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Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.

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Welcome to Come On Up, the radio ministry of the Mountain Cross in Waynesville, North Carolina.

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Laudable, he's praisable, he's a good guy, he's a got a good name, and yet he's been paralyzed for eight years. And normally what you would think is obviously he's been cursed of God and he's a bad guy because he's been down for eight years. But the grace of God breaks through all that and says, No, you're laudable because I've chosen you, and you're a believer, and now I want you to be healed and be alive again.

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The saying goes, treasure is found in the eyes of the beholder. So often, something that someone finds as trash, another person will come and find value in. Today, Pastor Carl says, you have value because Christ puts value in you. Even when the enemy lies to you and says you're worthless, God cherishes you because you're his child. The next time the enemy tries to tell you you're meaningless, remind yourself that the God who has power over all, including your enemies, chose you and values you. And now, here's Pastor Carl.

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Because of his cross, we were brought into this family and were made his. So that similar call that Paul had is the same call that every believer really has. You are different now. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a part of his family. You're chosen, and you've got an important job to do because your eyes have been opened. Now, verse 17, and Ananias went his way and entered the house, and laying on his hands on him, he said, Brother Saul, let me stop right there. So Ananias, he heard from the Lord, and obviously it was enough for him, and he went, he obeyed. And he wasn't like Jonah. He wasn't like Jonah that went to Nineveh and declared, Y'all are gonna die in 40 days, and then went up on the mountain to watch God kill him because he didn't like them. And when they repented and turned to the Lord, he got mad about it. No, Ananias realized God has really done a work in Saul. God said he's changed Saul, God said he's called Saul, and now he's calling me to lay hands on him. And so the first thing he says when he sees Saul is call him brother. Brother Saul. You're part of the family. I acknowledge it. Isn't God amazing? The last person that I thought would get saved has been saved. Praise God. And he laid his hands on him. He said, Brother, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you might receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Saul God had a conversation with me, and he told me about the conversation he had with you, the conversation that you haven't told anybody. Saul, this God is real. Jesus is real. The guy that you were persecuting, you're now gonna serve. So are you ready to see? And are you ready to be empowered to go forth and to proclaim this gospel message? And verse 18 immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, fish scales. I always think about that, and it's like, ooh, this is gross. And he received his sight at once, and he arose and was baptized. The things that keep us from seeing the Lord are gross, aren't they? The things of this world, our sin, our addictions, our desires, they blind us. And the Lord wants those to fall away. So all we see is Jesus. And he received his sight, and he arose and was baptized. Saul immediately believed, he immediately received, and he immediately went out and declared by being baptized what had happened. If you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, then you will be saved. He believed it and he confessed it by going out and getting baptized. He was obedient right away. So when he had received food, he was strengthened, and Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Now, when we read one of Paul's letters to the Galatians, he explains that there was a little more involved with this because there was a little time that he spent away from the disciples before he came and met with them. Let me share that with you. Galatians chapter 1, beginning at verse 15. But when it pleased God, Saul acknowledges the sovereignty of God in God's perfect timing. When it was God's pleasure to do this work, God, who separated me from my mother's womb, he acknowledges God as the author of life and called me through his grace. He acknowledged it wasn't about anything that he'd done. Actually, the things that he was doing was working against the Lord instead of for the Lord. But through his grace, he was called. And he was called in order to reveal his son in me that I might preach him to the Gentiles. God had a purpose. And God called him, God changed him, and Saul responded obediently. But I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood. So he's saying, I was confronted on the road to Damascus, and Ananias came and prayed for me, and my eyes were opened, I received the Holy Spirit, I was baptized. But before I started to join the church and talk about the things of God and learn from them the things that they have been learned, that they have learned from the Lord, I went off and went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus after that. So there was a period of time where he left Damascus, Damascus and went out into the wilderness of Arabia to Petria, the lost city of Petra is out there too, which is an interesting study. You should take some time to look into that. But he spent some time in there to be alone with the Lord, to hear from the Lord, to learn from the Lord. And then he went and he spent some time with the church in Damascus. And when he went, what did he do? In verse 20, immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. He went out there and said, You know, the one that I've been persecuting? He straightened me out. He's actually the Messiah. He's the Christ that we've been waiting for. And he gave me eyes to bring alive all these scriptures that I've known since I was a kid, and now I know that it's all about Jesus. Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not he who destroyed those who called on his name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose, so that he might bring them bound to the chief priests? Isn't this the bad guy that we've been worrying about that he would come and mess up the church and kill a lot of us? But he was changed, wasn't he? Verse 22, but Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this Jesus is the Christ. There were still a heavy Jewish population there. Of course, at this point, the church is all comprised of Jews that have come to faith in Jesus Christ. And in that area there were synagogues, and there were many Jews, many Pharisee Jews, because that's the area that he grew up in, and that's the kind of that's where he grew up in church, quote unquote, in the synagogue there. And yet he could now go because he understood their background, and he could also preach to the Jews that were more Hellenistic, more freegoing, more loving life and the things of this world. He could preach to them as well and tell them that Jesus is the one that brings abundant life. He's the one that will bring you on great adventures and make beautiful things. You can make beautiful art for the Lord. And so he was able to confound them because they had never heard teaching like this before, because the Lord had shown him how all these dots, how all these pieces fit together from the Old Testament. And so he was encouraging the church and people were growing in faith, but he was also irritating the religious Jews there. And that got him into a little bit of trouble. Now in verse 23, now after many days were passed, the Jews plotted to kill him. The same thing that he was planning to do to the believers is now being turned on him. He's become one of them. And we got to get rid of him. But their plot became known to Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. So he kind of had to hide out for a little while, and if he tried to sneak out by the gates, because these cities in that time had large walls around them to protect them from enemies from without and to keep those enemies from escaping if they're in the city like this. So they wait at the gates because they were real tall walls. You can't just jump off a wall and run away because you're going to break a leg or maybe just kill yourself because it's such a long fall. And so normally that's the way you get out by the gate, and they were waiting, and they'd find him and they would uh take care of him if he were to go and leave the city. But in verse 25, the disciples took him by night and led him down through the wall in a large basket. They got really creative. And they said, All right, Paul, here's the deal. There's Saul at the at this point still. We're gonna let you out. And you're gonna be let down in this basket in between the gates, so they're not looking. You go silently and get out of here because they're fixing to kill you. But God has a lot of work for you to do. And so at that point, he headed down to Jerusalem. And when Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were afraid of him and did not believe that he was the disciple. Can you blame them? These were the leaders of the church, these were the ones that were that saw what he did, and the church was scattered because of what he was doing to the church. And it's like, there's no way somebody like this can be changed. But Barnabas took them and brought them to the disciples. Now, Barnabas, you remember who he was? He was one of the guys in Acts 4 that uh was a Levite from Cyrus, and uh he came and joined the way. He believed in Jesus and he joined what they were doing, the the Christians in in Jerusalem there. His original name is Joseph, and Barnabas itself is a nickname they gave him. The son of consolation is what that means. He's the encourager, he's the one that says, Hey, can't we work this out? Or can't we look look, God has really done a work in this. Do we not believe the gospel? Did you know the Lord? And you Peter, Peter, come on, Peter. You denied him three times and he forgave you three times. Don't you remember that? Don't you think that he could change Saul and bring him around? And in some other accounts, we see that Barnabas took Saul to meet Peter and John first. And Peter and John were convinced that God actually did a work in Saul. And then they introduced them to the rest of the gang, and then he was welcomed in. So Barnabas, when he we went and talked to Peter and John, he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, how Saul had seen the Lord on the road, and that the Lord had spoken to Saul, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. Look, he was really changed. The Lord has done a work in Saul's life. Look at him. He went out and he heard from the Lord after this, and he came back, and he was preaching boldly, not only at the church, but in the synagogues as well, declaring that Jesus is the Christ. And so, um, verse 28, so he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. So they they did welcome him. They probably were watching him a little closely to make sure. But isn't that amazing? Aren't you encouraged when you see somebody that you think, how in the world is that person ever gonna come in? There's no way he's such an enemy of God, he hates God, and then one day everything changes. Have you met somebody like that? God is real, he changes us from the inside out. Verse 29, and he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him. Now, he was speaking against this Grecian culture, not as much as, you know, it's wrong to believe this way, you have to believe the legalistic way, but more in your life is in Christ. It's not about, you know, fulfilling the flesh in this world. Arts are great, and all these things that we do are great if they are founded in a relationship with the Lord, if they're an outpouring of what the Lord has done in your life and changed you from the inside out. If you are changed by Jesus Christ, it's a whole new beginning. It's a whole new adventure. And he was arguing with them, and they were saying, Who are you to judge me? Because we're just living life. We love God, we do all these things, it's great. And verse 30, when the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him out to Tarsus. So what was happening was not only was he upsetting the Pharisees, but now he was upsetting the Hellenists, and they're getting ready to kill him. And the disciples were saying, you know, uh maybe it's time that you leave here. So from Jerusalem he went up to Caesarea, which happens to be a natural port, a natural harbor for ships, and that's where they did a lot of their trading from. And he took a ship all the way back home to Tarsus. And that's the last that we hear from Paul for this chapter. Next, we focus in on some of the things that Peter was called to do. But during this time there was a time of peace that they hadn't realized for a while. Verse 31. So the churches throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. And wouldn't it be great if that is what we are known by? This Calvary chapel walk in the fear of the Lord in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. May that be said of us. Amen. Verse thirty-two. Now it came to pass as Peter went through all the parts of the country that he also came down to the saints that dwell in Lida. And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed. Then he arose immediately, so that all who dwelt in Lida and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. So this is a journey of Peter. And he starts in Jerusalem and goes over to Lida. And in a couple verses we'll learn about Joppa here. And he hadn't gone very far when he's already doing some amazing work in healing a fellow named Annas, whose name is Laudable. Laudable. He's praisable. He's a good guy. And yet he's been paralyzed for eight years. And normally what you would think is obviously he's been cursed of God and he's a bad guy because he's been down for eight years. But the grace of God breaks through all that and says, No, you're laudable because I've chosen you and you're a believer, and now I want you to be healed and be alive again. The word for Lida, the city, means strife. There was strife there, a conflict. Anis, Aeneas, does he deserve to be healed? His name is Laudable. But he's not laudable on his own, is he? He's laudable because he believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He believed in Jesus Christ. Are you or am I worthy of anything good that God does for us? And the answer is no. We're all born into sin. We are all born with tarnished names. We're not laudable. But God in his grace and his mercy has given us a good name, the best name, followers of Jesus Christ. You have the name of Jesus. If you have become a believer in Jesus Christ, you have the name of God written on your heart, and you are laudable, and you are healed, and you can bring healing to those areas that are filled with strife. Verse 36. At Joppa there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which is translated Dorcas. Both of those names, Tabitha and Dorcas, means Gazelle. So do a study on Gazelle and find out why she's named that. This woman was full of good works and charitable deeds, which she did. But it happened in those days that she became sick and died. And when they washed her, they laid her in an upper room. And since Lida was near Joppa, and the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, imploring him not to delay in coming to them. So they asked him to come from this town that means strife to Joppa, the town that means beautiful. And beautiful things were happening in Joppa. And this servant of God, Tabitha or Dorcas, she was beautiful, and she served people, and she was a great example, and yet she died. And Peter was encouraged to come to them and pray for her. Verse 39, and Peter arose and went to them, and when he had come, they brought him to the upper room, and all the widows stood by him weeping, showing their tunics and the garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them. She was a seamstress as well, and she used these things probably to bless other people. But verse 40, Peter put them all out, and he knelt down and prayed. It doesn't say what he prayed, but he probably was something of, Lord, what is your will in this situation? What do you want to do? And the Lord gave him an insight. He says, I want to heal her. And I want you to be a part of this. So tell her to get up. And in turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up. Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up. And when he had called the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And it became known throughout Joppa that many believed, and many believed on the Lord. So that opened the door of opportunity again for Peter to stay there for a while and to preach and declare and to pray with people, declaring that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Jesus Christ is the Messiah that we've been waiting for. Suppumbed faith in him. And they were encouraged. And in verse 43, we'll wrap up with this. So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner. Peter, whose name is Simon, hung out with Simon for a while. And I don't know if it was like, hey, I like your name. Can I stay with you for a while? He was probably invited to stay. But it's interesting here though. What does a tanner do? A tanner makes leather. And what is leather made out of? Animal skins. And where do animal skins come from? Dead animals. Now, dead animals, um, they stink. It's kind of gross to see the slaughtering and the rest of the bodies that are thrown off to the side. And it very well could be that they were unclean the way they were doing this. And so if you're a follower of the law, you wouldn't want to be a part of what this tanner was doing. And yet Peter willingly and happily went to go stay with Simon the Tanner, who may have, before he came to the Lord, been rejected by the synagogue because of what he did. But now he's accepted in Jesus Christ. And one of the big leaders in the church, Peter, is staying with him in his house and acknowledging that you know, you know Jesus, you're a brother of mine, which sets up next week for us. idea that Jesus changes everything and it changes our perspective on how to deal with people how to accept people and so forth. So you need to come back for Acts chapter 10 next week. So there we go. The adventure continues and the Lord has a a lot ahead for us as we continue the study of God's Word. Father we thank you that you and accomplish the impossible through Jesus Christ. The gospel really does free us from sin and death. It really does free us from faulty thinking. It changes the way we think and approach things it causes us to be able to seek after you and to have a relationship with you to have a conversation with you to learn from you. And you've given us your word so that we could hear your voice and be changed. Lord it's amazing and I know there's so much more in here that you wish to teach us. Lord as we as we seek you may we find you more and more may you change us from the inside out and more and more will you lift the blinders off of our spiritual eyes. Lord we acknowledge that as believers in Jesus Christ we were once blind but now we see and yet as Paul later says in one of his uh one of his epistles we we see through a mirror dimly there's still so much more for us to see it's like looking through a fog now but when we see you face to face we'll be as you are and we'll know you and we'll we'll glorify you with with all that we have because you gave us all that we have you've changed us you've made us new Lord help us to to grow in this wonderful mystery this amazing grace we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name amen that's Pastor Carl of the Mountain Cross on Come On Up.

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We're currently in the book of Acts which was written by Luke who came to know and follow Jesus through the Apostle Paul Luke was a physician a Gentile and had never even met Jesus Jesus' followers came from all walks of life rich, poor educated illiterate men, women, old, young Jesus is for everyone. Why else would his original twelve disciples be a hodgepodge group of fishermen, a tax collector, a religious zealot, brothers who were known to rage, and Thomas, who we only know for his moment of doubt. That means Jesus is for you too. He came to earth to save whosoever would believe in the gospel. Christ died for sinners, was buried and rose again. Do you believe? Learn more about God's amazing grace by clicking on how to know God when you visit themountaincross.com. If you're local to Western North Carolina, we'd love to meet you in person and continue this discussion about the good news of Jesus Christ. We meet Sundays 10 a.m at the Smoky Mountain Cinema in Waynesville. Quickly we'd also like to invite you to Faith Film Night featuring faith-based films on the first Monday of the month. Learn more on our Facebook page, Faith Film Night. If you enjoy Come On Up, would you consider making a gift to help us continue? Simply visit themountaincross.com slash donate. Thank you. Come on up to the mountain with us again next time as we seek to learn more from the Lord through his word. Come on up is sponsored by the Mountain Cross, a Calvary Chapel fellowship