Sugar Land Bible Church

Dr. Andy Woods: Let's take our Bibles this evening and open them to the book of Acts, chapter 15 and verse 36. Lord willing, we're going to finish the chapter tonight. Acts 15 has been a pivotal chapter as we've studied it.

Jesus, his words recorded here giving us the outline of the book, says you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. That's chapters one through seven of the book of Acts. Judea and Samaria, that's chapters eight through twelve of Acts. Then to the remote parts of the earth, that's chapter 13 through the end of the book of Acts.

That larger section which we're in dealt with Paul's first missionary journey, Acts 13 and 14. Then we saw the church take a quantum leap forward with a decision that was made called the Jerusalem Council, where now it's been decided that Gentiles that are now saved—and many of them got saved, most of them got saved on Paul's first missionary journey—these Gentiles don't have to come under the Law of Moses to join the church. That's a huge decision, the reverberations of which we're still enjoying 2,000 years later.

With that in our rearview mirror, and it took a while to get through that section and we took our time with it because it is so pivotal towards understanding what the church is today, we're now ready to look at Paul's second missionary journey. It starts in verse 36 and goes all the way through chapter 18, verse 22. This is what it looks like.

Paul the Apostle always began his missionary journeys from the sending church in Antioch. This is where Paul is going to go, and he's going to retrace some of his steps through Southern Galatia. He's going to get into Asia a little bit, then he's going to receive a vision, which we're going to see in the next chapter, called the Macedonian Call, which will take him up into this area here.

He'll make a round trip, stop briefly in Ephesus, come back to Jerusalem, and then travel from Jerusalem back to Antioch in preparation for his third missionary journey. This is new terrain and new territory that is being covered in this missionary journey. There's a map of the first journey, which we've studied in Acts 13 and 14. You'll notice it was impressive, but it was small in comparison to what's coming.

Paul, on the third missionary journey, is going to basically retrace a lot of his steps on the second missionary journey. Finally, the Apostle Paul is going to, at the very end of the book of Acts, get beyond Macedonia and get the Gospel all the way to Rome. That's where Luke cuts off. The book of Acts will end at that point because of the statement, "all roads lead to Rome." It's understood that once it hits Rome, it's going to go everywhere.

With that being said, here are all the places he's going to venture into on missionary journey number two: Syria and Cilicia. He's going to get a vision called the Macedonian Call in chapter 16, which will take him to Macedonia. Then he's going to get into Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. He'll get into Athens, where he'll give that great speech on Mars Hill. He'll get to Corinth, he'll get over into Ephesus, and then he'll return to Antioch.

Here's where we are on the journey, just at the very beginning of number two. This is interesting. You think if someone is in God's will doing God's work like Paul was, then it would be smooth sailing all the time. But what is interesting is this very fruitful missionary journey that he's about to engage in starts with an argument between two men of God that don't see eye to eye on something.

I'll show you the Greek word that's used to describe this argument they got into, but it was a point of boiling heads, a point of contention that was so severe that it caused a rift in the missionary team. One group went one way, and Paul and Silas went a different way. Sometimes before God uses you, there's a time of conflict.

I've noticed that in my own life and our own church. Our staff talks about this all the time, that when something big is about to happen, there's all this kind of internal problem and conflict. Even in preparation for the Prophet Conference coming up, there are all these little issues that come up about deadlines and this and that. It's to the point where it excites us because we know God is getting ready to do something big.

If you're in a conflict, we have a tendency to look at that as negative, but it could be that God is getting ready to do something big and Satan is trying to discourage us before we get off the runway. That kind of thing is happening here with Paul and Barnabas. That's what happens at the end of chapter 15, and that's what launches or inaugurates the second missionary journey.

Here's a quick outline of this conflict, which will take us to the end of chapter 15. It begins with Paul's suggestion. Notice, if you will, Acts 15:36. "After some days." After what? Well, after the decision that we read about in Acts 15 had been handed down and word of that decision reached Antioch. "After some days Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.'"

You'll notice the word "brethren" and that Paul's ministry philosophy is to retrace his steps and visit the churches that he planted a year or so earlier, actually a little over a year earlier in Acts 13 and 14. You have a different philosophy of ministry than what you have in most missionary teams. Most missionaries look at it as we've got to make new ground, get the Gospel to new people, get this people group off our checklist, etc. It's all about the Gospel to fresh converts or would-be fresh converts, meaning we've got to get the Gospel to new people.

With Paul, it's more sophisticated than that. Paul is not just interested in conversions; he's interested in disciples. At the end of the day, what is the Great Commission? You know the verses well. Matthew 28:18 and following says, "And Jesus came and spoke to them, to the disciples, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples,' not believers."

Making a believer is a big deal; that's a heaven or hell issue. But you'll notice that the calling of God is much broader than just going out and evangelizing the lost, as important as that is. It's helping the lost develop. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them." You can't make a disciple unless you're teaching. "Teaching them to observe all." You can't make disciples if you're going to do piecemeal through the Bible; you've got to teach the whole Bible. "Teaching them all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age."

Our calling is not just to make converts or believers; our calling is to make disciples. It's the equivalent of taking a newborn home from the hospital upon birth and then putting them in the center of the kitchen floor and saying, "Help yourself to a ham sandwich when you get hungry." Obviously, that's a ridiculous proposition because a newborn can't fend for themselves. They have to be nurtured, nourished, fed, and brought along.

Get that image in your mind. That's what happens when we start to focus just on evangelism and not discipleship. Paul was focused on both. It wasn't discipleship at the expense of evangelism, and it wasn't evangelism at the expense of discipleship. It was both, where he wanted to retrace his steps to see how those churches on missionary journey number one, those new believers, were doing because they were being seduced by false teaching.

That's what the book of Galatians is about, where Paul says, "I am amazed that you're so soon deserting me on the Gospel and how you've been bewitched, you foolish Galatians." There's a lot of growing that has to happen in these new converts, and that's why Paul wants to retrace his steps.

A lot of mission teams or missionary endeavors, when you listen to them, say things like, "We're going to fulfill the Great Commission," and they give some year like by the year 2050. I'm here to say that we will never fulfill the Great Commission. The Great Commission will always be in need of fulfillment because the Great Commission is more than just reaching unreached people groups. It's helping people that are new converts to grow, and people never outgrow their need for discipleship and edification.

When somebody is saying we're going to fulfill the Great Commission by such and such a date, I always cringe because that's not what the Great Commission is. The Great Commission isn't just evangelism; the Great Commission is discipleship. That's what you see Paul manifesting here.

Paul says something very interesting in the book of Galatians, which at this point had already been written. It's funny, it's one of those verses that's in your Bible that I hardly hear anybody talk about, but there it is. He says to the Galatians, "My little children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you." He's talking to believers because he calls them "my little children," and then he says, "I'm in labor with you all over again. I'm in labor with you a second time."

The first time I was in labor with you, it was evangelistic. Now I want to see you mature and grow, so I'm in labor with you all over again. This is how the Apostle Paul felt. He was more than a great evangelist; he was an edifier, he was a theologian, and he was a pastor. He had a very broad view of the Great Commission.

When Paul goes to Rome and goes to prison, he will write this in the book of Ephesians, one of his first prison letters. I think this might have been the first one. He would say, "He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and then some as pastor-teachers." I think pastor-teachers is the Granville Sharp rule there, where if you have a definite article in front of two nouns joined by a conjunction, then the nouns are equal. It's talking about a gift that God put in the body of Christ called the gift of pastor-teacher, which is different than an evangelist.

The evangelist is working with the lost. The pastor-teacher is working with the saints. It's the difference between an obstetrician and a pediatrician. An obstetrician helps with the birthing process; a pediatrician helps the newborn grow. Those are different spiritual gifts. Rarely do you find someone that has both gifts. I know a few, but it's not that common.

God gave evangelists for new converts, but he gave the gift of pastor-teacher for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of a stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. If people aren't maturing within a flock, that's the fault of the pastor-teacher. The pastor-teacher is supposed to bring the flock to maturity.

How do you know if you're reaching maturity? As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried away by every wind of doctrine and trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming. You know you're reaching maturity—none of us fully arrives, obviously, this side of eternity—but you're less gullible. You have a knowledge of the Word where you're checking things by the Word that you hear to see if they're true.

When a newborn crawls on the floor, everything they see on the floor, they put in their mouth. Everything. If the child is doing that at age 16, there's a developmental problem. As you mature as a Christian, you don't just absorb every little thing you hear and react emotionally to it. You start to develop a sense of discernment: this is good for me, this is not good for me. I'll put this in my mouth; I won't put that in my mouth. You start to screen what you hear, what you listen to, and who you listen to. That's a sign of coming of age as a Christian.

Then you know you're maturing when you start speaking the truth in love, which is hard. I'm pretty good at speaking the truth; I don't know if I always do it in love. Speaking the truth in love is rare to find someone that can do that. We are to grow up in him in all aspects of him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part.

You start to take on ministry responsibility. You understand that the ministry belongs to the laity, the people of God, whatever your ministry is. The job of the pastor-teacher is to equip you for that through the Word of God, which equips us for every good work, 2 Timothy 3:17, which causes the growth of the body, building itself up in love. If you can wrap your mind around these verses here, you can understand Paul's missionary philosophy and the philosophy that we pursue here at Sugar Land Bible Church.

Going back to verse 36, it says, "After some days Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.'" We've got a bunch of newborns; let's see if they're developing properly. This becomes the direction that Paul is going to move in the second missionary journey. He's going to retrace some of his steps in this area here that he hit on the first missionary journey, and he's going to keep moving into Asia.

Then he's going to get that Macedonian man vision, or calling or dream—I think it's described as a vision—which will push him into Europe for the first time. That's what we see coming. That's what Paul wants to do, and now Barnabas, who was with Paul on the first missionary journey, has an idea. It was Paul and Barnabas that, when they got back from the first missionary journey, went up to Jerusalem to submit this issue of the Law of Moses to the elders and apostles. They got a ruling and came back to Antioch.

Paul and Barnabas have been as thick as thieves, buddies, pals, and ministry partners for all of this time. But right here is where a rupture between the two happens. That's why I say not everything in ministry is always smooth sailing. Verse 37 says what Barnabas wanted to do: "Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also."

"Hey, let's take John Mark with us on the second missionary journey." Now why would Barnabas want to do that? Well, he wanted to do that because there's a family relationship between the two that's given over in the book of Colossians 4:10. It talks about Barnabas's cousin Mark. His name is John Mark. He's family, he's a pal, he's your pal, I'm your pal, you're my friend, I'm your friend, he's our friend. Let's all hold hands together and go on missionary journey number two together at your suggestion, Paul, and let's take John Mark with us.

Paul's answer is, "No way, Jose. We are not taking that kid on the second missionary journey." Why's that? Because that kid bailed out on us on the first missionary journey. Why in the world would you take him on the second missionary journey? People that have family relationships can be this way. They want to promote their genealogical or biological family in a ministry, and sometimes they do that at the expense of looking at the character of the person.

When Paul lays out the qualifications for elders and deacons, he doesn't say put your uncle in there, put grandpa in there, or put your son in there. When Paul's writing to Timothy, he doesn't mention anything like that. He mentions character qualities. You promote people not based on nepotism but on the content of their character.

Sometimes when you have a family member that you want to see promoted, there's a real tendency to overlook character deficiencies. This is a situation where Barnabas is kind of looking at this through family lenses, and he's not acknowledging, or at least doesn't bring up here, that John Mark actually quit for whatever reason on the first missionary journey.

You remember what happened on the first missionary journey. They left from Antioch, they spent a little time there in Cyprus, and they traveled from Cyprus to Perga in Pamphylia. Once they hit the mainland, which is modern-day Turkey, John Mark bailed out. We're not really told why; we're just told he left.

That was back in Acts 13:13. It says, "Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos," Paphos is here on Cyprus, "and came to Perga in Pamphylia, but John left them," and here's John Mark's trip, the green line, "John Mark left and went back to Jerusalem." He left.

The group is reunited as they're getting ready for missionary journey number two, and this becomes the reason, I think, why Paul doesn't want John Mark to go on missionary journey number two. But Barnabas wants him to go. We have a conflict. Men of God have conflicts sometimes; they don't always see eye to eye on everything.

You can just come to some of our elder meetings sometime and watch that. We try to handle disagreements in a Christ-like, agreeable fashion, but sometimes one spiritual leader has one particular grid through which he views things, and another one has another spiritual grid by which they view things, and it can lead to some sharp disagreements. It's not necessarily personal; it's not like you're attacking the other side. But sometimes those kind of discussions can get a little bit heated.

When those kind of things happen, it's tempting to think we must be outside of God's will. But the truth of the matter is Paul went through that kind of stuff. This is a disagreement that Paul had with Barnabas. I think Paul is looking at this through the eyes of character. If John Mark quit on the first journey, he's going to quit on the second journey.

Maybe Paul is thinking about a verse like this from the teachings of Christ, Luke 16:10: "He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; but he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much." If you quit on number one, you're going to quit on number two. Why should we promote you if you have a character of a lack of perseverance?

When Paul lays out the qualifications for elders, he says of an elder, "He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity." Then he adds this parenthetical statement in 2 Timothy 3:5: "But if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?" Which is a great question. If your kids are running wild, how in the world are you going to lead God's sheep and God's people?

This is a pretty good rule of thumb when you put anybody into a place of authority. You guys give us recommendations for elders and deacons. These are things you look at. Would so-and-so, based on what they've done in the smaller things, be a good elder or deacon? Do they have the type of character that has demonstrated itself on a smaller stage? That same character will follow them onto a larger stage because if someone is a disaster on a smaller stage, the character doesn't change just because you put a bigger spotlight on them. It just makes their errors more egregious, public, and sometimes damaging.

Paul is really into this issue of character. He doesn't even talk about abilities very much. He just makes this statement about elders: they have to be apt to teach. He doesn't even use the word charisma or charismata for having a particular spiritual gift. We in the West are the opposite. We like talent. We like to promote talented people because that's how it works in the marketplace. If someone is talented, we want to move them right up the line. I notice that Paul really doesn't think that way; he thinks in terms of people's character.

Now you have this refusal from Paul, and that leads to a schism, verse 39, between Paul and Barnabas. Notice how this verse reads. I'm reading out of an English translation called the New American Standard Bible, the 1995 update is the one we use here. But whatever English translation you use, notice how interesting this translation is. It says, "And there occurred a sharp disagreement." They weren't just disagreeing. I'll show you the Greek word in a second. This was like a collision course, like a train wreck right here.

"There occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another; Barnabas took Mark, his relative, and with him sailed to Cyprus." Then verse 40 says Paul and Silas left and went in route on missionary journey number two.

I remember Dr. Charles Swindoll teaching on this passage in one of the chapels at Dallas Seminary, and it was a pretty powerful message because he pointed out the Greek word and the sharp disagreement between these two men of God. Two men that were given over to the work of God, two men that probably loved the Lord equally. These guys really stuck it out on the first missionary journey, both of them. As was brought up in the delivery of the decision, they had risked their lives on missionary journey number one, so we're not dealing with carnal Christians here. They just went into this sharp disagreement.

The Greek word for contention is *paroxusmos*, I think is how you say that, which means not just a disagreement, but a sharp disagreement, and if that weren't descriptive enough, a very sharp disagreement. It seems that Barnabas, whose name means son of consolation, lost his temper. Now Arnold Fruchtenbaum might be reading a little bit into that because I don't see it saying he lost his temper, but maybe he's right. I wasn't there.

But I know in those kind of situations, it's easy to lose your temper. I'm textbook A on that, by the way. He lost his temper during the lengthy discussion. Barnabas stuck with his position to take Mark with him, and the dispute led to his departure. The word for "parted asunder" means to separate and to sever. There was no personal slander that we know of. They disagreed sharply only over the issue at hand, but Arnold says it was an apocalyptic disaster.

I'm not sure if it was a disaster because God can take things like this and use them. Now we don't just have one missionary team; we've got two, which means they can cover more ground. Maybe God allowed this to happen to allow the Gospel to get to more people, and maybe that's why Luke, who's trying to record for us the birth and growth and progress of the church, brings this to our attention.

The same kind of thing happened with then Abram, whose name became Abraham later, and Lot. Remember there was a separation between the two. Abraham said to Lot, "If you take this area over here, I'll go the opposite direction. If you want to go and take this area over here, I'll go the opposite direction because there's not enough land to sustain our cattle." There was a split between Abraham and Lot.

Lot, apparently walking by sight, saw the lush land that he wanted to go to, and Abraham, walking by faith, allowed Lot to have the first choice. Lot chose on the basis of sight; Abraham went the opposite direction by faith. That's why Lot ended up in Sodom and Gomorrah, but there was a split between the two in Genesis 13:9. It says, "Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me; if to the left, then I will go to the right; or if to the right, then I will go to the left."

Some of the best advice I ever got in ministry is wherever God puts you, that's where you want to be. Don't pick an area of the country or a church you want to go to by sight; go there because you think the Holy Spirit put you there because that's where the place of blessing is for you. It's the walk of faith and the walk of obedience. So many times we're looking at the external things: how big is the church, where's it located, what kind of budget do they have, do they have a good dental plan.

I like what Coach Jim Valvano said to one of his guys that was interviewing for an assistant coaching job. Valvano decided this was not the guy he wanted as his assistant coach, but the guy said something like, "Do you guys have a good dental plan?" And Valvano said, "Here's the dental plan: the dental plan is the alumni won't kick our teeth in because we keep winning. That's the dental plan." I always thought that was kind of funny. Maybe you guys don't think that's funny, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Abram went on the basis of sight; Abraham went on the basis of faith and there was a split. So a similar split is happening here. Now we have two mission teams instead of one. Sometimes a disagreement can lead to greater results.

And I'm happy to report that there's a happy ending to this whole thing because Mark, who Paul did not want to go on missionary journey two, ends up reunited with Paul at the end of his life. Sometimes God can take a relationship that's estranged, two people are estranged from each other, and God can work in such a way that there's a reuniting of the parties. That's what happened between Paul and John Mark.

In spite of their disagreement over Mark, Paul and Barnabas maintained fellowship. This is evident from 1 Corinthians 9:6, which was written during the third missionary journey and shows that the schism had healed. Paul eventually was reunited with Barnabas, the one that he had this disagreement with, and then Paul was also reunited with Mark, the person that the disagreement was over.

Colossians 4:10 also shows they maintained their fellowship. Furthermore, Paul himself was reconciled to Mark later on. There are three verses in the Bible, one of them we just read, Colossians 4:10, indicating that the two were reunited at the end of Paul's life when he made it to Rome during his first imprisonment. Colossians 4:10 says, "Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, sends you his greetings; and also Barnabas' cousin Mark, about whom you received instructions; if he comes to you, welcome him."

Paul mentions Mark in Philemon 24, also one of Paul's prison letters. Then there's one of my favorite books in the whole Bible, 2 Timothy. I've preached through that here at this church, Paul's swan song. The last things on his mind before he dies. What a book that is. He says in 2 Timothy 4:11, "I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand." People really start to spill their guts when they're getting ready to die and they know they're about to die. There Paul talks about Mark and how the two were reunited.

If you're living in this world, you've obviously had relationship trauma with somebody: friends, bosses, parents, cousins, family. It's just part of ministry; it's just part of the unfortunate reality of living in a fallen world. But it's encouraging that God can actually take those estranged relationships and put them back together. That's what happened with Paul and Barnabas, and that's what happened with Paul and Mark.

Luke probably records this for the benefit of Theophilus, his audience, because he's trying to show the growth of the church. He may record this to show how the church grew numerically because now we have two missionary teams instead of one. His goal is to present Theophilus with an orderly account of the birth and growth of the church so as to affirm him, Theophilus, in what he has believed.

Luke is documenting in the book of Acts the birth and growth of the church numerically, geographically, and ethnically. How the church transitioned from being an institution of Judaism to an institution dominated by the Gentiles. He's using all of these places of geography which we're reading about here to show how the Gospel moved from Jerusalem to Rome where Theophilus was. Then he's giving us these progress reports of how the church grew numerically. Two missionary teams instead of one covers more ground, covers more geography, gains more converts, gains more disciples, and that may be why Luke includes this for Theophilus's benefit.

But what happens is Barnabas and Mark, who go to Cyprus, drop off the radar screen. Luke stops talking about them and he keeps the spotlight on Paul and Silas as they went on the second missionary journey. Why does Luke do that? Is he saying that Barnabas and Mark are unimportant? No. His point is to put the spotlight on two apostles, Peter and Paul. Sometimes people call the book of Acts the acts of the Holy Spirit, and that probably isn't true. The book of Acts is about the acts of the apostles.

Two apostles are in view: Peter, who had a Jewish ministry, and Paul, who had a Gentile ministry. Because the Gentile ministry reached Theophilus, Luke is trying to show that Paul's ministry is just as legitimate as Peter's. We don't get any more commentary on what happened to Barnabas and Mark other than they went to Cyprus, not because God doesn't love them and God didn't use them; it's just not germane to the themes that Luke is discussing.

Anyway, where did those two go? We just have this one little line here. It says, "Barnabas took Mark," after this disagreement, "with him and sailed to Cyprus." They were together in Antioch and they sailed to the island of Cyprus, a place where the Gospel had already penetrated in the first missionary journey. They went there, no doubt, to win more converts and to edify the saints that were there. Other than that, we don't know anything else about that team because the focus is going to be on Paul and Silas, who are going to move out into missionary journey number two.

Then we come to verse 40. Who's going to replace Barnabas? It was Paul and Barnabas the whole time, partners. Now there's a vacancy. Who's going to replace Barnabas as Paul is going on the second missionary journey? Well, we have the answer in verse 40. "Paul chose Silas."

We know a little bit about Silas. Paul chose Silas and left, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. Antioch, the sending church, didn't hold against Paul this disagreement he had with Barnabas; they just said, "Praise the Lord. Paul, you're going to go your way; Barnabas and Mark, they're going to go their way; and we're going to just go ahead and send you off, Paul, with the blessing of the Lord. We're going to commend you to the grace of the Lord."

When I post these sermons, it wants me to give a title to the sermon, which are not always easy to come up with. Sometimes my titles read like dissertation topics which bore everybody to death; I've got to make them interesting a little bit. They've got to be short because the computer only accepts so many letters. What I decided to call this is "A Grace Operation." If you want the full title, which the computer doesn't show you, the full title is "A Grace Operation From Beginning to End."

That's what this is. These guys were saved by grace, they were empowered by grace—you know what grace is, unmerited favor, the Greek word *charis*—they grew by grace, they made decisions by grace, and they went on missionary journeys by grace. The whole operation here is a grace operation from beginning to end, which is really what I want for Sugar Land Bible Church. I want it to be a grace operation from beginning to end. Everything that's done here is by God's grace, his unmerited favor, and not just salvation, but his empowerment to do things. I'm always praying that the grace of God would dominate this church.

The book of Galatians, already written, Paul says to the Galatians, "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" The Galatians had gotten legalistic, and they were Christians because they had the Spirit. Paul says you guys are foolish. You got into this whole thing through the grace of God; do you think you're going to grow by any other way? Do you think you're going to grow by human power and self-will and white-knuckling it and trying to live up in your own power to some legalistic standard? That's foolishness.

Yet we think this way. We think we're saved by grace, then I think I can go out and live the Christian life by my own power, and I've fallen for the Galatian heresy when I do that. The Bible calls me foolish. What we desperately need in our lives is a grace operation from beginning to end.

Who was this guy Silas? You already know a lot about him. He was one of the guys chosen to deliver the Jerusalem Council ruling. The second man named was Silas, which was his Hebrew name, about whom much more is known. His Roman name is Silvanus. He became Paul's companion on his second missionary journey, which we're going to read about as we move into this second missionary journey.

He is also mentioned several times in the epistles. According to Acts 15:32, he had the gift of prophecy. Judas, the other guy that was picked, and Silas were chief men among the brethren. They were leaders of the church at Jerusalem. This gave them authoritative standing for what they had to say to the church. These were the two men selected to deliver the Jerusalem Council ruling to Antioch.

Elsewhere Arnold Fruchtenbaum says Silas was a key individual; he was a leading Jerusalem believer. He had the gift of prophecy, apparently receiving direct revelation from God. He, like Paul, was a Roman citizen, which was helpful to him later in the next chapter. In the book of Acts, while Silas was associated with Paul at times, he was also associated with Peter. You'll see Silas's name connected to Peter also in 1 Peter 5:12.

Look at this, only one more verse left. Verse 41: "And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches." Look at how Luke is interested in geography. Look at how many pieces of geography have been mentioned just in this paragraph. There Paul and Silas went on the second missionary journey starting from Antioch, traveling through Syria which is up north, Cilicia which is up north.

Look at the focus of Paul's ministry. It doesn't say here making new converts, although Paul was into that, no doubt, but strengthening the churches. Trying to strengthen believers that were new believers because Paul understood that the Great Commission is not just go into the world and preach the Gospel; it's go into the world and make disciples of all nations.

Some of these verses that I gave you last week demonstrate the importance of new believers being nurtured on God's Word. Jesus in Matthew 4:4, quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, says, "Man shall not live," which is very important, living, "on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."

"Andy, why do you keep teaching the Bible verse-by-verse?" Because that's the only way to cover every word. Would you ever hear a lesson on this conflict if you weren't going verse-by-verse? If the pastors just dealing with these broad topical studies every Sunday, you would never even hear of this encounter between Paul and Barnabas. That's what I love about verse-by-verse teaching; it forces me to teach about things I would never talk about on my own volition.

The early church, Acts 2:42, gave themselves—they devoted themselves—to apostolic teaching because if they could get that down, they could understand everything else on this list. Paul, when he speaks to the Ephesian elders towards the end of his third missionary journey, would say, "Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God."

If you have a way of teaching the whole purpose of God without going verse-by-verse, please let me know, because this is the only way I know how to do it. We should do it in the church because the church, 1 Timothy 3:15, is the pillar and the support of the truth. Just like these pillars in this building hold it up, that's what the church is supposed to do in society. It's a pillar of truth holding society up. If society is going down the tubes, don't blame Washington D.C.; blame the churches.

Paul would later say at the end of his life, 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17, "All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequately equipped for every good work." That's what church is about. It's about equipping you for your life, wherever you are in your ministry, your family, your business, your relationships. The Word of God makes a promise that when it's declared, it does not return void or empty; it accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent.

Dan Wallace says and of 2 Timothy, which is teaching a pastor how to be a pastor, "By my count there are 27 explicit commands given in the body of this letter, 2 Timothy. In 27 words Paul tells pastors what to focus on. You would have to be blind to miss the thrust of Paul's instructions here because 18 of those commands, fully two-thirds, have to do with the ministry of the Word."

That's basically my job: study, teach, study, teach, study, teach. We've already seen Ephesians 4:11-16, the gift of pastor-teacher. We're underway, missionary journey two. I would encourage you to read the 16th chapter for next time and we'll take a look at where Paul and Silas went.

Let's pray. Lord, we're grateful for Your Word, grateful for Your truth, grateful for how You can even work so sovereignly and providentially in our lives that even You can use conflicts, which are never pleasant, to accomplish Your perfect will. For those that are within the sound of my voice that maybe are in an unpleasant season of life, help them to take heart because You can use unfortunate circumstances to bring about favorable results. Help us to walk this out by faith this week. We'll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus' name. God's people said, amen.