The grace of the Lord

Good morning. I think there's people out there. Yeah. So anyway, we have Acts of the Apostles chapter 15 verses 30 through 41 just as Wayne read for us. It is awfully nice when we can get the scripture reading and the reference here on the same place. So at any rate, this is a really pivotal passage in several different respects. One of the things we'd tell you is that Acts 15 is a really big chapter, and it has not to do with its length, but rather to do with the significance of it.

So here are Paul and Barnabas. They had just completed the first missionary journey. They had a lot to share, and one of the things that they did is to go to different places, certainly in Antioch, but also in Jerusalem, sharing about things from their first missionary journey. So that's one of the things that chapter 15 makes brief reference to, and we've gotten to see a bit more of that as we've gone through chapters 13 and 14. The issue of legalism and Judaism was settled here by the reading of an awful lot of Christian believers. You would think not. It is not a settled issue. It's certainly not understood by much of Christendom.

But grace won out, and that's one of the things that's abundantly clear in here. Salvation by faith alone. is the message that comes across. And that's exceedingly important because it is certainly what scripture conveys through and through. But you will not necessarily hear that consistently. So understanding, yes, that's the ultimate message. Salvation is by faith alone. Are there morals and ethics and things like that that matter? Yes, there are. But salvation is not dependent upon those things.

We're going to see Peter, or we have seen Peter actually for the last time, and Silas in this passage for the first time. And we're going to see him some more, especially as we get into chapter 16. So Silas for the first time. Silas, we'll go into more detail about who he is and what his background is.

Paul and Barnabas take separate paths based on a sharp disagreement. And we're going to see how that turns out. By the way, how many of you think that sharp disagreement was a really great idea? I actually see a hand or two here. So we'll see, what's the character of that sharp disagreement? Did they get the knives out? So anyway, we'll take a look at that.

Here's Acts 15.30. So when they were sent away, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter. So let's take a look at that. So when they were sent away, who's they? This was Paul and Barnabas and Judas called Barsabbas. This is not Judas Iscariot. And Silas. So here's Paul, just to kind of keep it in mind. Here's the guy. He was formerly called Saul.

Probably probably his full name would be a solace Paulus Tarsus it would be his full name as we would say it The former Pharisee from Tarsus he trained under Gamaliel Gamaliel was the premier rabbi in the first century Gamaliel had about a thousand disciples and Paul was one of them Tarsus was also considered to be a city of great wisdom. The early emperors, Augustus Caesar being the first of them, the earlier emperors often looked to Tarsus for their tutors and guidance and things of that sort. A very famous place. Barnabas, after his first name Joseph in chapter 4 of the book of Acts, is after that just always referred to as Barnabas, which is actually a nickname, Son of Encouragement. It is interesting that his name was considered Son of Encouragement to the point that he actually was thought of as the Son of Encouragement everywhere he went and whatever took place. That name stuck more than his given name, Joseph. He was a Levite from Cyprus. Now, so what's a Levite?

In the Jewish temple ceremonies, they had priests who had specific duties in the temple, and particularly that had to do with, not exclusively, but the sacrificial system. And other people, didn't matter who you were, other people could not step into that position of a priest. The Levite's job was to take on all the other temple duties that were not assigned to the priests. See that? So a Levite would also go to the temple and take on other duties that the priests were not specified to carry out.

So they did other things around the temple that were considered essential. It is both the Levites and the priests within the tribe of Levi Both of those groups had, you know, advantage of the ties and all that kind of thing. So here's from Cyprus that we're going to see how that continues to be relevant.

And you say, Judas, remember this is not Judas Iscariot, okay? This is Judas called Barsabbas. Because of the name being repeated, it's possible he may have been the brother of Joseph called Barsabbas, who was the other fellow, aside from Matthias, that they were considering in the selection of an apostle. Remember how they did that? They said, Judas Iscariot has dropped out.

And so they had Matthias and Joseph called Barsabbas back there in chapter 1, and the lot fell on Matthias, and so this would have been the other fellow, possibly a brother to Judas. Nonetheless, this fellow Judas, as we're going to see, is a very important fellow as we proceed through the book of Acts. Silas, also called Silvanus, became Paul's companion on his second missionary journey, which was just about to begin. And so it's a great thing, and we're going to see why that takes place, why Silas goes with him, and why doesn't he have this trip with Barnabas here.

Here's the map we've been showing in general of the eastern Mediterranean and some of the early areas where Paul and Barnabas had gone. One of our main reasons for detailing it here is you see Jerusalem to the south and on the east end of that map. Antioch to the north. There was a fair amount of traffic between Jerusalem and Antioch, including what we've seen Paul and Barnabas, who have been in Jerusalem, go along with Judas, called Barsabbas, and Silas, also known as Silvanus, and they head up to Antioch. And we're going to see further kind of going back and forth as we have been between Antioch and Jerusalem.

Now here is the letter. We talked about that previously, but I think it's worth revisiting here. This is the one that's recorded for us in Acts 15, 23 through 29. One of the things we find with Dr. Luke is that several points, and this is one of them, he gets a hold of official documents and copies the text, the context, into the book of Acts. So we actually have a duplication of the official document. This is not the last place. We're going to see this later on in the book of Acts.

So the apostles and the brethren who are elders to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the Gentiles, greetings. They address letters differently than we do. It's funny, if you had a 10-page letter, and heaven forbid that you would have such a thing, but if you had a 10-page letter, still in our culture, the way we write a letter, you have to go to the end of the letter to figure out who wrote it, right? Typically, this is the way it was done in New Testament era. They would start off with, here's who it's from, so you don't go to the end to find out. Here's who it's from, and here's who I'm writing to, right at the beginning, right at the outset, and they do that here.

And then, he says, since we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls, it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, OK, so one question. Are they united and unanimous on this? Yes. That's a key point. They're not going off with what two thirds of us voted this way and the other third voted that way. Right. So there's unanimity here. having become of one mind to select men to send to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul."

So Barnabas and Paul were going to go with this letter. Why didn't they just say, well, Barnabas and Paul, why don't you take it? Reason. Barnabas and Paul had argued against the legalists, argued against those people who had said, well, you have to follow the law and become a Jew have to convert to Judaism in order to be saved. And Paul and Barnabas had opposed it.

While certainly they have a credibility, there is also, having risked their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus, right? Verse 26. But, in addition to that, they wanted to send Judas and Silas. Why? Because these are ones well regarded from the church in Jerusalem. who would be able to verify, yes, this was the decision reached, and here's how it was reached. Verse 27, Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. Their testimony will confirm the content of what we're sending here.

For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication. If you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell." Notice one other thing here.

It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. Was the Holy Spirit also behind this message? Yes, and so they make that clear. They were not just saying, well, it seemed like the Holy Spirit had something to do with this, but it seemed good, and they made it a positive, definite statement. The Holy Spirit was behind this conclusion and the message we're sending you. God is backing the content here.

Here's Acts 15.31, and when they read it, they rejoiced because of its encouragement. So we have there, here's Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas. They read it. They deliver it to people. People can read it. So they rejoice because of its encouragement.

So this letter is actually kind of brief and to the point. Could you imagine what would happen if they said, well, we've got this 50-page letter for you to decipher? No. It's brief and to the point. Here's who it's from, here's the conclusion we reached and how we reached it, the Holy Spirit's behind it. And these four men, by good qualifications, can verbally back up the decision that was reached and that this letter is true and valid. So the believers in the church in Antioch read and heard, I'm sure, this letter. When they read it, they rejoiced. This is a word, by the way, that's related to grace. Really astounding. So they graciously rejoiced is, I guess, a way that you could put that.

Instead of the message of the law of Moses, which has this heavy yoke for all the Gentiles, and by the way that word yoke was a word used to describe the law by the rabbis. Peter repeated that earlier in the book of Acts chapter 15. He used the word yoke to describe the law and he described that this is a heavy yoke, right? And so we jokingly put on this donkey who is up in the air because of the load that's been placed upon them. And that's partly funny and partly not too unrealistic. That's the way the law is. The law will have you up in the air, over-weighed and out-balanced by it. So instead of having them have this heavy burden.

Can you imagine? Put yourselves in the place of the believers in Antioch. They've got these people who've come in and said, you know, you've got to convert to Judaism, you've got to keep all 613 laws, Not just to have the blessing of God, but in order to be saved. Can you imagine that? Now folks, how are you doing with that? Have you got those 613 down pat? Got them all memorized? And it's amazing the stuff that's in there. If you actually look at all 613.

They said, nope, we're not doing that. And so these people in Antioch were actually, we use the word rejoiced in here, and that's the correct word to use. But you can imagine their relief. Oh good, I don't have to keep all that crazy stuff, you know. And it's okay for me to have mixed fabrics. I can have cotton and polyester in the same clothes, right? So all these things, you can imagine their immense relief not having to keep all 613 laws. Worse yet, these guys were saying in order to be saved you had to keep them all. Isn't that horrible? What if I blow it? Even what the Bible says is you're saved by what? Faith. You're saved by faith even all the way back into the time of Moses. Always the message is saved by faith. Period.

So even what the Bible describes, even for those under the Old Testament law, and we are not, even those under the law could be saved by faith and yet be put to death for breaking the law. All it took was you picked up a piece of firewood on Friday afternoon, a half hour too late. And you have to be put to death, but you'll still be saved.

So they were given this in order to convey some basic points of avoiding immorality and idolatry, things that would strongly offend the Jews and would be consistent, of course, with basic Christian morality and ethics. But it was not a matter of you got to do this stuff in order to be saved. It was a matter of saying, you know, these are things in order that you might have a ministry with the Jews. These are things in order that within the church body there not be offense.

Acts 15, 32 and 33, and Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged and strengthened the brethren with a lengthy message. And after they had spent time there, they were sent away from the brethren in peace to those who had sent them out. So we have this Silas or Silvanus. He's a fellow that it's worthy for us to give a little bit of detail to because he's going to continue to show up. His Roman name would be Silvanus, and we see him referred to by that name in 2 Corinthians 119.

He was a Hellenistic Jew and a leader in the church in Jerusalem. And when we say Hellenistic Jew, what does that mean? He was a Jew by his background in terms of genealogy, right? but he had culturally a Hellenistic or Greek background. Possibly Greek was his native tongue. Possibly he had had other aspects having been likely raised out among the Greeks. He was also a prophet. as we see referenced here, and he was a vocal minister in Antioch. We see that in the passage here.

We're going to see also in Acts 16.37 that he was a Roman citizen.

So Paul was sometimes called Paul, excuse me, Silas was sometimes called Paul's letter writer. 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, written by the way just weeks after the church had been founded there, Silas appears to have been the letter writer for that. And Silas was mentioned by Peter and may also have helped him with his letter writing. This is 1 Peter 5 12.

So anyway, we're going to see more about this fellow Silas. He is a fellow especially in the second missionary journey ends up having a prominent place. Now, prophets encouraged and strengthened here in this passage. Judas and Silas were both prophets.

It's valuable for us to know that prophets in the New Testament sense are different from the Old Testament prophets. Prophets in the New Testament sense were speaking during the time of the apostles. to kind of fill in for what would later be filled in for the New Testament itself while the New Testament was being written or before the New Testament was being written. And so these two men, Judas and Silas, would be men who would speak in lieu of the completion of the New Testament. Today, we no longer have prophets in the same sense, and these are also not just simply Old Testament prophets in that sense, because they're speaking to the church, which the Old Testament prophets didn't do directly. They had the apostolic era gift, and so they spoke truth to the congregation that they needed to hear, lacking at the time the completed New Testament to work from.

So the thing that's interesting is that they encouraged and strengthened by a lengthy message. Now it's possible I could make this message lengthy enough that you wouldn't be encouraged and strengthened by it. And so we won't go there. But this apparently was what they did.

They talked probably both of them, you know, tag-team preaching. And so they talked both of them, and it strengthened the believers. This word for strengthened is interesting. Dr. Luke uses this word for strength, strengthened, and it's only in a few places, four places to be exact, in the book of Acts.

So it's here. It is used once in each of Paul's missionary journeys. So the first missionary journey, you've already seen it. We see it here just prior to Paul's second missionary journey, and we're going to see it again. in Paul's second missionary journey as he begins it and in the third missionary journey as well. Here's Acts 1534 and notice it's in brackets, at least in this translation, but it seemed good to Silas to remain there. Now what do we say about this verse? This is a very good example. What do I mean by that?

Early English Bibles were all based on a very limited number of very late Greek New Testament manuscripts. This was true of Tyndale's translation in the early 1500s. It was true even still of the King James translation when it was first done in 1611. They had very few Greek manuscripts to work from, and they tended to be fairly recent.

Now, many modern Bibles, and we've seen it here, will have brackets and notes about some words, verses, and passages that are doubted. They'll make reference to the most reliable manuscripts, etc. What I would recommend to you is that we set aside those verses and passages only after very careful review.

Why? It's because not all of the New Testament was just in those manuscripts. We have well over 5,000, a round number around 5,400 full and in most cases partial Greek manuscripts Spreading out over the centuries the very earliest fragments of those are from the end of the first century But then spreading over time many many, you know Greek manuscripts but If we did not have any of those Greek manuscripts we could get all but about a dozen verses out of the commentaries of from the early church fathers.

Isn't that amazing? We could put the whole New Testament together without any of the manuscripts, with the exception of about 11 verses. So what we have in the way of the reliability of the New Testament is exceedingly reliable. Exceedingly reliable. And so one of them you'll find brackets on is the account of the woman caught in adultery.

The reference for that is John 7.53 through 8.11. That passage is one of those that often has brackets and says the most reliable manuscripts don't include it. Problem.

There are seven early church fathers who include it before the first manuscripts. So, the evidence I think says that this was a valid passage and should be included. Another one I'll make reference to, the end of the Gospel of Mark, Mark 16, 9-20, is another one of those where there are people who debate about whether or not it should be included. I think the evidence on the whole points to, yes, we should include Mark 16, 9-20, in spite of the whatever brackets or notes that you see. The truth is, it is rather rare upon careful study, it is rather rare that a verse should be set aside at all. Quite the exception, but this is one of them.

So Acts 1534 was not a part of the original text, and I don't do that casually, I don't say that casually, but rather that This is this is one of those unusual instances where it was not a part of the original text Here's Acts 15 35 the next verse there But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch teaching and preaching with many others.

Also the Word of the Lord So here's Paul and Barnabas along with many others. So so what does that tell you? it these guys were good reliable teachers of the Word of God and They taught Old Testament on into New Testament era truth Including the fact that you had Paul the Apostle there and including the fact that you had prophets there So along with many others who had many capable teachers, right? Teaching the Word of the Lord as it and what do we mean by the Word of the Lord?

Was it just the gospel? not just the gospel as Critically important as that is that was one of the things in yesterday's service celebrating Doris Lauther's homegoing, Roger brought a great message in 1 Corinthians 15, 1-4 to present the gospel, because in fact, when you have a service like that, we don't know that everyone is saved, and in fact a group that size, probably not. But to present the gospel is our great privilege here. And it's also a great responsibility. So it's the message about Jesus Christ, including the gospel, but obviously going far beyond it. It was in order to build up the body of Christ in Antioch. Imagine having Paul and Barnabas and many others who were capable and competent teachers of the word. Next, in addition to teaching, they also preached.

That is, what's the difference there? Preached is translated from sometimes a few different words. This particular one means they made a public proclamation. So there were instances not just in some Bible study in the home or something like that, but out in a more public area they made a public proclamation.

So it may have included both teaching in a public sense, but also evangelizing in this area around Antioch of Syria. Here's Acts 15-36, and after some days Paul said to Barnabas, Let us return and visit the brethren in every city in which we proclaim the word of the Lord and see how they are.

And you can see Paul here holding a piece of fruit and speaking into it as if it were a microphone. Anyway, Didn't get any of your eyes out of you. Anyway, I don't know what the deal is. So anyway, here's Paul. I'm sorry, yeah. Now, one thing is these are a bit dark. I didn't get a chance to lighten them up a bit, which would have been ideal.

So Paul proposed that he and Barnabas go back to the cities where they had established churches and appointed elders. This was in Acts chapter 13. After they were in Cyprus, they went into the cities of southern Galatia, as we would call them. And as they went into those churches and established churches, they made a return loop in which they appointed elders in each of the cities. And so they went back to the cities where they'd established churches, and they appointed elders in each one. Now having established the churches, appointed elders, Paul's proposal was this. His proposal to Barnabas, let's go to these places, every place where we've established the church, appointed elders, and see how they are.

How are they doing, right? See how they are. And what we find as we go through the book of Acts, they keep doing that. They go and see, how are these folks doing? What do they need to hear? It's even what the book of Galatians is, so far as we can tell Paul's first letter that we possess. The book of Galatians is one where he says, well, how are they doing? Well, they've got a problem. And so that's when he goes in and writes the book of Galatians, dealing with seeing how they are, right? So, more detail about what actually took place on that visit, in addition to just seeing how they are, because they also responded to circumstances. That will become evident as we explore Acts chapter 16.

Acts 15, 37 and 38 reads this way, And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along, who had deserted them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work. So here is Barnabas. He had some different ideas than what Paul thought was acceptable.

So Barnabas wanted to take John Mark and it's important for us because we have biblical insights to understand a few things about this guy called John Mark. He's actually John who is also called Mark. And so we call him John Mark, kind of for short, and also to clarify who he is with respect to differentiating him from other people named John, right?

So John Mark had come along as a helper to Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. So that's something we saw at the very beginning part of Paul and Barnabas' first missionary journey there. So he was to come along as a helper, that is, to assist them in various things, right? Secondly, John Mark and Barnabas were cousins. Oh, this is very interesting, right? So here is John Mark. He is a relative, a cousin of Barnabas.

And since Barnabas was a Levite, that's Acts 4.36, that means that John Mark could also have been a Levite. Very interesting connection there. So both of them could have been qualified. Certainly, Barnabas was, and possibly John Mark. Finally, this John Mark had bailed on Paul and Barnabas.

And of course, Paul was saying, hey, taking along with us a guy who had bailed is not a good idea. That's not wise. And he was not willing to go along with that plan. Acts 15.39, and there arose such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, after Paul and Barnabas stabbed each other. Right? Is that what happened? No. When we say sharp disagreement, it doesn't mean that. So let's take a look at what does it mean.

So Paul and Barnabas were both fine with going back to the churches. That part of the plan was not a pointed issue. Let's go back to the churches they established, see how they were doing, as well as carrying out, as we'll see later on in Acts 16, other ministry among the believers there in the church bodies. The point at which they had sharp disagreement was bringing along Barnabas' cousin John Mark. Hmm the one who had bailed on them early on their first missionary journey So this is rather astounding, right? So here's John Mark Barnabas's And is it because it's that he's a cousin and we don't know exactly that but he wants to bring him along But that's the point of sharpness sharp disagreement.

I So here's Acts 15, 40 through 41. But Paul chose Silas and departed, being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. And he was traveling through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches. So here we have, and we won't go over it in detail, but here's this fellow Silas that he took with him reading over the chapter. Probably the sequence of things is this. The four men, Paul and Barnabas and Judas and Silas, all went up to Antioch. From the description of things, it seems that Silas may have gone back to Jerusalem at first and then returned back to Antioch, at which point in time is where Paul and Silas would take off together.

You have here a map, and I'll want to get some larger copies available for those who might want to take a look at them. I particularly selected this map for two reasons. One is I think it's pretty accurate as to the location. And secondly, because the author gave me permission to use it, and I don't like using maps where I don't have permission.

So anyway, so this would be Paul's second missionary journey. We're just going to, at this point, look at the very beginning of it. So you see where they went from Antioch and went into Syria, that area, and into Cilicia. Cilicia was the province around Tarsus. So what's very interesting is we don't have a lot of detail about what Paul did in Tarsus, but we have at least some reference there that they passed through Cilicia, the province that they were in. And we're going to see, of course, much more ahead as we look at this second missionary journey and see what transpires here.

So, a question. Are Paul and Barnabas in a mess? Have they got a train wreck? And here we have a very dynamic train wreck, a train wreck still happening here. Since Paul and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement over taking John Mark on the second missionary journey, did they become enemies? I hate you, you hate me, now we're both happy, right?

So was that what happened? Where they'd just sworn enemies and just would never talk to each other again. I've never had that happen or seen that. I'm never talking to you again. Rather amazing. Has the Sharpe disagreement caused a train wreck? Where both of them just have this agreement and it just messes them up from then on out. Will these events damage the spiritual progress of everyone who is involved with rippling effects for years, decades, even generations? Can any of these relationships ever be mended after such a sharp disagreement?

What do you think? Well, let's take a look. As we continue to read the Bible, we have some good news. I mean, good news, right? So, first one. Paul laid a row with respectful admiration about Barnabas. This was 1 Corinthians 9.6. And by the way, that was on Paul's third missionary journey.

So, 1 Corinthians 9.6, he writes favorably of Barnabas with whom he had had a sharp disagreement. So, first of all, it wasn't permanent. There didn't appear to be, you know, I'm not talking to you and you're not talking to me and never talk to me again and all those kinds of things. Secondly, Paul wrote favorably about John Mark three times later.

And so here's Colossians 4.10, Philemon 24, and 2 Timothy 4.11. Those are towards the end of Paul's ministry and life.

But all three of those speak favorably of John Mark, even in 2 Timothy 4.11, saying, send him, he's useful.

Isn't that amazing? First, no, we're not taking him along. And then, to have him write favorably Matter of fact, later on he writes more favorably about John Markley than he does Barnabas, and he doesn't speak badly of Barnabas at all. Isn't that amazing? To speak after saying, I'm not taking him along. No way to have him write favorably three times. That is really astounding. Something really radical must have taken place. So that really is good news, okay?

Instead of causing the sharp agreement, instead of causing a train wreck, Instead of causing permanent ruin, what you see is great restoration, not only of relationships, but of Paul's understanding of who John Mark is. Next, Barnabas had a restorative ministry with his cousin John Mark, who later became a useful assistant to both Peter and Paul. As far as we can tell, faithful to the end, even at a time when others were unfaithful, John Mark hung in there. And he is, from what we understand, the author of the Gospel of Mark.

Paul would soon take on Timothy and put Timothy into useful service. So we're postponing it, but we're going to look at what happened to these two guys, John Mark and Timothy, in greater detail. We can't look at that now. We can't take the time for that. But what we have very clearly is this actually turned out very well. Relationships were restored.

People were restored. Both John Mark and Timothy have some questionable things about their beginnings but God ends up working through each of those things and both Paul and Barnabas end up having a ministry and training up and supporting and restoring and putting into service Timothy and John Mark so what actually happened instead of a train wreck was the body of Christ was doubly benefited This is really good news.

This is the Lord working with people for second chances, if you will, for people who had bad backgrounds, people who had made terrible mistakes. And instead, the Lord had a ministry with these two men, John Mark and Timothy, to put them into service in spite of the various things that might have put them off the list. So what do differences mean here? Differences among believers can be because of differences in spiritual giftedness, character of ministry, and perspectives of ministry.

For instance, Barnabas was called the son of encouragement, And he is the one who takes on favoring Paul when everybody else is scared to death of the guy. Here's Barnabas and says, no, this Paul guy is okay, right? He takes on John Mark who had flaked out, who bailed on them. in the middle of the first missionary journey and he works with him to build him up into somebody that the Apostle Paul asks for and writes about very favorably every time he writes about him after that.

Another question is what does the Lord want? When people have differences of opinion on things, the question is not, let's have a wrestling match over who gets what and who gets their way, but asking the question together, what does God want in this circumstance?

This is a key thing. Next, what is to be avoided is fleshly expression, empire building, and a demand for my way. This is Shown most significantly in first Corinthians the Corinthians had empire builders, you know, follow me I'm building my empire, right? People who are demanding their own way That's not what Paul and Barnabas did what they were looking at doing was not I want my way It wasn't my way or the highway. Okay, it's what's God's will and what's God's intent and And in the end, it's not what I want, it's what God wants. Thirdly, since these are not what Barnabas and Paul were seeking, it turned out well. As a matter of fact, it turned out very well. Very well indeed.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at these passages, as we look at chapter 15, drawing near to a close here, we look at these and we see you're working. As we see in the rest of the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament, what certainly looks in close view like, oh no, this is a mess, is something, in fact, that you will turn about and use. And we just thank you for that. We thank you that we can take encouragement in it and we take guidance from it. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.