing about God. And so then when they just allowed everybody at all of a sudden put all this messaging, you know, on their uniforms and stuff, I just, man, that had a super negative impact on me. I don't hate them, but I certainly don't have to listen to all that stuff that comes out from their lips. Well, my opinion is all the major sports, but especially, you know, the NFL as well, is, you know,

you've got to realize you've got a big audience out there. And when you go down this road, you're going to alienate. a huge amount of that. So if that's what you're doing as your business model, so be it. But it certainly not resonate with guys like me and you. I don't know. Maybe other people feel differently about it. But I felt kind of the same way that.

And it's just it's just the kind of the nature of where we are, you know, I think as a country. So what did you preach on yesterday? Because yesterday was a Sunday. Yesterday I zeroed in. There's about one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, about, ten different verses. Going back to the book of Acts as the launch point, the first Luke records in the first paragraph in Acts chapter one after his suffering, Jesus, he showed himself to these men, gave many convincing proofs he was alive. He appeared to him over a period of 40 days.

So the first from the jump start in the book of Acts is a little rendition of what has just transpired, Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John spell it out in minute detail. You get to Acts chapter 2. Peter preaches the gospel beginning in verse about 23, 22, 23. This man, Jesus was handed over to you by God, set purpose for knowledge, you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nating to the cross. God is raising from the dead. They ask them what they're devastated, saying, oh, my goodness, by us, murder. hearing him, he's going to save us. Peter said, you get the idea.

That's what's just transpired. They were just crushed. So they said, what do we do? We told them to repent and be baptized. 3,000 did. You get to Acts 3, and when they're healing these various

people and miracles are being performed, and you handed over in about Acts 3, verse 13, 14, 15, The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our Father has glorified his servant, Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. You disowned the holy and righteous one and asked that a murderer be released to you.

You killed the Arthur of Life. So he's back on the gospel. Well, throughout the book of Acts, by the time you get to Acts 5, right after the miracles that they're performing from day to day, and people are getting all stirred up about it, Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men. Watch what he goes back to. Every time throughout the book of Acts, and I would submit to you throughout all of the epistles. He goes right back to this, the God of our fathers, raised Jesus from the dead whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand. There's the ascension when he left on the prince and Savior. He might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.

We're witness to thee thing, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. So the whole treatise of the Bible, the central, message from Genesis starting in Genesis 315. Somebody from a woman would come with the seed of a woman that would save the world. Satan, you're going down. Well, fast forward roughly 5,000 years. He shows up. Jesus is coming for 5,000 years. He shows up, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the book of Acts on. He's coming back. He's left, but he's coming back. Y'all killed him. He died for your sins. He'll remove your sin and raised you from the dead. So what came out of all that, I just took two texts, and one of them where I started,

and I'll try to be as brief as a possible, the apostle Paul is saying, remember that formally, you who are Gentiles, because you got to remember in the book of Acts, it starts with the Jews. Well, they didn't get to preaching the gospel to the Gentiles to a little later on when the Jews became so obstinate about the message, and they were beating up Paul and them and stoning them and running them out of places, and persecution was breaking out everywhere, starts in that chapter 5.

And it had already been predicted by Jesus himself that the Gentiles would be added in. I'm giving the audience a big picture. Right. So we get to places like Ephesians. You used to be Gentiles by birth called uncircumcised by those who are still called the circumcision, the Jews. That done in the body.

by the hands of men. Remember that at that time, you Gentiles, that's us, Al, 2,000 years ago, you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise without hope and without God in the world. But now, after the book of Acts a few years, when this was written, now in Christ, you once were far off away, you've been brought near through the blood of Christ. There's the death of Jesus on the cross again. For he himself is our peace, who's made the two Jew and Gentile, one, has destroyed the barrier.

You read all about that beginning in the book of Acts. You say that's when all this conflict between Jew and Gentile, Peter sees a big thing coming out of heaven about food laws and all of that. It's all in the book of Acts. the law was the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh. The law with its commandments and regulations, his purpose was to create himself one new man out of the two, Jew and Gentile, thus making peace,

and in this one body, to reconcile both of them to God, drew the cross by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away, Gentiles, and peace to those who were near the Jews. And through him, we both Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one spirit. And you read about the spirit being available to all men in the book of Acts.

So you turn a couple of pages. And I love this wordage. Here's the way the Apostle Paul put it to a little place in Colossians. Now he has reconciled, once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. That's the book of Acts. But now,

he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death. There's the death on the cross, back on the gospel. It's always the centerpiece. To present you wholly in his sight without blemish, free from accusation. Now watch how this is worded out. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and here's the whole Bible story, not moved from the hope,

held out, held out, in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard, and at that time in Colossi, that's been proclaimed to every creature unto heaven. These people started in the book of Acts the beginning of it. By the time you get to the Colossians,

you say that gospel had gone, the world was a lot smaller, but it had gone worldwide according to that text. Now that's what you call moving and shaking in a hurry. That's right. Plus the language barrier, we read that in the book of that. How did they do that that quick? How could they have done it with all these foreigners,

gave them the ability to speak in any language anyway? That's right. So the whole story, I just gave it in about five minutes of the whole story, and right in the middle of it, the foundation of it, is the book of acts. by the way, for you listeners. Read Romans 8, 22, 25, Romans 12, 12, Romans 15, 4, 15, 13. Read 1, Corinthians 13, read 1, Corinthians 15, 1, Timothy 4, 8, Titus 1, verse 2,

2, Hebrews 6, 19, and Hebrews 111, which will tell you about hope, which, to answer your question. That's what I did yesterday. That's pretty good. Let's take a break. That sounds like an excellent lesson. And I know you had some folks that came to Christ, which is really awesome. We baptized three, just exactly like they did in the book of Acts. They said, what do we do? We came to be baptized. What are we doing here? And I explained to them the new birth and their faith in Jesus and their confession, Jesus Lord.

So one was in the Air Force. One was a duck hunter from Arkansas. and I don't forget where the other one was from, but every week they come in there. So it's a beautiful thing to watch. It is. Just like the Book of Acts. It is. And one of the things that's interesting,

we've talked about this before, is these Jewish people that Peter and John are preaching to in these first few chapters, in these first converts. You realize, and then there's a lot of scholarly types and, I mean, people that know the book You've got the brains. The brains are all there.

And they've all missed it. They missed it. They missed the Messiah. And look, they've had 3,500 years of preparation for the moment. They've had prophecies. They've had predictions. They've had the Messiah. They've had all these things that have said, he's coming, he's coming, he's coming,

here's what it looked like. And the whole time Jesus was here, you remember he kept saying, this is to be fulfilled. And then something would happen. And sure enough, there it was in Zachariar. there. It wasn't some other tag. And yet they missed it. And the thing that's always intrigued me about that is here we are in, you know, 2,000 years removed since Jesus was here. Yep. And we know what he did. And yet most people, what, miss it? Ladies, gentlemen, there's approximately two million of you listening to what we're saying.

Somebody comes along and they ask you, what is the gospel? You need to be able to say. That's when God became flesh and died on a cross for my sins was buried and raised from the dead. He solved my problems in a three-day period based on who he was and what he did. He's now mediating for you. And the final event is when he returns. If you've missed the gospel, you're going to be in dire circumstances. Is all I can tell you? You say, is that it?

Yeah, that's it. Well, and that's why Peter said in 1 Peter 315, but in your hearts, set apart Christ is Lord. Yep. That's Him as your Lord. Yeah. That's the gospel. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who ask you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience.

Thanks to this podcast, I hope people are finally getting and understanding what the good news, the gospel is, because. I've been asking people for the last 45 or 50 years since I became a Christian, what is the gospel? And they will give you every answer there is, except that's when Jesus came down in flesh out of a virgin, died on a cross, was buried and raised from the dead. Went on back into heaven. There's mediate for us. It's the whole story.

If you believe it, we'll go down there to the creek and get somebody to baptize you, confess to Jesus, says, Lord, repent, turn to God, and you'll be okay. and somebody says, oh, this is deeper than that. No, that's as deep as you need to dig. Right. You know, we were doing, back when we were, the last time we were in Acts, me, and Jace, we were looking at that story of Anonis and Sapphire

and their whole heart situation aligned to the Holy Spirit. Yep. But right before that, we get introduced to a man named Joseph, also known as Barabbas, I mean Barnabas, sorry. Barnabas. Barnabas. who he's known as the son of encouragement, right? And so, you know, he showed us kind of the heart you want to have.

And I mentioned that he was a Levite, which means he came from the priestly division. And so when I was doing a little bit of research on that for a sermon I was doing, I realized that Barnabas, you know, he goes on to be like Paul's companion for a bunch of these missionary journeys you mentioned, which got the gospel out. And so he was a part of one of those. I mean, look, and if you're a Levi, you're a priest. I mean, you had serious duties in Judaism in the temple.

Oh, yeah. In their worship and all that. So for him to be Paul's right hand man and going and speaking to all these Gentiles, it made him a super unique guy at that time because when we'll talk more about when we get there. But when you go out and look and start seeing what happened once Paul began to do that, this was not easy. It went against every bit of their Jewishness. But, Jim, one of the things that we-

You know, he's mentioned in Colossians 1, where Paul was touting the gospel being sent, I think it's the same fellow. He said, my fellow prisoner, Aristarchus, sends you greetings as does Mark the cousin of Barnabas. That's right. That's the same dude. Yeah. He was in the mix, is what I want to bring out. Well, and think about it.

So he also, you know, also knew then about the whole gospel story. I mean, they were, they're the only Jews. among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God. Wasn't that many of them? Wasn't that many. And then we know Luke, who wrote Acts and Luke, he was a physician. He was a part of this mix, too. Because another guy that was right along, he would have known, Barnabas, was all Epaphras.

And that's the one that through Epaphras, the Colossians had come to know Jesus. They heard the gospel for me. You know, Mark was young. It was interesting. Pretty amazing to show you just what a very few. The little crew. A small group of individuals. can do.

It may impact the whole world. You two million out there, listen, we're looking for a few men like Barnabas. Like the old other, what was that other guy's name? Epaphras. Epaphras. Sylus and Barnabas type. Silas was another one. So, you know, Silas kind of took over for Barnabas because they had a conflict.

Paul and Barnabas, the son of encouragement had a conflict. But Paul seemed pretty straightforward. So he might not have been the easiest guy to run with. But, you know, and it was over the cousin because Mark, you know, wouldn't show up for what they were supposed to do. A little friction. A little friction. That just shows you.

We're human beings. You know, you're going to agree with somebody 100% on every doctrinal position. You just got to get past that and say, look, just stand on the gospel. Right. Proclaims Jesus, him crucified and raised from the dead as you go. And it doesn't make any difference. In fact, in the book of Colossians, send my greetings to our friend Luke, the doctor, he wrote the book of Acts.

And Demas spent, send greetings. Give my greetings to the brothers that lay out of sea unto 9th of the church in her house. So they were in little groups scattered out. But you had these guys working around, going to see them from time by time, kind of like we're doing up there in West Monroe, Louisiana, 2,000 years later out. Literally exposing to the whole world. So the are here. So many of these Jewish folks were missing it.

And as you said, eventually that's going to open the door when we get to, you know, Acts 10 with Peter and Cornelius. And look, Peter didn't want to go share with the Gentiles. I mean, God literally said you got to go. And so that opens this door that Jesus had already predicted was going to happen. Plus, our during all of this, way beyond black and white racism in America, was the racism between the Jew and the Gentile in the first century of what we're reading. And the middle of it is the book of Acts.

I mean, the Jewish hierarchy, and here's these lowdown, sorry. That's why I quoted that Ephesian 1 a while ago. At one time, the Gentiles were just, what's the term, sucking high and tit, I guess? You're like, boy, they, you talk about it. That's the Greek term for that one, yeah. Yeah, you say, boy, Jesus come out of nowhere, and Peter was one of the very ones who said,

no way, you know, disband food laws. I mean, get rid of the law of Moses and bring this sorry little bit. Well, we talk a lot about, we've talked a lot of. Galatia, he's kind of over on the side. We've talked a lot about the last four years about nationalism in our own political structure. If you go back when the first Hebrews, after they were coming out of that desert,

when they went in there, because God was like, you don't mess with these people, they got always false gods. So they were told early on, that's right. You don't get sucked into this, but their whole history was fighting that battle.

And tribe after tribe got lost to false gods. They literally were separated from God with no hope. That's exactly right. So here's one of the things that was interesting to me about the potential of Barnas. We don't know who wrote the book of Hebrews. It's the only letter in the New Testament where there's no author.

I would think he was a Jew. He's got to be a Jew because it's, To me, it's the greatest treatise to the Jewish mindset about what this new thing is. So a lot of people have attributed to Paul, which I discounted because one, his language is different and number two, Paul always said in his letters who he was. And he was writing to him. So I don't, I don't, I don't, maybe he did it. I mean, we'll never know.

But one of the leading candidates in my mind is Barnabas. Very possible. And the reason why is because we know he was super sharp. He was Levite. We know if when we first met him, he was with him the whole time. And then one of the things that struck me was in Hebrews chapter 7, whenever he talks about Mockezzadec, which was someone that was around the days of Abraham, and that Abraham went and gave him homage. This guy was a Gentile, you know, king. And he goes a priest, and he goes in and he gives him homage.

And he's saying, look, the Gentiles have always been had favor with God if they believe. And so I've always thought that was interesting because Barnabas' perspective would have been one that he could have seen that. There just wasn't many of them. There wasn't many of them. Well, Al, welcome to the club, but this day and age, I mean, there's fewer Gentiles than you would think out there that's put their faith in Jesus. Billions. Yeah, we're a country of $330 million. I don't know, you add them all up on the Jesus followers.

I'm looking around saying, whatever happened to the godly man around here. That's right. It's scaring me, Al. That's right. Let's take another break. Well, you're right, Dad. And the thing about it is, they do these polls, which, whatever. I just don't, these polls, you know, people can ask whatever.

So they'll say, oh, yeah, well, you know, 80-something percent of America, you know, believes there's a God. But, you know, when you see the results of what's going on, that's a lot different than saying Jesus is Lord. Somebody's lying. Somebody's lying or somebody's got an skewered view of what it means to be a believer. So I think you get into a lot of that stuff. But that's one of the things that always struggle. And look, we'll never know who wrote Hebrews until we get to heaven. But I will say this about it.

To me, if you want to read about to the Gentile world, you read Romans. Because Paul lays out the great, probably the greatest, you know, treatise. It didn't help when we splintered Christianity. And when I say splintered, and we ended up with about 20,000 different groups with different names saying, And we just, division is an understatement on what we did, the human race did to Christianity. Right. I mean, we can't even all agree to put our faith in the gospel and go down to the creek and get baptized. Let's go.

Right. Let's get it all. Let's keep it simple. Way deeper in that. Where's your doctrine and your creed there, Rob? Yeah. We don't have a doctrine and the creed. The gospel is the doctrine and the creed.

Yeah. I think that's the best way to roll. So if you go back to Acts Chapter 5, we left off. We were talking about Anonis and Safara, which was this whole idea about lying to the Holy Spirit. And why that was so important that there was this kind of first sign of discipline inside the church. And it was pretty scary. It picks right back up and says, here they go. They're performing signs and miracles.

And now they're drawing, of course, these crowds of people. It says people want just their Peter's shadow might fall on them. So we're kind of seeing the apostles now have the same aura that Jesus had when he was on the earth. Because everybody's wanting to come and get the miracle. Now, some are actually believing because of that. And we're seeing literally thousands of people being added pretty much daily in this early thing. So you can see what's happening. I mean, this thing is rolling.

So you get to verse 17. It said the high priest and all his associates who were members of the party of the Sagittes were filled with jealousy. So here's where we go. The same group of people that crucified Jesus, now they're jealous. So they arrested the apostles and they put them in public jail. So now we got this first time they've been jailed. They're jealous because they see a legitimate spiritual movement going on and with the death of

Jesus at the center of it. That's right. They're like, wait a minute here. And they're not part of it. Yeah, we thought we were rid of him. That's right. So it said they put him in jail. During the night, an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out

and tells them, go stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life. Al, not one jot or tittle, not one, has differed from 2,000 years ago, go stand in the temple courts, and get out there in the middle of it, in the middle of a constitutional republic, an oligarchy, or some kind of socialist country. Just step up in the middle and tell the people the full message of this new life.

All we're doing on planet Earth, you, me, Jason, the rest of us, we are pointing people to Jesus with the full message of this new life. So nothing has changed, really, when you get right down to it, The miraculous were there, but how had that work out for them? You would have thought looking at the miracles that would do it.

But Al-Lead didn't do it. That's why someone says, well, can you perform miracles feel? I said, not that I know of. And you, they said, well, how do you think people's going to change them out? You show them a miracle they'd change. No, they wouldn't. They showed them one after the other all the way through the book of Acts. Because as we said along, the miracle has to point to the message and the man.

I mean, that only got them to that point. That's where the salvation was. That's where a lot of people miss it. Miracles alone did not work then, and it won't work now. I've traveled all over the world. I've been in settings where I preached, and I had this person standing next to me, and it's hard to preach where you're having to give two sentences, and then this guy has to translate it into their language.

But, you know, we made it work to get the gospel out. I would have loved to have had the gift to be able to just stand up and speak in their language. And what miracles I thought I just. saw if like old bill smith used to say would it have convinced a jew in modern day time or an atheist they would have said well they're just lucky and got better right i mean he was going to die you prayed for him and then whoops two or three days later he'd back up on his feet and he's going i'm like i don't know i prayed for him he was going to die but now he's alive i've seen it myself sure more than once. And somebody said, well, that's a miracle. I said, well, if a Jew and a atheist was standing

there beside me, then he said, oh, well, he just got lucky every once in a while you pulled. He wouldn't have embraced it out. Yeah, and some maybe would. Some of these people obviously did, but only because of the message. Yep. So at daybreak, they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and they began to teach the people. So they've locked them up. They said, all right, we got rid of Jesus. Now we've got to lock these guys up and deal with them. Shut them up. Shut them up. But then, the high priest and they all... It almost sound like modern days when they've got what they call censorship.

If you try to put something on the air talking about Jesus, they allow it to censure you. That's right. The question would be, why? It's just a story about an individual who lived 2,000 years ago. Why would you censor that? Well, you said everybody's out there as sinners and that's your brow beating

the human race. I'm like, no. You know what? We're just going to find another platform. That's what they did. They just, you know, the Lord, opened up the jail cell. Plus, we can't stop. Yeah. Talking about it.

How could you stop? We can't. So the high priest and his associates arrived. They caught together the Sanhedron. Uh-oh, we got the full assemblies of the elders of Israel. These are the big dogs. We have brought in the big guns. And so they got them all.

They're still around now. Oh, yeah. They're, and they sent to the jail for the apostles. So they're like, all right, we've got our tribunal here. Yep. We got all the bigwigs. Now, go get those. We got them loud mouths locked up down.

there. We about got the hole of it. Go down there and get them and drag them in before us. But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them. So they went back and reported, the jail is locked up. No one inside. On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priest were puzzled, wondering what would come with this. I love it because, like, again, it's right in front of their face. And they're just like, hmm, how did they get out? We locked them They've been under lockdown. We went down there, and they're not there. Where'd they go? I love it. Puzzled. Let's take another break. So someone comes up and says, look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people. At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force because they feared that the people would stone them. Yeah. Who are y'all with? Well, we looked at law enforcement here and then we looked over at these guys. They're not hurting anything. All they're doing is talking. They're talking about this Jesus. We're with them. So don't be messing with them guys. It was really interesting because it really is you're seeing a repeat of what happened with Jesus. How could there be a possibility that America would stand up for what you and I do? Is it possible that they say, don't mess with them guys?

They're heart on about Jesus. They believe it. They're a bunch of nutcase, but they are just, they have a message and they won't get off of it. What are they hurting? Could we win maybe America all over by saying, look, we don't hate you all or the ones we're preaching the message too. We love you. We're trying to get you to see there is life beyond this earth. It does.

It does show you that the power of popular opinion has been around for a long time. Yeah. The crowd, you know, because they were afraid of the crowd, because the crowd was like, we want to hear about these. I mean, these guys are preaching something we've never heard before. And there's enough people in America right now out that's listening to what you and I are saying. We wouldn't be on the air if it's not. We wouldn't be on the internet doing this. So they brought the apostles.

They made them appear before the Sanhedra to be questioned by the high priest. We gave you strict orders not to teach in his name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. They still hadn't owned up to their role. Their sins. They're still haven't owned up to the fact that they're the ones who killed him. What you think about that is the most basic tenet of following Christ

is to realize my own guilt. I mean, and these guys can't do it. They're political, but at the same time, even at the personal level, they're offended. They can't do it now. No. There are many people in the Jewish community right now who would say, y'all are trying or determined to make us guilt if this man's blood. Right.

They're going to have to suck it up and just keep looking. There are, to their credit, these Messianic Jews across America, they get it out. You and I spoke at a Messianic Jewish conference. Sure did. And I was so impressed with these brothers, because what they're doing is their mission field is Israel. Because they're going back saying, look, guys, we're with you, we're grafted in. We understand. We did have him crucified.

That's exactly right. And it did save us. But it saved us. It's a book of Acts all over again, Al. So here's what in first 29. Peter and the other apostles replied, we must obey God rather than men. And here he goes.

And then he goes into the gospel. The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as prince and savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. The whole story. The whole story of the Bible is in about this many verses. Three verses.

We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. Once again, he just returns back to the central story. Full story, all over. And look, that'll come to repeat itself over and over, and over, and someone says, why be so redundant with that particular message? Because it is the truth that sets you free. Right. This is exactly right.

It was then, and it still is today. Nothing has changed. has changed. And I love it. I love the idea is that we obey God, not you. Because these guys had themselves up as the arbiters and speakers of the Almighty. And they're just like, no, you missed it. Here's what changed. And my earlier years, I missed the point by saying, these people are nuts. But I was wrong. They're not nuts. They're just hard-headed. And they're steeped in their sin. and they know if they confess their sins and turn to God, people will see that they're weak like everybody else.

Right. And they're hardy. They're like, you know, they're going around canceling people who are guilty of sins, but their own sins, no. They won't believe a word of it. Remember when we first started this section? Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

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