Who's in? Who's out?

READ: Acts 13:38-47

Who got invited to the party and who didn’t? Who made the team and who got cut? Who got the promotion and who fell short?

People love to ask these questions because if we’re in, we’re superior.

So, naturally, the Jews (who were in as God’s people) felt superior to the Gentiles (who were out).

Yet in Acts 13:39, Paul preaches that through Jesus everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

We’re all in!

“But that’s not fair!” cries the voice of pride. “It’s because of my superiority and hard work that I got invited to that party, made that team, and earned that promotion! Doesn’t my extra effort count for anything?”

Jesus addresses this complaint in The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matt 20:1-16). Though many worked different hours, they all received the same wage - the full grace of God.

Again in Luke 7:36-50, a prideful Pharisee is offended by Christ’s association with a sinful woman. Jesus’s response? He commends the woman, for because she was forgiven more, she loved more.

For some, this idea that everyone is invited into the Kingdom of God is such an offense to pride that they join those who in verse 45 speak abusively against the Gospel.

To them Jesus responds, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you.” (Matt 21:31)

This is NO vacation! Acts 13:14-50

Looking back at a journal I was writing in a number of years ago, I ran across a few entries during the week of my second mission trip.  The entries from the first two days were embarrassing to read.  My whining attitude makes me blush.  One of my first pages read something like this, "Well, you'd think I would have remembered how hot it gets here.  I am so uncomfortable, the sweat is just pouring off of me. Now I have to walk up this incredibly big hill, in the dark, for a meeting.  Why did I do this again?"

Yesterday we began looking at Paul's first missionary journey. The text today finds Paul in Antioch preaching the Good News to the Jews in the Synagogue.  Paul and Barnabas go there because they know they will have opportunity to talk to the Jewish people. Many of them listened intently and then believed.   But, the Jewish leaders cannot accept Christ as the Messiah.  They have this vision of a strong and forceful military conqueror, not the servant Jesus proclaimed to be, as their Savior.

The leaders attempted to influence others to reject these teachings and to run the followers of Jesus out of town. They were threatened with bodily harm and expulsion from the country they came to witness to.  The Word of God could not be stopped by the self-absorbed Pharisees.  God blessed the work of Paul and Barnabas and the others.

"The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. But the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their region." (Acts 13:49-50)

I am quite certain their living conditions were not the most comfortable and they probably did not know where there next meal would be coming from, but I cannot imagine any of their journal entries read anything like mine.  Wouldn't it be fun to take a peek at one of them.  Perhaps tomorrow that is what we will do.

Read Acts 13:14-50.