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 Bibles to Acts chapter 14, verses 1 through 3.

Tony Clark: Paul and Barnabas shook it off and moved on to the city of Iconium. Now, that doesn't mean that opposition won't come again. Look at verse two. "But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren." Every successful ministry will attract opposition from Satan. When a great multitude of both Jews and Greeks believed the Gospel message in verse one, the unbelieving Jews stirred up the unbelieving Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the believers.

I want to draw to your attention the word "unbelieving." The Greek word is *apeitheo*, and it means to disobey, disbelieve, or refuse to be persuaded by. It means that they heard the Gospel and chose to disbelieve, disobey, or refuse to be persuaded by it. Since Acts 17:30 and 31 says this: "God commands all men everywhere to repent because he will judge the world by Jesus Christ." These Jews chose to disobey this command to repent.

The Greek word for repent is *metanoia*, and it means to have a change of heart and change of mind. It was a military word. It meant to walk in one direction, do an about-face, and walk in the other direction. It means to change the way you feel and think about a certain thing, and you need to feel and think the way God says. We need to repent, *metanoia*. So, not only did they choose to disobey this command to repent, but they tried to poison the minds of those who chose to obey the command to repent.

The Greek word for poison is *kakao*, and it means to be embittered, or to stir up against, or to poison. I see a lot of this going on in homes and jobs and in society as a whole. Whenever the Gospel message is preached to a teenager, to a spouse, a coworker, or even a friend, there will always be someone who chooses to disobey the command of God to repent and try to poison the minds of those who chose to believe.

I see this all the time. I remember a woman brought here her grandson. She brought her grandson here to church and he chose to believe the Gospel message. When we offered the invitation during a baptism for him to give his life to the Lord and get baptized on the spot, this kid came forward. A teenager came forward. He went home and told his mother what had happened. He's all excited and everything, and she tried to poison his mind against the Gospel by saying, "You're not allowed to go back to that church that his grandmother, her mother, is bringing him to."

When church times came around, she wouldn't allow him to come to church. His grandmother told me this story and I started praying for the kid and his mother. I saw him about maybe a month ago. It was around the beginning of summer. I told him how good it was to see him. I said, "It's good to see you here," and he had that look. I know the look, folks. Let me tell you something. God gives me discernment and gives folks discernment. I know the look.

I know a look when somebody's about to leave the church. I know the look when there's just mess going on at home. I know the look when a husband and wife is having problem. It always shows up on the woman's face, on her countenance, because the Bible said the woman is the glory of the man. She reflects the man. She reflects what the man is doing to her. I can always tell. This kid had this look on his face and I saw him. I just dapped him up and hugged him, saying, "Bro, I'm praying for you, bro. Praying for you."

It's funny, after the first service I saw his grandmother and I said, "How's he doing?" She said, "His own mother trying to poison his mind against the Gospel. His own mother." The real question is this: how did they poison the minds of the people? Notice, poisoned the minds of the people. I suggest to you it was through gossip, slander, and spreading rumors about Paul and Barnabas to try to discredit the ministry.

I believe this is an area we all can grow in because we're all guilty of this at one time or another. Gossip. Gossip is saying behind someone's back that you wouldn't say in their face. I call that a coward. Now because of social media, the cowards have a platform to just blast you behind a phone. Just give you the business because they're a coward. They wouldn't say it in your face, so they blast you with words. Slander carries the idea of smearing a person's character or reputation.

Rumors are unconfirmed stories about someone else. Now you may be here and you may protest and say, "I'm not a gossip. I don't participate in slander. I don't spread rumors about other people." Well, I'm going to ask you then: do you listen to it? If you listen as someone's character is destroyed or someone's reputation is assassinated, you participate in the process just as if you were speaking it yourself according to Romans 1 and verse 32. It tells us that.

You approve of those who are doing this by listening to it. Romans 1:29 talks about a whisperer. Are you a whisperer? Do you love to whisper in people's ears about other people? If so, then you need to repent. You need to repent of it. Because here's the thing: if you're around a whisperer, just understand what they're whispering in your ear about someone else, they're going to whisper about you to someone else.

I have a pastor friend. I don't really think he knows any better. He may be a little touched, but God uses him. God uses him in the body. He has a successful church and God blesses him and God used him to bring people to Christ. But he has a problem. Whenever I'm around him, you know how the Bible said "The Lord is in his holy place, let your words be few"? When I'm around him, my words are few because I know just like he's talking to me about somebody else, he's going to talk about me to somebody else.

I know it. If you're a whisperer, guess what? Somebody is whispering about you. We need to repent of this kind of stuff. Now when the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds, the question is: did Paul and Barnabas leave? Look at verse three. "Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands." No, they stayed there and notice the length of time.

They stayed there a long time. Why? To get them grounded in their new Christian faith by teaching them the Word of God. Now this is amazing because I want to bring something to your attention. There is a time to go when persecution breaks out like they did in the city of Antioch of Pisidia according to Acts 13:50 to 52. But there is a time to stay as well, like they did here, and stay for a long time.

I bring this up because many of you are on jobs and you're being persecuted for the Christian faith. You're passed over for promotions because you're a Christian. Now notice I'm putting emphasis "because you're a Christian." That you're not being passed over or persecuted because you're being a jerk, or you're being obnoxious, or you think you're being holier than thou and you're just being a sourpuss on the job. No, we're not talking about that.

If you're genuinely being persecuted for righteousness' sake and maybe you think it's time to leave, you need to be prayerful and discerning because God could want you to stay. Not only stay, but stay a long time like Paul and Barnabas did here. Not only did they stay a long time, but verse three goes on to say that they were speaking boldly in the Lord. The question is: what gave Paul and Barnabas this boldness?

What gave them the endurance to stay there a long time in the midst of all this? Well, Acts 13 verse 52 tells us they were filled with joy and notice "with the Holy Spirit." So Jesus promised them in Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." We know the Greek word for power is *dunamis* and it means miraculous power, ability, or might.

Miraculous power, ability, or might to do what? Be a witness for Jesus Christ. Not to be weird in church. Why is it that people blame the Spirit of God to be weird? If you notice, they're not weird like that in Walmart or as they're walking around Sam's Club, because I'm in both of those places all the time. Lately, I've been at the mall a little bit. I never see them doing that in the food court. Why people only wait to get here to get weird?

Acts 4:31 says they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they did weird things? No. After they prayed, they spoke the Word of God with boldness. Acts 4:29 says when they prayed they said, "Lord, look on their threats and grant to your servants that with all boldness they may speak your word." Notice they were filled with the spirit. Jesus said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me." Okay, we got it. That's Acts 1:8.

Chapter four, they were filled with the spirit and they spoke the word with boldness. The spirit came upon them to be a witness. Then verse 29 says "grant to your servants that with all boldness we may speak your word." The purpose of the power of the Holy Spirit is to empower us to speak God's word, to be a witness, not to be weird. It's a W, but it's to be a witness, not weird. The amazing thing is: why is that necessary?

Because we would have the tendency in our own natural nature to be timid and afraid to speak God's word in a society where it is not popular to speak the Word of God. We need the boldness to be able to speak through our timidity and our fear to share with a dying world how much they need Jesus Christ and need to repent of their sin. We need the power of God's spirit, the *dunamis* power, the dynamic dynamo power to speak through our fear and our timidity to speak to a people that so desperately need the Gospel.

If you feel timid and afraid to speak for God, do what these disciples did: they prayed and asked God to give them the boldness to stick around and speak His word with boldness. So, all because you're having a hard time on the job or in your marriage, it doesn't mean that it's time to leave. For your job, God may want you to stay there, notice, a long time to get those coworkers grounded in the Christian faith or to show them what a real Christian looks like.

They all think that there's nothing but hypocrites in the church. That's what they think. So you stay there a long time to show them what a real Christian looks like. How about that's a thought? Paul and Barnabas did it here. Sometimes we have to endure hardship as a good soldier like Second Timothy 2:3. For you military people, you understand this. You've got to endure hardship as a good soldier.

There are good times in the military and there are some hardships. There are some great duty stations and there are some duty stations that are hardship. I was talking to somebody else in Hawaii. "I just never want to leave here." I bet you don't. Who would want to leave here? Hawaii is just one step under heaven. You got heaven, then you got Hawaii right up under there. Who wouldn't want to leave there? "Oh, it was so good when I was over in Hawaii." I bet you did.

Some people sometimes you've got to endure hardship as a good soldier. You're a soldier. So you've got to endure hardship. We're a soldier in the army of the Lord. We've got to endure hardship sometimes. Sometimes we have to remember what Second Timothy 3:12 says: "All those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall," not might, "suffer persecution." That's not in the latest promise book that you get from the Christian bookstore.

I can't even say that anymore, that you would get from Amazon. Maybe that's a little more accurate. You won't find that in the 7,000 promises. "All those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." No, that's not one. But sometimes we have to. This is what Paul and Barnabas is teaching us. Now, as they were grounding these new believers in the Word of God, God was confirming their message with signs and wonders just like He promised in Mark 16, verses 17 and 18.

It says as you are going throughout the world preaching the Gospel, these signs shall follow you. It began to give us some examples of some signs that will follow believers in the context of evangelism as they're going out around the world sharing the Gospel. It says "serpents shall not harm you, if you drink anything poisonous, it shall not harm you," all that kind of stuff. Because of social media, I saw a video. I told you Christianity attracts the weirdest people.

I think Satan wants to do that so it can discredit Christianity. Because if people see these weirdos, "You want me to come join the church with these weirdos?" These were some folks in the hills of somewhere, I don't know where they were. They were snake handlers. The pastor of the church, he died in 2014 from a snake bite. So the son is now taking over the church and he had the microphone and he had the snake in his hand.

He had the snake and he got it right about here and that snake went boom and bit him right there. Blood's all on his shirt and stuff. He still tried to go on, but he's wobbling. That venom is going through. Next thing you know, somebody got him and they're walking down the center aisle. He can barely walk. He got outside, he was trying to go down the stairs because they had to take him to the hospital. He was like, "Turn the camera, turn the camera."

I just said, "Wow, how tragic." It's tragic. I don't know whether he lived or died. I'm sure they didn't do part two. It's just crazy. Why do we do these things? Watch this. The Bible says these signs shall follow the believer, but today you have believers following signs and wonders. Those verses in Mark 16 is not saying that we can go and drink some poison and say, "Okay, I got faith that it won't." No, you're dying. You're going to die.

You handle a poisonous snake around like this and he's just sizing you up. He's about to pop you. Why do we? If you notice in the book of Acts, signs and wonders followed the believers. They were not chasing and seeking signs and wonders. They followed them. Jesus was saying as you're going spreading the Gospel throughout the world, these signs will follow. In third-world countries and people in the jungles, they're seeing these kind of things really happen.

A perfect example of this, the Lord just reminded me. A perfect example of this is in Acts chapter 28 as they were crashed on the island of Malta. All of a sudden it was cold, they made a fire. They're putting some wood on the fire and it said a viper came out and boom and attached on Paul's hand. Paul looked there, shook it off into the fire, and kept it moving. Then they said that the natives sat back and was watching him to see if he would swell up and die because they knew about those vipers.

Then they say, "Oh boy, he must be a god because he lived." That's what Jesus was talking about. If you're in these situations and that thing is to happen to you, it won't harm you. It's not saying that we purposely, for communion, we serve in strychnine or some poison for communion and say, "Whoever got the greatest faith is going to be alive at the end." No. Why do we get weird? No, that's not what that's for.

So as they were preaching the Gospel, God was doing miraculous things through them. What happened next? Got to wait till next time as we pick it up in verse four. Some great things happen. We got some great things to talk about. Let me conclude with this. Let's do it together. We saw how Paul and Barnabas didn't do ministry alone. They preached the Gospel together and when opposition came, they went through it together. Notice that.

Spouses, you must deal with your marital issues together. Raise your children together. Do you know when to stay and when to go? Do you know, do you have that kind of wisdom? It is through prayer that you get the wisdom to know when to stay and when to go. God will give you the wisdom through prayer and the word. Because many of you are going when you should be staying and staying when you should have left because you don't spend time in prayer.

You have to turn the TV off. You've got to get off of social media. You've got to put down your phone. Turn it off, not on vibrate. You have to spend time in prayer and the word so you can know when to stay and when to go. I told you, many of you are going when you should be staying and staying when you should be going because you don't have the wisdom because you don't spend the time in prayer talking to God, turning off the world so God can speak to you and give you wisdom.

Many of you are making life-altering decisions without one prayer being offered up to God, not one scripture read, and you wonder why your life is a mess. Because God wants to direct you, but you've got to spend time with Him. May we spend time in His word. May we spend time in prayer so He can give us the wisdom needed to guide our lives. If you're here today and you've never prayed to ask Jesus to come into your heart, that's where it starts.

Today is the day of salvation for you. I pray that God would draw you to Himself today. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. We pray that your Holy Spirit would move today in the midst of your people. Dear God, I just pray that, Lord, you would draw people unto you today. Lord, there are people here who need wisdom and direction. I pray that you draw them to you. Draw them by your Holy Spirit. We need a move of your spirit in our lives today in Jesus' name, Amen.

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