Power to Persevere

If you're new with us, we have the practice where we simply walk through scripture. We choose a book at a time, and we take it as it leads us. And we are in Acts 14, as you just read. And as we prepare for this particular passage, I want to ask you a question. Where are you on the grit scale? Now, you have to have some qualification. What do I mean by a grit scale? Well, I'm not asking where you land on which true grit movie you like, the Jeff Bridges or John Wayne. Where I'm from, a very important question is how do you take your grits? How runny can they be? Those are all very important questions, but that's not what I'm asking. Grit is a new word in the academy, thanks to a psychologist, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She's introduced this idea of grit as a way of predicting a student's success beyond intelligence. She defines it as the power and passion to persevere. She says that grit, a student's commitment to finishing a task, is as important, if not more important, than a student's intelligence. It's the ability to endure through hardship, challenge, and trial. It's a commitment to finish a task. What I want to think about this morning is gospel grit. Last week we saw Paul and Barnabas, they're set apart by the Holy Spirit, and Antioch, to be sent out for a work. And it's going to be a difficult work. We already saw some difficulty last week. We're going to see more this week. It's a difficult task. It makes them depend upon the grace of God. Gospel grit isn't that inner strength that the professor from Pennsylvania is talking about. No, it's a gospel grit is that a believer's dependence on the grace of God to wait for God and trust him through tribulation. Gospel grit is trusting God in the midst of tribulation and continuing on in the grace of God. We've seen Peter. turned from a man who was a coward in the midst of trouble into a man of faith who's going to stand up before opposition, being willing to be imprisoned for the gospel. He went from a man of coward to a man of grit. And there wasn't a change in his character. It was a change in his faith, in his status as Christ rose. So we're going to see Paul demonstrate what it means to be a man with gospel grit. Again, our text, if you go back to chapter 13, we see here Antioch is the church that's in focus. They send out Paul and Barnabas. They go out. This is the first missionary journey that's recorded for us as believers are going out and preaching the gospel to new cities. They had to leave the previous place. If you go back to chapter 13, they're in Antioch-Poseidon. That's a different Antioch. And there you see a long gospel declaration, a long gospel message from Paul. And as the threat of persecution comes up, as the people have been stirred up against him, as physical danger is approaching, he flees and he goes on to the next city. And here we've picked up, in that next city, Iconium. chapter 14, verse 1. And our heading for this story, which goes from 1 through 7, is simply the gospel persecuted. We see the gospel continues to be persecuted. He goes to Iconium, they enter together, and as Paul's custom, he goes to the Jewish synagogue first. The gospel goes to the Jew first, then the Gentile. And even though in chapter 13 there's this very climactic moment where Paul says, it is now necessary that the Jews have rejected so the Gentiles can come in, Paul continues to go first to the Jew. And we see there that the gospel was effective. Many, a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed at the end of verse one. But notice Luke spends most of his time talking about the opposition. He doesn't give us the message, he doesn't give us much of a story. It's a pretty bland story, but we see that the gospel bears fruit and therefore there is going to be an opposition, verse 2. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. Now, that word for unbelieving, that's also the rebellious, the disobedient. Those who are rejecting the gospel, they're going to stir up the Gentiles. Now, this is kind of bizarre. Jews and Gentiles were very segregated. The Jews wanted nothing to do with Gentiles and their day-to-day affairs until now, when the gospel of Almighty God goes to the Gentiles, the Jews then decide, well, now I'm going to start talking to these people. to stir them up against God's word. Again, this is sad. The Jews are the ones who've been entrusted with the words of God. And now, whenever the Gentiles are receiving it, they're working against the word of God. Our translation says it poisoned their minds. The word there for minds is simply the soul. Their inner being, their desires, their thoughts, they were being twisted. They were speaking evil of the things of God. The unbelieving Jews, they're false teachers. And they're twisting what God's Word says, and they're causing trouble. Verse 3. Notice Paul's response. So, The gospel response of this apostle to the Gentiles, he remained for a long time. The proper response on attack of the church is for Paul to say, I'm going to stay here for a long time. He's going to speak boldly the word of his grace. Paul responds by not fleeing because there's no physical persecution. He realizes he needs to stay in order to protect those that Christ has purchased with his precious blood. He stays. He continues to proclaim the word of grace that Christ died on the cross for sinners. He rose again. The Holy Spirit has come. God's grace is sufficient. Remains steadfast. But then, the people of the city were divided. There were two different messages, and so that, by definition, brings a division. And then there an attempt was made by both Jews and Gentiles. Look at verse four. Jews and Gentiles, with the rulers. They have a plan to mistreat them. Paul finds out about it, so he flees. This takes us to the longer story of our chapter. And Luke always draws our attention with words of seeing, where he wants us to focus. He also draws our attention by giving us a speech. So here we have more of a story, so we're going to have more time here. And as we saw the gospel persecuted, we're now going to see the gospel Confused. As James read it, this story stands out in a different way. We're not sure if there was a synagogue in Leicester, but what stands out is that it doesn't say Paul first goes to the synagogue. No, the story starts out very different in this different city. There's a man, he's crippled, and Paul sees that he has faith, that would make him well, and that word make well is a word that could be used for salvation or healing. Paul sees that he has faith and so he says, stand up. He sprang up and began to walk. This is very similar to the story of Peter, early on in his ministry in Acts. Now, miracles are never ends in themselves. A miracle of healing is meant to point to a message. A miracle does one of two things, and it either brings people to faith, and they rejoice in that miracle because it brings them to recognize the message, or a miracle highlights someone who rejects the message. The miracle really demonstrates a rejection of the message or an acceptance of the message. Here, sadly, the miracle demonstrates a lack of faith. We see here that the people respond by coming to Paul and Barnabas and worshipping them as if gods. Look at verse 11. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices in their own language, that gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus, Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. This is a sad story in that the miracle points to their refusal of the message. They didn't respond by saying, what would you have us hear so that we might be saved? They respond by running in the same direction, in the wrong direction, faster. The gods. These men can heal, so they must be gods. They've come down in the likeness of men. So the people of the city, these Gentiles, they're pagans. They believe there are many gods. They all have different strengths. And the goal is to make sure that whatever gods, especially the gods in your region, is to make sure they're always happy. So what you're doing, if you're a pagan, is you're always trying to read messages in the sky, or in what happens, and you're trying to decipher, what are the gods doing? It had to make you very anxious. Always trying to figure out what kind of mood the gods must be in. How are they doing today? And then trying to figure out, what can I do to make those gods happy? And that's why they make sacrifices. It's a very controlling, frightening religion when you don't know which God you're supposed to be worshiping, which God might be angry that day, and what you need to do to make that God happy. It's a fearful and frightening religion of control. They go further. Verse 13. The priests of Zeus, whose temple is at the entrance of the city, brought oxen and garland to the gate and wanted to offer sacrifice. with the crowds. This is escalating very quickly. A great miracle happened. The gospel is coming to the city, but they have committed to worshiping these two men as gods. It's a great day of celebration for the city in their mind. The gods have come down. They've hit the jackpot. that they can do things that'll make their gods happy, and then they're gonna receive great reward, but what's really happening is very sad. This could have been the day that they stepped out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of light. This could have been the day that they put off this pagan, controlling religion of fear, and put on the gospel of grace that gives confidence and love. They reject Paul and Barnabas, what they're saying. Instead, they try to make Paul and Barnabas fit in their religion. They're trying to control their gods. They're zealous for their pagan worship. Now, this is actually quite interesting. Luke sometimes writes with humor. I'm not sure if this is one of those points or if it's just one of these sad ironies. So picture this. The pagans are coming to these human beings thinking they're gods. They're wanting to worship them. At the same time, the people they think are gods are saying, stop, we're not gods. And yet they continue to say, no, we're going to worship you as gods. There's some serious category confusion going on. If you're trying to worship someone as if a god, and they say they're not a god, you should stop worshiping that person as a god. By definition, you should be listening. They're wrapped up in their zeal. They're wrapped up in their idolatry and in their paganism, so they do not get to hear from God. Paul responds. They tear their garments. This is a declaration. This is blasphemous. They're trying to get their attention by saying, please stop doing this. The message has many parts. Look at verse 15. Men, What are you doing? Why are you doing this? It's supposed to be a reflective kind of question of judgment. What are you doing? It's kind of like God when He goes to the garden after Adam and Eve have sinned and He asks them, where are you? God knows where they are. It's supposed to be a moment of asking a question for self-reflection. Just stop a minute and think about what you're doing. What is it you're doing? We're people like you. We're flesh and blood, just like you. We have the same nature. Why are you worshipping us? There's good news in what we have to tell you, but don't worship us. He then continues, we also are men like you, nature with you, and bring you good news. We have come to tell you something that you need to hear. Now most cities, Paul goes into the synagogue and he starts reasoning from the Scriptures. There's a commonality with Paul and most of the Jews that he's going to preach to, to tell them God has been speaking and now he's fulfilling in Jesus Christ. He can't do that with these people. So he has to start further back. There's one God. Paul has to go all the way back and start with the most basic teaching. Turn from these vain things and turn to the one true living God. The first thing Paul has to call them to is an action. You have to stop worshipping these things of the creation. There's one true living God who's created all things. Turn away from this vain religion and turn to the one true living God. There's one God. He's the Creator of all that lives. He's not distant. He's not passive. He's not a God who needs gifts from man. He's a God who gives good gifts to man. He's not a God who's bound to creation. He's a God who sets apart from it and created it all. It's dependent upon Him. He's the One who created all things and gives all things. He knows us. And He desires to be known by us. Turn from your vain religion, he says, and turn to the living God who has made all things that are living. Verse 16, he continues with his message. It's a call to repentance. Turn from your way of destruction and vanity, a false religion, and turn to the one true religion of the living God. And then he gives them a bit of an explanation of what's going on. In past generations, This one true living God, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave them, himself, without a witness. Now, we need to pause here. Paul is reasoning with these Gentiles, he let the nations walk in their own way. The nations, that's us, he gave them over to their own sin, as Paul says in Romans 1. He let the nations walk in their own way. He did not speak directly and personally to all nations like he does with Moses and Joshua and David. He does not give that personal, direct word to the other nations. No, throughout the Old Testament period, up until Jesus Christ, God's been focused on one nation, the nation of Israel. Now, now, that may seem, well, that sounds unfair. Well, no. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God does not have to show grace to anyone. God does not have to save any sinner. There's no demand on Him. That's why it's called grace. What we see in the Old Testament is that God is very gracious to a particular nation. What we see now in the New Testament is that grace is going out to all nations. But it's interesting, this language that Paul gives here. He did not, in the past generations, He allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. The way we walk when God is not hindering our sin is evil. The way we walk when God is not introducing His grace and His word and His power, it's twisted, it's corrupt. We can look at these people and judge them, but we're just like them. If it weren't for God's Word, we would be idolaters even more than we are now. It's God's Word that comes down and changes who we worship and how we worship. If we just pause here, friends, this message is pretty staggering. What is implied here by Paul is that God must speak to us in order to keep us from worshiping the wrong God in the wrong way. True worship only comes from when God comes and calls us to worship. That's why every worship service, we have a call to worship from Scripture. We want God to call us into His worship, as only He can. Friends, this is why the psalmist, Psalm 119, we're going to be walking through on Wednesday night, that's why the psalmist is always praising God for His law, for His commands, for His precepts, for His prohibitions. It's good to have the Word of God because it tells us, don't do that. It's good to have the Word of God because it tells us who God is and how we can worship Him. The Word of God, it corrects us. It tells us when we need to stop it. It protects us. It says, don't do that. It directs us. It points us to God and His true worship. God's Word is good. It's perfect. It's trustworthy. And we need to be able to recognize our need for it for it to have its proper effect in us. As we look back here, Israel was blessed to have the Word of God and they did not heed it. Brothers and sisters, we have the Word of God. Let us recognize our sins so that we respond to its proper correction, protection, and direction. Let's look at what Paul says next, verse 17. He, in previous generations, let you go as you want, but he did leave you a witness. He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with fruit and gladness. What we see in this particular point is that God has left a witness. Now, it is interesting that Israel was supposed to be the witness to all the nations. Israel was given the Word of God, and they were called to be a witness to all the nations. But what Paul says here is, the witness he's focused on is the witness of all the good things God has done. He's given you rain. He's given you fruit. He's given you food. He's given you gladness. Now if you're a pagan, you take incense or an offering to a specific God and you ask God, this God, if the God of rain, if they would give you rain and then you acknowledge that God gave you rain if they respond to your gift. What Paul is saying is you've been worshiping the wrong God. You've been expecting the wrong thing to be giving you the good gifts. The one true God, He has been good to you this entire time, and you have neither given Him thanks or honor because of all the good things He's given to you. He's been giving you a witness this entire time, and you've been ignoring it because you're wrapped up in your own religion. Now verse 18. What really should be happening here is they stop, they acknowledge their sin, and they want to hear the gospel. That's what should happen here, that Paul would then say, this one true God sent his one son to die on the cross for your sins so that you might believe in the resurrected life and have a new life in the one living God. That's not what happens. Verse 18, even with these words, Words of rebuke. Words of correction. Words that should have kept them from going the right direction they were going. They scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifices to them. Here we see that these pagans, they're uncorrectable. It's a sad state of sin that the word of grace is not taking effect. This is an odd ending. Paul and Barnabas, they do have believers here. We know that. They did have the preaching of the gospel. This isn't the only story. It's the one that Luke records for us. There is rejoicing, but we see here that the city is defined by people wrapped up in their zeal for darkness. That they should have stopped and listened. If you're not a Christian this morning, I want you to see that this message is for you. If you're a Christian this morning, what Paul is saying is actually for you. Now, I'm going to go on a limb here that if you're not a Christian, I'm going to bet you're not a pagan like these people. I'm going to guess you probably don't have an icon with lights and candles around it. I'm going to guess that you don't have some kind of a shrine in your home like these people would have to worship some god somewhere and expect that they're going to give you blessings. I assume you're not like them in every way. But what the Bible tells us is that we're all, without grace, in our sin, we're idolaters. And what I assume mostly about sinners, or people who are not Christians in our culture, our sin probably is more of an indifference towards God. It's saying that I am an agnostic, I want to keep my distance from God, and I want him to keep his distance from me, Our sin isn't that we're really zealous about a particular icon like these people would have been, or a particular set of gods like these people would have been. More it's, God, why would I need him? God, that's something that seems too difficult. I need to keep my distance. I want him to keep his distance. Friends, I want you to notice God has been giving you a witness. All the good things you have, the rain, the food, the material blessings you have in this world, they came from God. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. The witness that is actually against these people, the witness that's going to hold them accountable on the Day of Judgment, is the same witness that you have right now. All the good things you have, you're neither giving God thanks or honoring Him for giving them to you. Your pretending to have indifference towards God is going to condemn you to hell. Because the one true living God is a righteous God. He is worthy of all worship and honor and praise. The good news about Christianity is this. It's not a pagan religion. We don't have to wonder what God's thinking. He spoke, He told us. We don't have to worry what kind of mood God gives in. He has steadfast love to those who believe in His Son. We don't have to wonder what does He require? What do we need to do to make Him happy? God Almighty, the righteous God, He sent His Son to do what He requires. Jesus Christ, He died on our behalf. See, what it requires of our sin is that it's judged. And in order for us not to be judged by it, He sent His Son so that His Son would be judged in our place. His Son has done everything it takes to make God happy. As a righteous man, He died for our unrighteousness. As a sinless man, He died for our sin. As a grateful man, He died for our ingratitude. So what does He require of you? Believe in Jesus Christ. What does it require of you? To stop thinking that everything you've got is there because you earned it. But to look up, to give thanks, and to give thanks most of all for that one gift, Jesus Christ. His steadfast love endures forever. He doesn't change his mind. He doesn't change his mood. He's true to his promises. He's true to his commitments. We can know this one God if we simply believe in Jesus Christ. Verse 19 shows how this ministry ended in Lystra. Notice what happens. Again, this isn't all that happens in Lystra, but Luke has chosen these stories and put them together for us in this way. The Jews from Antioch-Besadiah, where he just came from, and Iconium, having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. Now there's two ways that they would stone people. One is the way we typically think, they would just pick up whatever rocks are available right there and just start chucking at them. That sounds like a horrible way to die. They're just gonna pick up stones and start throwing them at him. Or the other way is to get large boulders and roll them over him. They're both painful. They're both showing an anger and a zeal against God and his messenger here. They stoned him. They did it so brutally that they assumed him dead. And then look at verse 20. But, When the disciples gathered about him, he rose up, he entered the city, and the next day went on with Barnabas to Derbe, where he preaches the gospel. This is really bizarre. They beat Paul so bad, black and blue, bruised and bleeding, they beat him so bad, they assume he's dead, and they left him outside of the city in the shame of his body being exposed to the elements. The disciples gather around him, and Paul pops up like nothing happened. He rose up. He marches back in. And he takes off to keep preaching the gospel. Paul has gospel grit. He's not intimidated. He's not afraid. He's not going to stop. Because he believes in the gospel he's been preaching. He believes his God is in heaven. He's risen. He's on his throne. He's going to continue the mission regardless of the opposition. Because he believed in the power of God. Look at verse 21. When they had preached the gospel in that city, he made many disciples. And then, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch. He started in Antioch. He then goes up through Cyprus. He goes into a different Antioch, which we just referred to, Lystra, Iconium. The mission ends in Derby. This is the stopping point. This is as far as the mission is going to go. Now, if it's me, I'm going to end that mission in Lystra. After he got beat. Time to pack up the bags and go home. No. Paul keeps preaching. He goes all the way to Derbe. He keeps preaching. It must have been an uneventful ministry, or simply that, in the sense of no major story here, just that the believers were coming. There was no clear persecution. But after Derbe, Paul and Barnabas, they realize, well, this is the end of the road. This is the end of how far this gospel is going to go. And then they decide to do something that is absolutely remarkable. They go back. They go back into the places that have been persecuted. They go back in the midst of danger. They go back where they have already been stolen. They go back where they've been slandered. They go back. Why? Why would they return to these cities? Well, I believe it's because they're convinced that God has sent his son to pour out his blood to purchase certain believers in each city, and those believers need to be strengthened, protected, and cared for, and they are committed to them, and so they put themselves back in the way of danger to care for them. And let's look at what that looks like, verse 21. They preach the city, they then go back through all these different cities, and they do four things. They strengthen the souls, They encourage them to continue the faith. They tell them there will be tribulation, and they appoint elders. Verse 22 through 23, this is the gospel being established. They go back through, and the first thing that he says is that they strengthen their souls. Remember chapter 14, verse 2. The unbelieving Jews, they were poisoning the souls of the believers. Paul is strengthening the souls of the believers. Those unbelieving Jews were rebellious. They were trying to twist the minds and desires of those believers. But Paul goes through and he strengthens them. This is referring to that subjective aspect of Christianity. That belief, that faith that says, stand firm. That need for us to depend upon the grace of God with courage. They didn't have the proper personal posture to have the right response. And that personal posture is connected with the next statement, that they need to be strengthened in their soul, and they needed to continue in the faith. The faith has that great declaration. It's the faith once for all handed down by the saints. This is the objective aspect of the message. You need to be strengthened in your soul, not to say you're good enough, you're smart enough, you're bright enough. No, you need to be strengthened in your soul to believe that message that Jesus Christ has come to die for your sins. They need to be strengthened in the faith, the faith that keeps them, the faith, the message they've received. And then he goes on and explains further. Why do they need to be strengthened in their soul to keep that faith? It's because through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. Notice the word must. A way of translating this would be the way we've seen it elsewhere. It is necessary to go through tribulations to enter the kingdom of God. It's necessary. It's part of the way God's kingdom worked in that tribulations come. This is why grit is so necessary. It's a dependence upon God's grace. The Christian life isn't promised to be comfortable. Quite the contrary. The Christian life is saying you will have tribulations. They're necessary. And that's why our souls, our desires, our minds need to be strengthened in the one truth of God so that we persevere. I also want to point something else about these people. The people of Lystra and Iconium especially. They live in the region of Galatia. We can turn to Paul's letter to the Galatians. These people of Galatia, they're going to face persecution. There's no doubt that the trials they're going to face, they're going to come from outside of the church in many ways. Their jobs, their security, their families, their reputations. There's going to be some trials, some tribulation that comes because they have committed to the way of Christ. But I want you to say something about this, what was revealed in the letter later written to these people. The letter to the Galatians is different than most of Paul's letters. Most of Paul's letters start out by saying, I praise God for you, I'm thankful for you, I can't wait to see you again. Not the letter to the Galatians. Look at chapter 1, verse 6. I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we've said before, so I now say again, if anyone is preaching you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. It's interesting that it's not the threat of being stoned, dragged out of the city that caused many in the church to stumble. It's an internal false teaching that caused many to stumble. Paul says that those believers turned away. We see now why it was so important for him to strengthen the souls and that he needed to do it more because many were turned away to believe in a false gospel. I bring that up because there's many problems. There's so many reasons to quit Christianity. There's so many reasons not to remain steadfast. There's so many reasons not to remain strong and committed to continuing the faith. There are external ones, there's internal ones. There's our own personal ones. A love for sin, the burden of other believers, the dangers of faithfulness, the cost of business, the cost of comfort. There's so many reasons to quit, and then there's only one real good reason to continue. Jesus Christ is risen. There's one good reason to continue on in the faith. Jesus Christ is risen. He's on His throne. He is in control. He has His eye upon His people. He loves them. We can look to Galatians 5, verse 1. That that great message, persevere, stand firm. For freedom Christ has set you free. Stand firm therefore. Do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. The last thing that we see Paul doing as he's going from church to church, from city to city, is that he appoints apostles. He appoints elders. Sorry. He appoints elders. Verse 23. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Now, whenever there were the rebellious Jews poisoning the minds of the believing Gentiles and the Jews, Paul stays longer because they need protected. The believers, they need protected. And what Paul does here is ensure that there's going to be a long-term plan of protection because Paul and Barnabas, they can't stay in every city. They're going to go back to Antioch. And this is why Paul goes through and he appoints elders. He commands Titus and Timothy to do the same thing, to put the church in order. The elders are there to continue that building up of the church in the Word of God. The elders are there to continue to protect the church from those persecutions and false teachers. I want to say that I praise God that He has given us elders who strive to make much of Christ by submitting themselves to His Word of God for your good. Church, we have elders. You've affirmed them. They have labored intensively in the Word of God and in prayer. And I'm asking you now to affirm them today by trusting them to lead us through our present tribulation and whatever tribulation's gonna come after. We will be stronger standing together as a united body for the glory of Jesus Christ. There are men who have a fear of God that leads them to pray for wisdom. There are men who trust God's Word as sufficient, clear, authoritative, and necessary. There are men who have loved you and have sacrificed for you, and they've never complained about it. Are we as elders perfect? No, we are not. Have we as elders made mistakes? Yes, we have, and we will do so again. But we trust by the power of His Spirit, by the grace of God, as we continue to seek wisdom from His Word, He will continue to keep us. Elders, let me exhort us as Paul did the elders in the church of Ephesus in Acts 20 verse 28. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. This is a high, heavy calling. Will you pray for us? as we seek to lead you to the one who has purchased you with his own blood. As this first missionary endeavor ends, the gospel is celebrated. Verse 24 to 28. They come back, they are commended for being faithful to that work. The Holy Spirit set them apart. They have finished that work, so they are commended. And then they come and they gather the church together. Verse 27. And they declare all that God has done with them. The primary one being that the door of faith has been opened to the Gentiles. And this first missionary journey leads us to a very climactic point in Acts 15 when the Jews and the Gentiles have their differences settled. What we're going to see next is really what has to take place as different people are going to come together and have to learn to live together as one new kind of people. The Jerusalem Council follows because the Jews and the Gentiles, they have to learn how to do what we're about to do together. Have communion. Have the one thing in common that keeps us in common, and that is Jesus Christ. They're from different cultures, they have different dietary issues, they have different rules and regulations, but all that gets sets apart for the purpose of being united in Christ. People in Antioch, they rejoice. And Paul and Barnabas, they stay with them. I wanted to simply challenge us as we prepare to celebrate. We're celebrating the death of our Savior. We're celebrating that which keeps us together. We recognize that we all have our own past, we all have our own presuppositions, we all have our own sin. As Chris prayed for, we first recognized, God, against you and you alone have I sinned. God, against you have I sinned. And it's caused ripple effects and consequences for my fellow believers. And so we think about the body as we prepare for the Lord's Supper. And it's that one moment where we all get to say, we are unworthy to be with Christ. We are unworthy to be with one another. But Christ's death, His grace is sufficient. His Spirit is with us to unite us in the blood of Christ. For the God, for the glory of God. Will you pray with us? Father, we thank you that you have spoken. You've spoken to stop us in our way to destruction. You've stopped us and you've called us to that narrow way, the way of Christ, the way of grace. And we thank you that you've given us your spirit so that we might not only be on that way, but persevere. We thank you for this act of the Lord's Supper. that reminds us of our sin, reminds us of the sins all around us, reminds us that we can all come to you. We can all be united in the name of Christ because of what He has done for us. Give us the grace to persevere. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.