{"id":21057,"date":"2022-04-14T22:00:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-15T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts_13_26-41-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-04-05T22:51:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T05:51:30","slug":"acts_13_42-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/acts_13_42-52\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Sulk, But Shake Off The Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 13:42-52 \u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 13:42-52.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Acts 13:42-49 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n42\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath.
\n43\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
\n44\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
\n45\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
\n46\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
\n47\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'”
\n48\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
\n49\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 42-49:\u00a0 Still in Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas are invited to come back and speak at the synagogue there.\u00a0 Practically the entire city shows up the next week to hear Paul and Barnabas preach.\u00a0 Jealous of all the attention Paul and Barnabas are getting, the Jewish leaders slander Paul and try to oppose the arguments he is making.\u00a0 In response, quoting from Isaiah 49:6, Paul and Barnabas announce that since the Jews in Pisidian Antioch have rejected their message, Paul and Barnabas will focus on reaching the Gentiles in Pisidian Antioch with the same message.\u00a0 (Don\u2019t take Paul and Barnabas\u2019 response in verses 46-47 to mean that from now on Paul and Barnabas would only focus on reaching the Gentiles.\u00a0 If that were the case, they would not, in the next city on their journey, go back to the synagogue to preach to both Jews and Gentiles, as described in the next chapter of Acts.)<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0 You would think that Paul would be most effective reaching his own Jewish people.\u00a0 After all, Paul was the most passionate persecutor of Christians before he encountered Jesus in a powerful way and became a Christian minister.\u00a0 Of all people, you would think that the Jews would listen to Paul.\u00a0 Yet it turns out that Paul would experience greater receptivity to his message among non-Jewish people, Gentiles.\u00a0 It goes to show yet again in Acts that\u00a0God works in ways that are different from what we would imagine or expect<\/strong>. \u00a0\u00a0It also suggests that\u00a0no matter how passionate a preacher is, no matter how reasonable are the arguments a preacher makes, in the end it boils down to the degree of humility and willingness within the hearer\u2019s heart<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Acts 13:50-52 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n50\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But the Jews incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region.
\n51\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went to Iconium.
\n52\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 50-52:\u00a0 Repeatedly Paul and Barnabas faced rejection and persecution from those who did not like what they were doing.\u00a0 But Paul and Barnabas never gave up.\u00a0 In accordance with Jesus\u2019 words in Luke 9:5, Paul and Barnabas simply shake the dust from their feet and move onto the next city.<\/p>\n

Like Paul and Barnabas,\u00a0when you face rejection or opposition while trying to do what God calls you to do, don\u2019t\u00a0sulk or get discouraged. Simply shake off the dust and move on<\/strong>.\u00a0 Focus your energies on those who will receive you. If you will persevere as a courageous and resilient ambassador of Jesus, you will find that while some seeds will land on bad soil, other seeds will surely land on good soil, bear fruit and result in a harvest that more than compensates for any seeds which fell on bad soil. So don\u2019t stop trying to reach out and sow seeds in Jesus’ name. The harvest is awaiting us if we do not give up.<\/p>\n

Father, thank You for the example of Paul and Barnabas, for their resilience and their refusal to give up.\u00a0 I pray I would be the same, allowing times of rejection not to ruin me but to refine me, and always looking to find new and better ways to reach the people You are leading me to reach.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Acts 13:42-52.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Acts 13:42-49 (NIV)
\n42\u00a0\u00a0As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath.
\n43\u00a0\u00a0When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.
\n44\u00a0\u00a0On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
\n45\u00a0\u00a0When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
\n46\u00a0\u00a0Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.
\n47\u00a0\u00a0For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'”
\n48\u00a0\u00a0When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
\n49\u00a0\u00a0The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.<\/p>\n

On verses 42-49:\u00a0 Still in Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas are invited to come back and speak at the synagogue there.\u00a0 Practically the entire city shows up the next week to hear Paul and Barnabas preach.\u00a0 Jealous of all the attention Paul and Barnabas are getting, the Jewish leaders slander Paul and try to oppose the arguments he is making.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21060,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21057\/revisions\/21060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}