Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 867 | Jase Doesn’t Believe in Coincidences Anymore & the Origin of the Word ‘Christian’

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

ase goes back to the founding of “Unashamed” and how he explained the concept to an avidly anti-technology Phil. The guys examine the powerful and diverse founding of the first church at Antioch, where the word “Christian” was coined. Al lays out Paul’s pattern of starting new churches that he follows throughout the New Testament, and Zach uses the example of these early Christians to show how modern people can be confident in their sharing of the gospel. In this episode: Acts 10 & 11 -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to the Unashamed podcast. For you guys, it's been a day or two. For us, it's been five minutes since we just finished the last podcast. So we're going to get into this next section in Acts Chapter 11, which is going to take place in Antio. It's really interesting. Jase, we just had a team from One Kingdom, which is our mission, here at WFR. And there was a bad earthquake in Turkey last year. And so we've been doing a lot of relief work there. And so we sent a team over as a follow-up to some of the goods and funds and things we've sent to help over there. Because our thing is always about working through a church to be able to help people's

physical needs because ultimately it's the spiritual needs that are the most important. And a lot of times when people go through devastation, they're more open to the gospel. So it's kind of been our philosophy at One Kingdom. So our old friend Robert Abel's led a team over to Turkey. And what's interesting is I think it was the next of the last day. And I haven't talked to Robert, but I just heard about this. And I thought it was interesting. We're at this place in the text today.

They were actually at the place where the old Antioch, the city itself and the church here that was such a vital part of Barnabas's ministry and launching them into the ministry to the Gentiles. they were actually there. And so I'll have to get more details on it, but it was really interesting because we just happened to be here in this text. That's crazy. I didn't know you were going to bring that up. But, you know, if you read the first couple of verses of where we're at in our text in Acts 11 in verse 19 and 20,

just to set up this idea of how interesting Antioch is going to become for the church, it says, now those who had been scattered by the persecution in connection with St. Stephen. So you go back to Acts 6 and you remember if they chose the seven deacons, one of them was Stephen. He gets up and I mean, shares an awesome sermon. You know, we talk about how it was confrontational. It really wasn't. It was the grace of God and how he worked through the history of Israel to bring Jesus. And the problem they had is his views on the temple going from being an. actual structure to an actual person in Jesus, and the law of Moses, keeping that, instead of believing that Jesus had come to fulfill the law of Moses, and we know what happened to him. And so a persecution breaks out, and of course, Saul is going from giving approval to being struck down on the road in Acts 9, and then changing sides, which you're talking about evidence that there is a God, because he had no reason.

to do that other than having a conversation with the exalted Lord himself. And so then what I was going to say is the original declaration by Jesus, remember when he said in Acts 1, he said, you'll be my witnesses. And he said, when the Spirit comes on you in verse 8, and you'll be a witness in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. But it kind of happened by circumstance. That's right. You remember they scattered once this persecution happened.

And here we see it again where they're being scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen, which is funny because everybody who usually reads these verses, they're like, oh, these missionary journeys and they were getting together. And, well, the missionary journey was basically run for your life. and share Jesus along the way. It's the truth. It's a great point, Jay's, because you've got so many mission committees for churches all around the world, and they're like, you know,

we've got to have our five-year plan and our strategy sessions, and we've got to get our marketing plans in place and all these different things. It's like, no, really, you just got to run for your life. I mean, it is the absolute truth. When you really read the details of this happening,

that's the way it was designed. And if you ever wonder why persecution happens and why God allows it to happen, you really see some insight here. But Jay, Jays, let me bring a practical point in here, because you can relate to this directly because you've been there and visited it. We talk about our old friend Larry Bowles a lot on here. He was another one of our one kingdom guys. He went to Athens.

I don't know what originally got him there, but he went there because there were all these people literally running from their lives out of Muslim countries. And the first place they happened to wind up is in Athens. Well, these people, he helps, along with some others, lead them to Christ because they're open because they're literally running from their lives. Well, guess what happens as a result? Those same guys now have trained themselves in the Word of God and they're totally motivated

by Jesus. And guess what they're doing? They're beaming the gospel back into those countries they flee from. Oh, I know. I mean, the church now is growing because they literally were ran out of the Middle East. And now they're going back in with the gospel. I was one of the beamers. Yeah, you're a beamer.

Beaming me into a place we won't mention because I'm sure, you know, I'm not, I don't mind dying for the Lord by beaming Jesus into a country where when you do that, they will kill you. But I don't want to be stupid either. So, but, you know, when you think about that story, you just said, Al, here's a fireman from Oklahoma who does, what do firemen do? They rescue people from the clutches of death. They rest their life.

But he happens to love the Lord. And he just so happens. He winds up in Athens, Greece, and he looks around where refugees are running for their life. And he thought, huh, I think I might can help these people. I mean, there is your sermon for how God uses people to see. the bigger mission for the Lord. Let me read this,

this Acts 11. I started reading it and then we started chasing rabbits. But they have been scattered by the persecution in connection with Stephen. And they traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews. Some of them, however,

men from Cyprus and Cyrene, and remember these people from Cyrene, because we're going to have a throwback to that later, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus, about the Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

And this is another pivotal moment, because when you read that, You think, well, isn't this the same thing that we've been doing here? No. Because when you look at the town of Antioch, now they're getting into the just Gentile, pagan world. When you see Cornelius, he had a belief in God. But now people are beginning to realize, oh, this is for everybody. and so different believers are starting to make assumptions that, well, if everyone is worthy

to be sons and daughters of God, well, let's go share Jesus to everyone. And I really think this is a big moment here when this happens. And I'll give you my reasons why, but if y'all want to comment on it, you can. So I think you're exactly right, Jay said. And look, it's easy to see why the shift was a difficult one, because everybody in the Jewish world had already understood Yahweh and understood the concept of the Messiah. And they just had a hard time thinking Jesus was him. But once you embrace that, that Jesus came from Yahweh, he was him in flesh, who then

left his spirit here. But you're all working out of the same basket of understanding. You just had to embrace that that guy, Jesus really was who he said he was. But now we get into Gentile culture. They don't even know about Yahweh. I mean, Paul's going to get into this in, what, Acts 17 and 18? The idea is this is unknown to them. They've got multiple gods.

They've got multiple practices that have nothing to do in, pagan rituals that have nothing to do with Jewish rituals. So it is now opening up an entire new arena of ideas and how you're going to approach that, which is, and Paul becomes a master of it. So I want to give you some facts about Antioch, just and we'll kind of figure this out. So I didn't know this. Third largest city in the Roman Empire. You had Rome, you had Alexandria, which was in Egypt, and then you had Antioch. And they said during the Roman Empire, there was 500,000 people there. And just to kind of let you know compared to cities, and I read this somewhere, and I thought it was interesting.

But when you thought of Jerusalem, you kind of thought of the religion hub center, even today. I mean, when I was over there, I mean, people are talking about religion on the street corners, just on purpose and mainly arguing. When you thought of Rome, you thought of power, Alexandria, you thought of intellect, Athens,

that Al mentioned, you thought of philosophy, you know, all the Greek philosophy, where all that came from. When it came to Antioch, it was business. It was commerce, trade, but it was also slagy, emmerality, which when I read that, I immediately thought, Luke 15, Jesus with the tax collectors and the sinners. And I think these men who probably went there had the same thought, because now you're getting into a world where money is king and there's a lot of immorality going.

And a lot of the immorality when it was describing here, I mean, it was, this was as decadent as you could go. In fact, there was multiple philosophers that were, that was saying that Rome was starting to look like Antioch as far as when it came to immorality and all. So, and now you see these men from Cyprus and Cyrene, they, they've kind of had a Larry Bowles moment here. They're like, and it may have been from the Luke 15, or it may, you know, of Jesus's words or, but whatever it was, they said, you know what, we're going to take Jesus to this place,

which excited me because when I look around at the country I'm in, I'm thinking, we can get some insight here. Yeah. Because it seems to be these same problems resurface, putting your faith and trust in how much money you make and how much immorality you can be a part of, especially from the sexual son. Or government or causes or whatever. Let's take our first break.

Well, it's interesting, the history of Antioch. It was started in 300 BC. This Seleucus was basically the founder. He inherited the land from Alexander the Great, so you're going back here. But there's something interesting. I wanted to say just because it seems confusing because you're like, well, isn't there a lot of Antioch's over there? Well, what this Seleucus would do, it seems like it was his favorite hobby, is he would name

cities after his father, whose name was Antiochus. And so there's a, he founded like 15. So there's Antioch this, Antioch, this, Antioch, that. And so this was the, what they could. called the Syrian Antioch, which I thought was kind of interesting, you know. I think when a town is founded from that kind of pious, selfish motivation, this is the results kind of take care of themselves, you know. And I think it also shows you the importance of how these major cities factored into Paul's

idea of getting the gospel through them. because, again, you're going to go places where, you know, there's a lot of people. There's a lot of thought. There's a lot of, you know, opportunity. And some people see that as, oh, man, we got to get out of these places. But when you're talking about the gospel, you're like, no, we've got to get into these places. Yeah. We've got to get some good news in there.

So just to kind of, you know, kind of give you a picture of what I think before I read the rest of the text, If you fast forward to Acts 131, it says in the church at Antioch, there were prophets and teachers. And it says Barnabas Simeon called Niger. And these scholars, you know, they've looked up what these names mean. And Niger was black or dark man. So they think this was from some kind of African descent. Because remember this was a place of commerce and business, and you had all this Gentile pagan world here. Lucius of Cyrene, which we just read about these two guys from Cyrene and Cyprus,

who had a heart for this place, which makes you realize they were heavily Gentile influenced. So you're seeing diversity as my point. then you had I don't even know how to say that manan who had been brought he was the foster child of herod the tetrarch so then you have this guy who comes from this political world agenda and saul so just think about the diversity here which is why when you when i read the rest of this text you're going to see an interesting thing that happens so in verse 23, the Lord's hand was with them and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. So you really have a diverse group. This is the first group of Christians, and literally you're going to see that, a church that is multicultural, multidiversified. That's why I read that Acts 13.

news of this verse 22 of 11 reached the ears of the church at jerusalem and they sent barnabas to antioch and that's why we read this verse last podcast when he arrived he saw the evidence of the grace of god because we're talking rank immorality huge diversification and you're bringing all these people together in all this pagan gentile world he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man full of the spirit and faith and a great number of people were brought to the Lord. Well, then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul. I mean, it was such a, it had such an impression on them, which I believe it was because of they're now seeing God's plan all the way through that all these different types of people, even the rank pagan Gentile world,

are coming together under one group in the name of Jesus. But Jason also, let me interject, that this also shows you that sometimes it takes someone else having confidence in your ability to do what God called you to do, to nudge you in that direction. Because in essence, at this point, Saul is, he's exiled. I mean, like, he has, he's a man with no place to go. So where does he go? he goes back home to Tarsus, but Barnabas believed in Saul from the beginning. Remember, he was the one.

He was the one that was willing to introduce him to the disciples in Jerusalem. I mean, he sees what God's going to do with this man. And in a moment where Saul probably wasn't sure exactly what he was supposed to do, he goes and gets him and says, you got to come here. This needs to be your launching pad for where you go. But how many times have you seen that in your own life where you were at a dry place, but someone else saw an ability and you couldn't see in yourself. And they were like, come on, we got an opportunity for you to do something. So I love this idea of Barnabas. He's definitely an underrated person in the early church because this guy's got,

he's got an eye for talent because he's the one that gets all in the game. Exactly. And really the questions that come up here is, what does your city look like? That's why I went through the little city. What's it known for? what does the Lord's work look like? Yeah. And I think if you ever wanted to use something as a foundation, this is it.

Yeah. I mean, it is a search for all, despite the background being incredibly immoral. And there's preaching, there's teaching, there's transformation, there's heart changes, the Lord's being exalted, and you start seeing the fruit of the spirit. function in this community. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year, Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people.

The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. That's a big statement. It's a big statement. And look, this word's only used three times in the New Testament. And a lot of people think it was. was since it's only used three times, that it was kind of an insult. It was a negative thing. But I think it's like, what do you call these people who are not just having a nation religion or they were having trouble figuring out what to call these people? Because it wasn't based on where they were from

or what their culture was or how they kept the law or it was. I mean, it's interesting that these people have the Christians, like this term Christian has survived, even though it wasn't really the primary term used in the New Testament to describe followers of Christ, probably the better term would be disciple is what's used way more than the term Christian. Well, I looked it up. It's used over 300, and Christian is used three times. You have this. In Acts 26, King Agrippa in verse 28. kind of, it seems like an insult there because he told Paul, he said, are you really in a short time trying to convince me to be a Christian?

And the only other time it's used is by Peter in 1st, 14th 16, it says if any of you suffer for being a Christian, praise God that you bear that name. So I looked up the name, the IAN, the Latin meaning is in the party of or in the group of. so what it meant was you're in the party of Christ. And I see it as a great broadening, though, because in the first century, although the term disciple is what we are because we're disciples by Christ. But you remember when Jesus was there, John had disciples.

Other people had to say the reason the word is so common is because everybody who was a leader had his followers. Yeah. And they were he is now we're saying all of us are disciples of Jesus. Jesus. I mean, we are Christians. We are, we are ones who follow Christ. So I definitely see it as a, as a positive and a broadening term that we make sure we're disciples of one. Yeah, you're identifying with Christ. I think where probably that term has become, unfortunately, though, is if I say I'm a Christian, that might just mean I was raised in a, in a home that went to church or what it

They proclaim. But to say I'm a disciple, man, that carries a lot more way. To say, our Dallas Willer would say, call where we are an apprentice of Christ. And so I think about like if you're an apprentice of somebody, you know, you're sitting underneath their authority, their instruction, their teaching, and you're trying to become what they are. So if I'm going to, if I'm doing an apprenticeship as a barber, I'm going to sit under a master barber, I'm going to watch what they do.

and I'm going to start to mimic it. And then one day, then I'll get the baton passed to me and say, you are now like me, you are now a barber. You are now a journeyman becomes an electrician at some point or a master plumber. And it's that the idea really of being a follower of Christ, I think it was probably indicative here, but over time it's lost. No, I agree.

Just because we misuse it today doesn't mean, because when I looked this up, I felt just like you do. I thought, We need to be disciples, followers of Jesus. But the more I looked at the context, I thought, I think they were having trouble figuring out what to call these people. Because it was so diverse. You had all these different people, you know.

Especially now that you brought the Gentiles in. Do you know what they called the, you know what the Roman soldiers since their Lord was Caesar? Well, they would call a Roman soldier a Cessorian. Yeah. because their Lord and their allegiance went to Caesar. So, well, that's too much to be a coincidence. So they're like, oh, your Lord is Jesus Christ? What are you, a Christian?

As opposed to a Cessorian, and they're like, you're doggone right. That's my Lord. I'm a Jesus person. I think it was a positive thing. We don't know what to call these people. That's good. Because they wouldn't have been able to separate the disciple concept out. like Zach was talking about.

And Zach's exactly right. Over time, we've watered that name down, unfortunately, to not be a committed disciple in many, many cases. But in this case, that's what it meant. It meant you are part of the way. You know, members of the way or followers of the way. The name. The name.

You know, another thing interesting about when we talk about the diversity of Gentile and Jew being part of one body, one people group, there's also this other thread that you continue to see and we've mentioned it before but when you mentioned barnabas and how he went after saul i just was i just popped in my mind act 15 where they have a sharp disagreement that's funny and they split ways and so i but i love that because you know you think about if you if you've been in church for any period of time which we all have that if you if you haven't been disappointed yet just stick around like it's coming like you're going to have you're going to have you have relationship issues in the church with people who love Jesus, who are on the same mission. And sometimes, I love the brokenness of kind of all these band, this band of misfits that are the goddess life doing this story. It's like, you know, do you see the human element and their own issues playing out in this story while at the same time, you see the purity, the supremacy and the perfect

authority of God and the perfect plan of God unfolding and happening and being accomplished in messed up people who continue to have issues throughout the entire story. So it's kind of weird because we read these guys, we read about Paul, Barnabas, Peter, and a lot of these guys wrote the New Testament. And so we hold them up in this high esteem, knowing that they were inspired by the Holy Spirit when they wrote. But man, how encouraging is it to still see their and how flawed they are. And I think that's what he says when he came in verse 23 and saw the grace of God, the evidence of the grace of God.

I think that's what the grace is. You're seeing God's plan to accomplish through broken, messed up people. But it's like, but even our sin, even our relational difficulties, even whatever it is we got going on, like that's not going to thwart the advancement of God's kingdom. And that's encouraging to me because it relieves me from the pressure of thinking, man, I bear the responsibility of making sure God's kingdom thrive. So I don't bear that responsibility. That's his responsibility. And he's going to accomplish it. He's going to do it through flawed people like me. And I just want to be a part of it. I just want to come underneath his kingdom

and be a part of what he's doing. So I just found that big interesting. Well, that's why this is so powerful, because in reality, Antio had a huge red light district. I don't know if they had the little red light. but it was a red light district that became. Since they didn't have electricity, I'd say probably no. Became the light of the world, a la Jesus. It was the red lamp district. The red lamp district became the lamp of the Lord Jesus. And I think that's why they spent so much time there.

And you're seeing them not just share Jesus and share God's grace. I mean, these are the things that are coming up. But then in the last section, verse 27, during that time, some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus stood up and through the spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. This happened during the reign of Claudius. So the disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. this they did sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul. So it wasn't like they were just sharing Jesus.

They were also sharing what little they had. They were meeting needs. And think about the, think of your famine's coming. And then it's through this prophecy that happens in Antioch. It's through this prophecy that happens in this place that the church there is actually preserved and and they find food because they prepared for it. They planned for it because of the prophecy. But think about why they were, why were they even in Antioch? Verse 19. They were in Antioch because those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen.

So going back to earlier, we talked about how the gospel would go out because of the persecution of Stephen. Death happens. Death comes. This is such the gospel. Death comes. Stevens killed, but then life emerges after the death. You're seeing the gospel. This is who God is. He takes things. When you think you killed him, well, he's raised three days later.

And you see that same thing happening here, that through death and through pain and through persecution and through suffering, God uses that then to bring life to his people. And I think this is something that we have to remember as Christians. Because when we try to avoid that, it was a man, I'm going to avoid suffering. I'm going to try to build my life so I don't suffer, so I don't have pain, so I don't have death.

Sometimes we end up thwarting what God's trying to do because God typically moves in these horrible situations. That's what typically when God comes, it does the profound. But not only that, Zach, the story's even more powerful when you realize it came because of Stephen's persecution and is now being sustained and led by the man who did the party. Yes, yeah. It's like, you can't make this stuff up, man. That's a great point. The guy that made it all happen. It was there is the one that's now in the city, disciplining disciples, because he's been a year there. I mean, only in the gospel would you see something like. This is divine. This is called divine irony. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. I mean, that's so true that you read that verse 25. So Barnumus went to Tarsus to look for Saul and he found him and brought him to Antioch. Why were they in Antio? Because, you read that verse 25. You read that verse 25. So Barnumus went to Tarsus to look for Saul. And he found him and brought him. Why were they in Antioch? because Saul gave the approval to kill Stephen, which made him run to Antioch.

And it's like, I mean, it's just crazy. You can't make this up. It's all part of the beautiful plan. Let's take another break. No, and I also love that we started this story by, because, as you made the point about the physical needs, by me talking about in the 21st century, a group of Christians from our church,

going there to help continue to provide physical help for people who had been struck by this terrible earthquake in the same region now all these years later, but with the intent of not just meeting their physical needs, but of course to lead them spiritually to something greater. So I love the fact that 2,000 years later, we're still doing it. We're still doing exactly in the same region. Yeah, and if you just think that things don't matter, you can go all the way back to Act 6.

When they chose those seven men, one of them was Stephen. Well, one of the guys, Nicholas in chapter 6 and 6, he was from Antioch. It says he was a convert from Judaism. Yeah. So, you know, it seems like God has designed this, and it's coming from the most unlikely places. And they're also having to battle this trying to hold to the Jewish system and follow Jesus. but some of the members are getting it at different times. And it's not even the main apostles.

It's just people are going and they're sharing Jesus. And then the apostles back at the home base in Jerusalem, they're hearing about it. They're like, well, let's go down there. It's almost like a wildfire where the gospel is going to the entire world. Well, and I'm sure, Jason, when you were doing your research on the city, too, there was another factor. I think that one of the reasons why they were so successful,

here. And while Paul and Barnabas were able to flourish is because there was a really strong contingent of what they called Hellenistic Jews that were here with this presence in the city. These would have been Jews that would have been much more open to Greek culture and Greek language and all of that. But they carried with them the Jewish philosophy there, which is one of the reasons why they scattered there. So that would have been a perfect incubator for getting the gospel out. Because again, every time Paul went into a city, remember what he did first. He went to the synagogue, and he would debate and he would lay it out. And there would always be a few that would believe and obey.

And usually out of that group, he would then go and plant a church. And that was in Corinth and Ephesus, you know, Philippi, all those cities. So he had a pattern. Find the people that understand Yahweh, and then they'll understand Yeshua or Jesus, and then we'll be able to preach the gospel to everybody else. So it was just kind of this pattern. And it even happens here in any way. I think that's why he came later.

But these two men, whoever they were, I mean, it says men from Cyrene and Cyprus went to Antio and began to speak to Greeks also. But I'm saying it's put in contrast to those who were just telling the message to the Jews in verse 19. That's why I think this, I think it was the first time where all of the groups got together. Yeah. I mean, or that wouldn't be in here is what I'm saying. I mean, then they brought in Barnabas. They brought in Saul, who was then Paul. But I mean, that was what was exciting to me. Because I think now when you look at our modern day churches, they should be diversified. If we're, if we get this the point of what happened here, humans are humans. We, God has broken down all cultural walls.

I think they will be diversified, though, if you focus on who King Jesus is where I think you get into problems is when you seek diversity for the sake of diversity. Like your church should mirror your community. Yeah. And, you know, when we were in Monroe at university at the church plant we did there, I mean, it was, you know, it mirro the community that we were there. There was, I don't know, 40, 50 percent of the church was African American. Because so was the city of Monroe. Yes, it was the city of Monroe. Well, that's the point.

Yeah. Because I think that's the thing, though. And it was so interesting because it was the diversity in the community actually brought a lot of life to the church. And we were able to share together. And I love that because I think it's like people walk in. You walk into a setting like that. Just think about you walk into a setting and you see two types of people that would never associate ever. And then they're both raising their hands and worshiping the same God and they're doing life together.

To me, that is an evidence of God's grace that when you see that, you know it's real because you're like, there's no way you guys would never be doing life together. But I'm seeing you. And that's that passage in Ephesians we started with the last episode or this one that make every effort to keep the Spirit of Unity to the bond of peace. that I mean, that's what it looks like. And you see it and you're like, man, that doesn't make sense in any context that I have. I want to know, tell me more about what's going on here. And I think that's what was probably in this moment. Can you imagine how shocking this must have been?

Like in that first meeting, that first gathering, everybody's looking around like, what are we doing? Like, how do we all wind up in the same place? in the name of this guy, Jesus, like, what is that? I mean, that had to be pretty powerful, a pretty powerful moment. Yeah, and it also shows you that divine irony, you were talking about Zach, of that God brought in Saul to, who hated Christians, to be one of its primary influencers to then go into a Gentile world, that he would never even have, he wouldn't want their shadow to have crossed him just a few years earlier.

Yeah, because sometimes I think when you try to manufacture this on your own, though, it just feels like stale and it feels fake because it is. But like, if you've ever been a part of a real gospel centered revival movement, which we all have, you know the one thing I would say, you don't, it's not like you're going around like look at,

this sounds weird when I say it, but you're not, you're not out there looking for people. I mean, the Bible says that the harvest is plenty of the workers or few. Like God does put these movements together when we're, we're just obedient. And then like,

it's not a method. It's not a, it's not a, um, um, a methodology or philosophy or it, it, all it really is is just, is what Peter did. It's going to be obedient to Christ. May not even make sense to me, you know, but when he says eat, when he says rise, kill and eat, I may argue a little bit. I may say, I don't know about that. But when God finally speaks, it's finally like, okay, I'm, who am I to question God?

You move in obedience. And then as you move in obedience, it, the truth begins to unfold. your life. And that's where the boldness comes from, too. It doesn't, it's not a one and done deal, as we clearly see with what's going on here with Peter throughout his entire ministry. But it is a progressive sanctification over time. We begin to understand God's power. And when we understand God's power, that's where we get our confidence from, because we can lean on, now I'm leaning up on this, this infinite power source to accomplish his will. And it's, it's freeing. It is so freeing to be able to do that and it's life-giving. That's what it smells like. It smells like life.

I love it. Let's take our last break. That's why I thought that passage in 23 was so profound. When Barnabas arrived, he saw the evidence of the grace of God. I read an illustration of it in the context of churches that are too comfortable because things are going their way. and the statement was the illustration was because you tend to become inward focus then because everything's going good so you take God's grace for granted. But when it's bad the weather, he was using this as a way. If it's a sunny day every day, you take it for granted is what the point is. But when the weather's bad, you long for a sunny day. and you see what he's getting at.

If you don't have the grace of God as the center point at your church, you have to long for it. You don't know why you're so miserable. I mean, you do in the weather. It's common sense. It's raining every day for 13 days in a row. And you're longing for some freedom for oxygen for just to go out and go, And so I thought it was a really profound good illustration because it shows that the grace of God is a moving target.

It's not something you just receive and say, okay, I'm in to heck with everybody else. You know, it's so good that it must be shared. And when it's shared, all of a sudden you're going to get into a lot of rainy day situations, which is what's happening here, which is why persecution is a part of sharing God's grace. because it's so good you just got to share it no matter what the opposition is. And when you run upon groups of people who don't believe in the grace of God, what do you see? What's that look like? Bickering, alienation, miserable attitudes, it just seems dead like Zach said earlier.

Yeah, and I think that's one of the reasons why I think Luke interjected this, because it's kind of interesting. you know, we read about Paul's or Saul's conversion to ultimately Paul. And then he kind of leaves him kind of in that isolated place where he's trying to figure out over these 14 years we read out in Galatians how he's supposed to move forward. And then Luke shifts back over to Peter and describes the Gentiles coming in. Well, he's preparing his audience. And remember he's writing this to one guy initially, but he's preparing the people they're going to read this letter to understand that

God was now opening a huge door. And so that's going to bring Paul back in to the equation and bring Saul in to now be able to have that person. But it's interesting, Zach, you talked about the different methodology and how that changes. These are movements of God. I mean, I just look at the four of us because now, you know, Zach, you're a little bit younger than the rest of us, but dad being kind of our senior guy. But I just look back at all the different ways over the course of the last 30 to 50 years in dad's case. of ways to minister and disciple people, how many different things we've done? You know, there'll be a...

I baptized 10 day four yesterday. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. You're still doing it. But now you're doing it, Dad, because we do a podcast, which we didn't even know what a podcast was five years ago. Internet Bible study. Internet Bible study is how we convinced Dad to do it. And so now here we are.

This is our primary influence to connect to people. And, Dad, you're able to do what you've been doing for 50. years through a completely different method. But it was a new door that was open to us to be able to do what we do. At one time, for me, my major influence was in a classroom. I was a teacher. You know, it was kind of how I first started out. And so people would roll through there. And it would give me an opportunity to lead some to Christ, to disciples some. Well, now I don't even, I haven't taught in forever. I still do a little light preaching. But this is my primary influence to impact people. So you've got to be ready when God,

God opens a door of opportunity to just be who you are and what you've been called to do. I mean, that's what any of us does. And that's the picture I see here in this first century church. That's what's happening. Doors are being open and people are going through the door because they're like, okay, this is what we're supposed to be doing. Yeah, I just think when you go public for Jesus, you draw that attention also. I mean, I probably have one, two, three, four conversations just so far this week of people that I randomly met.

Well, one of them, I hadn't seen anybody here. He sent me a text. But it started a conversation. Now, all four of these conversations, something had happened in their life. Yep. Where they're at an impasse. Two of them, two of the conversations, they were, they're going through a divorce. Yeah.

And so they see me. I mean, one guy, I don't know this guy from Adam. I randomly see him and the next thing you know he just starts telling me about his life so you're like well why is he doing that because he thinks he knows me

because he's heard me on this podcast or whatever and you're like well what are you doing those situations well you don't talk about what's going on because what I noticed is any question about that you're fixing to get a very long narrative from their perspective

on why they're right and their wife is wrong. So I just did what they did. You know, I went to Jesus and said, I don't know about all that, but here's all I know about. Whatever the problem is, this is the way to fix it. And it's a declaration of the good news of Jesus

and the grace of God, which usually ends in silence. Yeah, I know you were kind of saying that tongue-in-cheek with air quotes around coincidence or randomly meeting these people, but I thought of this verse in Acts 17. I like the NIV version, that God determined the exact times and places

that they should live. From one man, he created all men. Or this translation says, from one man, he made all nations that they should habit the whole earth and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he's not far from each one of us. I actually think that, we know this.

You're not randomly running into anybody. And I think that's the thing. God, when you are in the key, God's going to reach his people. God's going to reach people regardless of whether I'm participating in it or not. My motivation is I want to be involved in his kingdom plan. And so I want to be prepared in my heart and in my spirit and in my demeanor and in my love for people that I'm ready. And I want to. And so these encounters that we're having, for example, in our little town of Black Mountain National area, I cannot tell you how crazy it is what God is doing and how many like new age, Buddhist, like, wicked culture.

I mean, it's crazy converging on this little church. And we're not, we have no ministry for this. we didn't plan on like, hey, let's go reach this people group or this type of person. God had a plan, and he's equipped us to answer questions and to walk with people. And so God's bring, and it's not a methodology. You don't have a ministry, Jace, where you're searching these people out. That's bad. But my point is, is like the real movement of the kingdom is just, it's happening.

It's just you get in it, and it's real, and it's authentic, and you're ready. And, I mean, we're outposts of his, of his presence. That's what we are. We're beach heads of his presence. And you're ready for either one because, you know, Paul could stand on steps and talk to a huge group of people and proclaim what God had done in his life and introduce him to Jesus. But he also could sit on the riverbank with Lydia and tell the same story. And so that's what we have to be. We have to be willing to take the opportunities of the big speech and the big opportunity.

But you know what? Just sitting down across from somebody can have the same impact. Yeah, I was just making the point. though it's daily conversations, a lot of it, that you have a choice in whether you can go and try and lead them to Jesus, or you can just say, oh, you know, I'll pray for you, which is what we usually do. But I've, you recognize this moment, why is this person coming to me? I mean, with, with something that's kind of an intimate, detailed, oriented thing in the case

of the two people going through divorces. then on the other hand, the guy that sends me a text, it was about he had got a promotion and they were wanting him to do all this. He was going to make all this money and it was things you would celebrate. Oh, that's great. But the reason he wanted my opinion is because he thought, well, this would mean I'm away from my family five days a week, you know, traveling on the road. What do you think about that? What am I going to say? I said, I said, well, if it was me, in my opinion, as long as you're, you know, you have enough money to live, right? Oh, I got plenty.

But this would be a lot more. I said, I think as God's man of your house owned, especially, of course, this guy has teenagers in his house. I said, especially with teenagers in your house, if you walk in there and tell them that you had this promotion offered to you, there's way more money. but because your primary goal is to see them in heaven, you're turning that down. I said, just that statement is really going to help your relationship with your teenage kids. It's one they would never forget. So it's going to be hard to get to be involved in their life if you're gone five days a week.

And he said, the reason I called you, because that's what I felt, God wanting me to do. But I just had to think, was this not stupid? Does this not look stupid to turn all this down? Isn't this what I've worked so hard for? And now it's happened. And I feel like I should turn this down because what I'm doing for the Lord should be way more important.

And he said, I was looking for validation. I was like, well, you got it, buddy. Turn it down. I said, I need to work on that myself because sometimes I get too busy. even doing kingdom work. That's why Paul needed a Barnabas or Silas or Timothy or he gave me a wife and she says, hey, you're going to do this with us or are you going to do it by yourself, which he said many times.

It was correct every time. Critic and cheerleader. That's why we have. All right. So we're out of time. When we come back next time, we'll hit into Acts 12, which is kind of our last look at Peter in the book of Acts, but it's a doozy. Oh, it's a dozy.

You need to read Acts 12. and before we meet again, pop you some popcorn and have it ready. I mean, this here's a blow the doors off, run out there saying, let's go. It's a good one. We'll see you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little

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