HOW TO LOSE A BLESSING IN THREE EASY STEPS
Acts 13:42-52
My brothers and sisters there are many people around us that have fell to realize that by rejecting God’s word, they really chose to lose their blessing to receive eternal life as promised. In this so called complex world, many have more unlearned questions than they have legitimate questions. They question the salvation methods of Christianity, but except the words of religions that provide no way out of their sinful ways. They think that the question of the day is, did Christ really rise from the dead, or is it just good reading? And they ask these questions not because they want the truth, but because it makes them sound like a thinker. It is not what you think, but it is what you believe. It is simply your choice.
I read an interesting story the other day about a man named Michael who was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. Whenever someone asked him how was he, he would always reply “If I was any better, I would be a twin.” If someone way having a bad day, he would tell them to look on the bright side of it. So, one day he was asked, How does he do it? After all he couldn’t be positive all the time. So Michael’s answer was that each morning that he wakes up he says to himself, “Mike you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. And each time he chose to be in a good mood. He said when something happens he can choose to be the victim or choose to learn from it. Or everytime someone comes to him complaining, he can choose to accept their complaining or can point out the positive side of life. Life is all about choices. When you choose to cut away all the junk, it can be a pleasant thing.
The bottom line is: It’s your choice the way you live your life.
But one day Michael fell sixty feet from a communications tower and had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, and his friend found out and visited him after he was released from the hospital. He had pins and rods placed in his back and was in a lot of pain. And when he asks Michael how did he feel, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Then his friend asked, what went through his mind as the accident took place? And he said the first thing was the well fair of his soon to be born daughter. Then he said, as he laid there he remembered he had two choices: he could choose to live or choose to die. He chose to live.
Michael continued, When they wheeled him into the ER and he saw the expressions on the doctor’s faces, he got scared, because in their eyes, they were expecting his death. So he knew that he had to take action. When he was asked what did he do? He said, that there was a burly nurse asking him if was he was allergic to anything. And Michael said yes. The doctors and nurses stopped to hear what he had to say, and he took a deep breath and said that he was allergic to gravity. And over the laughter of the doctors and nurses he told them that “I’m choosing to live, and operate on me as if I have a great chance to do so.”
That story showed us that if we choose to have the best, we will have it. (SermonCentral.com)
That is what this lesson is about, losing a blessing, not because someone took it from us, but because we chose to give it up and that is what some of the Jews did at Antioch.
In our last lesson we talked about the Opposition at Paphos. We saw Barnabas and Paul being opposed by a man named Elymas as they attempted to bring the Gospel of Christ to Sergius Paulus who had requested their presence. It was Elymas who tried to convince Sergius Paulus that the message that Barnabas and Paul were bringing was the message of a fraud and the way of Judaism was the only way. But Paul being filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke boldly to him and the Spirit in him caused Elymas to leave his presence in search of someone to lead him by the hand, because he was struck with blindness.
In this lesson, Paul and Barnabas is preaching in the synagogue and when the Jews left the synagogue, the Gentiles besought them to preach once more the word of life to them on the next Sabbath. Even some of the Jews and the religious proselytes followed them speaking to them to continue in the grace of God. But soon we will witness the devout Jews rejecting the gospel once too many times. In fact in verse 46, we once again see these great missionaries speaking under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but this time they are letting the Jews know that it was necessary for the word of God to first be spoken to them, but since they rejected it and determined within themselves to be not worthy of everlasting life, they (Paul and Barnabas) will take it to the Gentiles.
So let’s see how they lost their blessing in three easy steps.
The first step is . . .
1. THEY CHOSE TO LET THEIR JEALOUSY DEPRIVE THEIR SOUL (v.45)
“But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.”
The late Tr. James Hawk used to say that, “Jealousy is crueler than the grave.” He said this because it was his experiences that people would just about do anything once jealousy kicked in. And I must agree with Tr. Hawk. If you want to see the mean side of a person, catch them when they are full of jealousy. I’ve seen people. Good Christian people impair their Christian walk because of jealousy. It causes them to act irrationally, and unreasonable. Even here at our church, I’ve seen jealousy raise its ugly head. If certain people did something deserving a shout out, there would be someone in the congregation that would get angry about it me publicly announcing the accomplishment. But as we know jealousy is part of the human nature, and we have to learn to control it or it will control us.
So, in the text we see some of the Jews getting upset with jealousy because of the crowd that came to hear Paul’s message. Verse 44 says that “almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.” But when the Jews saw this public interest, they were filled with envy (v.45). What they did was they allowed their envious hearts to cause them to act unreasonable. They did not know or realize that their jealousy would deprive them of their most precious blessing and that was the word of life. So they spoke against the words that Paul spoke, contradicting every word and blaspheming. I tell you their jealousy caused them to be really miserably unreasonable.
The second step is . . .
2. THEY CHOSE TO REJECT THE WORDS THAT COULD’VE DELIVERED THEM (v.46)
“Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.”
As I had said in the last point that jealousy can cause a person to act unreasonable and here in this verse they chose to reject the word of God. The out come for them rejecting the word is that Paul under the influence of the Holy Spirit was led to take the precious word of God to the Gentile who hungered for a spiritual awakening. Even today you will see the Gentiles or those who are not Jews, embracing the word of God and many orthodox Jews continuing without Him. I know that they are the chosen of the Father, but 1 John 5:12 still says, “He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.” You see those in verse 43 can be considered as Messianic Jews because they believed the message of the Son, in comparison to those in verse 45 which were Orthodox Jews who rejected that same message. The sad thing is that there are more Orthodox Jews in the world than Messianic. So these Jews rejected what they needed the most, and that was the word of life that could give them eternal life.
The final step to losing your blessing is that . . .
3. THEY CHOSE TO STAND IN THE WAY OF OTHERS (v.50)
“But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their border.”
When the Gentiles heard Paul, speak on how the Lord commanded them to be a light unto the Gentiles in verse 47, the next verse shows that the Gentiles were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. Not only did they believe and glorify the Lord’s words, but they also published it throughout all the regions. But this act of gratitude infuriated the orthodox Jew and they stirred up the God fearing women of high standard and the leading men of the city and they sought to expel them from the city. In other words they did not want to take a chance in losing more people to Paul and Barnabas ministry, so they chose to run Paul and Barnabas out of town. There are people in the church today that don’t want you to really have a strong relationship with the Lord. They would rather that you continue just like they are. Showing a lack of commitment, not having a love for the Word and staying away from any type of bible teaching or preaching. They don’t want you to do those things because it would reveal the true person that they are. So, the Jews sought to run them out of town, but the Lord had already told them what to do in Luke 9:5. Jesus said. “And whoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.” And that is what they did. The Jews thought that they were getting rid of a couple of troublemakers, but they did not know that when they shook the dust from their feet it was a sign that would be against them.
CONCLUSION
Well, before I take my seat. I decided to make a choice this morning. This morning I’m choosing to say thank you, for all you’ve done for me.
Thank you, for choosing to come down from your heavenly throne, because you knew that sacrifices and incense couldn’t help me.
Thank you, for choosing to suffer persecution, because when you came to your own they received you not.
Thank you, for choosing to be lied on, spit on, and beat on for my sake.
Thank you, for choosing to be humiliated in front of your friends and love one on my account.
Thank you, for choosing to carry not only your cross, but that day you carried my cross to that hill called Calvary.
You all be patient with me because I feel like thanking my Lord this morning!
Thank you, for choosing not to mumbling a single word during the process.
Thank you, for choosing to allow the nails to be driven in your hands and the spike in your feet, because they didn’t know that they were nailing my sins on the cross with you.
And finally I want to say thank you for dying that day, because you died to set men free from their sins. If you are here today, and appreciate what the Lord did for you why don’t you say . . . THANK YOU.
