For the past year and a half at Rock Valley Bible Church, we have been working our way through the book of Acts. One word that could easily describe the book is the word, "expansion." The book describes the "expansion" of the early church.

We see the "expansion" in terms of believers. The number of those who believe goes from a hundred or so in chapter 1, to a few thousands in chapter 4, to untold thousands as the book progresses.

We also see a geographic "expansion" as well. In chapter 1, we see the believers in an upper room. In chapter 2, they begin to fill the temple area. In chapter 8, they are scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Beginning in chapter 13, the church begins to expand across the entire Roman empire.

Further, we see an ethnic "expansion" as well. As the book begins, we see the church made up entirely of Jews. This makes sense as Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. He came to save his people from their sins. But soon, with the scattering of the church in chapter 8, Philip goes to Samaria and preaches "the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 8:12), and many Samaritans believe in Jesus. In Acts, chapter 10, we see the gospel expanding to the Gentiles as well, as Peter goes to Caesarea and preaches the gospel to Cornelius, his friends, and his relatives, and they believe. In chapter 11, we see a fair number of Gentiles in Antioch turning to the Lord (Acts 11:21). Then, with the trip that Paul and Barnabas made into Gentile lands, the number of Gentiles who came to faith in Jesus was greatly expanding, even exponentially.

With this expansion came some "growing pains." We see the church dealing with these "growing pains" in chapter 15, which we began looking at last week. You can open your Bibles there.

If you remember from last week, there were some Jews who came from Jerusalem to Antioch and were teaching those Gentiles who had come to faith in Jesus that they needed to be circumcised in order to be saved. You can see this clearly in Acts 15:1, "But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.'" In other words, these men from Judea were saying, "Faith in Jesus is not enough." Needless to say, Paul and Barnabas were not happy with their teaching! At all! As Acts 15:2 says, "Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them." This was heresy that was coming into the church. Paul and Barnabas were trying to set them straight.

When it was clear that they were getting nowhere with these people, the church sent Paul and Barnabas and some others to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders to settle the matter.

So, they traveled to Jerusalem and met with the apostles and elders for what has come to be known as "The Jerusalem Council." It is there that they decided once and for all what would be required of the Gentiles for salvation.

In verse 4 we read of how "[Paul and Barnabas] were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them." But in verse 5, we read of those who opposed them. "But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, 'It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.'" This is another articulation of their heresy. It starts with circumcision, but continues on with obedience to the entire law!

As I said last week, these Jews were happy to bring the Gentiles into the church. But in order to do so, they were demanding that these Gentile believers become Jews in order to be considered to be Christians.

This heresy, of adding something to the gospel, always likes to sneak its way into the church. In the day of the New Testament, it was adding circumcision, adding submission to the law. Today, we might say it like this: You must be baptized to be saved! You must be baptized in a certain way to be saved! You must be a member of certain kind of church to be saved! You must give a certain percentage of your income to be saved! You must say a certain prayer to be saved! You must abstain from alcohol entirely to be saved! You can't play cards or go to the movies or dance at the wedding if you ever want to be saved!

Though the outward forms are different, the legalistic tendency is still the same. People like to press conformity to their culture of Christianity in order to be saved! But church family, this is not the case at all! None of these things will earn your salvation. Not fasting or praying or being good or giving to the church. Nothing that you give can earn your salvation.

The gospel is plain and simple: you believe that Jesus died for your sins, you cast yourself upon the mercy of God, saying "God be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13), you recognize that there is nothing that you can do or bring to God to earn your salvation. It's only by God's grace that you can be saved. He saves us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, plus nothing of ours that we bring to the table! This is the gospel. This is the good news of Jesus Christ! Do you believe it?

This is what the council determined. It stood fast on the gospel of grace. You are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ.

We saw this last week. Now, again, if you remember from last week, verse 6 tells us that "the apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter." Verse 7 tells us that there was "much debate" about the matter. Then, in verses 7-11, Peter speaks. Then, in verse 12, Barnabas and Paul will speak. Then, in verses 13-21, James speaks, and the debate is settled.

Last week, we looked at Peter's words (in verses 7-11). Peter shared his experience of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. God called him to bring the gospel to the Gentiles, and the Gentiles who heard the gospel believed! God saved them, just like he did the Jews, by faith in Jesus. No circumcision. No law keeping. Simply by faith in Jesus. The summary of his message is given in verse 11, "But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."

This morning, I plan on looking at the words of Barnabas and Paul in verse 12. But before we get there, I want for us to reflect upon God's grace to us. I want to do it by giving Jake an opportunity to speak. Over the past several months, Jake and I have spent quite a bit of time together, talking about Bible interpretation and preaching. He has prepared a short message for us on Ephesians 2:1-10. His words simply illustrate Acts 15:11, "But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will."

Jake's Message

Well, good morning. I want to first say that I'm unworthy to stand in front of you to be able to talk about grace. I was worried all last night and thought about what I was going to do. I prepared this sermon and I've gone over it over and over and over in my head—over and over in the car, in the bathroom, in the shower, everywhere. Yet, I just pray that the Holy Spirit will do me justice and do us justice, and I can show you that God's grace is amazing. It's powerful.

The first time I stood here at the pulpit, I told you that last year I went through the Bible with a bunch of other men, great men, and we went through it from page to page, cover to cover, and we summarized it. Every single book—I have two notebooks full of what every book is about. I get to stand here and talk to you about something different. I get to talk to you about God's grace.

See, we go through Christmas—and we just went through Christmas—and maybe we've given gifts to family members and friends that we love. Maybe family members and friends gave us gifts. Maybe sometimes this gift made us really happy, made us joyous. Maybe we were surprised by some of the gifts we got. Maybe we were shocked. I know I was shocked when I saw my little miter saw, and it was really awesome and brought me joy. It brings me joy sometimes to bring a gift and to see someone smile and say, "Wow, thank you. I feel so loved."

Well, the gift that I'm going to talk about today can't be wrapped up in a package. The gift that I'm going to talk about today can't be put inside any stocking. It's a gift that isn't given to us by anyone on this planet—not a friend, no family, nothing—but only God. God's given us this gift. It's the gift of saving grace. That is the message that I have today for you. It's called "God's Saving Grace." It comes from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10.

I would like you to open up your books and your hearts and your minds. I'm going to read these passages, and then I'm going to pray, and we're going to dive into this. So if you're not there, let's get there. Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2:1-10
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince and power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Let's break this down.

Heavenly Father, Lord Christ Jesus, we come before you on this day, exalting you, Lord, humbly giving you our hearts. Lord, I pray that you would give me the wisdom by the Holy Spirit to speak honestly and truthfully about your grace—something that you give us as a gift, Father, that we don't deserve. We're sinners, but Lord, you come down, you save us with your rich mercy. Help me to speak justice by your grace and by your Spirit, Father. Help me to impact the hearts of those sitting here in the congregation. Lord, we love you, we praise you, and we honor you, and it's in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.

1. The Walking Dead (verses 1-3)

Okay, so I'm going to break the sermon down into three sections. The first section is going to be verses 1 through 3, in which I am going to entitle "The Walking Dead." As we get into verses 4 through 6, I'm going to transition over—that is going to be called "The But God Effect." As we move into verses 7 through 10, it's going to be called "The Saving Grace."

Now, before we get into it, we need to remember that the book of Ephesians is written by the Apostle Paul, sent out there to encourage the saints and the Gentiles of Ephesus. As we read here in verse 1, we see, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked." Here Paul is sitting there and pointing the finger and saying, "Hey, you Gentiles were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you lived." Here you see in verse 2 he says it again: "in which you once walked."

See, this is the first time that Paul is bringing up the theme of walking in Ephesians. In Ephesians, the theme of walking is really big. In fact, if you look at chapter 4, he talks about walking worthy. He encourages the Gentile saints to walk worthy, to walk in unity, to walk in love, and to walk in light. But here Paul is using "walk" as a metaphor—a doctrine of living, or a lifestyle.

Paul is saying, "Hey, you lived in a way that was dead in your trespasses and sins. You were following the course of this world, and more importantly, you were following the prince and power of the air." So who is the prince and power of the air? Who is it? Satan. So they were dead, following Satan. That's why I entitled this section "The Walking Dead," because they're not really fully alive. They're not alive. They don't have Christ Jesus in their heart. They have no hope. They're walking dead. They're not fully dead because they can go from this point to this point. They can move their arms. They're like zombies, right? Zombies can move. They go from here and then they walk over here, and they do this and they do this, and they're not really alive because they're kind of dead.

That's what Paul is sitting there saying: "Hey, you guys were living a lifestyle that was much like a zombie. You had no Jesus in your heart, in your life. You were walking dead in your sins, and you were living this way, following the world, and more importantly, you were following Satan, and he was working in you."

As we move into verse 3, this is where Paul changes his flavor a little bit. See, Paul points the finger and says, "You Gentiles were living this way. You Gentiles were walking this way." But as we look at verse 3, we sit there and we see, "Hey, Paul is going, 'among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind.'" Paul goes from verse 1 and verse 2 saying "you Gentiles" to all of a sudden—we move into verse 3, and he says "we." "We once lived this way."

See, this is a huge statement of honest admittance from Paul, because Paul is sitting there saying, "Hey, us Jews, we're guilty of it too. Not only were you guilty of following this world and living in your sins and fulfilling the passions of your flesh, but us too. Us Jews, we're guilty of it." I say this as an honest, true admittance because the Jews were the spiritually circumcised, right? They were the ones who were supposed to be holy. They were the ones who were supposed to be righteous, the clean. They separated themselves from the Gentiles, who were spiritually uncircumcised. They were unholy, unclean, and unrighteous. But Paul is bringing them together and saying, "Hey, we lived this way too. We are together in this. We are unified in this sin."

Now, I'm going to move away from context, and I'm going to start going into application. Just as Paul could sit there and say, "Hey, you Gentiles and us Jews, we're guilty," I can stand here and say, "Hey, you and me, we're guilty of this too." We were at one point walking like this. At one point in our life, we were walking in this zombie state, thinking that we could do everything on our own, thinking that we could have the power to just go about life and we would be okay.

We were guilty of it. I was guilty of it. I'm only two years and maybe a couple months saved. For 40-some years, I was flesh-led, just like Paul is sitting there saying that we were all flesh-led. I say that because we allowed the flesh to lead our bodies. We allowed the flesh to lead and guide our thoughts and our actions and our speech. But I can tell you, after 40-some years of it, it got me nothing but trouble.

When you're flesh-led, the problem is that your flesh is never full. It's never enough. The flesh is never satisfied. It's never enough. It just craves more and more and more, and it's never enough.

In fact, if we go into Galatians—you don't have to go there, I'll go there for you—but if you go into Galatians 5:19, Paul goes in and talks about some of the sins and the trappings of what can happen if you allow yourself to be flesh-led instead of Christ-led. Some of these trappings are this: Paul describes it as adultery, fornication, uncleanness, hatred, wrath, idolatry, envying, strife, murders, drunkenness. These are all things that were happening back in the day in Paul's time, so much so that Paul had to write about it to try to encourage them: "Hey, stop doing this. Stop living like this." This was stuff that was happening in Paul's time. What about our time? Is there still adultery going on right now? Absolutely. Absolutely.

I explained to you that the flesh is never full. It's never satisfied. We see all the time people are cheating on their spouses because they're not satisfied enough with their spouse, even though God gives us our women, our wives, as a gift. We're blessed to have the love of our wife next to us. Husbands, look at your wife. Look at her. Tell her you love her. It is a gift. But if you're flesh-led, it's not enough. So you go out and you commit acts of adultery.

Now, for us Christians, maybe we don't go out there and physically go and commit an act of adultery. But doesn't Jesus sit there and say to us, "If you look at someone lustfully in your heart, you've already committed adultery in your heart"? Doesn't Jesus say this? So we as Christians need to protect our thoughts and our eyes, and we need to protect our hearts and love our wives. Don't allow the flesh to lead. The flesh will only let you down.

Hatred, wrath—we see that all the time. Idolatry. I'll tell you, if you're walking in the flesh right now and Jesus isn't in the forefront of your mind, if Jesus isn't number one in your heart, whatever that thing is, you've created an idol of that. That is your idol. We are to worship Jesus Christ and only him.

We see people today walking around looking for power and money, and they put their faith in money and currency. Or maybe they put themselves as the idol. Maybe alcohol is the idol. I told you I lived a life of 40 years of just stupidity, just wrongness. I created so many idols in my life that I'm ashamed of. But again, God's grace came, right? We'll go into that later.

Murders. What about murders? Do we still have murders happening right now, even though it says in the Bible, "Thou shalt not kill"? How many people died last year in 2021? How many murders happened? What about last night while we were sleeping? How many murders happened last night while we were sleeping, before we woke up to put on our clothes to come over here to worship? What about babies? How many babies are murdered every day?

See, the problem is we live in a murderous nation. We do. There's no way around it. Murders happen. We do it. The sad thing is that it happens so much, people get comfortable with it. "Oh, we just heard that there's another murder happening the other day. Oh, there was a shooting at Auburn Middle School. Kids just murdered two high school kids." That just happened—what, a couple weeks ago? Just lockdown happened. The stuff happens. It's happening because people are walking around flesh-led.

See, the problem with walking around being led by the flesh is that Romans 8:13 says that if you live after the flesh, you will die. Romans 8:8 says that if you live by the flesh, you can't please God. Now, if you live by the flesh, you're dead, and dead things can't do stuff. I'm sorry, but dead things can't do stuff. If you're a sinner, sinners cannot bring themselves to salvation. Sinners cannot make themselves righteous. You're a sinner, you stay stuck in sin.

So you can see right now it's pretty bleak. I've just talked about how sin can trap us if we're not careful, talked about how to safeguard your heart, your thoughts, and your minds so that we can become strong Christians to make God feel worthy in everything that we do, talked about how we live in a murderous nation. It's pretty bleak. I've talked about how we've all once lived like this.

2. The But God Effect (verses 4-6)

So I want to transgress—or just go to the next phase—because it's too dark. This is the best. This is the big separator in the passage here. This is the wedge that changes everything. Verses 4 through 6 change everything, and it starts with these two words. These two words that are power-packed words. They're like the left and right jab of a boxer. They're huge.

Verse 4 starts off and it says, "But God." But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved.

Now, I can't get these two words out of my head, and I'm going to say it again and again and again. Because as I was doing this, writing down this message, I had to just read it over and over. I had to read these words "but God" over and over and over. I kept thinking to myself, "How powerful is this?"

You see, when these two words are together, what it means is that God is intervening. It means that God is taking action, that God has something to say. There's a certain situation happening, but God—as great and powerful and mighty as he is—comes in and he intervenes. It's powerful. It's beautiful. I was taken back by it, and I thought, "Hmm, I wonder how many other 'but Gods' there are in the Bible." Because I'm really kind of taken back. So I did the research. I'm going to share a few with you.

Genesis 8:1: "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided."

Genesis 50:20: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today." See, this is a story about Joseph and Joseph's brothers. Joseph's brothers hated Joseph. They didn't want anything to do with Joseph. "Just go, Joseph." So what did they do? They sold him into slavery into Egypt. It's the first account of human trafficking, right here. "I'm going to sell you and get rid of you." They hated Joseph. But God came in and changed the circumstances. If you don't know how that story finishes, read Genesis. It's a beautiful story. It does change everything.

First Samuel 23:14: "And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of Ziph, and Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand." See, here's Saul. It says right here he looked for David every single day. Why? Because he wanted to kill him. But God had other plans. God protected him, and it changed history, right?

I've got one more for you. Let's look at the writer of this epistle. Let's take a look at who wrote this. Who wrote this? Paul. That's right, Paul wrote this. Let's look at Paul's life. Paul was the number one most persecutor of Christianity, and all you got to do is open up to Acts 8 and you can read about how Paul entered into the churches to wreak havoc. Havoc. I tried to imagine, what would that be? Would he come into a church and just start screaming? Would he just be wild? Would he throw chairs? What kind of havoc is this? I don't know, but it was troublesome.

He went and entered the homes of these families, and he didn't care. He came in, took the families, separated them, bound them, and sent them to prison. Could you imagine this? Could you imagine sitting in your home, having dinner, having the door flown open, here comes Paul, he's going to grab you, throw you on the ground? Your kids may be screaming. Confusion happening in the air. Your wife crying. "What's going on?" Paul doesn't care. This is the walk Paul had. This is how Paul walked, and he was fine with it. He bound you up, put you in prison, and there you go.

But God. But God, on that road to Damascus, opened up the heavens and humbled Paul. He changes Paul. He transforms Paul from the number one most persecutor of the Christian faith to the number one most protector of the gospel. He transforms Paul. Amen. Transforms him.

That's what he does with us. That's what God has done with me, because he's rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loves us. He takes us when we were dead in our sins, when we were stinking—you know what I think about? I think of Pig-Pen from Charlie Brown. You guys remember Pig-Pen? He's this cartoon figure, and he's got all this dust and dirt, and no matter where he goes, there's Pig-Pen and all that dirt. There we are before we accepted Jesus Christ, thinking we're all okay, stinking like Pig-Pen. Here we go.

But God comes in and reaches down and picks us up. Not only does he just pick us up, he makes us alive, and he seats us up there in the heavenly places. We were dead. We couldn't do anything. We were walking like zombies, lost without hope. He picks us up and he sits us there.

I've got it somewhere in my notes here, but this isn't the first time he did that. In fact, I believe in chapter 1—I can't find it right now—but he does that to Jesus. He picks Jesus up from the dead, and he elevates him. The same power, the same mighty power that elevated Jesus, takes us, transforms us, and elevates us, and sits us up there in heaven. The same power. How awesome is that? God comes in, and he saves us, transforms us, and reconciles us. It's amazing.

The transformation is amazing. The transformation is so amazing that it's even more amazing than death. What happens in death? Your body decomposes. It rots. It goes back to dust, and that's it. But this transformation is something different. This transformation takes something that's dead, turns it around, and makes it new, and then just pushes that out in the world, and you go out and you transform others. You go from death to life.

This is not a remodel job. What Jesus Christ has done to me in my heart and the transformation that he has done for me is not a remodel. It's not like I just shaved my beard and gave myself a goatee, put on different clothes, maybe threw on a hat and said, "Hey, I'm new. I'm a new guy." Maybe I went into the gym and pumped some weights and got some big muscles and, "Hey, I'm new. I'm a new Jake now." That's not what this is. He transforms you from the inside out. He takes something that isn't alive, and he brings beauty, and he blows you up with hope. You have peace. You have direction. That's the biggest thing that he changed in my life was that he gave me direction. He showed me him.

3. The Saving Grace (verses 7-10)

Now, I talk about transformation and how we are new creatures, and it's only by him that this happens. You need to understand it's only by God's grace that this happened. Like I said earlier, sinners cannot make themselves righteous. Sinners cannot give themselves salvation. See, because God loved us so much, he transforms us, he reconciles us, and then he gives us eternal security. We have salvation because he loves us, and we've done nothing to deserve it. I have done nothing to deserve to be up here and stand and talk to you about this. That's why I opened up and I said, "I'm unworthy."

I remember one time I was talking to my mother. I was a high school kid, a little punk, and I was a troublesome kid. I was always getting in trouble. I got arrested—I can't even tell you how many times. My mom talked to me about Jesus and the Bible, and I picked this thing up and I ridiculed it. I thought this was the dumbest thing. "It's just a book, Mom. It's just a book. It's not real."

But it ain't just a book, and it is real. I spent all last year reading this book. I spent all last year trying to figure out what Jesus Christ is planning to do with me. What does Jesus Christ want from me? Then I started realizing how powerful and impactful it was. It wasn't just about me. It's about what he's done for everyone. What did he do for Noah? What did he do for David? What did he do for Joseph? What's he going to do for you? What's he going to do for your family? What's he going to do for your children's children? His mighty power is so big and extensive and loving. The "but God" effect is real.

What's the "but God" effect in your life? What's the situation that's happening in your life that could be one thing, but God comes in and takes it and changes it to something else? What is your "but God" effect?

We're going to move into our last section here. The last section entitled "Saving Grace." It's our conclusion. We went from dark and bleak to all of a sudden having salvation, all of a sudden being seated high in the heavenly places. Of course, my mind could only think one thing: Why? Why did you do it? Why did you do this for me?

Well, if you look at verse 7, it says, "So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." You see, we have redemption through Jesus Christ's blood. We have forgiveness for our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. God does this to unite all things in him. He does this so that we can be reconciled and seated with him.

This is a gift that no person can give us. Do you understand? This is a beautiful gift that we need to cherish. Now that we have this gift, what do we do with it? It's not like my table saw or my miter saw that I talked about earlier that I was so thrilled about. Yeah, what do I do with that? I build stuff. Great. Jesus gave me something. He gave you something. What are we going to do with this gift? Yeah, let's build something. Maybe we'll stay on that point. Let's keep building more Christians. Let's keep showing them our faith. Let's walk worthy. Let's walk in unity. Let's walk in love. Let's walk in togetherness.

I pray today that you would hear how beautiful this act is of God to be able to reach down and take us and save us. I pray today that you would not just walk out of this church and forget about this gift, as it is so easy to forget about things. We'd just conspire here, we sing, we praise, we feel good, and then we go out into that world, right? But I pray that you would honor and hold this gift in your heart, and that every action that you do from this point on, that you would show him worthiness, that you would exalt him in every single thing that you do—with every thought, speech, and action that you have—exalt him and bring him glory. That is what we do with this gift. That is how we repay him. To not do that would be a shame.

So I ask that we would just pray one more time. My time is done here. Bow our heads down.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, it's truly a wonderful blessing and a gift that you have given us, your children, Father, and we don't deserve it. Lord, we were sinners, destined to hell, but instead you came, and you loved us, and you elevated us. Father, I pray that if there is anyone here sitting down right now, if they are still lost in that zombie-like state, Father, that you would blow their heart up and their mind and their soul like you did mine. Father, I was corrupt. I was the worst, stinking like Pig-Pen. But Father, here you came, and you saved me, and now I'm standing here praying to these people, praying to my fellow church family. Lord, you are good.

Lord, please impact this family. Please work through their minds. Help them to be strong and courageous. Help them to be bold and loving and kind. Help them to walk worthy, Father. Help remind them that through your grace, we are supposed to exalt you in everything that we do. Father, we love you for everything that you've done for us and everything that you will continue to do. It's in your precious name that we pray. Amen.

Steve Resumes

Jake's message to us all was by way of a super-long introduction, because our text this morning is super-short. It's one verse: Acts 15:12.

Acts 15:12
And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles.

This verse gives us a summary of the speech that Barnabas and Paul gave before the assembly. It was basically a summary of their missionary journey, through the lens of what God did through them among the Gentiles. "Barnabas and Paul related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles." Thus, the title of my message this morning, "Relating What God Has Done."

Now, Barnabas and Paul had given this speech on several occasions already. After they finished their journey, they gathered the church together in Antioch, from where they had been sent, and "they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (Acts 14:27). Then, on their way to Jerusalem to report to the council, they gave this same report to the churches in Phoenicia and Samaria (Acts 15:3)—who knows how many churches this was. Five? Ten? Fifteen? We don't know the number, but we do know the substance: "[they were] describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles" (Acts 15:3).

Then, when they came to Jerusalem, they spoke privately to the apostles and elders, and "they declared all that God had done with them" (Acts 15:4). Now, before the entire gathering in Jerusalem, one more time, "Barnabas and Paul related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles" (Acts 15:12). Essentially, their talk was a brief review of their missionary journey.

To finish up our message this morning, I want to give you a feel for what Barnabas and Paul may well have said as they addressed the council. They simply spoke of God's working in their lives. This is really what the book of Acts is calling us all to do—to be witnesses of Jesus, telling others of what God had done in our lives. So, what Paul and Barnabas did is something that we all ought to be ready to do as witnesses of Christ.

Anyway, Paul and Barnabas may have said something like this:

Paul and Barnabas's Report

Brothers and Fathers. Apostles and Elders. We are glad to report to you what signs and wonders God did through us among the Gentiles. It all began when we were in the church in Antioch, that great church. With the leaders of the church, we were "worshiping the Lord" (Acts 13:2). We were fasting, seeking God's direction upon our lives (Acts 13:2).

God worked! The Holy Spirit spoke to us and said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:2). We discerned from that that we should go and spread this news about Jesus and his kingdom! We didn't know where to go, but since Barnabas was from Cyprus (Acts 4:36), and he had some contacts on that island, we figured that that would be a good place to start. So the church sent us out on our journey.

Many of the church joined us as we walked down to the coast to Seleucia. At Seleucia, we arranged a fare to sail to Cyprus. We arrived at Salamis late in the day. That next day, we began to follow up with those who Barnabas knew. We started in Salamis and headed west. Along the way, we visited all of the synagogues, proclaiming the word of God (Acts 13:5). Nothing much remarkable happened until we arrived at Paphos.

While there, we saw the mighty hand of God at work. We were in that city preaching Christ as the Messiah, but there was a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus (Acts 13:6). He opposed us at every turn. Finally, Paul rebuked him, saying, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness" (Acts 13:10). At Paul's command, God struck him blind. Seeing that, and hearing our teaching, the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, believed in Jesus! He was a Gentile. We weren't even preaching the word of God to the Gentiles, but God was showing us his way on our trip.

Soon after that, we set sail for Perga in Pamphylia. We didn't spend long there along the coast. Instead, we went north to Antioch in Pisidia, and in that town, the Lord did his wondrous work! When the Sabbath came, we entered the synagogue and sat down in the midst of the congregation (Acts 13:14). Recognizing us as visitors, they asked us to say a word of encouragement (Acts 13:15).

So, I stood up and proclaimed Jesus, risen from the dead!—the one in whom forgiveness of sins can be found. I said, "Everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses" (Acts 13:39). I was preaching grace to them! I was telling them to believe in Jesus, so as to be freed from the burden of the law. I wasn't telling them to do more and more of the law. That's not the way of salvation. God saves us by his grace!

Anyway, the Jews were really interested in hearing more. So, they begged us back the next Sabbath (Acts 13:42). During that week, news was getting around about what happened in the synagogue with us. We were able to meet with a bunch of Jews, and we urged them "to continue in the grace of God" (Acts 13:43).

Then, the next Sabbath, "almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord" (Acts 13:44). But the Jews were jealous at the crowds of Gentiles that had descended upon their synagogue (Acts 13:45), and they began to contradict me. They began to revile me (Acts 13:45). At that point, I turned to the Gentiles, and God did his marvelous work! I hardly said a word to them, and a bunch of the Gentiles in Antioch believed in the word of the Lord! They were saved from their sin!

Now, I didn't command them to be circumcised or to keep the law of Moses! On the one hand, I didn't have much time, because I was driven from their city. But on the other hand, the Jews wanted nothing to do with the Gentiles who believed. Nevertheless, the Gentiles had been transformed by the grace of God! They were worshiping him! They were glorifying him! (Acts 13:48). "The word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region" (Acts 13:49). Many were believing in the Lord! We saw no need to compel the Gentiles to be circumcised or to keep the law of Moses.

Anyway, being kicked out of Antioch, we headed east to Iconium. While we were there, as was our custom, we entered the synagogue and began preaching the gospel of grace. "A great number of both Jews and Greeks believed" (Acts 14:1). Our opposition came from the Jews! The unbelieving Jews were resisting our work! Yet, we remained a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord. He bore witness to "the word of his grace" (Acts 14:3). Well, eventually, those in Iconium had enough! They were attempting to stone us to death! So we fled.

We fled south to Lystra, and God did an amazing thing there! As I was speaking, there was this lame beggar who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. But I saw that he had the faith to be made well! I commanded him to rise to his feet, and "he sprang up and began walking!" (Acts 14:10). As you can imagine, this caused quite a stir! In fact, they thought that we were their gods, come to earth! They began worshiping us (Acts 14:11-13).

When we figured out what was going on, we tore our garments in disgust and preached to them the good news, that they should turn to God, to the living God!—who has been so good to them in providing them with rains and fruitful seasons and satisfying their hearts with food and gladness. We preached God's grace, that they should turn to him, not to the law of Moses!

But the angry Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and stoned me and dragged me out of the city and left me for dead! But God was with me! He healed me and allowed me to continue on my journey.

Next, we went to Derbe, where we preached the gospel (Acts 14:21). Many believed and became disciples of Christ (Acts 14:21). They were following Jesus with their whole heart! Not once did we encourage them to be circumcised or to keep the law of Moses!

We returned back home by the way that we came, and the disciples, many of them being Gentiles, were doing well. They were continuing on in their faith. As we saw them, we sought to "strengthen the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). We appointed elders for them in every church. With prayer and fasting, we committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Finally, we returned back home. Our trip was all of God's grace. The leaders of the church commended us to God's grace when we left. We came home, rejoicing in God's grace. So, we don't see reason at all to force the Gentiles into circumcision or submission to Moses. In fact, this would undermine the very message that we preached to them!

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on January 16, 2022 by Steve Brandon (and Jake Stoeckicht).
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.