First Journey Series

Introduction

Video Ill.: Mom vs. Dad Vacation Prep - Holderness Family

I can relate to some of those things!

You know, the weather outside tells us it is summer (though the first full day of Summer isn’t for another couple of weeks on June 22). Many of us have either already taken our vacation or we are planning our vacation for this summer.

The kids are out of school. The weather is great for traveling. We are ready to hit the road.

It’s time for our Summer Road Trip.

Well, this morning, we are going to hit the road as well for the next few weeks. We are beginning a series of sermons that I’m calling our Summer Road Trip. We will be looking at Paul’s missionary journeys as recorded in Acts, seeing some of the people he visited along the way, and learning some lessons from the events that happened on those journeys.

As we begin, this morning, rather than me reading two whole chapters from Acts, I would like to share with you a summary of Paul’s first journey, as recorded in Acts 13 and 14. Take a look.

Video Ill.: Paul’s First Journey - Graphe

Let’s look, this morning, at a few things from this first journey Paul took.

First thing to note is that the gospel will spark a reaction.

Sometimes that reaction is positive. Sometimes it is negative.

In one of the early stops, in Antioch of Pisida, there were Jews and Gentiles who believed what Paul taught the first Sabbath they were there. But quickly, there were also those who became jealous and wanted Paul dead.

From Acts 13, we read:

44 The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the word of the Lord. 45 But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said.

46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have || rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. 47 For the Lord gave us this command when he said,

‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles,?    to bring salvation to the farthest corners

of the earth.’”

48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who || were chosen for eternal life became believers. 49 So the Lord’s message spread throughout that region.

50 Then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. 51 So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium. 52 And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 13, NLT)

There were Jews who heard the gospel message from Paul and became believers. They became part of what was known as “The Way”.

There were Gentiles who also became believers.

The reception was so good that Paul and Barnabas were asked to stay until the next week and speak again in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

So Paul and Barnabas did. They stayed until the next week. They shared the gospel. They ministered to the people.

And the next Sabbath, they had such a turnout at synagogue that the Jews actually became jealous of Paul and Barnabas.

You can just imagine what they were thinking. All the years that the leaders in the synagogue had served there, they had never had such a turnout for the Sabbath. What was it that drew people to Paul and Barnabas?

And so, these Jews couldn’t see the good work that was happening. Instead, their pride got in the way.

The Value of Pride

https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2008/september/1092208.html

Copied from Preaching Today

The story is told of a minister who took a 45-minute drive in an old, beat-up van with a guy he barely knew. Along the way they ended up talking about Jesus and whether this man would give his life to Christ. His response to the minister laid out humanity's resistance to the gospel with striking clarity.

He said, "My biggest problem is pride. I can't humble myself. And you wanna know the reason I can't give up my pride?" He leaned up onto the steering wheel and paused for effect. "Because it's brought me so far."

The minister couldn't believe his ears. He knew that his pride had brought nothing but great pain. It was all he held onto while growing up in gangs—while his father died of a drug overdose and his mother was in the mafia. The minister knew that this self-made man beat his wife regularly, that he was unemployed, that he had just gotten out of prison. In fact, he found out a week later that this man was on his way back into prison!