When the "officials" come out on the field and start kicking the ball around, they're not officiating anymore! As the gospel spread in the first century it forced people to take sides. Exactly what and how much do we owe to God, and how much to the king? What if the king thinks he is a god? What if the supposedly impartial rulers, the "officials," take sides in the game? These are questions arising from our reading of Acts 17 today.

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Paul had a feeling he was not in Kansas anymore! The Apostle who called himself a "Hebrew of Hebrews" found himself far from home, out in the land of the Gentiles. And things were different, yet the same. We've come to Acts 17 in our survey of this fascinating book. We'll see that, wherever they go, Paul, Silas and Timothy make it a point to bring the gospel to Jews first, and then to the non-Jews. In both groups they'll find faith, and also fury. They became infamous as Those Who Have Turned the World Upside-Down.

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While Paul and Silas were obeying the command to "Go," the Holy Spirit told them to Stop! Go, preach the gospel everywhere - but not here, not just yet. That's one of the notable things we'll get out of Acts 16, today. It must be that God has a strategy. There's nothing unplanned in heaven, even though we may not know what those plans are. Yesterday we started a sermon called, Application of the Apostolic Decisions About Gentiles. Today we'll continue to learn about Paul's Second Missionary Journey.

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The Jerusalem Council had made its decision. Now, how would the people in the pews receive it? Some unauthorized teachers and Pharisees - who else? - had tried to put the church under the Law. But the dustup had been resolved. The Gentiles' freedom in Christ had been preserved... with some stipulations. Let's learn what these were, and how both Jews and Gentiles liked the outcome.

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If Gentiles don't have to become Jews, do Jews have to become Gentiles? I've been known to ask trick questions to get you thinking. But this question is a sincere one that has implications for us today, just as it did 2,000 years ago. Should Jews give up their cultural and religious distinctives when they embrace Jesus? Are these just remnants of the Old Covenant to be cast off, or do they enrich the faith of the believing Jew? Jim takes us back to Peter's speech in Acts 15.

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No salvation without circumcision? It must have seemed very logical to some of the early Christians: God had commanded His people to follow some rules and to carry in their bodies the sign of being in covenant with Him. If Gentiles wanted to join the people of God, they would have to observe the Sabbath, keep a kosher diet, and be circumcised. But there's a flaw in that logic: This covenant isn't like that covenant. We have a record of how the early church resolved their controversy, and we'll look at it today with Pastor Jim.

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Don't expect any mercy from the court of public opinion. Mobs are irrational, and that's never good. The people who hailed Paul and Barnabas as gods quickly came to believe they were the worst of men. It would be hard for us to believe that the crowd at Lystra could change its collective mind so quickly - and so completely - except that we saw the same thing happen to Jesus between Palm Sunday and Good Friday. Jim will read from Acts 14:15 as we complete his sermon, A Light for the Gentiles.

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And then there was the time when the Gentiles were a little too receptive. Every missions trip should give the missionaries some wild stories to tell, and this is one of the wildest. Maybe the miracles outpaced the message, or maybe something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. Let's just say that supernatural events need an interpretation - an accurate interpretation. We'll move further into the Book of Acts today, as Jim begins a message called, A Light for the Gentiles.

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God is bigger than your tribe - or your 12 tribes! When Paul stood up to preach in Acts 13, he joined a long line of messengers speaking to the people of Israel. But God's message could not be contained within that group, any more than His love or His power could be confined to a single nation. The new wine was about to burst the old wineskins. If that sounds messy, it was. Today we'll conclude Jim's sermon, Through the Jews, to the Gentiles.

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Paul preached his first sermon as if it might be his last. The Apostle "left everything on the field," as we say - his message contained history, prophecy and personal experience. You could call him crazy, but you couldn't call him half-hearted. Pastor Jim picks up his message, Through the Jews, to the Gentiles, in Acts 13:18.

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