Map of Paul's First Missionary Journey

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:10 Thanksgiving Plans and Traditions

02:15 Beginning of the Bible Study: Acts 13-14

03:33 Paul's First Missionary Journey and Key Events

08:25 Paul and Barnabas in Iconium and Lystra

14:48 Conclusion and Prayer

Hey, everybody.

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Welcome back to another edition

of the daily Bible podcast.

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He came back.

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Thank you so much.

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You did.

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You said come back and

they did they're here.

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I think we w I mean, we don't know

for sure, but I think so many of

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the same people came back that much.

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I'm sure.

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Hey, next Thursday, you've got one week

to get your turkeys to get your stuff

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in, to get your canned cranberry sauce.

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Cause that's what you need to have.

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And, uh, and get ready for Thanksgiving.

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So make sure that you're

doing that pastoral.

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What are your plans for Thanksgiving?

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I don't have any yet.

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None.

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No, I don't party.

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I have a couple days off.

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So I'm thinking, I'm trying to think about

what, what would make the most sense?

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We don't have any family in the

area except for church family, which

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in many respects is I guess just

the same and in some ways deeper.

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And more profound.

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Uh, so I haven't decided yet.

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I have a couple of people in

mind that I want to make sure

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they have a place to go and.

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Uh, but the most have always,

so generously invited us over.

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So I'm confident we'll be with the

most, at least we're part of the

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day, if not a substantial portion,

but I'm trying to figure out.

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A couple of floaters.

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And offline.

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Good.

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Yeah, we're going to be at home doing

Turkey during the cinnamon rolls.

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Playing football with the church.

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Um, I think on Thursday morning.

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So that should be fun.

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And, uh, watching the

Cowboys lose another game.

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That should be fun too.

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Um, I think.

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Again, probably not though.

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Not, not as much fun.

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Yeah.

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Uh, anyways, it's, uh, my kids

are off all next week, so that's.

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I'm looking forward to that a

little bit of a slower environment.

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Anytime they're not in school, moorings

are a little bit more slow and not as, as

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crazy, not as hectic traffic is better.

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Traffic is better.

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Although we live in an area without

much traffic, which is nice.

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Dr.

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Mohler was talking

about traffic last week.

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16 miles, two hours to go 16 miles.

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I remember some LA traffic was hideous.

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I found it, at least here traffic moves.

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In LA.

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There were times that you just were at

a, you just stopped for 10 minutes at

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a time and didn't move a single inch.

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That's a little bit of an overstatement,

but there are times in the traffic.

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Desktop.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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I drove.

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When I was doing my demon up at

master seminary, I would drive from

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orange county up to sun valley.

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And I would do that every single day.

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And then I would drive home.

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So I'd leave in the morning.

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I'd drive up there, I'd go to class

and then I'd drive back home, which.

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I mean it, depending on when, in the

morning it was fine because I left

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before everybody else in that meant

I had to leave at like four 30 in the

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morning to get up there, but driving

home at night, it took anywhere from

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two and a half to three hours to get.

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What should be normally, maybe

an hour, hour and a half at most.

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Uh, because traffic was

just miserable, miserable.

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And so I don't miss that.

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I'm glad that's over, but it

was that, or leave my family for

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two weeks and get a hotel up.

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And.

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That area.

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And I'd rather see my family.

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I might be tempted.

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Yeah, briefly as it is.

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All right.

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Let's jump into our reading today.

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We've got acts chapter

13 and acts chapter 14.

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Acts chapter 13 is all about missionaries.

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And so, uh, Garrett and

Kiersten were looking at you.

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This is your chapter here, missionaries

to be, uh, this is about getting

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ready and, and Saul and Barnabas

being sent out as some of the first

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missionaries of the early church.

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Um, In acts chapter 13,

verses one through three.

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Uh, we find them being sent

out there from Antioch.

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Antioch was going to

become their home base.

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Now one commentator made this point.

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I think it's worth drawing, bringing up.

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They said Jerusalem was still the

mother church, meaning that the base

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of the church at large, the church

spread out from Jerusalem, but the

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missionary church now was Antioch.

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And so furthermore, he goes on

to say, Peter was no longer the

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central figure here that the action

is going to shift away from Peter.

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Not completely, but mostly.

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And Saul is going to

become the central figure.

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Now you may be wondering why

are we still calling him Saul?

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Isn't he Paul, now that he's converted.

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Uh, that that's not.

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His Christian name?

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That's his Greek name?

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And so when Saul is still going to the

Jews, which by and large, he still is.

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He saw when he turns and begins to

really just go to the Gentiles and

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you'll notice the shift in the text.

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In fact, it may even be in our chapter.

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Um, he shifts DePaul, it'll

say Saul also called Paul.

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Now that, that is just simply the

designation of his Greek name,

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whereas his Hebrew name was Saul.

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So there's the difference there in

case you're wondering, is this as

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Christian name versus non-Christian name?

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No, this is just his Hebrew

name versus Greek name.

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Their first stop is going to be

an area called Cyprus in that

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is in verses four through 12.

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Uh, this begins the missionary

journey, the first missionary

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journey he's going to take multiple

three missionary journeys here.

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And so this is the first one and it's

going to span chapter 13, first four,

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all the way through 14 verse 26.

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Uh, no.

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In 13 five, we have the presence

of John also known as John mark.

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He's the author of the gospel of mark.

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He's going to become a catalyst for the

breakup eventually of Paul and Barnabas.

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So he's there with them right now, but

we're going to find out what happens.

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And John mark is going to be

the catalyst for the breakup of

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Paul and Barnabas eventually.

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And their separation now.

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That'll come full circle, but

notice in verse five, we get the

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reference to John or John mark there.

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Verses six through 12 while in Cyprus,

they encounter opposition there from

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a man named, uh, Simon BARR, Jesus, or

not Simon barges, but just Barjesus or

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Lemus was his Greek name there who did

not want them there sharing the gospel.

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And so this one man was a magician and

he clearly was, was not a believer.

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And so we find him opposing the

disciples there, look at verse nine.

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This is where the comment is made.

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Salt is not going to be

Paul from here on out.

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Saul, also known as Paul.

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So there's the transition

I was just talking about.

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Uh, verses 10 through 11 by Paul by

the Lord strikes and Lemus blind.

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And which is a poetic judgment against

one who had deceived so many people, the

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one who had blinded somebody, people he's

going to be himself blinded now by God.

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Uh, and then the original target of

their witnessing, which is the proconsul.

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He responds in faith after seeing this

and receives the teaching of the Lord.

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So God can I overcome some

opposition early on here in the

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first missionary journey at Cyprus.

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From here they go on to the other

Antioch, which is Persidian Antioch.

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Uh, and here we find in verse

13, John Mark's departure.

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This has mentioned right here.

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This is that issue.

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Paul disagreed with this.

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He looked at this as.

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Uh, you know, John mark couldn't

handle the opposition, couldn't

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handle the difficulty and we see that

there was opposition and difficulty.

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And so he leaves and he goes

back and, and that's going to

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really not sit well with Paul.

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Whereas Barnabas is going to be

a little bit more sympathetic

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come the next missionary journey.

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He's going to want to bring John

mark back and Paul's going to say,

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no, we're not going to do that.

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Uh, verse 14, Antioch and passivity, as I

mentioned is different from the Antioch.

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That was the home base for Paul

and Barnabas from once they set

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out for the missionary journey.

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And so this is another location and

here Paul is going to preach the

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gospel and that's verses 15 through 43.

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And he does so beginning with the

old Testament and showing how Jesus

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came as the Messiah and fulfillment

of prophecy after prophecy,

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after prophecy, after prophecy.

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But I want you to note the longest section

that it gets here verses 30 through 37 is.

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Focused specifically on the resurrection.

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That's where Paul gives the, the meat

of his emphasis here is focused on

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the resurrection of Jesus because

without the resurrection is Paul's

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going to write in first Corinthians 15.

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None of this matters.

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And then in verses 38 through 39, we

get the actual gospel being laid out.

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Let it be known that the through this

man through Jesus forgiveness of sins,

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that proclaimed to you, everyone who

believes is freed from everything,

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which you could not be freed from.

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By the law of Moses.

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So cool, because this is what he's

going to write about enrollments.

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So we're seeing Pauline theology

even here in the book of acts.

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As we read through these

things, highly recommend you

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to have a map as you read this.

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It's one thing to read about the first

missionary journey in acts 13 and 14.

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It's a whole other to kind of trace

along with your finger, as you read

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where Paul and Barnabas are headed.

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Uh, and for the present time,

John mark, until he leaves

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and pedophilia and heads back.

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So you would do well.

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If you don't have a study

Bible, usually most.

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It's a study Bibles and

thick premium Bibles.

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We'll have maps in the back that

will trace his first, second

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and third missionary journeys.

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Uh, we would highly

recommend that you do this.

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And in fact, On top of that, I would

recommend that you open up a modern day,

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apple maps, Google maps, you seek and

see what the, the modern cities are.

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It'll give you a better sense

of the flow of what's happening.

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And even when you think about

Cyrus and Paul is out on the

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island of Cyprus, rather Cyprus.

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Uh, where he's going,

uh, Salamis or salamis.

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I'm not sure how to say that, but I'm

sure someone will correct me on that.

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And path hosts are kind of far apart.

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One's on one side of the

coast, one's on the other.

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And from there they hand it,

they, they sail over to pemphigus.

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So you would do well to have a map.

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That would be good thing to add to

your study this morning or these

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following mornings as we work

our way through the book of acts.

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Yep.

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Yeah.

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Great, great recommendation there.

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Uh, the, when he finishes speaking

that the Jews want him to come back.

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They want him to come

back the next Sabbath?

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Well, in verses 44 through 52,

when they do that, when they come

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back, the next Sabbath, the Jews

there, they began to oppose him.

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And so his enemies are there.

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So.

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Th they, they shift and they turn to

the Gentiles and that's going to be

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something that's going to be a sharp turn.

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Eventually that they're going to be

saying, Hey, we're done with this

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completely, but they're beginning

to go towards the Gentiles.

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And we find in acts chapter 13, verse 48,

the, the statement that is such a profound

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statement, where it says as many as

were appointed to eternal life believed.

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And I just, again, I don't

want to belabor this.

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I just want us to look at

the simple statement there.

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As many as were appointed.

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Okay.

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That is a passive verb.

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Okay.

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That means that the action

is happening to them.

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And who's the one who is a

pointing them to eternal life.

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The answer would be God.

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So as many who believed it's those

that got appointed to eternal life.

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Did God appoint everyone to eternal life?

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The answer there is no.

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So is everyone going to

believe the answer is no.

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Who believes the ones that God.

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Appointed that informed some of

our understanding of salvation,

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our, as it's called our soteriology

in our understanding of God's

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sovereignty involved in salvation.

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From here, they flee the persecution that

is happening there in Antioch capacity.

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And they end up moving on to another area.

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Now in acts chapter 14, still part of this

first missionary journey called I conium.

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Unium I conium, I conium

is about 90 miles.

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If you're looking at your maps there, 90

miles Southeast of Antioch, and it was a

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city with Roman connections and located

on a major trade route in this region.

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And so though it took a little while

for the opposition to become serious

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enough to threaten their wellbeing.

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It even reached that point as well.

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And so they're there for a time period,

but man here comes the opposition again.

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And remember God in part is using this

opposition to get the gospel spread

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further and further and further.

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So for my conium, what happens,

they go to another area called

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Lisha is about 20 miles Southeast,

even of Iconium and Derby, which

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they're going to get to as well as

another 58 miles further than that.

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All of this, by the way,

is the region of glacier.

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So the epistle written to the

Galatians is written to churches

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that are located in this particular

region of, uh, what's modern day.

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Um, essentially Turkey is

the modern day area of this.

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Acts 14, nine.

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Notice it says.

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That that as Paul heals, the man here, it

says, seeing that he had faith to be made.

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Well, I thought that was interesting past.

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I'd love to get your thoughts on that.

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How does he see in a man listening

to him, see his faith, such that he

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would be wanting to heal him here.

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That'd be pay close attention.

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I'm going to be super definitive on this.

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I have no idea.

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Yeah, fair.

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That's both of us here.

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But something about this man.

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Uh, led Paul and maybe it's the,

the wisdom, the insight that he

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has as the spirit dwells him.

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Is able to say, Hey look,

this guy's got faith here.

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And so, um, Paul engages with him and

he sees that he has faced to me made,

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well, verse 10, he says, stand up.

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Right.

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And walking feet.

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He does.

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So he stands up and begins to walk.

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Now the people see this and they go

crazy and they immediately come to Paul

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and Barnabas and they attribute God.

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Titles to them.

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Barnabas.

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They called Zeus and Paul Hermes.

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Uh, now.

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I would think that Paul would be Zeus and

Barnabas would be Hermes because Paul is

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the leader and we know that he wrote a lot

more of the, the letters, but pastor outta

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any insight into the significance of these

names here between Paul and Barnabas.

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I wondered if maybe what's happening

is a slow turning of the, of the roles.

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And Barnabas and Paul.

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Are listed in, I think, order

of importance at this point.

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So you'll notice in verse

14, but when the apostles.

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That's interesting to

note as well, parcels.

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Um, Barnabas and Paul

Barnabas is listed first.

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And so it seems at this point

in their ministry under the

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first missionary journey and

Barnabas is still the key player.

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And it's not until I think

the second missionary journey

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where the roles began to turn.

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And Paul is considered more of the,

I don't know the leader, the senior,

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even though he's, he's not the

senior in Barnabas to his credit, it

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seems is going to be more than okay.

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With letting him do that.

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So that's, I think what's

happening behind this.

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That's my best guess.

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What do you think about that?

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Yeah, I agree with that.

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And maybe even solidifying

that, so they call Paul Hermes,

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Hermes known also is mercury.

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Uh, he was believed to

be the messenger of Zeus.

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And so he's the one that, that

was the God who was the leader in

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speaking as one author, put it.

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And Paul's the one doing

a lot of the speaking.

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And so they may have assumed, okay.

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Barnabas.

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Yeah, he's the head.

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Paul's the messenger of the one that.

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Is the head, the one of greater authority.

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And so Barnabas is use Paul your

Hermes because you're the one

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speaking on behalf of zoos here.

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Uh, but yeah, I think

you're right on that.

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Uh, verses 14 through 18, then the

response from the apostles is not great.

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Awesome.

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I'll be as easy to be bothered.

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At UBI Hermes, and let's hang out here.

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In fact it's, as they tear their

ropes, which was a symbol of mourning.

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Uh, and so they're grieved over

this, on behalf of the people there.

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And they immediately move to put an

end to the notion that they're anything

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but men and messengers of the gospel.

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And so that's, they deflect the praise.

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We talked about how Herod

Agrippa did not do that.

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And what happened to him here?

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You see the opposite of that.

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When they're saying, man, we are

just simply men don't do this.

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This is wrong.

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Well verses 19 through 23.

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Uh, the opposition that they had

been experiencing, other places, it

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finally gets to where they are now.

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It gets to Lister there.

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They follow them all the way down.

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And this Jewish opposition.

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That had had followed them there.

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Uh, they are, they stir the crowds

up and they notice they, they

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take Paul out and they stone him.

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To the point that they believe in to be

dead and drag his body out of the city.

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And then it just simply says he gets up.

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He gets up.

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That's simple, but, but pastor, rod.

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They knew what they were doing.

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Yes.

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As far as stoning goes, this is

not like, they were like, oh, I

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guess we didn't finish them off.

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They had done this before.

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I assume.

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Uh, almost certainly, uh, this,

this was a common way of execution.

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So I'm with you on that.

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Whether it was that God preserved

him from dying or whether God

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resurrected him from death.

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We can't quite tell, but.

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There's something happening

here that God preserved him.

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And clearly when Jesus says to two a.

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Mercy.

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Why am I forgetting his name?

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Um, the guy that he sent Paul to are sent

to Paul when he was on the street called

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straight in a nice and nice, thank you.

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Uh, he told him to nice for, he

must, I'm going to show him how much

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he must suffer from my namesake.

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I see this as part of that.

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So God's purpose for Paul's

life was going to suffer on

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behalf of Christ and for Christ.

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And this is included in that yeah.

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A hundred percent.

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Yeah.

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When you get to second Corinthians

chapter 11 and we're going to get

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through Paul's resume of suffering there.

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I I'm sure this is part of, in fact, he

referenced as being stoned at that point.

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But it gets up.

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That's amazing.

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Um, but also know the

opposition that follows him.

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It's just a reminder and we're going to

get there in John's gospel, in the not

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too distant future, either people hate

Jesus and because people hate Jesus.

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People hate people that love Jesus.

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And so we see that here, the opposition

is willing to travel miles and

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remember they didn't have cars, they

didn't have public transportation.

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They're probably on foot.

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And they're walking all the way

they're wise so that they can oppose.

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The gospel oppose Christ, but he

gets up and you'd think that maybe

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Paul's like, oh, you know what?

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I'm gonna retire from missionary journey

for, for the remainder of the time here.

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Nope.

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They move on to Derby and

there he keeps on preaching.

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And then they come back to LR and I

conium in Antioch, all these areas,

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he had faced opposition, they come

back and what did they do there?

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They strengthened the

believers that are there.

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And so they're focused on, Hey,

we need to build up the church.

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Part of that looks like acts 14, 23.

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They're putting elders in place.

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They're making sure that the church has

polity and leadership and that it is going

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to be governed well, uh, in their absence.

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One quick note here after Paul

rises up, I want to point out that

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he goes back into the same city.

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Uh, so before he goes to Derby,

he goes back into the same city.

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So it's not like he's

trying to evade or elude.

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The persecution that

they're sending his way.

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I think that's more fascinating to me.

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This guy's like, you know what?

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You stone me.

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I'm coming back into the city.

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And you want to try this again?

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I guess.

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Yeah.

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But then he goes, the next day he goes

to Derby, which I think is important.

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He, he, he faces this head on

there's times when he runs away.

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Yeah.

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We can put it that way.

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And there's other times where he stays

and I think the spirit gives us wisdom

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to know which one is the appropriate

one at, at, at that certain timeframe.

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Yup.

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Yeah, I would agree.

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Versus 24 through 28, then the

missionaries they return and they're

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preaching the gospel as they go.

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They return all the way back to Antioch

from their home base and they return

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preaching the gospel on the way back.

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And they gathered the church together

to give their slideshow about how

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their missionary journey went.

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And, uh, now they give the

report on how everything went

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and they fill everybody in.

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And that brings the first

missionary journey to a conclusion

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here in acts chapter 14.

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All right.

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Y'all let's pray.

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And then we'll be done

with another episode.

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Got we want the boldness of Paul

and the, the passion to preach

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the gospel that Paul has here.

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We want the humility of Paul and

of Barnabas to, as we talked about

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yesterday, deflect the glory back to

you, but got to help us to have the zeal

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of the passion that says no matter what

happens, we want to preach the gospel.

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None of us, we don't think at least.

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Are going to be stone today for opening

up and telling somebody else about Jesus.

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And so how much more should we take

advantage of the freedoms that we have in

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the low cost that it really is to us to.

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To tell somebody how much Christ loves

them by pointing them to the gospel.

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Let us be faithful to do that.

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As a church, we pray in Jesus name.

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Amen.

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All right, I'll keep it in your Bibles

and tune in again tomorrow for another

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edition of the daily Bible podcasts.

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Y'all come back now.

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You hear bye.