00:00 Introduction and Greetings

00:20 Thanksgiving Plans and Traditions

02:05 Thanksgiving Food Favorites

05:08 Daily Bible Reading: Acts 13 and 14

06:29 The Practice of Fasting in Christianity

08:23 Exploring Different Types of Fasting

08:48 The Unique Power of Fasting from Food

10:26 Paul and Barnabas' Missionary Journey Begins

10:42 Paul's Confrontation and Preaching in Pisidian Antioch

11:26 Transition to Preaching to the Gentiles

13:52 Paul and Barnabas in Iconium and Lystra

15:48 Paul's Miraculous Survival and Continued Mission

18:03 Reflections on Paul's Decisions and Spiritual Leadership

19:14 Concluding Thoughts and Prayer

20:44 Outro and Podcast Information

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

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Introduction and Greetings

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Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast and happy Friday. Happy Friday indeed. This is the last Friday before Christmas. Christmas Thanksgiving. We have a few more Fridays before Christmas. Okay. Yeah. Just jumping the gun. Yeah, I mean, that'd be we, there'd be a glitch in the Matrix if we jump from here to Christmas.

I'm looking forward to it. I'm excited for Thanksgiving. I'm excited for Christmas. Yeah. Lots of good stuff.

Thanksgiving Plans and Traditions

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Whatcha guys doing for Thanksgiving? We are gonna go to Frontier Park and play football. Oh, in the morning I've heard such things. Yeah. So now are you playing? I'm gonna be there. Gonna be there.

But you're not gonna play. I might, I played last year. I didn't win. I lost and so, no, I, I may jump in and play, although at the same time we've. Said, Hey, we want the kids to be there too. So if there's nobody there to help organize a kid's game, I'm happy to do that. And we've got some ladies that wanna play football.

And so if there's enough, are we doing co-ed? No. No. If there's enough ladies there that wanna play a game they can. And that's not sexism, by the way. That's just us trying to be above board and make sure that, that we're drawn boundaries, we're boundaries need to be drawn. The message is loud and clear.

Yeah. That's gonna be fun. It will be. It will be. I trust. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad I preached to the men first because I feel like. It increased my street cred a little bit to be able to now preach to the ladies because they're not sitting there being like, well, what are you gonna say to the men?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That really helped set it up. Well, and I think the rationale was wise too. God calls the people to lead and then the people to follow. And so, and when he spoke to Adam and Eve, he spoke to Adam and he said, dude you're at fault here. You're the one responsible. Yeah. And so he called Adam to account before he ever said anything to Eve.

Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. So that's our plans. And then we'll come back and do Turkey. I'm gonna spatchcock of Turkey and smoke it on the Traeger. And you're gonna what? Spatchcock it. What is that? So you cut it in half and basically flatten it out so it cooks a lot faster. Oh, okay. And there's other reasons for flavor and moisture and things like that.

Thanksgiving Food Favorites

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What about you guys? What are you doing for Thanksgiving? We're going to the MOOCs. Okay. So the MOOCs have invited the misfits, the misre, the people that have no repute, so they're earning rewards in heaven.

Who else is invited to this besides you? The Kelly's. I know we're okay. Okay. I don't know who else. I'm sure. Well, there's, there's, there's always lots of people there and it ends up being people that are like, don't have a lot of family here in, in this area, so it's great. Jeff always does something. One year he did a Turducken.

Okay. He does usually a gumbo, which was delish. There's always things like ham and turkey, so all the good stuff. I'm excited and Alyssa. Heidi's daughter makes a great pecan pie. Okay. Do you call it pecan or pecan? Pecan. Pecan, yeah. Oh, okay. Well, pecan, pecan, whatever the way that you say it, I love that.

Are you a Texan? Yeah, but it's a weird looking dessert. Oh dude. Dude, your Texan cred has just gone way down. Well, fair, but oh, I'm just saying give yourself a treat. Well, I don't know. Maybe. Maybe you drop by the MOS and bring your family by. I'm not, and just try some pecan pie. I'm not questioning whether or not Alyssa makes it a great pecan pie.

I'm sure she does. She does. I just, I, it's never been something that I'm like, yeah, I want, I want that. Well come specifically for it. I'll save you a slice and you guys can share it. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Is there a Thanksgiving dish that does blow your mind? I remember when we were talking about the eclipse.

Yeah. And you're like, meh, doesn't move the needle. Not a big deal for me. I'm never gonna let anybody forget that. But is there anything that does move the needle for you when it comes to Thanksgiving dishes? Yeah. We've been over this before. Well, tell me again. It's, people forget. It's the canned cranberry sauce.

Those win. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's, that's fantastic. Yeah, no doubt about that. In fact, she's been experimenting with dough, new dough, recipes for it. Oh. And so she's made a couple of sample batches recently. Nice. That's been fun. Yeah, I would be very much in favor of that. Yeah, you should bring some to the office.

Yeah. Well, for Pastor Mark, we could. Yeah. Or Lewis. Yeah. What about you? What's your go-to, what's your favorite dish at Thanksgiving? I love so many of them. It's hard to I really love the pecan pie, obviously. I do love the candied yams. I'm not a big fan of the stuffing, but I do love pretty much everything on oh oh, cheesy mashed potatoes.

Okay. And when you put the Corn Flakes on top. Dude, you rock my world a bit. Corn flakes on top of mashed potatoes. Yeah, it gives it a crunch. Okay. Obviously. 'cause yes, it's crunchy. So it's I don't know how you do that. People do that. They have done that. I love the mac and cheese. I mean, I just, I enjoy the food.

Daily Bible Reading: Acts 13 and 14

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Well, let's jump in and do our daily Bible reading for today. We're in Acts 13 and 14, by the way. Just as a heads up as we typically will do for you tomorrow, two things.

Number one, men be at men's Bible study tomorrow. That's tomorrow morning. That's right. Second, give yourself a little bit more time in your DBR tomorrow because you're reading an entire book. It's only gonna be about 18 minutes if you read, at some speed. If you slow down like I do, you read something and then you're like, oh, what about that?

Yeah. And then you read something and, oh, what about that? You probably need about 30 to 40 minutes. Yeah. But it is the book of James. And it is written by James, the brother of Jesus, half brother of Jesus, we should say. Mm-hmm. So, that's tomorrow. Give yourself some time. But today, acts 13 and 14. So Acts 13 we find ourselves at the first missionary journey.

But the home base for Paul, at least at this point in time, is the church in Antioch. And you made the point about the Atlas. That's gonna be super helpful here because we're going to, in chapter 13, find another Antioch here, but it's not the same Antioch. And so if you're not tracking with things can get kind of confusing along the way, but Yep.

Paul and Barnabas are gonna be set aside and they're gonna be sent out. As missionaries for the church.

The Practice of Fasting in Christianity

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And I think it's interesting, and of note here in verse three, this is one of the few notes that we have of the church practicing the discipline of fasting here as the church itself. In verse three, it says, then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Maybe let's talk about why were they fasting before sending Paul and Barnabas off and the application for us today in the church, what we should do with fasting? That's a good question. And the text doesn't tell us why they fasted. We have to do some guesswork here. And I guess we should start with de describing what fasting is.

Most of us understand that it's a voluntary withholding of food you're not eating so that you can give yourself to praying. So instead of three square, you would spend three times on your prayer mat, I suppose, to offer yourself to the Lord and to seek his guidance, his blessing, his counsel, his direction.

So this is a way that Christians in ages past have dedicated themselves to the Lord. For a period of time, usually this is not a forever timeframe. This is a short period of time where they're saying, Lord, we need you to act or to move. We need you to interact with us or to give us counsel about something, and this is one way to do that.

So fasting has a significant and unique role in the Christian life, and I would. It's still something that Christians can utilize today. It's a tool that isn't often pulled out, and today there's so many different health complications and issues. So definitely if it's not something that fits you physically, then maybe don't do this.

Exploring Different Types of Fasting

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But there's other ways to fast that people are brought up that food isn't the only way. There's ways to fast from television. Maybe you don't watch TV at night. Instead you go and pray or maybe you fast from, I don't know, go going to the gym, but whatever. It's social media things. Yeah, social media.

Anything that's optional in your life, which is interesting because food isn't optional. You need food to survive. Yeah. It's one of those things that it fits so well because it's so saying, Lord, I need this more than I need my food.

The Unique Power of Fasting from Food

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So there's something unique about fasting from food and that's why they're doing it here.

And so that's why a lot of people will fast from food because they'll say, every time I feel hungry, that's a reminder that I need to pray. Yep. So sometimes when you're fasting from a television show or social media or something like that. Maybe that TV show. Normally you'd watch it in the evening. That might be the only time all day long that you think about that show and okay, great.

Then when you think about watching that show instead, okay, I'm gonna fast or I'm gonna pray during this time, but something that you do rhythmically regularly, that's such a good thing to do. The other thing that, that fasting can do for us, and this is a little bit of a different approach to it, I don't think this is the approach that.

Was taking place here in Acts 13, but it's another valid approach for Christians is it's a way to practice self-control and self-discipline. Fasting from something can be a reminder of the fact that the body does not control us. Our fleshly urges do not control us but rather we are controlled by the Lord.

We want to be attuned to what the Lord's will is and seeking the Lord will, lord's will continually. And so fasting for food is gonna be a part of that. That's right. And then notice here they laid their hands on them. This is commissioning them. This is, there's nothing magical about this. This is just them in agreement saying, we on behalf of the Lord, send you out to go out for this mission.

Yeah.

Paul and Barnabas' Missionary Journey Begins

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And so when they go out, they end up going to a region known as Pisidian Antioch. Now this is gonna be a different area I guess before this. They're in Cyprus, and we should note that verse four through 12. Here they are in Cyprus. They encounter opposition. There's this guy named bar Jesus or ems.

Paul's Confrontation and Preaching in Pisidian Antioch

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Who didn't want them there sharing the gospel and Paul, now he's known by Paul. Notice the shift there in verse nine. Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked at him and said, you son of the devil, you enemy of all unrighteousness, full of deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the street path?

And so. Back off and move on from us. And then he strikes him blind there, which is a poetic judgment against one who had deceived so many himself. There they move on to Pisidian Antioch.

Transition to Preaching to the Gentiles

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And this is what's interesting here, because this is going to mark a transition from.

The pursuit of the Jews to the pursuit of the Gentiles. And so Paul and Barnabas are there in Pisidian Antioch. And this is gonna be the place where Paul's going to open up and preach one of his longest recorded sermons that we have from him, verses 15 through 43. Paul's preaching the gospel here, and he's gonna start with the Old Testament, and he's gonna show how Jesus came as the Messiah in fulfillment of all these Old Testament prophecies.

And the people respond favorably wanting to hear more from them on the next Sabbath, but when they come back on the next day, the next Sabbath day, the Jews are there and they're there to oppose him. And so Paul declares, Hey, we are turning from you to the Gentiles. And it's an interesting note in verse 48.

That it says, as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. And so we have even some of the interaction there of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. You do have man's responsibility. Right before this. If you look up the page at verse 46, Paul said, Paul and Barnabas spoke. Out boldly saying it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first since you thrust it aside that there's the, and you've judged yourselves, unworthy of eternal life.

Two quick notes from chapter 13 here, starting at verse 13. Notice that John left them and returned to Jerusalem. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That's big. We dunno what happened there. Yep. But this is John Mark. Yep. So he's gonna come back at a later time. In fact a chapter or two I believe, where he's gonna re.

Reappear and have a different role. So just pay attention to that. He leaves Paul clocks this. He's not happy about it, but John Mark returns back home. We don't know why. Second thing to note here is verse 52. The end of the chapter says here, the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Notice again, the Holy Spirit's entry point into the Book of Acts. He's all over it. He's acting. He's moving. He's converting. But here I wanna point out that his. His feeling presence corresponds also with joy. There is something about being filled with the spirit that also has a joy-filled element to it, and true Christian who is filled with the spirit should have the fruit of joy as is evident in Galatians 5 22.

Absolutely.

Paul and Barnabas in Iconium and Lystra

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They're gonna end up in a town called Lira, which was about 20 miles away from there. And then also Derby, which was another 58 miles further from there. So we're traveling quite a bit here, and this is all part of the region known as Galatia. In fact, in not too many days from now, you're, we're gonna be reading the letter to the Galatians.

That's this whole region, these various cities that Paul and Barnabas were visiting. He's gonna be preaching, he's gonna be doing some miracles there. In fact they're gonna do a miracle that is gonna cause the people in this region to attribute to Barnabas the name Zeus and to Paul, the name Hermes.

And that came back to the fact that Paul was the main speaker and Hermes was known as the one also known as Mercury. Was believed to be the messenger of the mouthpiece of Zeus. And so that's kind of why Barnabas's, Zeus, and Paul is Hermes. This is so much different than Herod, though. Herod was praised by the people as having the voice of a God, and Herod didn't.

That's what we hold to as well. Our elders are our pastors. And that's something that's unique about us as a church, but it is still a plurality and it is still a first among equals type situation there. It's everybody around the table has a voice, and we are all making those decisions together.

And so Paul and Barnabas are installing elders at each of these churches as they're going through. Couple comments on chapter 14 here. Notice.

Paul's Miraculous Survival and Continued Mission

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I don't know how else to put this here, but Paul, first of all, Paul Flees on at least one occasion, he fled to Lira and Derby after he was threatened to be stoned by the people there.

But look at verse 20 when the disciples gathered about him. So they thought he was dead. They stoned the guy. So they're throwing rocks at this dude. And they've done this before. They're not professionals, but they're not amateurs. They're not dumb. They know how to do this, right? So they surround him thinking that he's dead.

And in verse 20, he says Here, the disciples gathered about him. He rose up. And went back into the city. Unbelievable. Right? This guy, he just got stoned, right? And he's like, you know what let's go back inside that city. Let's show these guys what happened. What does he look like, first of all?

Is he hobbing? He hobbling, yeah. Right. His face is bloody in bruise. He's got a fat lip, he's got knots on his head. I don't know what he looks, he shoulders outta, so he's just kinda like, he can't, right, he can't be in a good spot here. No, but like a boss, he just walks right back in there and says, you gave me your worst here.

He's not gonna be able to go back and keep preaching. He's not gonna be able to and if you're unfamiliar with the act of Stony, they would've put him in a pit. They would've stood elevated. Around him, and they would've taken large rocks. Rocks that they could pick up and hold over their heads, but still large rocks and thrown them down on top of him until he was either covered with the stones and they assumed him dead.

Or they could tell because he was no longer moving or breathing, that he was dead. And so the blows that these large rocks would've inflicted upon him, and they weren't missing because they assumed that he's dead. So I gotta think that maybe there's even something God thing won going on to. Maybe, they stone Paul and dragged him out of the city.

So, I don't know. Maybe there was more than one way to stone. Somebody could be, could have been outta character, they did something different in the process. Either way God preserved Paul. Let's just He does. We can agree to that. Yep. Yep. God preserves him and Paul just walks right back into the city.

Reflections on Paul's Decisions and Spiritual Leadership

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God led Paul to flee in one situation and to stay in the next. Yeah. And they're not all that different. In both situations. There was a stoning that was threatened, one that was threatened, and one that was actualized.

And one he stays and one he goes. I think this tells us that the spirit does teach us to do different things in different situations, and I don't know what the calculation always is. I just know that God does lead us differently in different circumstances. So I think it's important as you're looking at Paul to take away from him something of the way that he's reliant upon the spirit to lead him.

And granted, it doesn't say here that he prayed all night and that he fasted. It doesn't tell me that, but from what I know about Paul, that has to be true. He's seeking the Lord's leadership and the Lord is leading him and he does one thing, one time and one thing another time. And clearly this is what God is doing for him.

In the first missionary journey, the Spirit did intend for him to do a second and third, which is why he preserved him. But here it's just, it's interesting to see how he makes decisions and they're not always the same. Yeah, I was thinking of the same thing. Just he's in tune with the spiritual leadership in his life.

That's right.

Concluding Thoughts and Prayer

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Chapters 13 and 14, really great because this little section here is the first missionary journey. They end it on verse 25. Yeah, verse 25. That's the end of the first missionary journey. So it's really nice encapsulated section. And there's a ton here. This is the first one that the church ever sends out.

Yep. Paul and Barnabas are part of that. What a cool thing it is. Well, let's pray. Lord we're thankful for the example that we have here in Paul and Barnabas and we want to be men and women who are that in tune with the spirit. That we are able to sense your leadership in our lives and know what you would have us do in various situations.

Lord, this is something that you do commend and call us to do, and we see it modeled here. In the example of the church is they send Paul and Barnard boff. We're also thankful for the missionary example of them, that still happens today. We're even thinking about some of our own missionaries and Garrett and Kirsten.

We love them and we're so thankful that that they are getting training right now and we look forward to even getting to see them a little bit this Christmas time as they're back with us. But God, we're excited for what you're gonna do through them and that we get to walk in the footsteps of the church in Antioch by sending them off eventually.

And so we. Can't wait for that day. We can't wait to be with you, Lord, ultimately. And so we thank you for this time. In the meantime, help us to be faithful in our time. In the Word we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep your new Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

See ya. Bye.

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Outro and Podcast Information

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PJ: Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said