Sermons from Sweet Home

For the first time we see how God keeps Paul and his companions out of certain regions. It seems to be indeed true that God directs the steps of his missionaries. But he also calls his people in a direction where he wants to use them. 

In this text we get to see the "how, why and where" of Timothy's inclusion in the mission work of the Apostle Paul. Paul saw something spectacular in Timothy, that is why he selected him to accompany him in the ministry. What was so unique about his qualities?

In this section of text we see that even Apostles disagreed with one another. In fact, the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas was so big that they decided to depart company. What could bring them into such a sharp dispute? The beauty of their disagreement is that they did not let this get in the way of the mission. 

Just like a nice and warm bath makes us warm in the winter, so repentance from sin creates spiritual warmth in a cold world. Repentance breaches the gap between us and God that was created by sin. Our sin has to be dealt with seriously and deeply, otherwise it has the potential to linger around and remain undetected. And undetected sin leads to unrepented sin. Unrepented sin leads to separation from God. 

It is amazing to see how your attitude changes when you live thankfully. When you look at what you don't have you see shortcomings. When you look at what you do have, you see abundance. What if you had today only those things you thanked God for yesterday?  

In this second lesson in the series based on Matthew 24:12 the practice of church attendance is addressed. What does Hebrews 10:24-25 say church attendance is really about? The truth is that we can stay at home and watch a sermon, read our Bibles, sing a song, partake of the Lord's Supper...all of these from our comfortable lounge sets. But the one thing we cannot do from our couches is to love someone, encourage someone and spur someone on to love and good works.
We can be present at church without participating. We can walk in and walk out without making loving contact with anyone. According to Hebrews 1:24-25, that is a big mistake and defeats the objective. Perhaps it is time that we understand the assembly for what it really is supposed to be: A time when one encourage another instead of simply getting together to fulfil a set of religiously stiff performances followed by a Ted talk.  

The elders in Jerusalem came to a conclusion regarding what is necessary for Gentiles to do in order to be faithful Christians. It turns out that the leaders of the first church was not interested in loading people up with all kinds of rules to follow, but lifted the load that was imposed by some false teachers. 

As the ministry of the Gospel made progress throughout the Gentile world, Satan's plans were bound to bring a halt to it. some false teachers arrived at Antioch with a different Gospel: Gentiles will have to be circumcised if they want to be saved. This teaching brought the apostles in sharp dispute with them which eventually moved the Apostles to go to Jerusalem and enquire of the apostles there what they had to say on this issue. 

Jesus said that as the end of Earth draws near there will be wars, droughts, earthquakes and great deception. These are the beginning of birth "contractions". It is during this time that Jesus says "the love of most will grow cold". The closer we get to the end, the less people will love each other.
A cold winter is approaching, a world in which people avoid each other, dislike each other and even detest each other. In many ways we are already there. To the Christian this is very hard, because his whole faith is based on a love towards his neighbors. How can we prepare ourselves to not become cold as well? How do we remain loving in a world where people are difficult to love?

Not much is said of the last city (Derbe) Paul and Barnabas visited, except that they wont a large number of disciples there. The Apostles then decided to go back the way they came to visit all the new converts and to put elders in place for the churches. When they arrived back in Antioch at their sending church, they gave a report back of he great work God had done among the Gentiles.