SENDING CAPACITY OVER SEATING CAPACITY Imagine attending a worship service that ends not with an invitation to lunch, but with a commissioning service that puts you on the next boat going out to sea. That’s what happened to Barnabas and “Saul” (“Paul”). O to have worship services so Spirit-filled that people immediately surrender to
HAVE YOU BUTCHERED THE OXEN AND BURNED THE PLOW? God directed Elijah to anoint a prophet from behind a plow. He didn’t send him to a finishing school for prophets, but to a farm where Elisha was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him. His father must’ve been wealthy to have so many servants
WOULD SAUL HAVE BECOME PAUL WITHOUT BARNABAS? When the apostles in Jerusalem heard about the great number of Gentiles coming to the Lord at Antioch, they sent their trusted representative, Barnabas, to the city. His real name was Joseph, but he had been nicknamed “Barnabas” by the apostles, which according to Acts 4:36 meant “Son
GOD’S PROMISE TO BLESS THE NATIONS After Elijah warned King Ahab about the coming drought in Israel, he fled to the wilderness. Eventually, the Lord sent Elijah out of Israel to the land of Sidon, where God had commanded a widow to provide for his needs. In this way, God both protected Elijah from Ahab
THE BLESSING AND BEAUTY OF UNITY Psalm 133 was written by David and is one of the fifteen psalms with the inscription, “Songs of Ascent.” These psalms (120-134) were to be sung while ascending up to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to worship. In this way, worshipers brought their praise with them to the Temple.
BE LIKE BARNABAS After Saul became a follower of Jesus at Damascus, he returned to Jerusalem. There he sought to meet with the apostles, but they didn’t trust that the former persecutor had really changed and were afraid to see him. But a believer named Barnabas, whose name means “Son of Encouragement,” vouched for Saul
OBEYING CHRIST’S CALL While heading to the city of Damascus to persecute Christians, Saul encountered the living Lord Jesus on the way. When Saul understood that it was Jesus speaking to him, he asked one of the most important questions a believer can ask. He asked what Jesus wanted him to do. He knew that
THE CONDITIONAL PROMISE FORESHADOWS THE UNCONDITIONAL ONE After Solomon had completed the building of the Temple, the Lord appeared to him a second time. In this appearance, the Lord repeated the conditional promise that He had made to his father, David. Notice the “if” and the “then” words that mark such a conditional statement. The
WHEN PERSECUTION SERVES TO GROW THE CHURCH After Stephen was stoned to death in Jerusalem for preaching the risen Christ, a “severe persecution broke out against the church.” As a result, all but the apostles fled Jerusalem and were “scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria.” Surely, the enemies of the church meant this
WHERE GOD DWELLS Stephen reminded the Jewish rulers that even though God allowed Solomon to build Him a Temple, He had no need for a man-made dwelling. Sinful man always prefers his man-made religion with his man-made gods and man-made temples. Didn’t the Israelites reject Moses and ask his brother, Aaron, to make them “some