The Word Made Plain

Guest (Female): Welcome to the Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts Chapter 13 verses 13 through 15.

Tony Clark: In Acts 12:25, it says, "And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem." In Acts 13:1, Barnabas is listed first in describing the leaders in the church. In Acts 13:2, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I've called them." Now in this verse, it is Paul and his party. Paul is now being thrust in the forefront, being exalted to a place of honor. If this were to happen to you, will you be ready? "Oh, yes, I would be ready," some of you would quickly say. "I've been waiting on this for years. It is about time." You are not ready with that attitude.

Remember Psalm 75:6-7 says exaltation or promotion neither comes from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south, but God is judge. He puts one down and exalts another. The Lord was exalting Paul at this point and at this particular time. I believe the test for Paul was how he handled Bar-Jesus and Sergius Paulus in verses 4 through 12. Once God saw how Paul handled being filled with the Holy Spirit, it is as if God said, "He is ready now."

The question is, are you ready? A lot of you on social media when I put this title on what the title of today was going to be, many of you said, "I'm ready, I'm ready." When you think you are, you are not. And when you think you're not ready, then that's when you're close to being ready. See, when you see yourself as not being ready is when you will lean and depend upon the Lord and His power. When you think that you're ready is when you will be tempted to go out in your own power and your own strength.

So whenever you think, "I'm ready for the next whatever," you're not ready. You're not ready. Oh, some of you thought you were ready. I'm looking at you now. You thought you were ready. You thought the boss was going to be calling you in and say you're ready. You're not ready. You're not ready yet. And we're going to see how to get ready. Now on the other hand, what about Barnabas? It shows that he was a humble man as well because it looked like he handled the exaltation of Paul very well.

What about you? What if you trained someone on the job and after a period of time the boss exalted them and made them your boss? Would you become bitter, angry? Watch this: less productive? Because you're all in your feelings? Ready to leave? Not Barnabas. He was well aware of Psalm 75:6-7 and how God exalts one and puts another down. This kind of thing hits our pride hard, which is what it's designed to do. It's designed to humble us.

If you had this situation happen to you, it just shows God is trying to humble you. There's still some pride and some self-exaltation that God still has to rid your life of. So as Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, which was on the southwest part of Cyprus, they came to Perga, which was a major city in Pamphylia, which is in Asia Minor or modern-day Turkey. The last part of verse 13, I find was amazing. It says, "John departing from them returned to Jerusalem."

Wait a minute, John Mark goes back home? I say that he went back home because Acts 12:12 tells us that he was from Jerusalem. We're not told why he went back home, but what we know, what we do know is that Paul didn't think it was a legitimate or good enough reason to go back home. Maybe he was homesick. Just maybe. Maybe he resented Paul being in charge now instead of Barnabas. Who knows? We don't know the reason.

What we do know is that Paul didn't think it was legitimate enough. I say this because in Acts 15:36-41, Paul wanted to go back out to visit the churches they established, and Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them. Paul said, "No! Don't you remember he left us and went back home?" Barnabas was like, "Yeah, Paul, but he has changed." "Barnie, you're only saying this because he's your nephew." "No, Paul, no. I've been encouraging him and he's ready to go."

"No! He may not go with us. He may run back home again." Acts 15:39 says that the contention between them became so sharp that they departed from one another, and Barnabas took John Mark and Paul chose a man named Silas according to Acts 15:40. And so this gives us some insights on why John Mark went back home. My wife told me not to say he might've been a mama's boy and wanted to go back home. Many of you are raising mama's boys.

You know who you are, raising mama's boys. Maybe John Mark was, I don't know. She told me not to say that, but I did anyway. I'm sorry. Normally I get in trouble when she tells me not to say something and I do it anyway, but anyway, you're raising mama's boys. Okay, so he goes back home. And so we have to understand at this particular time, preaching the Gospel was not like the glory it is today. The glamour, the glitz, and the spotlight and your name all over social media and you're the man.

You're on TV and all over the place. It was nothing like that. It was a very dangerous thing to preach the Gospel. Your life was at stake at all times. You could be beaten, whipped, stoned with rocks, put into prison, or even put to death. All of these things Paul and Silas experienced according to 2 Corinthians 11:22-27. And John Mark said, "I'm out of here, deuces. I'm gone." Now we don't know really the real reason, but many scholars speculate he went back home because of how dangerous it was.

However, this shows us that sometimes even believers have disagreements and breakups. We will talk more about this when we get to Chapter 15. And you always want to seek peace and reconciliation or a resolution. Now the question is, did it happen with Paul and John Mark? Or is it that they had beef and it was just a beef they had forever? Oh, no, they had reconciliation. 2 Timothy 4:11, which is the letter Paul wrote just before he was beheaded.

The reason why Paul was not crucified was because Paul was a Roman citizen, and so they beheaded Roman citizens where anyone else who was not a Roman citizen, they were crucified. But he said in 2 Timothy 4:11, he said, "Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for the ministry." And we also have a book that bears his name, the Gospel of Mark. I believe that both of them matured over time.

I believe that later on Paul thought, "Maybe I was a little too hard on the kid." And with his uncle Barnabas constantly encouraging him in the faith, he matured as well and became a help to Paul in the ministry. He also became a help to Peter according to 1 Peter 5:13, and that many scholars believe that the Gospel of Mark was really the Gospel of Peter, that Peter dictated to Mark those particular things and Mark wrote this Gospel. Yes, it bears his name, but many scholars believe it was really the Gospel of Peter.

So he became a help not only to Paul, but to Peter as well. But I was thinking about this. Maybe you're here and you are like John Mark and you started serving in some ministry and you quit because it became difficult like John Mark, or it required more time than you thought, which is something that is very applicable today. You quit because maybe you quit because you had beef with someone. Let me be a Barnabas to you.

Let me encourage you to humble yourself and get back to serving God. There's no greater joy than serving our Creator. There's no greater joy than having a gift and sitting on it. There's no greater sin either, to be gifted in a certain way and just sit on it. I was telling the church in California, it was a church of over 10,000, I said, "A church this size there should never be an announcement that says we have a need in children's ministry, the youth, usher or greeter or parking lot."

"There should never be a need," I said with a church this size. "There should never be a need." Oh, I echo those words for a church our size. There should never be a need. We should never have an announcement say, "Well, you know, if you're gifted in this area, can you come and serve?" That should never be. Never. There's no greater joy than serving our Lord. I also told this church as well, I like to call it this, you've heard me say many times, you're prostituting your gift.

You use your gift to make you money, which is what a prostitute does, use his or her body to make them money. Use your gift to make you money outside in the world and you come in the church and sit. No, I told that to a church in New Jersey, yeah. I've told it to you many times, too. You should not just you have a gift by God. If you're born again, if you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, God has given everyone at least one gift to use.

Maybe you just like to smile. You say, "Well, how can I be used?" Well, you can be right at the front door smiling at people as they come in. You just smile, shake their hand and give them a hug. "God bless you." That's a gift. Because I'm looking at some of you, some of you haven't smiled in 40 years. So if you like to smile, if you like to smile, then get at the door and smile. God bless you.

The way the world is, they love to see a smiling face when they come in the door. Amen. They will look for that face every Sunday. They would, you'd be a blessing to somebody. You'd be a blessing. So humble yourself. Get back to serving. We saw that even believers have beef, and it doesn't have to be a permanent thing. That's the thing. It doesn't have to be a permanent thing. John Mark could've easily been labeled a quitter, but he got it together and was useful in the ministry.

Please keep in mind, please, before there can be reconciliation, there must first be a death. Before we were reconciled back to God, Jesus had to die. And maybe you have to humble yourself and die, die to self, die to your pride, die to your right to be right, so there can be reconciliation. Somebody needs to hear that today because you have beef with somebody, and you're just trying to go through life and continue day to day without getting that beef right.

You need to get it right. And you've heard me say many times because I can read your minds and you, "Well, why does it have to be me?" Because you're the one here hearing this message. That's why. They're not here. So it needs to be you. How can you continue to go through life every day knowing you got beef? Seek to get it right. Oh, but it's our pride, though. That's why there must be a death.

That ex, that parent, that coworker that you all keep turning your head every time you pass each other, you play like you're talking to somebody else that you pass. You got beef. Grill it up and eat it. It's summertime. Everybody got the grills out anyway, so grill it up and eat it. Get it right because God will eat at you. He will eat at your conscience and let you know something isn't right.

See, you can ignore it and fill your day with all kind of noise and busyness, but when you lay on the pillow, God is going to be all over you saying get it right. Oh, now you're trying to go to bed with headphones on, buds, trying to fall asleep. You can try to drown out whatever, but pretty soon that Pandora, whatever you're listening to, is going to end. And then God's going to be right there to point to that thing again.

Somebody needs to hear that today. You got beef. Get that beef right. Just get it right. See, now if you go to get it right with them and they still fool around, you're free. You're free. At least you're free. Then it's on them. Then God will begin to eat at them, see? And then there can be a reconciliation that takes place. So but at this particular time, John Mark goes back to the house, gets some of his mama's good cooking and all that good stuff, so he went back home.

Verse 14. "But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down." So as the team left the homeland of Barnabas in Cyprus, they sailed 200 miles across the Mediterranean Sea and landed at Attalia, the port of Perga. Paul and Barnabas did not preach in Perga at this particular time because many scholars believe that Paul was sick with malaria and that he hints at this in Galatians 4:13.

He needed to leave the coastal lowlands where it was hot and humid for the cooler mountain regions because of his sickness. See, Antioch in Pisidia is different from Antioch in Syria, where Barnabas and Paul came from. Antioch of Pisidia was founded in 281 BC by Seleucus I, and he named it after his father, whose name was Antiochus or Antiochus, depending upon how you pronounce it. Now this Antioch of Pisidia was 3,600 feet above sea level.

He made it a part of his ministry because after he recovered, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. See, the synagogues had a ready-made audience interested in religious truth. And being a former rabbi, it was customary to grant visiting rabbis the right to address the synagogue. Look what it says there in verse 15. "And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying, 'Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on.'"

See, the services of the synagogue opened with the reciting of the Shema, which is Deuteronomy 6:4, which says, "Hear, O Israel." The Hebrew word for "hear" is *shema*. So they just called it by the Hebrew word, *Shema*. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." This was the Jewish profession of faith. After this would be the reading of the law, the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and after that the prophets.

And just like it says in this particular verse, then came the teaching, usually based upon the week's Scripture reading. And they would usually have a prominent visiting rabbi to deliver the teaching. And seeing that Paul was a student of the great rabbi Gamaliel, the ruler of the synagogue said to them in the last part of this verse, "Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on." What an incredible door for the Gospel to be given.

He wanted them to give a word of exhortation. I have to bring out that word "exhortation." The Greek word is *parakaleo*, and it means to come alongside of, to provide exhortation or consolation. It is the same word used for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called the *parakletos*, which he comes alongside of us and exhorts us or consoles us. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He comes alongside of us and exhorts us to continue in the faith when we want to quit.

He consoles us when life has blown storms into it that we just want to quit and hurt our hearts. And so he comes alongside to exhort us, he comes alongside of us to comfort us. So they're saying, "Hey, men, if you have any words of exhortation for these people, say on." Now what an incredible door, like I said, of the Gospel to be given. Now going back to the title, are you ready? What if this happened to you on the job?

As you are in a team meeting? What if they called you up and said, "We heard you talking about what you learned in church. Would you like to share what you've learned with all of us?" Now after you faint and they wake you back up for such a thing to be said in today's time, what would you say? "Well, see, at church, well, pick somebody else." What if at your next family reunion, the matriarch or patriarch of the family were to come up to you and say, "There has been a big difference in you since you have been going to Calvary Chapel. Can you tell us about what you're learning there?"

What would you say? Are you ready if God were to thrust you into the spotlight like he did the Apostle Paul here? My prayer and my desire is to equip you with the word of God, so if this great opportunity opens up for you, you will be ready. This is what we're doing on Wednesday nights with our apologetics series, teaching you how to answer, teaching you not only what we believe, but why we believe it.

To equip you so if this door opened up to you, you'll be ready to walk through it. So the question is, what did Paul say to them? Well, you got to wait until next time. I didn't have time to get into what he said because Paul can be a little long-winded, and so he was I was trying to find a break in him catching a breath, but I was seven verses down and I couldn't. I said, "No, I got to wait. You got to wait until next time."

Got to wait until next time. You got to just pray that God will build out the new sanctuary so we don't have to have four services all top on top of each other, so we can just, you know, I can teach. So some of y'all aren't praying hard enough. Pray harder. Pray harder. So let me conclude with this because I'm going back to the question, are you ready? If you said, "I'm ready, I've been waiting for years for this opportunity," you're not ready. You're not ready.

We become ready when we see ourselves as Paul, as someone little in our own eyes. When God sees this, then this is when He will open up some mighty doors for you. If Paul still carried himself like "I'm the man in demand. Yes, the requested one. Of course you called upon me. Now let me stand up and give y'all some word," God would never have opened up the door for him. Finally, we saw how John Mark was an illustration of someone who quit the ministry but later got it together and made up with Paul and served in ministry with him again.

If this is you, it shows that you can get back up again and start serving our Lord. The Bible says the righteous man falls seven times and rises again. We fall, but we can get back up again. If this is you, it shows that you can get back up, start serving once once again. Or maybe you're here and you're Paul and you were a little too hard on a John Mark. You should be the one who initiates reconciliation, which will take some humbling on your part.

There's a John Mark in the form of a teenager, someone who works under you, that you've been a little too hard on. Maybe John Mark is a spouse. Reach out and humble yourself and seek reconciliation. Don't forget in order for us to be reconciled back to God, Christ had to die. He had to die on the cross so there must be a death before there can be reconciliation. Death to pride, death to your right to be right. "I'm the parent. They should come to me."

That's all the more reason why you should go to them because you are the parent. Oh, somebody needs to hear that. Oh, that hits that pride hard, doesn't it? God wants that pride to die. This is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, this is free right here: he said, "I die daily." He says daily I have to get up on the cross because during the night, some kind of way, I get off of it. He says, "I die daily." Every day got to die. "I died yesterday. Let me live today." No, no.

Paul said, "I die daily." Somebody needs to die today. "You're wishing death on me?" Yeah, that kind, yeah. Yeah, we all need to die to our pride, need to die to our right to be right. We need to die so there can be reconciliation. Father, thank you so much for this time You've given us Your word. God, we just pray Your Holy Spirit will move in our hearts, move in our lives today. We pray, God, that You would draw people unto You today.

Humble Your people today before You. I pray if there's anyone here who has not prayed and asked Jesus to come into their heart, to ask Jesus to forgive them of their sin, I pray that today would be the day of salvation for them. May they surrender their life to You today in Jesus' name. Amen.

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