Proclaim Christ

If you will, open up your Bibles to Acts chapter 13.

Acts chapter 13 is kind of the dividing point in the book of Acts. Chapters 1 through 12 predominantly feature Peter and his ministry. And then in Acts 13, from there on, it's pretty much all about Paul and Paul's missionary journeys. Acts chapter 13 that we'll be looking at this morning is on Paul's first missionary journey. And his first missionary journey covers from chapters 13 and 14. So we're just going to look at the first half of that today. Now you may ask, what has Paul's missionary journey to do with the Lord's table?

Everything.

Earlier when we did our scripture reading, Pastor read from 1 Corinthians chapter 11. It covers the recital of Christ's words in instituting the Lord's Supper. But then Paul adds his own little phrase in verse 26. He says, "As often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." Most of the time we take that in what's called the indicative sense. In grammar, that simply means that as you're eating the bread and as you're drinking the cup, you are indicating or by a way of drama, if you will, you're acting out the Lord's message of the gospel for you. You're saying, "This blood is for me. This body was broken for me. Christ's death was for my sins. He was laid in the tomb and He rose again. That's my participation in His body and in His resurrection."

However, it can also be interpreted in the imperative sense. And in the imperative sense, that means a command. In other words, it could be translated as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you be proclaiming Christ, the death of Christ. In fact, this is the way that it was traditionally interpreted up until just a couple hundred years ago. John Gill, the famous Baptist preacher, he was born in 1697, one of the best linguists ever. He's still considered the top Hebrew scholar probably of all times. He learned Greek. He was a master of it by the time he was 11 years old. And he focused so much on this being an imperative, saying, "As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you, you be proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes." Charles Spurgeon interpreted it the same way. In fact, that was the reason why Charles Spurgeon actually, one of the main reasons why he celebrated the Lord's Supper in his church every single week. And the reason why is that he wanted the gospel to be always set before you. And he figured that as the gospel being set before you, it would empower you, it would encourage you, it would compel you to speak about what Christ has done for you.

In fact, the very word, "You proclaim the Lord's death until He comes," is "proclaim." In the Greek, it actually is katangellō. Now angelos is where we get the word angel from. And what is an angel but a messenger? And the idea behind that is when we eat the Supper, we are proclaiming, and to proclaim means to speak out loud, to make public, to bear a message of Christ's death for us. As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. So we should be about sharing Christ. And the gospel set before us in the Lord's Supper is there for us to receive from it, yes, and be blessed from it, but not to be an end in itself for us to be blessed, but for us to bless others. What happens if you are a pond and you receive water via stream or a creek, but you have no outlet? What happens eventually to that pond?

Stagnates, exactly right. So the idea of celebrating the Lord's Supper is for us to proclaim the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that brings us to Acts 13. This is the beginning of Paul's first missionary journey. In verse 1, it talks about the church that is in Antioch of Syria. They've all gathered there together. If you look on your map, you have the Mediterranean Sea, and on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea, you have Syria, and there was Antioch there. And so they're meeting there at the church in Antioch. And let's begin with verse 2.

"As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them."

Proclaiming Christ, it starts with worship. They were worshiping the Lord. It says that they were ministering to the Lord. A word can be translated, they were worshiping the Lord. If you don't worship God, you're not going to be interested in proclaiming Him, right? What is set before us, what captivates our heart, captivates our tongue, right? So they began with worshiping God.

Proclaiming Christ also begins with being consecrated to the Lord. What it says here in verse 2: "The Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work for which I have called them." Consecrate means to set apart, right?

Every single day you make a choice whether you're going to be set apart to the Lord or to yourself, right? So what Paul says in Romans 12:1 says that you should make yourself as a living sacrifice to the Lord. That's what we're to do. We're to present ourselves saying, "I'm yours, Lord. Use me." And that's what the Holy Spirit told Paul and Barnabas to do, to set them aside for proclaiming the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Proclaiming Christ also entails our obedience. When Paul and Barnabas were directed to consecrate themselves, they didn't argue, they did it. Look in verse 3. "Then, having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away." They were ready to proclaim Christ. They were ready to preach the good news that Christ died for them and rose again.

Proclaiming Christ not only includes consecration, but it includes prayer. They prayed for them as a means of sending Paul and Barnabas out on a mission, right? And to proclaim Christ, we have to bathe it in prayer. We start off our day and we say, "Lord, here I am. Send me. Send an opportunity my way. Someone that I can share the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ with. Someone that I can tell them that God loves them and that Christ died for them," right? That's what we should be praying every morning. Now, you may say, "Well, no, you don't get it, David. This Paul and Barnabas, they were being sent out to be full-time missionaries here, and I'm not a full-time missionary."

Don't you have a commission from our Lord Jesus Christ? And even Paul, in what we just read from 1 Corinthians 11:26, "As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you be proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes." It's an imperative, right? So we operate under that. We are ambassadors for our Lord Jesus Christ, right? So it's every one of us. Every action that you do is a testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every word that leaves your lips is a testimony of Christ. Doesn't Jesus warn us in Matthew 12? Every idle word will be held accountable for. So we live in light of this, right?

Proclaiming Christ can be public. Let's look in verse 4 and 5. "So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus." They were on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean Sea, and they got in the boat, and they went straight into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea where you have the island of Cyprus, okay? Verse 5. "And when they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews."

Proclaiming Christ can be public. The first place that they landed on Cyprus, they went into a synagogue, and they began to proclaim Christ to a crowd of people, right? Sometimes you have that opportunity, take it, and maybe you're giving testimony at work, or maybe it's testimony in front of a mother's group, a play group. Maybe it's testimony beside some of your fellow students at school or in front of some of your customers. If you have a crowd of people, don't take it for granted. That is a divine appointment, right? Proclaiming Christ can be public. Proclaiming Christ also can be corporate. Look in verse 5.

"They also had John as their assistant. Paul was not alone. He was with Barnabas. Barnabas was his mentor. And they were also with John Mark."

If you can proclaim the gospel with others corporately, do so. If you have someone that's on your heart, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's a friend, don't go by yourself. Take your family with you to shine Christ to them, right? If you don't have any family, take your church family, okay? Deacons and elders who are here, raise your hand.

If you don't have a friend, one of these men that had their hands up, ask them. They will be glad to go with you to share the Lord Jesus Christ. Witnessing, proclaiming Christ is best done corporately. How did Jesus send out the disciples? Two by two. Later, when He sent out the 70, how did He send them out? Two by two, there's strength in numbers. So proclaiming Christ, it can be public, it can be corporate, and it can also be individual. Look in verse 6. "Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus," verse 7, "who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God." They made their way through the entire island, and there they came across the proconsul, who was the provincial leader there. He was a man who was in charge of that whole region. He reported directly to the Roman Senate, so he's a very high official, and he sought to have an audience with Paul and Barnabas and John Mark. He asked them, "Come, tell me this good news that you are proclaiming." When we have a chance to privately preach Christ to someone, do so. That's probably the most common way, when we share Christ one-on-one, whether it's in the hospital with someone who's sick, whether it's with the family you're ministering to who has lost a loved one, whether it's someone who's dealing with problems in their marriage, someone who just lost their job, those can be divine appointments to proclaim Christ.

Proclaiming Christ will be opposed. Look at verse 8, "But Elymas the sorcerer, for so his name is translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith."

The devil would love nothing more than to keep you from proclaiming the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, from keeping people from hearing that Christ died for them to save them from their sins. That's what the devil would love to do, and that's exactly what the sorcerer was trying to do. He had this proconsul's ear. He was evidently an influential man, and he didn't want to lose his influence when he would be shown to be a false prophet, when he would be shown to be a sorcerer, not a man of God. So he had a vested interest in keeping the proconsul in the dark.

We face opposition with the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 9, "Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him."

This wicked man who was trying to oppose the gospel, trying to steer the ear of the proconsul away from Paul and Barnabas, he was acted upon by Paul under the guidance and influence of the Holy Spirit.

Whenever we proclaim Christ, we never do it in our own strength, right? We best be filled with the Spirit. If you do it in your own strength, you'll fail. So we handle opposition by the Holy Spirit. Look what it says in verse 10, "And Paul said, O full of deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?" Verse 11, "And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand." Paul depended upon the Holy Spirit. He trusted the Holy Spirit would work. Paul didn't say, "This is by my power."

He didn't say hocus pocus. He just depended on the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit blinded the sorcerer. Paul would have known what that was like, right? We're on the road to Damascus. When he was breathing out threatenings and imprisoning believers, what happened to him when he met the Lord Jesus? He was struck blind, right? The Holy Spirit was at it again here, right? And struck this man blind. Now, when someone's opposing us, I have to admit in the flesh, if you're trying to share the gospel with someone and someone's interrupting, someone is trying to get between you and that gospel here, in my flesh, I want to punch them in the nose, right? But that's not what Paul did.

He let the Holy Spirit handle it. He let the Lord do that. So when we proclaim Christ, we trust the hand of the Lord, right? Be in prayer. Let the Lord handle the results. And we trust the teaching of the Lord to convert. Look what we have in verse 12. "Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord." The proconsul saw that the sorcerer was struck blind, but that wasn't what converted him. Look closely at verse 12. It says, "He believed when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord."

It was simply the gospel message that converted the proconsul, okay? We often think, "If only I could walk on water, then I could share the gospel. If only I could heal people's infirmities, then that would get people's attention. That would arrest their attention, and that would move people to trust in the Lord." No, it's the simple gospel message that Jesus Christ left heaven. He came down here, took on flesh, lived a flesh and blood existence like us, but without sin. And His love for us drove Him to the cross to die in your place as a sacrifice for you.

He died in your place, taking on the full curse of God, was put into the grave, and three days later He arose again because He could not be held by the grave because He was the Son of God. He was the Holy One of Israel. And whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. That's what converts people, is simply the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was astonished at the teaching. Just stick to the gospel and let the Word do the work.

When we proclaim Christ, sometimes others will leave. Look in verse 13.

"Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia, and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. John Mark left them at this point." We don't know why.

Now this would have been a severe blow to their missionary team because John Mark was valuable to them. First of all, he was a cousin to Barnabas. So Barnabas' own family is deserting him on this mission trip, right? Not only that, John Mark was a witness to the life of Jesus Christ. He saw the death, the burial, and the resurrection. He was a living eyewitness. Third, he wrote the gospel of Mark. He literally wrote the book. To have a guy like that on your missionary team to go and proclaim Christ would be such an advantage, right? But he left them.

But did that deter Paul and Barnabas? Did they say, "Uh-oh, John Mark's left us. Let's turn around and go home. Call this missionary trip a bust"? No, they continued on. We persevere. Though none go with you, you still must follow, right? And it did not dissuade Paul and Barnabas from the mission at all.

When we proclaim Christ, not only will we do it sometimes when others leave, but we're actually looking for opportunity, what we find in verses 14 and 15. And when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia. So they were on the island of Cyprus, and now they travel northward, and they cross the Mediterranean Sea, and they end up in Turkey, modern day Turkey, Asia Minor, and they go to Antioch there, is where they're going. So they started in Antioch in Syria, and now they're going to Antioch in Turkey. And when they arrived there, it says, "They came to Antioch in Pisidia and went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down." They went there to worship God. And after the reading of the law and the prophets—traditionally they would read a passage from the first five books of Moses, then a section from the prophets—the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, "Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on." Then Paul stood up.

There was an open door, an opportunity right there for Paul and Barnabas to share the gospel. It just kind of fell into their lap, so to speak. When that happens, do so. What does 1 Peter 3:15 tell us? "But sanctify the Lord always in your heart and be ready to give an answer for the reason, with meekness and with fear." Always be ready to give an answer about the Lord Jesus Christ, right? We always want to be seizing opportunity.

We proclaim Christ to all people. Verses 17 through 25, we're going to skip over just because of time's sake, but in 17 through 25, Paul is standing before the synagogue of Jews, and he recounts the history of Israel, talking about how God led them out of Egypt and how He had promised that salvation would be coming through the Messiah and how Christ was the fulfillment to that promise. And we're going to pick back up in verse 26 now. "Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent."

In this synagogue, there would have been Jews, but there also would have been Gentiles called God-fearers. These are people who were interested and they were enlightened, so to speak, but they weren't Jewish converts yet. And it says in verse 26, when they're addressing them, "Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham," speaking of the Jews, "and those among you who fear God." These were Gentiles who were becoming Jews, essentially. Okay? So he had a mixed audience. The good news of the Lord Jesus Christ is for all people, all nations, all men, all women, all ages, right? We proclaim Christ to the great. We proclaim Christ to the small. We proclaim Christ regardless of your background. If you have a background in Christianity or Judaism, great. You're going to have some commonality. Maybe you went to church when you were a kid, but you're not following the Lord and you've never given your heart over to the Lord. That's a touchstone, right? But you also may be proclaiming Christ to someone who grew up in a Buddhist household, who has no understanding or concept of Christ. That's okay too. You proclaim Christ to all men, right.

When we proclaim Christ, we proclaim that the Word was sent. Look what he says in verse 26. "And those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent." The word "word" there is logos. It simply means that the message of salvation is the same as the messenger, Jesus Christ. He was sent into this world. The gospel starts with the idea that God wants to reconcile you to Himself.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," right? People need to know that God loves them and that God is seeking their redemption. That's part and parcel of the gospel. So when we proclaim Christ, we proclaim that Christ has been sent.

We also proclaim that Jesus died in our place. Look in verse 27. "For those who dwell in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death."

Saying that those who dwell in Jerusalem, who should know the law and should know the prophets, they didn't obey them. In fact, they actually fulfilled them because what does the prophet say in Isaiah 53, that they would not regard the Savior, they would not esteem Him? Instead, He would be a smitten one and on Him would be laid the iniquities of us all. "All we like sheep have gone astray." That's why Christ died. He died not as an example. He died not as a martyr. He died for us, for our sins, to take them away. And when we proclaim Christ, we proclaim that He died in our place. We also proclaim that Christ was buried. Let's look at verse 29.

"Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb."

It's important that we mention not only the death of Christ, but also His burial. What does Paul write in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4? Doesn't he say that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures? Doesn't it also say that He was buried and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures? The reason why we stress His burial is this. At the very beginning in creation, remember in Genesis chapter 3 when Adam and Eve had fallen and the curse was pronounced? Didn't God say from dust you were taken? "From dust you shall return," right?

That was part of the curse. Christ took every bit of the curse for us on the cross.

The book of Galatians tells us that Christ became a curse for us to take all the punishment that we justly deserve. We deserve oblivion. We deserve to be put down to the dust and Christ was put into the grave for us. But He didn't see corruption, praise God. Because to proclaim Christ also means that we proclaim that Christ is risen.

Look in verse 30. "But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are witnesses to the people." We proclaim that Christ is risen from the dead. All the other religious leaders that died, they are still dead, but not our Lord Jesus Christ. He is risen. Remember what Jesus told Martha at the raising of Lazarus in John chapter 11. He says, "I am the resurrection and the life." He holds all life in His hands. No one else can say that. When we trust Christ we trust that though we may die, yet we shall live. That's the hope of the Christian, the hope of every single believer. So to proclaim Christ is to proclaim that He is risen.

When we proclaim Christ we also proclaim that He is Lord of all. Look in verse 32. "And we declare to you the glad tidings, the good news, the promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us and us their children, that He raised up Jesus as is also written in the second Psalm. 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.'" Psalm 2 is a wonderful celebration of Christ being crowned as King by the Lord at His resurrection. He says, "Ask the nations for your inheritance and I'll give them to you. You shall rule them with a rod of iron. You shall smash them into pieces like the potter's vessel. Kiss the Son lest He be angry in the way and you perish." When Christ rose again He rose to sit at the right hand of God Almighty and He sits now on the throne of the universe. And to proclaim Christ is to proclaim that Christ is King. And He calls all men everywhere to repent and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We proclaim that Christ is not only King over all, but we proclaim that He is King forever. Look in verse 34, "And He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption. For He has spoken thus, 'I will give you the sure mercies of David.'" He's quoting from Psalm 89. God had promised David that he would have a descendant who would sit upon the throne forever. Find that in 2 Samuel chapter 7, I believe it is. And that's repeated again in Psalm 89, and it's being quoted here in the New Testament. That Christ would reign forever. His rule knows no end. We often put our trust in things that are passing, that are fleeting.

Put our trust in fame. Get your 15 minutes of it if you get that and it's gone. You put your trust in money and it soon flies away. Put your trust in material things. I've mentioned before, I service swimming pools and it's amazing. You'll go to a home that's a brand new construction home here in Florida. Six months later it's got mildew growing up the side of it, right? It doesn't take long with our heat and humidity for things to corrode, right, to tarnish.

Christ's rule will never tarnish. He is King forever.

We proclaim that He forgives sins and declares righteous all those who come to Him through faith. It's not something that we earn, but it's a gift that's received through faith. It says, "Therefore," he also says in another Psalm, "you will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption for David after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell asleep and was buried with his fathers and saw corruption. But He whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him everyone who believes is justified." That simply means that your faith renders you right before God because of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not something you can earn. You can't justify yourself in the sight of God by doing good deeds to try to outdo your bad deeds. What the Supper tells us is that His body was broken for you and His blood was poured out for you as a substitutionary sacrifice. If you receive Him, you receive Him by faith. You cannot earn your justification. It's totally a gift from the Lord.

It says, "Therefore let it be known to you that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins," verse 39, "and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things which you cannot be justified by the law of Moses."

We can never make ourselves right through law keeping because law keeping can't undo your sin. There's no magic eraser that you have in your power to erase your sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ, by His blood that was poured out for you, can wash away your sins and make you every bit clean and whole.

Proclaiming Christ means that we proclaim Christ to those who, if they reject Him, they will perish. That's part of the gospel message. You must not shrink back from declaring. Look what he says in verse 40 and 41, "Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you." And then he quotes, "Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish. For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one will declare it to you."

Jesus spoke more about hell than He did about heaven. It is a loving thing to tell someone about hell. And it may seem impolite. People don't want to talk about that. They'll love to talk about heaven and the streets of gold. But hell is a real thing. And if you love someone, you will tell them about that. You will warn them about that. This warning that he quotes here sounds a whole lot like what we find in Acts chapter 7.

Do you remember Stephen who gave a great message and he warned what would happen if you reject Christ? Paul was there, right? He was there collecting the robes of those who were about to stone Stephen. That message would have been burned into his heart and would resonate. So Paul was not afraid to declare and warn people that they would perish if they reject the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't even Christ Himself talk about this in John chapter 3? We all know John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." But if you go on and you read verse 18, what does it say? Jesus says that if you do not believe, you are condemned already, right?

If you do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the wrath of God burns against you, right? So we call people, we beg people to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and to find mercy.

We also proclaim, when we proclaim Christ, that others may very well oppose our message with contradiction and with blasphemy. Be prepared for that. Look what we see happen in verses 42 through 45. So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. So they heard this and the Gentiles said, "We want to hear more of this message." So we saw some fruit from his gospel proclamation. "But when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul." The Jews are filled with envy. The word "envy" there is zealous. That's where we get the word zealot from. Zealous is one of those what we call an onomatopoeic word. It's meant to sound like the action that it describes, and it describes boiling water. You can hear that zzzz, the zealous, right? And the idea is that these are people who are boiling with rage. They're overflowing with emotion, with envy, because all these people were no longer following them, but they were beginning to follow Christ. And they didn't want to see that take place. They begin to contradict them. The contradiction there is to be hostile towards, to speak hostilely against. And they spoke blasphemously.

To speak blasphemy means to speak ill of, both personally. They were probably speaking ill of Paul and Barnabas as messengers of God, and they were definitely speaking blasphemous words about Christ, whom they rejected as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

To reject Jesus Christ is self-condemnation. Look what we see here in verse 46.

"Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, 'It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first. But since you rejected it, you judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. Behold, we turn to the Gentiles.'"

He's saying, "Because you reject this," speaking to the Jews there in the synagogue who were opposing them, who were blaspheming the name of the Lord Jesus, he says, "you judge yourself unworthy of eternal life." They were condemning themselves. When we proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are speaking to people's wills, right?

We're speaking to people who are free, moral agents, who are accountable for the message that they hear. So we beg them, we plead with them, we implore them to turn to Christ, to turn away from the sins of self, the world, and the devil, and to trust the Lamb of God to take away their sins. But once proclaimed, that is up to them, right? If they reject it, it is self-condemnation. They are judging themselves unworthy of everlasting life.

To receive the Lord Jesus Christ is to humbly give God the glory for your salvation. When someone trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ, yes, they have expressed faith. Yes, they have turned from their sins and repented and they believed in the good news, but look what Paul says here.

Verse 47, "For the Lord has commanded us, 'I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.' Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed."

Those who believed, it says they believed because they were appointed to eternal life. The prior verses were speaking about human responsibility. Those who reject the gospel, they are counting themselves unworthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's fully affirming humanity's free agency, humanity's accountability, responsibility to take the message that they hear and to turn from their sins and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But then the very next breath, it says, "But those who do believe the Lord Jesus Christ, they can't take credit for it."

What do they do? They say, "It's because I've been appointed to this." That's the secret of every believer, right? We say, "It's not I that chose God, it's He that chose me." Isn't that what Jesus told us in John chapter 15? He says, "You did not choose Me." He says, "I chose you." So we don't take any of the glory for ourselves. We don't say, "Ooh, I made a good decision. I trusted the Lord and I heard the gospel, and I repented and I believed." No, you say, "The Lord saved me." Salvation is from the Lord.

Proclaiming Christ will be met with persecution. Look at verse 50, "But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city and raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region."

The Jews stirred up persecution. There's a hunting word, it means to hunt down. Paul knew all about this because he had done that himself, right? And they expelled them from the city.

Don't be surprised when you proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ if you get a door slammed in your face, if someone unfriends you from Facebook, if someone doesn't call you anymore because they get offended. Because is not the gospel offensive? It says, "You're a sinner. You need help. You need your sins forgiven and you can't do it yourself." We live in a can-do culture, right? We live in America where we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but you can't do that with your salvation, right? People don't want to be told that. They don't want to be told that they need to change and that they must throw themselves at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and beg for His mercy and grace. So you will offend people and persecution will come. Persecution, again, may be a cold shoulder. You may not get invited to the cool parties anymore, but that's part of proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ.

Proclaiming Christ will be met with persecution and when we meet that persecution, we shake it off. Look in verse 51.

"But they shook off the dust from their feet against them." The Jews who expelled them from this region, who had persecuted them, they shook it off. This came actually from Jewish culture when Jews would go through a Gentile city. They viewed Gentiles as being unclean and separated from God. So when they left that city, they would shake their garments off because they didn't want to carry anything unclean away from that city, right?

So what is Paul saying? He said, "Look at that. We're going to shake off the uncleanness from us. We're not going to let it deter us. We're not going to be looking back. We're just going to shake it off. Once we've declared the gospel, we've been kicked out, we don't worry about it, okay?"

When we declare the gospel, when we proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ, we look forward. Look what we see there in verse 51. They shook off the dust from their feet against them and they came to Iconium.

They went to the next city. They didn't say, "Hey, you know, this is too tough. This persecution, I can't handle getting unfriended. I can't handle the cold shoulder. I can't handle being talked poorly about. I can't handle being expelled from the cool kids, so I'm just going to stop." You go on to the next opportunity, right? They went on to the next city to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ.

In proclaiming Christ, there is great joy. Look in verse 52, "And the disciples were filled with joy."

When we declare the gospel, when we proclaim Christ, we're proclaiming good news of salvation. God loves you and He has provided for your sins. What's bad about that, right? It fills us with joy when we see someone come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. In heaven, when one soul is converted, what happens? There's a celebration, right, that breaks out in heaven. Let us mirror that on earth as it is in heaven, right? We're filled with joy for the opportunity to be considered honored to be an ambassador for our Lord Jesus Christ, to be His messenger, right? So when we proclaim Christ, we're filled with joy. We're also filled with blessing. Look in verse 52, "And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is the outpouring of God's blessing upon you, is He not? In fact, the fruit of the Spirit is love, and what's after love? Joy, right? It is a blessing and joyous thing to be able to share the Lord Jesus Christ with others. We've been reading Ephesians on Sunday mornings. In Ephesians chapter 5 it talks about, "Be not drunk with wine, which is excess, but be filled with the Spirit," right?

What is better than speaking to ourselves and to one another in psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs, making melody in our hearts to the Lord? To proclaim Christ is to do that.

I encourage you this morning as you partake of the Lord's Supper. Remember that it's not just indicative that we're proclaiming Christ here when we partake of the bread and we partake of the wine, but it should be the impetus for you when you go forth. It should energize you when you go forth. It should be a charge that sends you out of here to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ until He comes.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, we praise You. You laid down Your life for us. Your body was broken for us. Your blood was spilled for us so we could be reconciled to God. What love. How amazing. I pray that we would always keep the gospel in front of us. And what's in our heart would always be on our lips. It's in Jesus' name we ask these things. Amen.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you, Brother Dave, for those excellent words from our Lord and Savior. We serve a risen Savior. Amen. So today as we gather, we are going to all partake as brothers and sisters in communion. As David said, Scripture tells us, "For as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." We also gather to celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross. This is one of the most important ordinances as believers that we can partake in. So today, before we get started, I want to take about two minutes.