Transcript

Today’s Bible Translation

Bible translation used in today’s episode: Ch. 15 CEV, Ch. 16 ERV

Executive Producer

Lifespring! Family Berean Phil Colbourn, Anonymous

Associate Producer

Michael Haner

Podcast Introduction

It’s Gospels Saturday, and we’ll read Acts 15-16. I’m calling this episode “A Parting of the Ways.“

Summary

In Acts 15 and 16 we read of an intense argument between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark. Paul suggested checking on their followers, but Barnabas wanted Mark along, despite his past failure. Their clash escalated to a heated argument. They split, Barnabas mentoring Mark and Paul moving on with Silas. This shows the importance of love among believers. Eventually, Paul and Mark reconciled, and Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark. The argument shows God’s grace can turn conflicts into opportunities for His glory.

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The Team

Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Denise: Transcript Correction
Michael Haner: Podcasting 2.0 Chapters
Lifespring Family Berean, Brother Scott Snider: Show Art
Jason Paschall: Show Art
Lifespring Family Berean, Sister Brittaney: Newsletter Publisher

Transcript

Download .txt file.

Transcript corrected by Sister Denise

Steve Webb 0:00
Red-faced, voice raised, hands on hips.

Steve Webb 0:04
It’s the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California, and podcasting since 2004, my name is Steve Webb. I’m your OG Godcaster. It’s Gospel Saturday, and we’ll read Acts 15 and 16. The website is lifespringmedia.com. and I’ll have contact information, when? At the end of the show. Before we read, let’s pray. Our heavenly Father, Lord, we love you and we thank you for our time together to read your Word. Thank you, Lord, for giving it to us. Touch our hearts, Lord. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right, are you ready? Let’s begin.

Steve Webb 0:41
Acts, chapter 15. Some people came from Judea and started teaching the Lord’s followers that they could not be saved, unless they were circumcised as Moses had taught. This caused trouble, and Paul and Barnabas argued with them about this teaching. So it was decided to send Paul and Barnabas and a few others to Jerusalem to discuss this problem with the apostles and the church leaders. The men who were sent by the church went through Phoenicia and Samaria, telling how the Gentiles had turned to God. This news made the Lord’s followers very happy. When the men arrived in Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, including the apostles and the leaders. They told them everything God had helped them do. But some Pharisees had become followers of the Lord. They stood up and said, “Gentiles who have faith in the Lord must be circumcised and told to obey the Law of Moses.” The apostles and church leaders met to discuss this problem about Gentiles. They had talked it over for a long time, when Peter got up and said: My friends, you know that God decided long ago to let me be the one from your group to preach the good news to the Gentiles. God did this so they would hear and obey him. He knows what is in everyone’s heart. And he showed he had chosen the Gentiles, when he gave them the Holy Spirit, just as he had given his Spirit to us. God treated them in the same way that he treated us. They put their faith in him, and he made their hearts pure. Now why are you trying to make God angry by placing a heavy burden on these followers? This burden was too heavy for us or our ancestors. But we believe that we will be saved by the gift of undeserved grace from our Lord Jesus Christ, just as the Gentiles are. Everyone kept quiet and listened as Barnabas and Paul told how God had given them the power to work a lot of miracles and wonders for the Gentiles. After they had finished speaking, James said: My friends, listen to me! Simon Peter has told how God first came to the Gentiles and made some of them his own people. This agrees with what the prophets wrote, “I, the Lord, will return and rebuild David’s fallen house. I will build it from its ruins and set it up again. Then other nations will turn to me and be my chosen ones. I, the Lord, say this. I promised it long ago.” And so, my friends, I don’t think we should place burdens on the Gentiles who are turning to God. We should simply write and tell them not to eat anything that has been offered to idols. They should be told not to eat the meat of any animal that has been strangled or that still has blood in it. They must also not commit any terrible sexual sins. We must remember that the Law of Moses has been preached in city after city for many years, and every Sabbath it is read in our synagogues. The apostles, the leaders, and all the church members decided to send some men to Antioch along with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Silas and Judas Barsabbas, who were two leaders of the Lord’s followers. They wrote a letter that said: We apostles and leaders send friendly greetings to all of you Gentiles who are followers of the Lord in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. We have heard that some people from here have terribly upset you by what they said. But we did not send them! So we met together and decided to choose some men and to send them to you along with our good friends Barnabas and Saul. These men have risked their lives for our Lord Jesus Christ. We are also sending Judas and Silas, who will tell you in person the same things that we are writing. The Holy Spirit has shown us that we should not place any extra burden on you. But you should not eat anything offered to idols. You should not eat any meat that still has the blood in it or any meat of any animal that has been strangled. You must also not commit any terrible sexual sins. If you follow these instructions, you will do well. We send our best wishes. The four men left Jerusalem and went to Antioch. Then they called the church members together and gave them the letter. When the letter was read, everyone was pleased and greatly encouraged. Judas and Silas were prophets, and they spoke a long time, encouraging and helping the Lord’s followers. The men from Jerusalem stayed on in Antioch for a while. And when they left to return to the ones who had sent them, the followers wished them well. But Paul and Barnabas stayed on in Antioch, where they and many others taught and preached about the Lord. Sometime later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s go back and visit the Lord’s followers in the cities where we preached his message. Then we will know how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take along John, whose other name was Mark. But Paul did not want to, because Mark had left them in Pamphylia and had stopped working with them. Paul and Barnabas argued, then each of them went his own way. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, but Paul took Silas and left after the followers had placed them in God’s care. They traveled through Syria and Cilicia, encouraging the churches.

Steve Webb 5:41
Acts, chapter 16. Paul went to the city of Derbe and then to Lystra, where a follower of Jesus named Timothy lived. Timothy’s mother was a Jewish believer, but his father was a Greek. The believers in the cities of Lystra and Iconium had only good things to say about him. Paul wanted Timothy to travel with him, but all the Jews living in that area knew that his father was a Greek. So Paul circumcised Timothy to please the Jews. Then Paul and those with him traveled through other cities. They gave the believers the rules and decisions from the apostles and elders in Jerusalem. They told them to obey these rules. So the churches were becoming stronger in their faith, and the number of believers was growing every day. Paul and those with him went through the areas of Phrygia and Galatia because the Holy Spirit did not allow them to tell the Good News in the province of Asia. When they reached the border of Mysia, they tried to go on into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not let them go there. So they passed by Mysia and went to the city of Troas. That night Paul saw a vision. In it, a man from Macedonia came to Paul. The man stood there and begged, “Come across to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we immediately prepared to leave for Macedonia. We understood that God had called us to tell the Good News to those people. We left Troas in a ship and sailed to the island of Samothrace. The next day we sailed to the city of Neapolis. Then we went to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city in that part of Macedonia. We stayed there for a few days. On the Sabbath day we went out the city gate to the river. There we thought we might find a special place for prayer. Some women had gathered there, so we sat down and talked with them. There was a woman there named Lydia from the city of Thyatira. Her job was selling purple cloth. She was a worshiper of the true God. Lydia was listening to Paul, and the Lord opened her heart to accept what Paul was saying. She and all the people living in her house were baptized. Then she invited us into her home. She said, “If you think I am a true believer in the Lord Jesus, come stay in my house.” She persuaded us to stay with her. One day we were going to the place for prayer, and a servant girl met us. She had a spirit in her that gave her the power to tell what would happen in the future. By doing this she earned a lot of money for the men who owned her. She started following Paul and the rest of us around. She kept shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God! They are telling you how you can be saved!” She continued doing this for many days. This bothered Paul, so he turned and said to the spirit, “By the power of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her!” Immediately, the spirit came out. When the men who owned the servant girl saw this, they realized that they could no longer use her to make money. So they grabbed Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square to meet with the authorities. They brought Paul and Silas before the Roman officials and said, “These men are Jews, and they are making trouble in our city. They are telling people to do things that are not right for us Romans to do.” The whole crowd turned against Paul and Silas. The officials tore the clothes off both men and ordered that they be beaten with rods. They were severely beaten and thrown into jail. The officials told the jailer, “Guard them very carefully!” When the jailer heard this special order, he put Paul and Silas far inside the jail and bound their feet between large blocks of wood. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing songs to God. The other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake so strong that it shook the foundation of the jail. All the doors of the jail opened, and the chains on all the prisoners fell off. The jailer woke up and saw that the jail doors were open. He thought that the prisoners had already escaped, so he got his sword and was ready to kill himself. But Paul shouted, “Don’t hurt yourself! We are all here!” The jailer told someone to bring a light. Then he ran inside and, shaking with fear, fell down in front of Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, “Men, what must I do to be saved?” They said to him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved—you and all who live in your house.” So Paul and Silas told the message of the Lord to the jailer and all the people who lived in his house. It was late at night, but the jailer took Paul and Silas and washed their wounds. Then the jailer and all his people were baptized. After this the jailer took Paul and Silas home and gave them some food. All the people were very happy because they now believed in God. The next morning the Roman officials sent some soldiers to tell the jailer, “Let these men go free.” The jailer said to Paul, “The officials have sent these soldiers to let you go free. You can leave now. Go in peace.” But Paul said to the soldiers, “Those officials did not prove that we did anything wrong, but they beat us in public and put us in jail. And we are Roman citizens. Now they want us to go away quietly. No, they must come here themselves and lead us out!” The soldiers told the officials what Paul said. When they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were afraid. So they came and told them that they were sorry. They led them out of the jail and asked them to leave the city. But when Paul and Silas came out of the jail, they went to Lydia’s house. They saw some of the believers there and encouraged them. Then they left.

Steve Webb 11:17
You know, I’m always struck by the last scene in chapter 15. It’s in verses 36 through 41. Paul suggested to Barnabas that they go and see how well the followers were doing in the cities that they’d visited and preached in and Barnabas said, “Hey, let’s take my cousin John Mark along with us.” And Paul said, “Yeah, no. I don’t think so. When things got tough in Pamphylia, he wimped out on us and took off. I don’t trust him.” Well, this caused an argument between Barnabas and Saul. And according to the original Greek, this was not just a calm disagreement. Have you ever seen a baseball team manager arguing nose-to-nose with an umpire, red-faced, voice raised, hands on hips? Maybe you’ve even seen the manager kick dirt on the ump? Well, that seems to be the kind of argument Barnabas and Paul had. The Greek used for argument in our text today can be literally translated as “paroxysm”. And well, I had to look that one up the first time I read it, and it means a sudden attack or a violent expression of a particular emotion or activity. Some synonyms are spasm, attack, fit, burst, outburst, eruption, explosion. I mean, these guys really got into it! It’s funny. We don’t really think of our Bible heroes having these kinds of paroxysms, do we? But anyway, what happened was they split up. Barnabas took Mark and went to Cyprus and Paul and Silas went to Syria and Cilicia. So what do we learn from this? Is it a good thing to have knockdown, drag-out fights with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Well, not generally speaking, no, it’s not. Jesus said, “The world will know your mind by the love you have for one another.” Well, in this instance, Paul and Barnabas struck out, if we want to continue the baseball parallel. They blew it. And I think that later on, they both regretted it. And there is some evidence that I’m right on this because we read in Colossians that Paul referred to Mark as “my fellow worker”, and he vouched for him in the Colossian church. And then near the end of his life, he asked Timothy to bring Mark with him. We do know that Barnabas, whose name means “Son of Encouragement”, and who is referred to as a good man full of the Holy Spirit in faith, spent time with Mark discipling him and it sounds to me like Barnabas’ time with Mark was effective. Why do I say that? Well, how about the fact that Mark wrote the “Gospel According to Mark”? The Bible doesn’t sugarcoat the humanity of the men and women we find in its pages. We’ve seen that as we read through the Bible this year, right? We see how God powerfully uses these people despite their failings. What do we learn from the violent argument between Barnabas and Paul? That God’s grace is sufficient. If our heart is right, if we truly desire to follow God, when our flesh gets in the way, God will take a disaster and turn it around for his glory. Now, that doesn’t mean that the next time you have a disagreement with a brother or sister you have license to punch ’em in the nose, though, so don’t do that. Tell me your thoughts. Let me hear from you. Send a boostagram or call the Lifespring Family Hotline or go to the comments page or write an email. I’ll tell you how to do that just a little bit later. Tomorrow will be Epistles Sunday and we’ll read the book of 2 Peter.

Steve Webb 14:41
I’ve got some people to thank today. Executive Producers. First, Lifespring Berean Brother Phil Colbourn came in with a $333.33 donation today. Thank you very much, Brother Phil. God bless you. Brother Phil also sent a prayer request which I’ll share during tomorrow’s prayer time. And in the meantime, Brother Phil, please know that I’ve already put your request on my personal prayer list. And Anonymous came in with their weekly $33.33 donation. Thank you, Anonymous. God bless you. Also an Executive Producer. And Michael Haner is today’s Associate Producer with his weekly $7.77 Stryper donation. Thank you, Michael. Michael does the chapters for every single episode of the Lifespring! One Year Bible. Time, talent, and treasure. God bless you, Mr. Haner and Lifespring Berean Brother Paul of Seattle sent a birthday gift of $69.33 for my 69th birthday today. Thank you, Brother Paul. That’s very kind of you. God bless you. Thank you. I guess the Lovely Lady LeeAnn, and my middle son, Steven, and his wife have plans to take me to dinner on Tuesday which is the first day both LeeAnn and Steven have available. I’m looking forward to that.

Jingle 15:57
Lifespringmedia.com/support

Steve Webb 15:57
I mentioned tomorrow’s prayer time. This is the time, Beloved, when we come together to share praises when you tell us about what God is doing in your life. And when we lift up prayer requests for each other. If there’s something that you’d like to share with the Lifespring family do let me know. Here’s how. Call the Lifespring Family Hotline at +1-951-732-8511. Or go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com. There’s a form there that you can fill out, and if you want to remain anonymous all you got to do is let me know. If you have a comment or a question for me go to comment.lifespringmedia.com and my email address is st***@*************ia.com. Or you can always send a boostagram whenever you feel like it using a modern podcast app from podcastapps.com.

Steve Webb 16:49
Sister Denise, Michael Haner, Scott Snider, Jason Paschall, and Sister Brittaney, thank you for everything you do for me. Jason Paschall did today’s show art. And thanks to Brother Phil Colbourn, Anonymous, Michael Haner, and Brother Paul of Seattle for their very kind support today. And thank you, Beloved, for inviting me to join you today. May God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye.

Announcer 17:18
The Lifespring! Media family of programs are made possible by the generous support of listeners like you. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai