So have you ever watched a movie or a TV show— thank you— where there was a storyline where two people remember the exact same moment completely differently?
Anybody here used to watch Friends? Yes?
Okay? Can you think of the storyline that explains this perfectly?
Ross and Rachel on a break.
Oh yeah, the storyline that went on and on and on and on. So whether you have an opinion on that particular debate or not, the reason it became such a memorable storyline is because both of them experienced the same moment, right? They were in the same relationship. They were having the same conversation. They were in the same circumstances.
But they walked away with very different understandings of what had happened in the moment. One person understood it one way, and the other person understood it another way. And that reminds us of something that we see throughout life. Hearing the same thing does not always mean responding in the same way. So I'm sure that if you have more than one child and you've told them the same thing, they didn't necessarily respond in the same way.
Yes? Am I only the one with children that are like that?
Two people can receive the same information experience the same moment, even hear the same words, and still respond very differently. And that's exactly what we see in Acts 13. So, as you may remember, last week we looked at the way Paul modelled how to share the gospel. We even practised. We took time to share our own storeys with each other.
We role-played. Some of you enjoyed that more than others. But whether it felt natural or not, the truth remains that we are all called to be ready, to always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. And yet, if we're honest, what Paul models can feel a little distant from our reality, right? Because the people he was speaking to already understood his starting point, and most people around us don't.
In Acts 13, Paul is speaking to a Jewish audience whose entire lives had been shaped by the Scripture. They gathered weekly in synagogues, they knew the Law and the Prophets, they were actively expecting God to move. They were far more biblically literate than most people are today. And even for the Gentiles, Religion was everywhere— temples, sacrifices, festivals. Most people believed in multiple gods.
Spirituality wasn't debated, it was assumed.
Many were already searching for something more, and that's why you see God fearers in Acts, people already leaning toward the God of Israel. So in some ways, people were more spiritually aware, more readily engaged, than many are today.
However, before we start thinking that our task is oh so much harder than Paul had it, we need to see this clearly. Because awareness does not necessarily mean openness. Because as we're about to see, people can still resist truth. Right? In Paul's time, they were still resisting the truth.
They still argued, they still rejected what challenged them. In fact, sometimes their religious background didn't make them more open, it made them more resistant. Just think of the Pharisees. So here's the reality we're stepping into today. Even when people hear the same message, they don't necessarily respond the same way.
Some lean in, some push back, Some receive it and some resist it. And that's exactly what we see unfold in Acts 13:42-52.
So I'm gonna start by just reading the first two verses, okay, 42 and 43. As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue, the people invited them to speak further about these things on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. So as Paul and Barnabas finished speaking, something stands out. Unlike a usual Sunday morning here, not everyone was walking away to go to the snack table.
When they finished speaking, right, some people were leaning in. They were not ready to move on. They were not treating it just like another message. Instead, they moved closer. So they invite Paul and Barnabas back, they keep asking questions, they follow them after the gathering.
And Luke captures it simply by saying, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas. That's the moment. Not full understanding, not finished faith, but movement. So when people encounter the message of Jesus, it doesn't always look like everything's clicking into place. Sometimes it just looks like a pull or a nudge or a growing awareness in someone that there's more here.
And that doesn't just happen at the beginning of faith, it can happen at any point along the journey. A moment in a message, a line of scripture, a conversation that you just can't shake, where something in you says, "I need to sit with this." I need to understand this. I don't want to move on from this too quickly. And that's what's happening here. They don't have it all figured out, but they're curious, they're open, and they're drawn in.
They lean closer. And Paul meets them right there, not with pressure, but with direction. He tells them, "Continue in the grace of God." In other words, don't move past this moment too quickly. Stay with what God is doing here. And as you leave this place, keep walking and keep trusting, because the grace that draws you in is the same grace that carries you forward.
And this is often how faith actually grows, not with instant clarity, not with everything resolved, but with the simple response of leaning in. So when someone shows even the smallest sign of spiritual interest, be it a question or a conversation, a return visit, don't overlook it. That's not nothing. That's someone responding to God. That's someone leaning towards the signal.
And moments like that matter more than we think. So can you remember, any of you, a moment when you first began to lean in?
Do you remember when there was a moment when something inside you started to shift? When you found yourself— bless you— When you found yourself wanting to know more even though you couldn't fully explain why?
Do you remember a moment?
I remember my moment. I walked away having no clue. I had been forced by my daughter to go to Big People Service and listen to the message, and I was like not happy about it, but I left going, "Man, that guy really sounds like he believes what he was talking about." And so it made me go read the Bible. But I had no clue what he was talking about, but something was pulling me to find out more. So can you remember a moment like that?
Some of you probably were like yeehaw when you already knew that God was talking to you, right? So you might not remember all those years back. But for some of you, you might remember, or even a more recent moment where something shifted and you felt like leaning in again, that God's calling you into a new lair, right? Maybe you walked away from a conversation or a service or a Bible study and found yourself thinking about it long after it was over. Maybe there was a question that you couldn't let go of.
Maybe there was something stirring in your heart that you didn't have words for yet. You weren't sure exactly what was happening, but you knew you wanted to come back. You wanted to hear more, and you wanted to keep exploring. It was as though something or someone was gently drawing you closer. You don't have to have all— or you didn't have all the answers to your questions.
You didn't have everything figured out. Does anybody have that now? Have you got it all figured out? Have you got all your questions answered? OK. That's good.
I was going to say, if you do, you want to help me.
But there was this quiet invitation inside you saying, "Don't walk away. Keep listening. Come a little closer." And that's what we see happening in this passage. These people weren't at the end of their journey yet, but something had definitely happened. They had heard the message of Jesus, and they leaned in.
And that's the thing about the message of the gospel. When the signal goes out, some people will hear it and something in them will begin to open. They don't have every answer, they don't understand everything, but there's a willingness to keep on listening, to keep leaning in. But then the next part of the storey reminds us of something else. Not everyone who hears the gospel message responds with openness.
So let's zoom in on what happens next in the storey. So I'm reading verses 44 and 45 now. On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowd, they were filled with jealousy. They began to contradict what Paul was saying and heaped abuse on him.
The same message that some people received by leaning in caused others to respond by pushing back. You see, sometimes the biggest obstacle to hearing God's voice isn't that the signal is weak. Sometimes the problem is that we've already decided what it is we want to hear. And at first, this part of the narrative looks like a theological disagreement. It sounds like a debate or difference of opinion, people pushing back on Paul's message.
But Luke pulls back the curtain and shows us what's really going on. He tells us that when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy. This wasn't really about truth. It was about the heart. They saw the crowds growing, they saw their influence shifting, they felt something slipping, and instead of leaning in, they pushed back.
And I don't think I need to tell you that this isn't just something that happened out there in Acts 13. This happens here in churches today, not just between denominations, but often between— within the same church. And it can look small at first, a disagreement at a meeting or a difference in perspective, a conversation about direction. But then something shifts, and instead of "Help me understand," it becomes "No, that's not right," which then can become "Why would you think that?" And before long, just like in Acts, it stops being about the issue and starts becoming personal. And what's underneath a lot of that way of thinking.
Something we all like— control, the need to be right. I mean, nobody likes to be wrong. Not that I've experienced that, but— because if I'm right, I feel secure. I feel validated. I feel in control.
But if I'm wrong, that's that can feel like I'm losing something, or I'm being diminished, or my voice doesn't matter. So instead of receiving truth, we start defending our position. And here's the tension that this passage exposes: we can be close to truth, we can even hear it spoken to us, and we can still resist it. These were people who knew the scriptures, showed up every Sabbath, were deeply familiar with God's word, and yet when truth was right in front of them, they didn't receive it. They resisted it.
Why?
Because they had already decided where they stood. So here's a question worth asking: when I hear something that I don't agree with, what do I do first? Do I lean in and listen and stay open? Or do I tighten up, push back, and start building my counterargument? Because here's the reality: if I need to be right more than I want to grow, I'm no longer receiving, I'm resisting.
And that's not just a communication issue, that's a heart issue. Thankfully, this is where the gospel meets us. 'Cause earlier in the passage, Paul urges them to continue in the grace of God. And why does that matter here? Because grace does something powerful in us.
Grace says you don't need to prove yourself. You don't need to win every argument. You don't have to be right to be secure because in Christ you're already accepted. And when you're secure, you can listen without being defensive. You can learn without being threatened.
You can disagree without attacking. Sometimes we don't tune out because we don't understand. We tune out because we've already decided we're right. And the invitation today is simple: stay open, stay humble, stay anchored in grace. Because a humble heart doesn't just argue about truth.
It doesn't do that. It receives it. So as we come to the end of our passage, we are also coming to the final point we're gonna think about. And that is regardless of the reception, the mission moves forward. So I'm starting at verse 46.
Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly, "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles." So after seeing some people lean in and other people push back, we're given the full picture of what happens next. Paul and Barnabas respond with clarity and conviction. "Since you reject it, we now turn to the Gentiles." This is a decisive moment, but not because something's gone wrong. It's decisive because the mission is moving forward exactly as God intended.
They remind their audience, "We had to speak to you first," pointing back to God's promise to Israel. But that promise was never meant to end there. From the very beginning, God's plan was always bigger, always outward, always expanding. Then in verse 47, Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah where God had already said, "I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth." In other words, the moment isn't a shift in direction, it's confirmation. This isn't Plan B, this is fulfilment.
Long before this moment, God had already revealed that his salvation was never meant to stop with one people. Paul isn't explaining a change of plans, he's showing that the plan was always this big. So as we see, some rejected the message, they pushed it away. In fact, verse 50 tells us that the Jewish leaders incited the God-fearing women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their region.
Rejection is real. Not everyone will receive the message of Jesus, and not everyone will stay open. And sometimes rejection doesn't stay neutral, it grows. Sometimes rejection becomes resistance, and sometimes it even becomes personal.
What begins as, "I don't agree with this," can quickly become, "I don't like what this is doing in me, and I don't like you for bringing it." In other words, what may begin as a simple disinterest a change of topic, a shrug, a polite, "That's not for me, thanks anyway," can sometimes shift into something more oppositional. Why?
Because the gospel doesn't just inform us, it confronts us. It challenges our identity, it exposes our pride, it calls us to surrender. And when people feel that, the response can move from, "I disagree with what you're saying," to, "I don't want to deal with what this is revealing in me." And that's when opposition rises, not because the message is unclear, not necessarily because the messenger has failed, but because the gospel is reaching something real. And this is actually something we can take heart in, because one of the greatest fears we have when we share the good news of Jesus is is what? Rejection, right?
We worry that if someone pushes back, it means that we said the wrong thing or that we failed somehow. But this passage reminds us that rejection does not always mean the message failed. Sometimes rejection is a response to the message doing exactly what it is meant to do: bringing people face-to-face with the truth of Jesus. Now, the response may not always be what we hope for, But our responsibility is not to control the response. Our responsibility is to faithfully share the message.
Because the same gospel that causes some people to resist is the same gospel that causes others to rejoice. Which is what we see in verse 48, which says, "When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed." The exact same message that is rejected by some is received as life by others. Some hear and push it away. Others hear and come alive. And what happens when that happens?
Verse 49: "The word of the Lord spread through the whole region." Even as opposition rises, even as they are forced out, publicly rejected, influence turned against them, they don't get stuck. They don't carry it. They don't spiral. And that's something for us to notice because the word of the Lord kept spreading through the whole region. In other words, God's mission was not stopped by those who resisted it.
And if we are faithfully following his mission as his church, we can be confident of this: that even those who push back, who try to divide, who try to pull others away, they will not ultimately succeed because God's mission will continue in the way that he intends. And as we come to verse 51, it says, "So they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium." They kept going. And here's the surprising part, verse 52, "And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Joy didn't disappear because of opposition. Joy deepened because of obedience.
So as we come to the end of Acts 13, what we see is a picture of the reality of sharing the message of Jesus. In one single passage, we see every kind of response. Some were curious and leaned in, some were resistant, some were even hostile. Some rejected the message, some received it with joy. Some opposed, opposed the messengers, others believed and carried the message forward.
Same message, same moment, different responses. And that is an important truth for us to remember. Because sometimes we measure faithfulness by the response that we receive. We think if people responded positively, then we must have done something right. And if people reject it, we think, "Maybe we failed.
Maybe we said the wrong thing. Maybe we weren't convincing enough." But today we're reminded— we are reminded of something important. The mission of Jesus is not determined by how people respond. Rejection doesn't stop it. Opposition doesn't derail it.
Acceptance doesn't control it. Because God is always working beyond what we can see. Paul and Barnabas were faithful to share the message. They could not control who would receive it and who would reject it or who would oppose it, but they could remain faithful. And that's the challenge for us today, because the temptation when we face rejection is to get stuck there.
We get stuck thinking about the person who said no. We get discouraged by the people who don't seem interested. We carry the weight of responses that were never ours to carry. And this is especially true when the nos are coming from family or friends, the people that we are closest to. But God never asked us to control the response.
He asked us to faithfully carry the message. So don't get stuck where you're rejected. Don't assume no one is listening. Don't carry what God never asked you to carry. Instead, stay faithful, stay available, stay attentive to where God is already working.
Because while one person may be pushing away, someone else might be leaning in. And what I really want you to take away from today is this: the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. Their joy was not dependent on everyone accepting the message. Their joy came from knowing that they were faithful to the mission that God had given them. Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we thank you for the truth of your word and for the way that you continue to speak to us.
As we heard this message today, Help us not only to hear with our ears, but to receive with open hearts.
Where you are inviting us to lean in, give us courage to come closer. And where pride or distraction has created interference, give us humility to listen again. Where we have carried the weight of responses that belong to you, remind us that our calling is not to control the outcome, but to remain faithful to the message that you have given us.
Thank you. Thank you that your grace is not only what draws us to you, but what carries us forward.
God, prepare our hearts now as we are going to come to the table to remember you, Jesus, to receive your grace, and to be renewed in our commitment to follow where you lead. And it is in your name we pray. Amen.
