The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): 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 42 through 47.

Tony Clark: No kid can grow up just eating chips and think he can just grow into a healthy person. But that's how we look spiritually. Malnourished, stunted growth, because we're pigging out on the junk food of this world and we wonder why we have no craving, no desire, no intense yearning for the word of God. And when we think about reading the Bible, we go, "Oh." And we wonder why we have no appetite for it, and this is the reason why.

Look what it says there in verse 43. "Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God." So as the congregation was breaking up, there were some Jews and devout proselytes. The devout proselytes were those non-Jews who had embraced Judaism and even perhaps submitted to being circumcised. They wanted to continue the conversation with Paul and Barnabas. However, they encouraged them to continue in the grace of God.

There's something I want to bring to your attention. It is one thing to be saved by the grace of God. Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, it is the gift of God, not of yourself, lest any man should boast." But we need God's grace to continue in the faith as well. 2 Peter 3:18—it's not on the screen for you note-takers—says, "But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." So yes, we need grace that saves us, but we need grace to continue in that salvation.

He tells them—Paul and Barnabas told the new believers even in the city of Antioch of Syria where they came from, which is different from Antioch of Pisidia where they just left—Antioch of Syria, he told them in Acts 11, verse 23, they encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. The 3,000 souls that were saved in Acts 2:41, it said in Acts 2:42, the very next verse, that they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and in fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

The way that you know that your salvation is genuine—oh please don't miss this—the way that you know your salvation is genuine is that you will continue in the faith and you will have an intense craving for the word of God. Or as Acts 2:42 says, you know that your salvation experience is genuine because you will continue steadfastly in God's word, in fellowship, or come to church, the breaking of bread, celebrating communion together, and in prayer.

I have to ask you, does this describe your salvation experience? Are you continuing in the faith? Do you have an intense craving for God's word? And are you a person of prayer? These are the marks of a true Christian. So they encouraged them to continue in the grace of God. What happened next? Look at verse 44. "On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God." Oh, how I long to see this happen in our city, that you would be so excited for the word of God being taught that you go out and tell as many people as you can to come hear the teaching of the word of God, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, book by book, from Genesis through Revelation.

So the whole city would be coming out to hear God's word taught. Oh, how I long to see that happen. This is the philosophy of Calvary Chapels: healthy sheep reproduce. And the natural byproduct of healthy sheep is evangelism. You will go out and tell others about Jesus Christ and the church feeding you God's word. For example, a shepherd doesn't have to tell the sheep, "Now, you sheep, reproduce right now." He doesn't have to tell the sheep to reproduce. They naturally do it when they are healthy.

When they are properly fed, the byproduct of healthy sheep, they will naturally reproduce. And this is what happened in the early days of Calvary Chapels and what happened in this verse. They went out and talked about the teaching of Paul, and the whole city came out the following week. Oh, I long to see that happen, not only here in Newport News but in cities across this country, that people will come out and hear the teaching of the word of God. Simply teach the word simply. And that's what we seek to do. We're not going to be up here trying to impress you with theatrics. We're going to just let the word of God feed you.

You need to be fed the word because you're sheep, you're God's sheep. Sheep need to be fed. Feed you the word of God, all that God says. And what happens is because the Bible says in the book of Isaiah it says that he shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, speaking of Jesus, and he's a wonderful counselor. And what happens is as the word of God is going forth, he's counseling you through the word of all kind of issues and problems and situations that you have.

We leave you in God's hands. We don't want you codependent on us. We have nothing for you. We just give you this word and leave you in God's hands. That's what they're doing here. They told them to continue in the grace of God, continue with the Lord. They said don't look to us. And I'm going to tell you now, don't look to us. We just give you this word. We're teaching you how to depend on God and look to him for your help because some of the mess and twisted-up mess you have gotten yourselves in, we can't help you. Man can't help you.

There's not a man on the face of the earth that can untwine that web you've spun. We can't help you; only God can. And so this is why we're teaching you about the love of God, the grace of God, the forgiveness of God, the mercy of God, teaching you God's word, feeding you God's word so you can look to him. Because we have absolutely nothing for you. "Can you help me, Pastor Tony?" No, no. God can. I can't help you. And I'm not ashamed to say that. "Aren't you supposed to be the one who has the answers?" No. I didn't make this book. This is where your answers are.

And I'm so set free. You know that? I'm so set free. "What's wrong with you?" Oh, I've got some real issues to deal with with these people. No, I don't. You're God's people. Leave you in God's hands. Amen. That's why I teach you what God's word has to say so you can look to him. That's the greatest thing any pastor can ever do, to teach you to look past him and look to the cross, look to him.

Look at verses 45 to 47. "But when the Jews saw the multitude, they were filled with envy and contradicting and blaspheming; they opposed the things spoken by Paul." Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us: I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth."

Now, the conjunction "but" that starts verse 45 means that this verse is in direct contrast to verse 44. In verse 44, everyone was excited and wanted to hear the word of God. But when the Jews, which is a reference to the rulers of the synagogue, saw the multitude—almost the whole city came out—surely they were happy, right? Surely they had to have been. No. They were filled with envy and they started contradicting and blaspheming. They opposed the things spoken by Paul.

Instead of being happy about seeing the entire city turn to God, they saw that they were no longer in control of the religious affairs of the city. Now Paul and Barnabas was. So they turned Paul's teaching into a public debate and they started contradicting. That Greek word "contradicting" is antilegō, and it indicates that they were continually speaking against Paul's message, attempting to refute him. They were not content with a heated debate with Paul and Barnabas; they were also blaspheming by speaking against Jesus Christ.

Let me pause here to point out the classic signs of jealousy and envy. It can happen with family members and especially with people on the job. When you're jealous or envious of someone who's being promoted over you or being shown favor, the first sign of your jealousy is that you will start to contradict what that person is saying or has said. The second sign is you will start to speak nasty, blasphemous things about that person.

It is one thing to try to speak against what someone said, but it is another to start speaking nasty words against that person, attacking their character, posting ugly things about them on social media. If you're doing this, you're a classic hater is what you are, a classic hater. And you're sipping on haterade is what you're doing. Jealous, envious, and you're no different than these religious leaders. As soon as they saw the entire city coming out to hear what Paul and Barnabas had to say, they start hating because they were the religious instructors of the people in the city of Antioch of Pisidia.

And now everybody's coming out to hear Paul and Barnabas, so they started contradicting. Why didn't they do that in the synagogue when they were all inside? It was cool as long as we're in here. Yeah, cool, okay, good job, good job. Then when the people start gathering around Paul and Barnabas, they're like, "What's going on here?" And they pulled out a nice six-pack of haterade and started downing them one by one and started contradicting and blaspheming what was being said.

And that can happen to any of us when we allow jealousy and envy to creep in our lives. And you see it all the time on social media, people posting all kind of ugly things, blasphemous things about people. You know what kills me more than anything else? I'm amazed on how so many people, or put it this way, the majority of the people in the world, know how to pastor a church better than a pastor.

"This is how you should do it. This is what you should have said. You shouldn't have said that. You shouldn't have gone there." What do you do for a job? "Well, I'm an electrician." Then go be an electrician. Leave pastoring to us. If we're off-base, God's going to deal with us. I think God's big enough to deal with us. But people are nasty today. And social media is just bringing out what's always been in there and giving people a platform. People are nasty.

So if you are a hater and you have jealousy and envy, it'll come out. Just the right situation hasn't approached you yet. But when it does, it'll come right out and you'll just start spewing, speaking blasphemous things and contradicting. "Well, you know, they said that this is the best way to do it, but you know, in my years of experience, I think this is the best..." See, you start speaking against what that person is saying. You're hating on them. Stop. Stop. Repent of that nasty attitude because you'll be no different than them.

However, Paul and Barnabas didn't just sit back and take what they were saying. I'm glad. Verse 46 said that they grew bold and said, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first," which is a reference to the Jewish people as a whole. "But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles." They were the ones in verse 42 that came out of the synagogue and begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. They said, "Okay, you guys don't want to hear this good old everlasting life? Okay, you heard it, now you rejected it. Okay, you don't want to hear? That's fine. We're going to turn to somebody who wants to hear it."

And this is a classic thing. If someone rejects the message you're trying to share with them about Jesus Christ and the gospel, don't get in your feelings like they rejected you. No, they didn't reject you. They rejected the message. God has somebody else who wants to hear it, that's waiting. They're begging for someone to tell them how to have everlasting life. So don't get in your feelings when people come against you like they did. Just go to the next person.

See, when a person hears the gospel message and rejects it, it shows that they are unworthy of everlasting life. I pray that this isn't anyone in here today, that you hear the word of God and you're rejecting it. I pray that that's not anyone in here today. So what happened next? Well, you've got to wait until next week before we jump into a whole another section because we've got to finish up that chapter.

Let me conclude with this and the reaction of us ending for some in here. I'm going to point that out. Watch this. See, when a person hears the gospel message and rejects it, this is why the Bible says man will be without excuse when he stands before God. He can't say, "I never heard, nobody ever told me." Yes, they did. They told you and you rejected it.

See, and this is key here. So as you sit here today and listen to the pure milk of the word of God, did it create a desire, a craving for more of the word of God? Are you about to kick and scream and yell because we had to stop? Some of you, that's how you are. Every time we stop, you're like, "Oh man, I wish you had just some more of that, just some more of that good teaching." Some of you are like, "I couldn't wait until you stopped." Well, that's who I'm talking to, talking to you.

See, if this is you, you couldn't wait until next week until we pick this thing back up, I would encourage you to continue in the grace of God and the word of God by meditating on it day and night. It's just going to create more of a desire for that word. Keep it going, keep feeding it. Keep feeding that craving, that desire for more of the word of God. It's just like a newborn baby. You feed the baby, belly all full and take them a little nap, they wake up, they want some more. And that's how some of you are. You get that word and you're rubbing your belly going out the door and you want some more.

But there's some of you here and you have no desire for the word of God, no craving. You're like, "I couldn't wait for you to stop." I guarantee you've been pigging out on the junk food of this world, being satisfied with the chips, the chips of this world, and you come in here and wonder why you have no appetite for the word of God. I always want to leave you with some hope. I'm going to leave you hope in the midst of a warning.

Jesus said something very amazing in Luke 21 and verses 34 to 36. He said, "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing"—that's a word that means partying—"drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day"—speaking of the second coming of Jesus—"come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare or a trap on all those who dwell on the face of the earth." And here it is, verse 36: "Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all of these things that will come to pass and stand before the Son of Man."

You can pray today that Jesus will come into your life and make you worthy to stand before him on that day and be innocent. But if you reject what's being said, then you will stand before him and be guilty and spend eternity separated from him in hell itself. I was just reading a book this morning and the pastor was talking about. He said that every time a pastor talks about hell, that he should have tears in his eyes.

There was a story that was told of a man who was condemned to death and he had to walk to his death. And there was a chaplain walking next to him reading just these normal words that he would read for someone about to die. And he got to talking about hell and just kind of nonchalantly, "Well, and you know, you'll spend eternity in there." And the man who was going to his death, he tapped that chaplain on the shoulder. He said, "Do you believe what you're reading to me?"

He said, "Because if you believe that people will go to such a place that you described as hell," he said, "I, if I believed that, I would walk across England on my hands and knees on broken glass to tell one lost person about that gospel you're talking about here to keep them from going to such a place as hell." I wonder if we really believe it, that there is such a place that those who have not repented of their sin will actually go to such a place. Or do we just like, "Yeah, heaven, hell, whatever," and we just go about our merry way?

That man said if you truly believed it, he said, "I would walk on my hands and knees across broken glass across all of England to reach one person, to keep one person from going to such a place." I think we believe it here, but it hasn't reached tears. Because if we truly believe that there is such a place, we will tell as many people as we can. "Do you know the Lord? Do you know..." there'd be a desperation about us. I remember seeing a picture on social media of a lady pushing her baby in a carriage, and she was pushing with one hand on her phone texting with the other, and a house was on fire and she didn't even care, just kept it pushing.

And that's how we are many times in the church. We know about hell, we know people go there, but we don't really believe it and we just... "I do, Pastor Tony, I do believe it." Then how many people have you told the gospel to? How many people have you tried to prevent from going there? And I stand up here and I plead every Sunday, plead with you, if you don't have a relationship with the Lord, you will go there. And that's a heartbreaking thing to know that.

And there's going to be some people to pray with you about this so you can search your own heart. If you've never prayed to ask Jesus to come into your heart, if you've never prayed that, there's going to be some people here to pray with you for you to repent of your sin and ask Jesus to come into your heart. And the way you know it took, you'll have a changed life. You'll have a craving for the word of God. You will want to come to church and not "Oh, maybe I go today."

You'll have a desire for prayer, to talk to the one who saved you from such a place. That'll be. If that's not your heart, there's going to be some people to pray with you about these things. And I'm just saying it with all the love I can in my heart. I'm pleading with you. The Bible says we're ambassadors of Christ as though God were pleading through us: be reconciled to God. Get right with him today.

And Father, we pray that, Lord, your Spirit would move in our hearts. Lord, we pray that you would stir hearts. We pray that you would tug upon hearts. We pray that there will be a full surrender of lives today to you, Lord, and to your kingdom. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): If The Word Made Plain has been a source of inspiration and encouragement to you, why not consider becoming a Word Made Plain giving partner to keep this listener-supported program on the air? As a giving partner, you join forces with Calvary Chapel Newport News's kingdom vision of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can make your tax-deductible gift online at calvarynn.org or send your gift of any amount to 1553 Warwick Boulevard, Newport News, Virginia 23608, and receive a gift from Calvary Chapel Newport News as our thanks. In addition to your financial support, we ask that you pray for The Word Made Plain broadcast, that it touches hearts and generates change in the lives of people around the world. We pray you've been blessed by God's word today and hope you'll tune in next time to hear The Word Made Plain.