A Watershed Moment (4 of 22)
Series: UnStoppable - Acts
Tim Badal
Acts 15:1-32
Acts 15 tells us of the journey of Paul and Barnabas, which started in Cyprus and then moved up to the region that today is known as Turkey. Even though they were kicked out of a few cities, God still used them to do mighty things. Even though Paul was stoned and nearly killed, their mission was still a huge success. People came to know Jesus and churches were planted-some of which are still in existence today.
When Paul and Barnabas returned to the church in Antioch, we're told in Acts 14:27 that ''...they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.'' This gives us some clues regarding our task today. These men spoke only of what God was doing. There wasn't any mention of how their work week had gone or anything about that big football game. When we gather together as God's people, our attention should be given to the big things-about what God is doing and about the open doors we have for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
My challenge to us is that these open doors might become the themes in our conversations. Those other things might be important, but God's work should be our focus. The things Paul and Barnabas told their church brought great encouragement and strength to the disciples there. In the same way, there are people among us who need to be encouraged, who need to hear how God has moved specifically in our lives or how He has used us in ministry, so they too might be spurred on to love and good deeds themselves.
So far in Acts, everything seems to be going well. The church was growing. As our title indicates, nothing seemed to be able to stop the expanding work of Christ in their midst. But all that is about to change in Acts 15. In this chapter, we see that the believers had an enemy who would stop them in their tracks.
Was it persecution? No, they had already experienced that for many years and ...
Series: UnStoppable - Acts
Tim Badal
Acts 15:1-32
Acts 15 tells us of the journey of Paul and Barnabas, which started in Cyprus and then moved up to the region that today is known as Turkey. Even though they were kicked out of a few cities, God still used them to do mighty things. Even though Paul was stoned and nearly killed, their mission was still a huge success. People came to know Jesus and churches were planted-some of which are still in existence today.
When Paul and Barnabas returned to the church in Antioch, we're told in Acts 14:27 that ''...they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.'' This gives us some clues regarding our task today. These men spoke only of what God was doing. There wasn't any mention of how their work week had gone or anything about that big football game. When we gather together as God's people, our attention should be given to the big things-about what God is doing and about the open doors we have for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.
My challenge to us is that these open doors might become the themes in our conversations. Those other things might be important, but God's work should be our focus. The things Paul and Barnabas told their church brought great encouragement and strength to the disciples there. In the same way, there are people among us who need to be encouraged, who need to hear how God has moved specifically in our lives or how He has used us in ministry, so they too might be spurred on to love and good deeds themselves.
So far in Acts, everything seems to be going well. The church was growing. As our title indicates, nothing seemed to be able to stop the expanding work of Christ in their midst. But all that is about to change in Acts 15. In this chapter, we see that the believers had an enemy who would stop them in their tracks.
Was it persecution? No, they had already experienced that for many years and ...
There are 39648 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
