Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 326

November 21;   Acts 14:3;   103/260(II);   ‘Serious Stuff’

Acts 14:3 Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

 As Christians, we have the privilege and the responsibility to do the work of the ministry.  Since the ministry involves eternal things, the importance of what we do cannot be overstated.  Our adversary, satan, does everything he can to hinder our ministry.  The Lord Jesus defeated the devil and our determination to fulfill the work we are called to do makes our lives as Christians, both incredibly rewarding and challenging.  These truths are very clear in Acts 14.  Paul and Barnabas are in the synagogue in Iconium.  They preached the gospel in the synagogue and a great number of Jews and Greeks believed the gospel.  The religious, unbelieving Jews, inspired by the devil, did all they could to poison the minds of the Gentiles, to the truths Paul and Barnabas preached.  Here is the key, Paul and Barnabas, despite the opposition, preached boldly, and the Lord was helping them by doing miracles, signs and wonders through Paul and Barnabas.  Eventually, the opposition became violent and Paul and Barnabas had to leave Iconium and go to Lystra and Derbe.  The work of the ministry involves the eternal destiny of people.  satan hates God, and after his rebellion against the Lord, along with one third of the angels in heaven was crushed by the Lord, the devil now does all he can to ‘get back at God’ by deceiving and hurting people.  Once we as Christians, understand this reality, we must do all we can to become strong spiritually, by the Word, prayer, worship and actively doing God’s work.  The truth is the devil could not stop Paul.  Grow spiritually so the devil cannot stop you either.