Teamwork Series

16 “‘After this I will return

and rebuild David’s fallen tent.

Its ruins I will rebuild,

and I will restore it,

17 that the remnant of men may seek the Lord,

and all the Gentiles who bear my name,

says the Lord, who does these things’£

18 that have been known for ages.£

19“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21For Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

22Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers. 23With them they sent the following letter:

The apostles and elders, your brothers,

To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:

Greetings.

24We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul—26men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.

Farewell.

30The men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. 32Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers. 33After spending some time there, they were sent off by the brothers with the blessing of peace to return to those who had sent them.£ 35But Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord.

Acts 18 1-4

1After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Jesus role modeled how we are to build teams and work in the team concept because that is where the power comes from! The book of Acts verified that God uses teamwork to spread the Gospel. He uses teamwork to unleash revival and sustain revival. He does this by using different people at different positions on His dream team. Some will play Defense, some offense, some will coach, some will be special team players. Some will be ready to get up off the bench and fill in for one who gets injured. Championship teams know the importance of placing the right people in the right position so they can win the game and eventually win the Super Bowl. This takes many people with different shapes, sizes, speed, agility, gifts, abilities and the like. The more diversity a team has on its team the more able they are to win games. If a football team only had large players they would lose because speed would run around them. So Jesus knew that the best team was a team with different types of people.