Unstoppable ChurchНамуна

Overview of Week One

Acts Chapters 13 – 15 (NKJV)

This week covers the following ways in which the members of God’s Church can grow in their faith as God grows His Church:

1. An Inspiring Description of the Church God Uses to Reach the World!
2. An Inspiring Description of the People God Uses to Reach the World!
3. To do whatever God has empowered me to do and to usher all glory to God.
4. To be equally committed to the evangelizing of the lost and to the discipling of the saved.
5. To do my part to cultivate a healthy church and healthy relationships with other believers.

An Overview of Acts Chapters 13 – 15

The moment has come in the history of Christianity for the Gospel message of salvation through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to begin to be spread across the “uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8b NKJV)! First, believers “filled Jerusalem with their teaching” (Acts 5:28b NKJV). Their message was simple: “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 NKJV)! They became recipients of great persecution and scattered beyond the borders of Jerusalem. But even amid persecution, they continued to preach the Gospel to the regions of Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1). And in Acts 13, the details of Paul’s efforts to do his part to spread the Gospel to the untouched areas, supported by a spiritually healthy church, led by spiritually healthy leaders, are unveiled.

The home base for this exponential spread of the Gospel was an unassuming church of faithful believers in a city called Antioch in Syria. God appointed this city to serve as the common gathering place for the majority of Christian leaders and Gospel messengers to connect, refresh, regroup, and from which to launch meaningful traveling efforts to spread the Gospel to the known world.

While the mission was a success, it was not without its challenges and significant opposition. Paul and Barnabas first traveled to Cyprus (Acts 13:4-12) where they were immediately confronted by a “false prophet” (Acts 13:6b NKJV) who both antagonized them but actively attempted to cause the Governor of the city, who was interested in hearing what Paul and Barnabas had to say, not to listen and to turn his attention away from their teaching (Acts 13:8b). Paul, being con- trolled with the Holy Spirit, pronounced blindness upon the false prophet and the Governor “believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord” (Acts 13:12 NKJV).

From there, Paul and Barnabas traveled to Perga (Acts 13:13), then to Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:14-52). Here, Paul preached about how Jesus Christ was the one spoken about in the Old Testament as the Messiah and the sinless Son of God (Acts 13:14-41). The Gentiles made passionate requests of Paul to return to the synagogue to teach them more about Jesus Christ (Acts 13:42). The Jews, however, were “filled with envy; and contradiction and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 13:45b NKJV). In response, 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 yourself unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles’” (Acts 13:46 NKJV). The Gospel spread (Acts 13:49a), but many of the Jewish leaders persuaded the city leaders to expel them from the city (Acts 13:50). So, Paul and Barnabas left and traveled to Iconium.

Acts chapter 14 documents how the persecution against Paul and Barnabas escalated from hateful thoughts and words to “violent attempts” (Acts 14:5 NKJV) to physically hurt them in Iconium, to actual hands-on beatings of Paul in Lystra (Acts 14:19). Paul and Barnabas left Iconium and arrived in a city called Lystra, and began preaching (Acts 14:6-7). As they were preaching, they witnessed a man who was unable to walk. They eventually learned that the man had been in this condition all his life and had never walked (Acts 14:8). Paul healed the man, and he “leaped and walked” (Acts 14:9-10 NKJV). Immediately, the people declared that Paul and Barnabas were gods and should be worshipped (Acts 14:11b-13). This outraged Paul and Barnabas, and they insisted that no one worship them (Acts 14:14-18) but to “turn from these useless things to the living God” (Acts 14:15b NKJV). After some time, the persecutors ultimately accomplished their goal of physically beating and stoning Paul and “dragged him out of the city supposing him to be dead” (Acts 14:19 NKJV). Paul recovered and the next day he and Barnabas traveled to Derbe (Acts 14:20). And after preaching in Derbe and experiencing positive results (Acts 14:21), Paul and Barnabas decided to return back to Antioch in Syria by way of all of the previous cities they had visited in order to strengthen the believers, affirm the spiritual leaders, and do all they could to support them to grow spiritually in their absence (Acts 14:21-27).

While in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas “reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:27 NKJV). As a result of this influx of Gentile (i.e., non-Jewish) believers, every believer thought it best to gather most of the Apostles and Christian leaders in Jerusalem to affirm the pure Gospel message and to confirm that every believer would present the same, clear Gospel message (Acts 15:1-17). They affirmed that the Gospel was through faith alone in Jesus Christ, by His grace alone, and no additional works were required to be saved. At the same time, they requested the Gentile believers to remain sensitive to the Jewish believers who needed some time to come to grips with this reality, and to demonstrate Christian love and unity (Acts 15:22:29). Acts chapter 15 ends with Paul traveling with Silas and Barnabas traveling with John Mark. After a tense moment of debate, it ended with two groups of leaders launching to return to these cities and other cities (Acts 15:36-41) to further support the believers in these areas, along with sharing the Gospel with all who will listen.