PREPARE FOR IT! - B|Neighbors - Acts 11:1-24, , Acts 9:26-30, Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:17

Before the next sermon in our B|Neighbors series tomorrow, let's take a look at Paul and Barnabas...

Acts 11:1-24 ( NIV)
Peter Explains His Actions

11 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

4 Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’

8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.

11 “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’

15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
The Church in Antioch

19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.


Acts 9:26-30 (NIV)

26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. 30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.


Romans 5:8 (NIV)

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Living on Mission – B|Encouragers

Living on Mission – B|Encouragers

“When he arrived and saw this evidence of God’s blessing, he was filled with joy, and he encouraged the believers to stay true to the Lord. Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. And many people were brought to the Lord.” (Acts 11:23-24)

We live in a very negative society. We hear a lot of bad news, but it’s not all that different from the world Paul and Barnabas lived in. (we do hear it a lot quicker than they did) There were sick people. There were natural disasters. There was serious persecution. Poverty. Hunger. Slavery.

So how come Barnabas was such an encourager? How did he see the good? He wasn’t walking around with rose-colored glasses. He wasn’t just a naturally perky personality. He was in direct contact with the source of all good things. He saw what the Holy Spirit saw. He saw what could be. Yay, Barnabas! He found they key to joy, faith, and encouragement. He was full of the Holy Spirit.

We can tell by what Paul said to the Thessalonians that there was a culture of encouragement. “So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) Oh how we need this today! We are the Good News people! Let’s fill up daily and strengthen and encourage one another.

Let’s practice Living on Mission and B|Encouragers by staying full of the Holy Spirit and letting love, joy, and encouragement spill out to everyone around!

Pastor Angela

PRAY IT!!! B|Neighbors

JR Miller wrote that "One of the essential qualifications of leadership is large hopefulness."  As we progress in our B|Neighbors:  Our Hope Is Right Here sermon series, I'd like to propose that one of the essential qualifications of neighboring like Jesus is large hopefulness.  Hope in Christ.  Hope in each other.  Hope for all.

Last week, we concentrated our prayers toward lives that would intersect with people rather than just run parallel to them.  But what happens when this actually happens and life gets messy?  Or inconvenient?  Or uncharted?  What happens if God orchestrates an intersection with someone that you don't care for all that much?  Or perhaps someone who has been less-than-nice to you in the past?  Or perhaps someone who is perfectly pleasant, but you feel above them some how?  Or perhaps it's not the person that scares you, it's the intersection itself!  The list of possibilities is endless... you get the idea... 

We need more prayer.

In Philippians 2:5, we are urged by Paul "In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus." 

We need more prayer and we need constant Jesus.

Not only was Paul the recipient of the transformation that comes from encountering Jesus, he appears to have blossomed under the encouragement of Barnabas.

Barnabas... who was he?  He is referenced in Acts as Joseph, aka "son of encouragement" who sold a field and laid the money at the disciples feet (a stark contrast to Ananias and Sapphira).  In Acts 9:26-30 we read about how Barnabas was the one who took Paul and brought him to the other disciples who Paul had attempted to join but they were scared and skeptical of his sincerity and authenticity.  Barnabas was the one who declared to them that Paul encountered Jesus and as a result was now preaching boldly.  Barnabas INTRODUCED Paul - the changed Paul - to those who were still carrying old opinions of him.

Does it GET any more encouraging than that?! 

Barnabas intersected with Paul.  Those are some great verbs.  Took... brought... declared... These are neighboring words.  These are the actions of encouragers.

We need more prayer.  We need constant Jesus.  And we need to be willing to trustingly take the risk to encourage someone who may have hardly had the chance to demonstrate change yet.

Here's the thing... Either Jesus transforms or He doesn't.  Either we believe it or we don't.  We cannot go around proclaiming transformation and freedom through Christ but continuing to keep people we know boxed up in the prison of their previous characteristics, screw-ups, disappointments, and sins.  Jesus has provided them the opportunity to be freed up.  So.  Should.  We.  Is it risky... sure.  Could people hurt or disappoint us?  Sure.  But big picture, I'd say it cost Jesus the most on the cross... so... maybe it's not as risky as we think it is.  Just sayin'...

Barnabas' name is mentioned throughout Scripture, often in conjunction with Paul.  Sometimes his name is listed first, then second.  But there's not a whole lot more to be found on him.  There's no book of the Bible that appears to be authored by Barnabas.  Ponder this in relation to Paul.  Paul and his accounts... Paul and his letters to... There's a whole lotta Paul when you page through the New Testament.

We need more prayer.  We need constant Jesus.  We need to be willing to trustingly take the risk to encourage.  And we need humility. 

At PoC, we have a team of encouragement "ninjas" who engage in various missions of encouragement.  They are stealthy.  They don't bask in any limelight.  They serve willingly, joyfully, and humbly as they help create a culture of encouragement at PoC. 

Barnabas... the fact that when I flip through my Bible and do my various searches, I find very little on him, speaks volumes.  It begs an important question when we think about discipleship.  Am I praying enough?  Connected to Jesus constantly, enough?  Am I trustingly-risky enough?  Am I encouraging enough?  And:  Am I humble enough? 

Beautiful discipleship can result. 

But we can't stop there.

If we're not protected in prayer, if we're not connected to Jesus, it just might sting that someone who possibly used to persecute us is now flourishing, while we may be taking a back seat.  And we do not want our own insecurities to spring up and damage God-led growth. 


We must have the same mindset as Jesus.


RA Torrey wrote this about prayer:  "Oh, men and women, pray through; pray through, PRAY THROUGH.  Do not just begin to pray and pray a little while and throw up your hands and quit, but pray, and pray, and pray, and pray, until God bends the heavens and comes down."

This week, let's pray through.  Encouragement and neighboring is a process.  It's long term.  It matters.  Let's settle in and pray it up.

Our hope is right here.

Dear Jesus,
Stick close to me, constantly.  Invade my thoughts and actions.  Help me encourage.  Help me be humble.  Help me "free" people from the corners and cages I have put them in and actually "see" people for who they have become thanks to You.  Bind up any whisper of the enemy that calls me to jealousy.  Continue to orchestrate my life so that I intersect with people rather than just run parallel to them.
Amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Celia

PoC|Coverage - 6pm tonight!  Try it, you might like it!

FAMILY IT! — Wednesday Family Devotional — “B|Encouragers”

Supplies: Bible

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Summer vacation’s here!!  Ten weeks of freedom from classes and tests.  You don’t have to do any homework, but you also don’t get to see most of your friends each day.  Which of your friends will you miss the most while you’re bumming on the couch this summer?  Go around and share why.

Now…who will you not miss this summer?  In addition to “no more classes and no more books,” whose “dirty looks” are you glad to be free from for a bit?

READ

Last week we read how Saul became Paul.  Read about how this new disciple is received by the others in Acts 9:26-30 and 11:19-26.

THINK

Paul had an amazing encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, but he also had a horrible reputation after years of hating and hunting Christ-followers.  The original disciples were used to being terrified by this guy, so they weren’t eager to welcome him into their group.  How could they know he really changed?  Maybe this was all an act.  Maybe he’d change his mind in a week and arrest them all.  Maybe he’d destroy the whole church—all that they’d done to share Jesus with the Jews!

Enter Barnabas.  This was a guy the disciples knew.  He was a part of their church-building team, helping them share Jesus’ story with others.  So when he stepped in and spoke up for Paul, the disciples listened.  Barnabas shared about the ways Paul had changed and how he’d already made a difference for Jesus.  Barnabas backed up his words by choosing Paul to help him on one of his missionary journeys.  If you know much about Paul, it’s kind of weird to think of him as the “assistant missionary.”  After all, he wrote half of the New Testament and became the godfather of church planting.  And yet, it was the encouragement of Barnabas that helped give Paul the footing he needed to truly change the world—change history for Christ. 

APPLY

What would you do if that “dirty looker” showed up at church on Sunday?  It may seem hard to welcome that particular person into your K.I.D.S. class or into youth group.  Even if you watched them pray and ask Jesus to be their Savior, you may still hold on to all of the bad memories from how they treated you before.  But just like Barnabas, you can help someone become the person Jesus is making in them through encouragement.  When we treat people like who they want to be, instead of who they used to be, we act like Jesus.  When we give them the benefit of the doubt, when we pat them on the back for little changes, we help build that holy heart inside of them.  Who can you encourage even today?

PRAY

Dear God, help me to be an encourager.  Help me to look past the ways people used to be and see who you are making them.  In Jesus’ Name we pray.  Amen

REPLY

Did you and your family enjoy this devotional blog?  We'd love to know about it!  Our hope is to continue providing this weekly opportunity for families to do a devotion together.  If your family did this devotion, please shoot us an email, text or just post a comment to this blog.

READ IT! - B|Neighbors - Acts 11:1-24, , Acts 9:26-30, Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:17

This week in our B|Neighbors series, let's take a look at Paul and Barnabas...

Acts 11:1-24 ( NIV)
Peter Explains His Actions

11 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

4 Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’

8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’

9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.

11 “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’

15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”

18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
The Church in Antioch

19 Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews. 20 Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

22 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. 24 He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.


Acts 9:26-30 (NIV)

26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. 30 When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.


Romans 5:8 (NIV)

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!