In Him We Live and Move and Have Our Being
First B Jackson
2025-07-06

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Morning, everybody. How are you? Everybody's alright. Would you stand up and we're going to sing victory in Jesus. We'll start off right here.

It's a good place to start. Victory in Jesus. Sorry. I got out of breath there. Let's watch the key change.

We'll close this. Do you wanna do the last one? Okay. We're still doing that then. Okay.

Good. Sorry. I got out of breath.

I heard about a mansion he has built for me in glory. And I heard about the streets

Amen. Sorry about that, Judy. She goes to such painstaking efforts to do everything just so and then all it takes is me swallowing wrong and I just can't go on. Alright, get a deep breath on this one. This one goes from low to high.

What a great anthem and all of the verses are worthwhile. We usually only hear the first. Amen. Y'all can have a seat and we've got a few announcements. Not a lot of announcements.

Before I get well, let me do the announcements first. Where to mention what I wanna mention is there's not a good place to do it. It's a hard place. Forty years of Compass Ministries. It was Turning Point.

It was another name before it was Turning Point. So forty years though, the Women's Resource Center in Jackson, the Crisis Pregnancy Center, has been here for forty years. They're having a gala event July 10. There are still seats available if you'd like to go, friendsofcompass.org/fortieth or you can talk to our office. I was gonna say Nick's right there and he left.

There he is right there. If you wanna know, you can talk to Nick and he would get you in ticket for that. First BBQ. First BBQ is going to be out here next Sunday, July 13. If you normally come to the 11:00 service, you may want to come an hour early.

At 10:00, we'll be setting up games, food, fun, fellowship, breakfast, and so, there's also children's church. On the Sundays when we do first BBQ, we're also doing children's church during the summer and that'll resume full time in the fall. We'll have children's church every Sunday again but next week, first BBQ, July 13, games, food, fun, fellowship. Speaking of games, food, fun, and fellowship, Seeking Truth in Your Twenties is a college group that has started out at the McCooey's. They have had a it's been a big crowd actually.

So anybody from graduated senior in high school to all the way through college, seeking truth in your twenties, college group is meeting and they are on Zenith out behind the airport. Zenith is the road off of, I don't know, it's headed towards Solitude. What is it? Spring Gulch. Spring Gulch.

Oh, Spring It's still called Spring Gulch on that side. Yeah. Okay. Spring Gulch Road on to Zenith and you'll see the cars. So that's Sunday night, 06:30.

It's fun. Live music and food, games, bonfires, and just discussions about Jesus and some scripture to free entry. That's happening. And if there's anything else that's happening in the church that you wanna know about, usually that will be found on our website. So, first b jackson.org is that and then turning from that and into prayer really.

I heard about earlier in the week. I had not heard anything about it because I've been I we've had guests. That's the truth. Nine people in the house. We vacated the house, let them have it, and we stay with somebody else.

And I've just been running, running, running. Everything that you do in Jackson, they wanted to do and we've been trying to make that happen. You all know who that is. And so I wasn't really paying attention to the news. Michael and Kathy Worth rode by when I was picking up canoes and they told me about the camp camp in Texas, Camp Mystic that was flooded.

If you all been watching the news, you know a lot more about this than I do, but the human toll of having lost just one child would be too great to really utter to that family and there are there's no telling how many people right now are affected by this. 27 kids that we know of have been swept away at a girls camp. So they're little girls, eight years old. In our family here at the church, Philip and Amy Jordan's Philip's boss's daughter was one of those. Brad Yates knows two families that have lost one, and so it's affecting the body.

It was a Christian camp and it is absolutely unspeakable. And so would you just go with me and continually, we will be going to the Lord in prayer. Lord God almighty, it's times like these where we do not know what to say. We know that you are good and we don't understand what's happening and lord, the truth is, you are good and we don't understand what's happening and that's the way it is most of the time but when we think we've got a grasp on stuff and we just can't understand it, lord, would you allow us when we can't trace what your hand is doing? Lord, would you allow us the grace to be able to just continue trusting your heart?

In the midst of incredibly difficult circumstances, would you strengthen these families? Would you bring them into into a deeper and more abiding relationship with you through the grief, through the process. And Lord, if there's anything that we can do as a believing church here, if there's anything that we can do as an outpost of the body of Christ here for there, would you show us what that is and allow us to to be doing it. Lord, we want to do your will your way and right now, lord, as we gather to sing songs and go over scripture and do what it is that we believe you have for us next. Lord, would you show us how we are affected by this, how we could bring light into a very very dark situation.

It's in Jesus name that we ask to be living and moving in heaven, our being. Amen. Amen. Sorry about that. Camp Mystic is the name of the camp and there are others that are affected too that were there vacationing nearby.

Y'all probably know more about it news wise than I do. We are going to stand and we're going to sing and we're going to keep on singing God's praises but also as we are the body. If y'all have an idea, if you have something that you feel like God's calling you to, this is the way our ministry started twenty five years ago. The pastor upfront said, hey, if you got something that you're already doing that you feel like God has captivated your heart and is saying you need to be doing this, would you let us know? We want to help.

We want to encourage that. We want to fan the flame that God's lit in your heart. So if you have something like that that you feel like we ought to be doing, we want to be able to be helpful and be malleable and move in a fluid way towards the situation that's difficult. Would you stand with me? We're gonna go and sing wonderful words of life.

Now freely, freely, freely freely you have received freely freely. God

forgave my sin in Jesus' name. I've been born again in Jesus' name. And in Jesus' name, I come to you to share his love as he told me to.

Y'all can have a seat. Boy, overwhelming sometimes to think that we are going in the name of Christ and because we are believing others will know that he lives. Would y'all pray with me again? For this offering, this is the operatory time or the worship through giving time. The ushers have come forward and we're going to collect that.

Lord, we're taking up this coalition to do whatever it is that you want to have done, lord. We're seeking to discern your will together at all times. Individually, do it and then collectively we do it. So Lord, I pray that we would be good stewards of the resources that we would do just what it is that you want for us to do. In Jesus name, we ask your blessing on this offering, Lord, that we would be doing your will and your way.

Show us that way and allow us the strength and the power, the clarity to walk it out. All power is given in Jesus name. May we be giving freely, freely to those who do not yet know you, Lord. May we work out the salvation you've already given us so that others will know. Amen.

Thank you, Judy. Thank you, Judy. So before I get started on the scripture this morning, I told a story this morning in the first service that I had planned on, but continuity says I need to tell it again. I've told some of y'all individually this because everybody's asking about, well, how is that trip taking Carl? How is the trip taking Carl?

I thought I'd tell you all at once, you know. So it's been a couple of weeks now and I'm not as emotional now as I was then. So I'm gonna tell it. So we were headed down there. We had a great time.

Blake went, Renzi went, Carl, and I was driving the U Haul and so we we made it down there. We got Carl unloaded and in the house and started the house set up first night on Tuesday after leaving here on Sunday after church. That's good. We got up Wednesday. We went to the church and we dropped off Carl's books and things at the church, couple of couch, you know, we move couches everywhere all the time.

Moved that stuff in and in between with an empty U Haul in between the church and going to back to Carl's neighborhood to his house or to turn the U Haul in. We stopped at a gas station and when we stopped at the gas station, Blake was filling up and I started wandering towards and I've been, you know, we're just having a ball kind of. Didn't didn't want to like that new pastor. Didn't want like that new church but but I do. I do.

I didn't want to but I do. Anyway, when we were heading back and we stopped at the gas station, it's Alabama. It's not Wyoming and so I it's hot. Hotter than blue blazes. 90 something percent humidity at 97 degrees, you know.

We're walking back to the into the gas station and I saw or heard a faint song and as I got closer, it was goodness of God. All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing and I went. I just broke down.

Just broke down. And I was walking towards the gas station. I went in to use the bathroom, and everybody that walked past them go, I like that laughing. I was not laughing, I was crying. And I was crying and it was so cathartic.

At the same time, it it was embarrassing but it was the over all my life of you've been faithful. All my life, you've been so so good with every breath that I'm I'm going to sing em the goodness of God and that's what he's moving into and he's not moving away from it. That's what we're into, right? Here, right now. It's just it was so good but this morning's travel log of the apostle Paul is a bit informed by that trip to Alabama and in the last in the last week, in the first, well, after church on Sunday, pastor Kamal was here.

We met in the yard and had a lot of people join us which was great. So, Monday, I took him to the airport. Monday, I pick up Florine and Violetta and the girls from the airport. Tuesday, we pick up some friends from the airport. All ministry ministry people, all of them that we picked them up and they have wanted to do everything that this place has to afford.

Like I said, we've done all that all week long. Rodeo Wednesday night. Yellowstone, Thursday. Elders meeting. All of us got back in time for an elders meeting.

Goodness gracious. All in the Lower Loop of Yellowstone. The river yesterday and I'm just looking at this text and going, okay, Acts eighteen eighteen, we start there because we left off at seventeen the last time I preached but we're starting at eighteen and there we're wrapping up the second missionary journey and we're beginning the third one and the wrapping up the one and the start of the other one happens in one verse. It's eighteen twenty two and it's just this ends and this begins. And sometimes you can read the text and if you don't understand the places, you don't really know the names, you don't have the context for where they are, when they are, who they are, it can be confusing and we tend to skip the details.

I'm moving us from Corinth to Ephesus. That's what we're doing today, but there's more to it than that, and I'll try to point out the more to it than that. So now Paul, we're in Corinth at this time. Now Paul, when he had remained many days longer, he was in Corinth for a while. Probably the longest we've seen him be anywhere so far.

He took leave of the brothers and sisters there who were in Corinth who now established in the faith as Paul, the great apostle, Paul. The one who carried the message and presented it accurately. He took leave of the brothers and sisters there and he sailed away to Syria. So, I would put that on the map but before we do that, it says and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. So, they sailed away from there and they're with him and Paul first had his haircut in Sentre for he was keeping a vow and for a hairy pastor, I don't quite understand all this.

I think it was probably a Nazarite vow that makes the most sense. Why did he take it? Luke doesn't tell us why but he tells us that. He had taken a vow and at some point probably, if I had to guess and it is a guess, it's an educated guess and a lot of commentators agree with me, but I'm not saying it's absolute. It has to be this.

If he takes on the Nazarite vow to not drink alcohol, to not cut his hair, to not touch a dead body, that is something that is an old testament thing that is done while you are fulfilling this vow and they there's a time for such a thing. In Samson's life, it was supposed to be ongoing. That's the one that we know of the Nazarite vow. His mama made it for him. He reaffirms it and it's supposed to be ongoing and we see his downfall when he allows it himself to be corrupted and he goes against the vow with alcohol and then someone else cuts his hair.

Right? It's a a deal. Priscilla and Aquila were with him and Paul first had his haircut at century. Why he includes that detail? I don't know.

It's just one of the details of life, but that's where he was. He had been keeping a vow. I think most people agree that he'd been keeping a vow so that when he goes into the synagogue, they can see that he is serious about this thing. He's not just some crazy new whatever. He is still sticking with the old ways.

We see times where he argues that you don't have to be circumcised up in Galatians, right? But he also has Timothy circumcised because he's trying to minister to an audience that it really is important for them. So I think that that's probably what was happening there. He takes a vow, could have been the Nazareth vow were not positive, probably was that. And that happened at Centra.

Now Centra is in Achaia right there next to Corinth that's more seaside. It's the place that you would leave to go on a journey and it says that he was headed towards Syria but they came to Ephesus first. Now, Ephesus, if you just drew a straight line, it's not between Centrae and Syria, but he came to Ephesus first and he left Priscilla and Aquila there. So this is Centrae across to Ephesus on our map of the Mediterranean and Aegean, so that you can kinda get your bearings. And at Ephesus, it says, he himself, Paul, entered the synagogue and he reasoned with the Jews.

Now, we've seen before when he reasons with the Jews, he does it from scripture, something they already believe. When he starts in the synagogue, he starts because they ought to know the scriptures and he can present and he doesn't have to do so much backstory. They already know the backstory. He's telling them the gospel of Christ, the new covenant based on what the old covenant had well, what based on what the prophets had foreseen and had prophesied. They knew the law and the prophets and so they should recognize Jesus.

He himself entered the synagogue and he reasoned with the Jews. So, that is verse 19. 20 says this, when they asked him to stay for a longer time in the synagogue. Come on. Now, we're we're we're we're tracking with you.

We'd love to hear more about this. This is in Ephesus. Now, remember, he had been hindered from going into Asia in chapter 16. He and his running buddies were going through Galatia and Phreesia and as they were going, it says and they were hindered going into Asia and they were hindered from going into Bithynia. So, they end up at Troas and they crossover into Europe.

Out of Asia, out of what we would call Asia, into Europe, both Turkey or it's Turkey, Asia. But it says, he did not consent when they asked him to stay longer but he took leave of them and he says, I will return to you again if God wills. He recognized in chapter 16 that God was hindering him by the Holy Spirit from going into Asia, Ephesus is in Asia. Now, he's there and he's presented at the synagogue. Maybe it was on the Sabbath that's not specific about that but he doesn't stay, doesn't stick around.

He just had spent months in Corinth and now, he's in Ephesus. You think he's gonna get there. We've got the book of Ephesians. We already know he's fond of these people but he doesn't stay. He took leave of them and said, I will return to you again.

If God wills, he leaves that possibility in there. It wasn't exactly a MacArthur, I shall return. Sorry. Everybody looking down just looked up like, what's he doing? Sorry about that.

I think he was leaving space for God to direct. Right? I will return to you again if God wills, and he set sail for Mephasus. So this is where he's headed across Mediterranean. We don't know the exact path, but that would be North Of Rhodes, and then to Caesarea.

Says, now when he had landed in Caesarea, Caesarea is Caesarea Maritime, sir Caesarea, which is Northwest Of Jerusalem. If you've been there on an Israel study tour or if you've been on some sort of a holy land tour, they probably took you to Maritime Caesarea. It's right on the coast and it is not too terribly far from Jerusalem. It says, the text flatly says, he went up. Now, the two Jerusalem you'll see is in italics.

It doesn't say he went up to Jerusalem but when it says he went up to greet the church there, virtually everybody agrees. He went uphill from Caesarea to Jerusalem. It's 4,000 feet of vertical difference. He went up to Jerusalem. He greeted the church there.

They were familiar with him. He was familiar with them. I'm sure he was telling them all about what is happening not just in Syria, Galatia, Phreesia, Macedonia, Athens, Corinth, Ichaea, but he's telling them what the word of the Lord is going forward. So, he's doing that in Jerusalem and then the very same verse. When he had landed in Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem, he greeted the church.

There he is in Jerusalem and then he went down to Antioch. Now, that sounds like, well, he went up the hill, came down the hill. Down to Antioch's 300 miles. And it is explicit about that. He went down the hill 300 miles.

Chris and Nick have been walking the Camino De Santiago lately. It took three and a half weeks and they walked 250 miles. They're making a pretty good clip. This is a pretty good journey. Even for the day, it was it was something.

Him just going down to Antioch. Antioch is his home base. After spending some time there, it says, now where is there? Where there is Antioch? Syrian Antioch.

After some spending time there at home base, he left and he passed successively through the Galatian region and Phreesia again and he was strengthening all of the disciples. The students that he'd left behind in his first two missionary journeys. He's going over that same ground again and it's just you could say it's just a travel log but what he's doing the whole time is strengthening them to be effective ministers, to be at peace in Christ, to abide in Christ if you would. It sounds like he's always rolling, always, always, always rolling but he's the apostle Paul. He's the sent out one, right?

And he goes and he strengthen on all the disciples all around and this is the beginning of that third missionary journey. So, there he is, Syrian Antioch up through Galatia, Phreesia. Looks a lot like chapter 16 where he had been hindered like that black line represents from going down into Asia and hindered by the spirit of Christ to go into Bethenia. They end up at Troas and they make the trip over the Aegean. Now, it's it kinda is a meanwhile back at the ranch moment right here, where we have this one scene and it's Paul and it's his travels, and then all of a sudden it says now new paragraph, a Jew named Apollos.

First of all, a Jew that's named Apollos. Does that sound like a good Jewish name? Right. No, it doesn't. He's an Alexandrian by birth.

Alexandria was a city of learning. It was very, very, very well respected in the ancient world for its library and for its eloquence actually. And this says, now a Jew named Apollos after Greek God. An Alexandrian by birth. He was an eloquent man and he came to Ephesus and he was proficient in scriptures.

Now, Paul is up here in Galatia and Phreesia, right? And then, Apollos comes to Ephesus. He was proficient in the scriptures. He knew he was a Jew. So, full proselyte, converted, circumcised, full, he's Jewish.

That's the way it describes him. It doesn't say a god fearer. It says he's a Jew. Apollo saying, I was running by birth. He's an eloquent man.

He came to Ephesus. He was proficient in the scriptures. He understood the the law and the prophets and this goes on to say, he had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in the spirit. He was accurately speaking and teaching of things highlighted about Jesus. He was saying and teaching things that were about Jesus in Ephesus which is not Jerusalem.

It's not Samaria. It's not even Antioch. It's Ephesus. Where the spirit of God had hindered Paul and his running buddies from going. It's Ephesus.

The the word of the Lord is spreading we're seeing a glimpse of what it was like outside of this band of Paul and his running buddies. He was accurately speaking and teaching things about Jesus. Is it possible to know about Jesus and not know Jesus? It is. Being acquainted only with the baptism of John.

When he says, he was teaching things about Jesus because John mentions Jesus. But John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. If you want to know more about it, you want to read about John's ministry, it's in Matthew three one through 13 really but this slide, I'm going to read. It's a little bitty time tidy print. You don't have to strain your eyes.

I'll read it. Now, in these days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near. For this is the one referred to by Isaiah. Matthew tells us, John is the one referred to by Isaiah. The prophet when he said, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, be preparing the way of the Lord, be making his path straight.

Now, John himself had a garment of camel's hair, leather belt around his waist, and his food was locust and wild honey. He was a wild man. If you ever see a renaissance painting of John, it's just a savvy looks kinda like me. Hair, beard, you know, wild clothing. I'm not that wild on the clothing, honestly, but at the time, Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River.

As they confessed their sins, they were saying, first step out of 12 steps, right? I have a problem. I can't do anything about. I have a sin that I'm struggling with and I can't fix it on my own. They were confessing their sins.

Step one, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees and they were also coming out for baptism, he said to them, you offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee the wrath to come? Y'all aren't paying any attention. Therefore, produce fruit that is consistent with repentance and don't assume that you can say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. Your lineage doesn't matter. I tell you, God's able to raise up from these stones, children for Abraham.

And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is being cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, John says, I baptize you with water for repentance. This is the baptism of John. It's about repenting of your sins, recognizing them and turning from them.

That's John's baptism but then, he immediately takes the next step which is step two in the 12. There is a higher power. There is Jesus who is the higher power, who must increase and I must decrease. He who is coming after me is mightier than I. I'm not fit to even remove his sandals.

He'll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, he will thoroughly clear his threshing for oil. Gather his wheat into his barn and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. That's a harsh message, but it is the way to prepare the way of the Lord. I have a sin that I'm struggling with.

I can't do anything about it. I cannot save myself from it. There is a higher power. Jesus is it. It's what John is saying.

I'm gonna let him determine for me. Repentance is great but it's not the same thing as redemption. Jesus makes the way to be redeemed and so John, they have been acquainted only with the baptism of John. I mean, Apollos had only been acquainted with the baptism of John and he's making a lot of hay right here presenting that baptism of John very eloquently and it says and he began speaking boldly in the synagogue. There were Jewish people all over the ancient world.

And in Ephesus, there is a synagogue and he's presenting to them John's baptism. John has long since been beheaded. The the baptism of repentance is something that in a new place on the mission field, in a new place, they still needed to prepare the way of the Lord. They still needed to prepare the way for Christ and this presentation that Apollos was making, he's speaking boldly in the synagogue, then it says, but when Priscilla and Aquila, remember Priscilla and Aquila, they came from Corinth with Paul to Ephesus, he dropped them off there and he went back home. When Priscilla and Aquila, by the way, it's interesting to me, I don't know what to say besides just this.

When they're presented to us the very first time, it's Aquila and Priscilla, husband and wife. That's the normal in the language of the day to present husband and wife. Usually, is husband's name first and wife's name is second but after that first introduction, every single time they're mentioned, Priscilla is mentioned first. So, when Priscilla and Aquila heard Apollos, they took him aside and they explained the way of God more accurately to him. Ain't that great?

They took him in and said, hey, what you're saying is great but it only gets us part of the way there. You really are preaching about Jesus without preaching the redemption that is available in his name. You're just preaching behavior modification and that is good for recognizing that you can't do it on your own. The old covenant points to the new covenant. Our lack, our the law points to our need for a savior and Jesus is it and when he, this is who?

That is Apollos. When Apollos wanted to go across to Achaia, now why would he want to go across to Achaia? Achaia is where Corinth is. That's where Priscilla and Aquila had just come from. They're in Ephesus and they taught him the way of God more accurately.

Why wouldn't I go back to where they just came from? If that's what these people know and believe, I want to get there and I want to steep myself in this. We don't know exactly why he went but that's a reason, a possible reason. So, can I give you all a mental break right here? I see a lot of confusion.

So, the real world stuff of this sermon is this, okay? I try to connect the the actual map that we can still see if you take a Google map shot of this. It's these places are still there. They might be called something different but it's it was the real world then. It's the real world now.

The real worst stuff of our lives is where we live, where we go, how long we stay, what we do while we're there, who we see, what we say, what they hear, and what they see and the way that the gospel goes forward, I heard a a seminary professor one time says, the way that the gospel most often moves forward, we see it in scripture. Scripture is the element that's gotta be there. He said, but the way the gospel most often moves forward is the vast and unchronicled witness of the believers just living their lives in Christ and so, where we live, where we go, how long we stay, what we do, what we what we do, who we see, what we say, what they hear, what they see is important stuff. If you have freely received, you'll freely be given. If you know the way of God accurately, you can express that to other people freely, freely as we sang.

If you go back to just Acts 17, Paul, when he's by himself in Athens, he doesn't have his running buddies with him. He engages the philosophers on Mars Hill and he says that God, creator of everything, he's not in temples made by human hands. I see in all manners are very religious, but listen, the way God operates, he knows us and he sends us. He is determined and appointed for us at times and the boundaries of our habitation. He knows where we're going.

He has steps that he has planned for us to walk in them. In him, we live and move and exist. He quotes there, pagan prophets who speak accurately about God. We in God, we live and move and have our being and all of those things of life that I just listed. These this little travelogue between 1818 and 1910 before it gets to be super interesting stuff again.

That's the mundane things of life and that's what God is working through. Now, when Apollos had arrived in Achaia, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace. Everybody who believes, believes through grace. He helped the people of Corinth most likely, Achaia centric, Corinth. He helped those people who had believed by grace.

For how did he do it? He was eloquent and he understood now the way of God more accurately. He powerfully refuted the Jews. It says specifically in public. So, Apollos, the Jew from Alexandria might not have made a whole lot of ground in a synagogue.

Maybe he did. I'm sure he probably started that. We know Paul always started there but this specifically says that Apollos was able to refute the Jews in public demonstrating by the scriptures. It's very important that it be scriptural. Demonstrating by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

All of the things that Jesus said to those disciples on the road to Emmaus. All those things that Jesus said directly to Paul. All those things that Jesus had said in his post resurrection appearances where he showed him all of the things in the Old Testament that were about him. That's the kind of stuff that Priscilla and Aquila and Paul had demonstrated in Apollos and now he's doing the same thing, teaching the way. Now, it happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country, upper country all over the place and he came to not hindered this time from coming into Asia.

He comes to Ephesus. Yeah. That's from Acts 16 when he was hindered. He's not hindered now. He comes to Ephesus.

He had said in chapter 18 earlier today, he said, I'll come back if God's will. Well, now we see that it is God's will, that he's gonna be there, and now he's gonna be there for a while. And look at what he did. He found some disciples, students, people who are willing to learn, people who are willing to listen. Now, we already see one student in this passage.

We saw Apollos that says, when they taught him the way of God more accurately, he accepted it in humility rather than resisting. He accepted it. Paul comes into Ephesus and now he found some disciples. Hey, if you just think about it, use your sanctified imagination for a moment. When he was hindered by the spirit, they may not have been any willing disciples in Ephesus, maybe.

When he was there for just a day, hit a glancing blow and is gone and leaves Priscilla and Aquila behind. There might not have been any at that point, but when he makes his way back up there and God's will is for him to go back, now there are some disciples in Ephesus. And he says to these disciples, hey, did y'all receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? It does say y'all, by the way. Did y'all receive?

It's ambiguous in English, but it's not ambiguous in Greek. Did y'all receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said to him, on the contrary, we have not even ever heard if there is a Holy Spirit. Okay. So, we haven't even heard if there is a Holy Spirit, Paul.

What are you saying? And he said, well then, into what were you actually baptized? And they said, into John's baptism. Now, that is a behavior modification baptism. It's repentance.

It's recognizing your need and it's turning from your wicked way. That's what repentance is. A change of mind and so they signified that by being baptized for repentance and Paul said to him, well, listen, John baptized with the baptism of repentance and he was telling people though, he had more to his message than just you ought to do better. He was telling people to believe in the one who is coming after him. John is the forerunner.

John is not the Christ. He said it over and over. He was telling people about the one coming after him that is he was telling them about Jesus. So, is what I read to you a little while ago. It goes on though down here and says, at the baptism of Jesus.

So I'm looking forward actually to a baptism this afternoon. I get to go up to String Lake and baptize somebody. When John preaches his message and Jesus appears, we see in another gospel where John points him out and says, there he is. Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sins of the world. He must increase.

I must decrease. Pay attention to him. I'm the forerunner. That's that's your man right there. That's the guy.

Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him and John tried to prevent him and he said, I have the need to be baptized by you and yet you're coming to me and Jesus answered him and I love this passage. John, just do it. Allow it at this time, okay? Allow it. For in this way, it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness and then John allowed him and after he was baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water behold the heavens were open and he saw the spirit of God descending as a dove and settling on him and behold a voice from the heavens said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased.

Trinity present in in view and in audio right there at Jesus' baptism and that is what all of John's ministry was pointing to Jesus. If you look in John three, after the Nicodemus passage that we all remember from John three, down below that, This is the last testimony of John from 22 to 36. I won't read this but I do wanna say, so this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase but I must decrease. Jesus is what John's ministry was about.

He's the forerunner and preaching you have a problem you can't do anything about. I have a problem I can't do anything about. There is a higher power who can restore us to sanity. Look to God for your redemption and then trust him. Step three, I'm gonna let him help me.

By the way, he's determined which is Jesus. That's what John's message was. He must increase, I must decrease. Now, when these people who had been baptized with John's baptism, when they heard this, then they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Praise God that they were.

And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with other languages, tongues, and they began prophesying, preaching. That's cool. Now, I know when you walk past the sign that said Baptist Church, you didn't think I was gonna mention this coming in here this morning. The laying on hands and the Holy Spirit and all that stuff, but when Paul had laid hands upon the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. Where were they?

They were in Ephesus. Where else have we seen this? Well, in Acts two, we saw this on the day of Pentecost when they're all gathered together in an upper room and they're together and the Holy Spirit descends like tongues of fire and they began proclaiming in other languages, the goodness of God. They began proclaiming Christ as Messiah. That happened the day of Pentecost.

Acts two four. It also happened again in Acts eight seventeen where the Samaritans came to believe things about Jesus. They came to believe things about Jesus that he was in the Samaritan woman. He was the Taheb. He was the prophet, the one that Moses had told about in Deuteronomy 18 and from there, grew in popularity, in fame, grew in people knowing about him and then when apostles were president, Peter and John were present.

It says, and then the Holy Spirit came upon them just like he did on us so that it was a confirmation that they had received Jesus. In eight seventeen, in Acts 10, Peter is called from Joppa up to Caesarea that maritime Caesarea into the house of Cornelius, Gentile as he can possibly be, but a god fearer. He sends for him and when Peter gets there, he steps into the house. Whoo. Against the rules.

And then when they received more accurate teaching from Peter about what they knew about Jesus, it says the Holy Spirit came on them and they had the same exact situation that had happened in Pentecost. So, it seems like each new barrier that is crossed, this has happened in Acts. In Jerusalem, in Samaria, and the uttermost part. It's happened. Are you with me now?

Okay, good. Now, verse seven says, there were about 12 men and all. I love the callback right there. There's 12 disciples. There's 12.

There's just 12 disciples right there in Ephesus. 12 guys listening, open, humble, and ready to accept, and it says, and Paul entered the synagogue and he continued speaking out boldly for three months. This is a long time. Longer than usual. Definitely longer than the first missionary journey when Mark was setting the time and they're just moving on along, moving on along.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Down the road they go. He in Ephesus gets more comfortable in the synagogue and he's presenting old testament pointing to new covenant and he does that for three months and he's having discussions and he's persuading them about the kingdom of God. What had John presented? The kingdom of heaven, kingdom of God.

What had Jesus fulfilled? Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God has come near. I want you to understand it and so he's presenting it and then, Paul gets this but after three months, when some of them were becoming hardened and they were becoming disobedient and they were speaking evil of the way Christianity of the following Christ before the people. What do you think Paul did?

Did he sharpen a sword? Did he build an army? No. It says, he withdrew from them. Not the, that's not the place.

That's not the place and he recognized that he had presented for three months and if they were not persuaded, then he would take the ones who were and he would step back. So, he withdrew from them. He took the disciples away with him and they had discussions daily in the school of Tyrannus. Now, the school of Tyrannus, you might hear ministries called that but this is all we have heard about it. Archaeologically, it's all we know about it.

The school of Tyrannus is a school of philosophy in Ephesus but we don't know much more about it than that but they had an open forum where they could have discussions daily about Jesus being the Christ with disciples who are willing to hear it and probably willing to present it. Paul's teaching every day at the school of Tyrannus and it says and he did this for two years. So, sometimes the time is longer, sometimes the time is shorter, it's the things of life. Where are we gonna go? How long we're gonna stay?

What are we gonna do while we're there? This is what took place for two years and why? So long. So that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord. Both the Jews and the Greeks were exposed to it.

They had had it in the synagogue. If anybody want to hear it, they can come over to school of Tyrannus. The other outsiders were not afraid of the school of Tyrannus. You know, most of the times, churches are filled with people who are already believers, right? That's the norm.

Yeah. Yes, thank you, Connor. When people come in from the outside, somebody's usually urging them to come in but most of the time, we're here. It's the people who already believe but when you have an open forum somewhere that's not a church, it might draw other people. This is all who lived in Asia, heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

That is the way that God chose and that was the established time. So, I'm going to close right here with this. What are the principles that were demonstrated? Just in this travel log passage, there are couple of people mentioned a cup a new character and a couple of things. Just because a door is closed for a while, doesn't mean that it won't eventually back up.

When I look out at faces here and the generation that I'm looking at mostly in this service, I think of children and grandchildren and you think that, golly, I wish that I had another opportunity and there may be. There was a hindrance for whatever reason and then there was a moment but God, would you give me time to explain in a way that makes sense? Just because the door is closed for a while doesn't mean it might not eventually open back up. When Paul finally, I feel like finally got to Ephesus and they said, nope, can't stay, gotta go. Every time is not always God timing.

I mean, definitely, in him, we live and move and have our being. Always have the gospel in your heart. Always let it be flowing out of your mouth but it might might not be the time. It might not be. So, this is the last slide right here.

I want for first B. This is more my thoughts but it's based on this passage. I want for first B to be actually to remain because I feel like it's always been this way. Since I've known anything about this church, it's been a place where we nurture the gifts that God has given and I say that as someone who fifteen years ago had virtually no experience as a preacher and only unofficial life experience as a pastoral shepherding person, but y'all did that when y'all received me. And I was humbled by that, but also given a place where any gifts that have have been able to be nurtured.

And I want for it to remain that way. When we are in a service in the first service where Carl's not here anymore and and we want for there to be a gift that's nurtured. You know when Carl got here, he was hired to be the youth pastor. He was a drummer. He didn't even play guitar at all.

That's crazy to me and yet, he's playing a bar, you know, a a left behind guitar down in the basement. It's like, man, you're pretty good at this And before long, he's up on the stage and he's moved into associate worship pastor role and now, he is doing that somewhere else this morning. Praise God. He in him, we live and move and have our being. It's all kinds of stuff.

Flooring has returned. I I think it's really good to just encourage one another and build each other up. And when I mentioned in the Nell and Aquila, who is she to tell me

what to do? How

dare you question me? I am the great and eloquent Apollos. Right? I'm from Alexandria. Where are you from?

I have quite the following already. What are you even trying to tell me? But what it said was they explained the way of God more accurately and then he immediately put it into practice. He immediately started using that. He believed and moved through it.

I I think that have that on way, lord. We can we can get to that. That's the next thing. I think there's a lot of humility in saying, lord, I don't know your way but would you show me when you're hindering me from doing something because I'm about to go off and just ramrod this thing? Would you show me how to be sensitive when I arrive somewhere and I think, I finally made it.

If it's not the time, would you move me on down the line? You know, I'm not praying for that. I'm not praying to be moved down the line. I'm praying for me to be sensitive to where it is that God wants me to do, what it is he wants me to do. Have that own way, lord, as an earnest prayer and I pray that you'd stand with me and we'd all be singing.

We'd all be meaning it. Lord, would you show us your way and allow us to walk in. I'm thankful for the place that you've settled us to do your work and I pray lord that you'd continue to be effective in that. In Jesus name, amen.

Have thine own way lord while I am waiting, yielded and still. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Search me and try

Lord God, would you allow us the grace, Lord, of understanding what it is that you are doing around us. We know that we are finite. We can't understand it all. We don't know why you're doing what you're doing when you're doing it but lord, as we go forward, I pray for this congregation assembled in your name, lord, that we would be committing our works to you so that our thoughts may be established. Would you do what it is that you want to do in our hearts and our minds, lord, to get accomplished what you want done.

In Jesus name, amen. Amen.

Thank you.