If you're able to turn to the book of Acts and follow in Acts chapter 13, that will be very helpful.
I mentioned before we read that this is part of the record of the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas recorded in the book of Acts.
And they were initially in the Mediterranean Islands in Cyprus and they left Paphos.
And when they were in these islands, Barnabas took the lead.
He was from Cyprus and probably it was natural and more comfortable for him as someone from those islands to be the first to speak and to engage with the people of Cyprus.
But when they left and went to the mainland of Asia Minor to what we would call Turkey today, Paul seemed to step up and to be the leading spokesman of that missionary team of three who arrived there.
Sadly, the team of three soon became a team of two because John Mark bailed out.
He abandoned his uncle Barnabas and his great friend Paul and went home to Jerusalem.
Later on, he would be an effective servant of Christ.
But Paul certainly had his confidence in Mark shaken by that.
But the work went on.
And so we read that they went on a Sabbath and they had two Sabbath, continuous Sabbaths in the area of Antioch in Pisidia when they were able to speak to the Jewish people and the people who were interested in their faith who gathered with the Jews in the synagogue.
So in the middle of verse 14,
Paul is the same rabbinic style.
He's like a rabbi preaching in the synagogue and he's using his body as well as his words to get attention and to speak.
And he says in the middle of verse 16,
There are lots of speeches in the book of Acts.
Sermons, we might even call them.
Or defences before kings and princes and rulers who held the lives of God's servants in their hands.
The book of Acts is a great encouragement to us in the day that we're living in.
Because we are called like Paul and Barnabas to be missionaries, to be on mission, to be those who are excited by the gospel and its power and who want to share it.
And this book of Acts is different really from all the other books in the word of God.
There's nothing quite like it in the Old Testament.
And the gospels and the letters that make up the rest of the New Testament are different again.
But Acts is a handbook on church life from the first years of the spread of the gospel.
John Calvin spoke about the value of this book to us.
And he said that this book, Acts, is the beginning of the reign of Christ and the renewal of the world.
I think that's a beautiful phrase.
The story of how God will make the world new is being told in this book of Acts.
And the story of how Jesus ascended to heaven, seated at the right hand of God, is ruling as king of nations, king of the church.
The story of the reign of King Jesus starts in the book of Acts.
He ascends in chapter 1, but he says, wait for the Spirit.
And the Spirit comes on the church in power and in the leading and empowering of the Spirit.
Mission takes place.
Thousands are saved.
Many are called to serve God as missionaries.
Peter, in the first 12 chapters, is the main leading apostle.
And most of his ministry is directed to Jerusalem and the Jewish people and Samaria.
And then from chapter 13 onwards, the shift and the focus moves.
Peter is still there, but there's more about Paul.
And Paul becomes the towering figure in the second half of the book of Acts.
And his mission breaks out beyond the Jews to Gentiles and comes to Europe.
Comes into the Roman Empire and eventually will reach our shores as well.
We can learn so much from the first steps that the Lord caused his church to take that will help us to take sensible steps in our day and generation.
So I want to answer a question this morning.
And that is, what do we have to offer?
What do we have to offer Stornoway?
What do we have to offer Lewis?
What do we have to offer Scotland in 2026?
2,000 years after the time of Paul and the apostles.
The scriptures and books like Acts tell us what we have and what we can share.
What we have to offer.
So let's look at Paul's approach, his method.
Two thoughts this morning about Paul and his offer that will maybe shape us.
And our offer to our nation today.
So the first thought this morning is that Paul's first sermon, as the leading apostle to the Gentiles,
Paul's first sermon offered facts and fulfillment.
Facts and fulfillment.
What do we have to offer?
The same as Paul.
We want content in our faith.
Content, truth in our message for our town, for our nation, for our generation.
We don't dumb things down.
We don't run away from deep truth, from things that will cause our minds to be filled with glory and worship and praise.
But we want to be stretched.
And we want our eyes and our hearts to be opened.
The synagogue rulers said to Barnabas and to Paul,
Do you have a word of exhortation?
That's in verse 15.
A paraklesis.
A word of encouragement.
The New Testament letter to the Hebrews.
The whole letter is described in Hebrews 13.2 as a word of exhortation.
A word of encouragement.
And it's kind of shorthand for what teaching and preaching and evangelism and disciple making is all about.
We take the word of God to mold and shape people.
We take the message of Jesus, the message of the word Old and New Testament,
and it is a word of strengthening.
It is a word of encouragement.
It is a word where God comes alongside you and fills you and makes you fruitful.
He is the comforter, the paraclete, the paracletos, the encouragement,
the exhortation of the word.
It's got to have content.
It's got to address the head and the heart.
It's got to fill your mind with the truth of the gospel and of Jesus,
and that will change your emotional and your will response to these truths.
If we just go for an emotional high,
if we just go for comfort,
without the content of truth like the cross and the resurrection,
people will soon run out of steam.
They will soon be running on empty.
But if our hearts are filled with the glorious word and promises of God,
the devil can do what he wants.
The devil can do his worst.
We are standing on the rock,
and God is our refuge,
and God is our strength.
The style of meeting that Paul was in in the synagogue in Antioch,
Pisidian Antioch, would be very familiar to us.
The way the Jews then worshipped was very like the simple style of Protestant and Reformed worship
that we still see practiced around the world today.
There is a call to worship.
There is a reading of the scripture.
There is a meditation and a teaching from that scripture.
There is a response in songs of praise.
There are, the Psalms were prominent in the synagogue worship,
as they ought to be prominent in our worship and in our praying as well,
shaping the heart.
The liturgy of the Bible becoming the liturgy of the heart.
There is confession of sin,
and there is the sense that sin is being declared forgiven
by the gospel being preached.
That feels familiar to us, doesn't it?
Well, let's never go away from that.
Let's never replace that.
The ordinary means of grace.
The gathering of God's people on the Lord's Day.
The sacraments.
What a blessing they are supposed to be to us as we approach them by faith.
Gatherings for prayer.
Times to encourage one another.
The paraklesis.
The exhortation.
The encouragement.
When the word gets dug into our hearts.
The way we dig our gardens and we feed our plants.
We do that spiritually.
When we open the Bible,
we let it speak.
And we understand its message.
And how did Paul go about this in Antioch of Pisidia?
Well, he gave them fact after fact after fact.
Content.
Information.
He explained the history of salvation.
What God did through the centuries for Israel.
And in this, he's actually copying the approach that the apostles took.
In the first half of the book of Acts,
Peter did the same on the day of Pentecost.
Peter quoted the same Psalms and the same prophecies
that Paul would be quoting to his audience a decade or two later.
And whether they were speaking to Jews who knew the scriptures,
or whether they were building a bridge to non-Jews, Gentiles,
who had very little awareness of the scripture.
The facts were the same.
The doctrine was the same.
The creator who has worked in redeeming, rescuing, saving.
The God of the Exodus.
The God of the monarchy under David.
The God of the promise to David that there would always be a king on David's throne.
These are the things that Peter stressed, that Paul stressed,
and that we today need to be aware of.
We need to have the same approach.
Stephen, in Acts 7, got martyred for giving a speech
to those who took up stones and killed him.
But it's the same.
It's the history of salvation.
It's facts.
Who is God?
What has God done?
And then drawing conclusions that lead people,
challenge people to repent and to believe the gospel.
So we've got facts, but we've also got fulfillment.
We've got information, content.
This is what God has done.
But one of the things the early church was very aware of
was that the story of salvation
is a story that proves the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God.
that God spoke in Isaiah.
That God spoke in the book of Psalms, in the second Psalm, in Psalm 16.
And then God fulfilled what he said.
The promise was fulfilled.
So facts and prophecy fulfilled.
I wonder if you like that kind of teaching
and if you like that kind of preaching
that is rich in Scripture
and making connections between Old and New Testament
and showing you Jesus from all the Scripture.
The New Testament scholar Don Carson
summed up the life of the early church like this.
He said,
Above all, they preach Jesus,
Jesus crucified and risen,
Jesus who pours out his spirit,
Jesus who inaugurates the kingdom,
Jesus who's drawing in Jews and Gentiles alike,
Jesus who's transforming men and women,
Jesus who's anticipating his own return,
Jesus who is already ascended to glory
and who will come again.
He is the man who is God,
who was promised,
and he has come,
and crucially,
he is an answer to death.
He has been raised from the dead.
So our first thought in looking at this passage
is what do we have to offer Scotland?
What do we have to offer our generation?
We offer facts and fulfillment,
the truth of the gospel
and the fulfillment of prophecy.
But the second thing that Paul's first sermon
in Pisidian Antioch offered
and that we have to offer
is resurrection hope through Jesus.
A huge amount of the New Testament teaching
is future focused.
It's focused on the return of Jesus.
It's focused on the resurrection of the body.
And it grounds all of this
in the historical fact
that Jesus uniquely
has been raised from the dead.
Jesus is not just another rabbi.
He's not just another teacher.
He is the one
who has been raised from the dead.
And so as Paul speaks to the people
in the synagogue,
he says in verse 28 and 29,
though they found in him
no guilt worthy of death,
they asked Pilate to have him executed.
And when they'd carried out
all that was written of him,
they took him down from the tree,
the tree of curse,
and they laid him in a tomb.
Verse 30,
but God raised him from the dead.
He appeared to many.
The witnesses are speaking about it.
Verse 32,
we bring you the good news,
the gospel,
that what God promised to the fathers,
this he has fulfilled to us
in their children by raising Jesus.
And he quotes Psalm 2
and Psalm 6,
Isaiah 55
and Psalm 16,
you will not let your Holy One
see corruption.
The resurrection
is a huge deal
for Paul
and for the early church.
And I think
when he went to Gentile groups
in Athens
and in other places,
he had the same basic message,
same basic approach,
whether people knew
the storyline of the Old Testament
or not,
he would speak about
Jesus,
his death
and resurrection.
And so often,
the resurrection hope
was
where people parted
and where people said,
we can't accept that,
we don't believe that,
we don't want to hear this.
It seemed
too incredible
to them.
let me tell you
a little bit
about my
recent ministry
in Inverness
and I hope
it will encourage you.
One of the
opportunities
that I have
is to get into
one of the local
high schools,
the academy
at Milburn.
It's a good school
and it's a really
interesting group
of staff
and of
young people.
and yet
most of them
have no connection
with a gospel church.
So there are
limited ways
to get involvement,
occasional assemblies,
a hot chocolate club
at lunchtime
that chaplains
go and run
maybe at Christmas
or at Easter
that might run
a little video
or something
that we put together
that's shown
in the morning
assembly times,
but it's pretty limited.
But occasionally,
I'll get asked
to meet
the first year pupils,
go into their
classrooms,
spend a period
or two
just answering
questions.
I have to tell you,
I'm amazed
at the questions
young people
have.
2025,
2026,
they're not
really asking
about political
stuff.
They're not
asking about
woke stuff.
They're not
asking about
gender ID
stuff.
The young people
are asking,
why are you
a Christian?
Why are you
a minister?
Is there
a heaven?
What happens
when you die?
What is a soul?
What's life
for?
these are
the right
questions
and they
are the
questions
that people
have always
been asking
and they
are the
questions
that the
gospel
answers
and I
suspect
that they
are the
questions
that the
vast majority
of people
that you
know
are asking.
are we
spending
enough time
in the
Bible
and in
prayer
to know
the answer
and be
able to
give a
reason for
the hope
that is
in us?
Are we
spending
enough time
with people
who are
not yet
Christians
so that
they trust
us and
know us
and will
want to
come with
their
question?
That's a
school and
that's a
cohort of
young people.
I wouldn't
say that
they're
necessarily
unique or
unusual but
I find it
so encouraging.
But I
also could
tell you
story after
story of
people in
their
twenties who
walk in
the door of
a city
centre church
full of
questions.
And they're
not people
often who've
grown up
with a
Christian
faith.
They're
often people
who have
grown up
with
atheist
parents and
atheist
grandparents
and they've
gone through
a secular
education that
did not
offer them
any spiritual
challenge or
information at
all.
And yet
they've
arrived at
18,
they've
arrived at
20,
22,
24,
and they're
saying,
what's the
point of
life?
What
explains
beauty?
What
explains the
variety of
life and
beauty?
Isn't there
a bigger
story?
Isn't there
a deeper
purpose?
And they're
going online
and they're
going to
YouTube and
they're going
to websites
and they're
going on
TikTok and
sometimes they
don't find
rubbish
answers.
By the
grace of
God,
they find a
Christian
answer.
They find
something that
points them to
the Bible.
So they go to
Amazon and
they buy a
Bible and
they say,
let me find
a church.
That's
happening in
France.
It's
happening in
Portugal.
It's
happening in
Spain.
It's
happening in
England.
It's
happening in
Scotland.
It's
happening in
Canada.
It's
amazing.
Are we
praying that
people who
are one or
two or
three generations
away from
the gospel
would be as
open as
many were
in the
book of
Acts?
To at
least hear
about the
resurrection.
To at
least hear
that there
is a
savior and
that we
need a
savior.
That the
universe has
a purpose
and that
there is
a king.
Has this
got through
to your
heart?
I don't
assume that
everybody here
in Kenneth
Street is a
Christian.
I hope
there are
many who
are not
Christians who
are here in
this gathering.
But I hope
the fact that
you're here is
not just to
please a
relative or
a spouse,
but that
you're here
because you
look for
truth and
you look
for meaning.
You will
find it in
Jesus Christ.
Christ.
Paul might
not have
been an
easy man.
He lived
through much
suffering.
He lived
through beatings
and shipwrecks
and all kinds
of things that
might have
made him
cynical about
people or
hardened, but
it didn't
because the
Lord Jesus
showed him
when he was
converted
all that
was ahead
of him
and all
that he
must suffer.
But his
calling
was go
and be
my witness.
Jesus does
the saving.
Paul's job,
go and be
my witness.
That's my
job.
That's your
job.
That's the
job of the
Christian church.
Go and be
my witness.
go and
say,
there's an
answer to
death.
There's an
answer to
the meaning
of life.
We have a
faith in
Jesus Christ
that is quite
different from
all other
belief systems,
quite different
from all
other faiths.
If you
have Muslim
friends,
and I hope
you do,
and I hope
you're a good
friend to
them,
at some
point,
ask them
what they
believe,
and maybe
they'll ask
you what
you believe.
The
fundamental
difference
between the
Christian faith
and perversions
of Christianity
and distortions
of Christianity
in the sects
or whatever,
and the
fundamental
difference
between
Christianity
and Islam
are the
facts
that we
believe,
the
fulfillment
in Jesus
that we
believe,
and crucially,
the story
of the
death and
resurrection
of Jesus.
Islam
denies that
Jesus died
on the cross.
Do you know
that?
Islam says
that God
would never
allow a
true prophet
of God
to suffer
death by
crucifixion.
well,
the facts,
Old and
New Testament,
predict it,
and it is
fulfilled in
history,
and there
is no
salvation
for the
world
unless a
good and
perfect man,
a new
Adam,
suffers and
dies in the
place of
imperfect
men and
women,
and leads
a new
humanity,
back to
the tree
of life,
back to
relationship
with God,
back from
death to
life.
That's
Jesus.
Islam says,
no, no,
he didn't
die,
there's no
death,
there's no
resurrection,
he's just
a prophet.
Jesus is
not just
a prophet,
he's God
in the
flesh,
who died
and defeated
death,
who died
and rose
again.
Other
religions
will tell
you,
go and
be a
better
human,
go and
be a
more loving
human,
go and
be nice,
go and
be forgiving,
go and
be kind.
Well,
how are you
going to
do that?
Because all
the religions
of the world
that tell
you to be
kind and
nice,
they don't
give you
the power,
they don't
give you
the ability
to be a
better human.
But if you
are joined
by faith
to Jesus,
he has
defeated
sin,
he has
defeated
lies,
he has
defeated
death,
and he
lives inside
of his
people.
Don't
make the
mistake of
John Mark,
who left
the battlefield,
left the
mission field,
and just
went home
to comfort.
Later,
John Mark,
thank God,
came back
to the
battle,
came back
to the
mission field,
was restored.
Paul found
him useful
later on.
But look
at the
world,
the way
Paul looked
at the
world.
This
world
belongs
to Jesus.
Let's
go and
get it
for him.
this
town,
this
island,
has a
great need.
Will they
hear from
me and
you and
from the
people of
God in
this
island,
how much
God has
done in
history,
in salvation
history,
and how
much he is
doing
still.
Verse 30,
God raised
him from
the dead.
You're
going to
know lots
of
hurting,
sad,
broken
folk
in the
year that's
ahead.
At some
point,
we have
to go
beyond just
being a
nice
neighbor,
asking how
you're
doing.
If you've
got a
hope that
has an
answer to
death,
you want
to share
that,
and you
want other
people to
have the
hope that
you have.
The great
evangelist
Billy Graham
was around
when the
space program
was getting
going,
and satellites
were getting
launched,
and for the
first time
in the
50s and
in the
60s,
photographs
were being
published in
newspapers and
on television
of the
whole globe
photographed
from space
for the
first time.
Billy Graham
was asked
what he
made of
it all,
these photos
of the
world,
and his
answer then
is one
that is
very attractive.
He said,
when I see
these pictures
of the
earth,
sitting in
the heavens,
I want to
reach out
and grab
the world
for God.
Have we
lost that?
Have we
lost that
sense that
this earth
belongs to
Christ,
that the
nations
belong to
him,
the Psalm
2,
vision of
reality,
the Psalm
16,
vision of
reality.
This is
my Father's
world.
This is
my Saviour's
world.
I want to
grab it
for him
so that
he will
get the
glory.
What do
we have to
offer Scotland?
Why are we
planting churches
in the borders
for the first
time in a
hundred years?
churches?
Why are we
wanting to
return to
the inner
Hebrides that
we've left?
Why are we
wanting to
return to the
Clyde Islands
that we've
left?
Why are we
wanting to
have strong
churches in
the towns
of Fife
or of
Clackmanonshire
or Stirlingshire
or the
Central
Belt,
the East
Coast?
Why go
back to the
northern counties,
Caithness and
Sutherland,
where there's
been just a
decimation of
the gospel?
Why?
Because
souls are
precious
and Christ
gave us
all for
them.
What do we
have to
offer
Scotland?
Facts,
truth,
sweet
doctrine,
fulfillment,
and
resurrection,
life,
and hope.
There's
nothing else
that will
change our
land.
Change a
government in
May might
make things
better,
might make
things worse,
but it
won't save
the nation.
A
revolution
in Iran
or a
revolution
anywhere else
on the face
of the earth
will change
some things
but it
won't change
the
fundamental.
But the
gospel,
Jesus
says,
Acts 1,
8,
you shall
be my
witnesses
in Jerusalem
and in
Judea
and to
the ends
of the
earth.
It's
still the
same.
We are
sent,
we are
on mission
and it's
glorious.
May the
Lord help
you here
in Stornoway
Free Church
and your
sister
congregations
in the
town and
in the
island
to see
the
Lamb of
God
praised,
worshipped,
adored,
followed
and may
this be a
year of
good things
and of
blessing.
Lord,
receive our
thanks for
this passage
and grant
that it may
be an
encouragement
to us
to pray
big prayers,
mighty
requests
to the
great God
of heaven
who can
only do
great things.
We ask
for our
nation
to be
gifted
to Jesus.
We ask
for this
community
and island
to be
gifted
to Jesus
as his
reward.
We ask
that many
will come
to know
and love
and fear
the Lord
in this
generation.
We especially
remember the
young
and those
who have
questions
but yet
have not
received an
answer.
Show us
how
to be
quick
and ready
and clear
with the
answer that
is in
Jesus.
And if
anyone here
today
has come
to find
the answer
in recent
days,
strengthen
them
to go
forward in
a life of
discipleship
and to
commit
themselves
fully
to the
Lord.
We pray
in Jesus'
name.
Amen.
Our closing
praise this
morning is
from the
Sing Psalms
version of
Psalm 96,
a great
psalm of
praise and
worship and
thanksgiving.
Psalm 96
from verse
7 to the
end,
the vision
of the
world
belonging
to the
Lord who
is its
king.
The tune
is our
guile,
Psalm 96
in
version
A from
verse 7,
all nations
to the
Lord as
cry,
the glory
that is
due.
We stand
and sing.
All
nations
to
the
Lord
as
cry,
the
glory
that
is
due.
Glory
and
strength
ascribe
to
God
and
praise
his
name
and
you.
A
durnish
course
with
joy
and
ring
and
offer
him
with
you.
Worship
the
Lord
in
holy
clear
all
earth
he
poured
in
power.
!
Tell
every
land
the
Lord
is
king,
established
in
the
earth
And
God
man
of
good
the
Lord
will
judge
the
people
The
sing
his
truth!
Let
him
rejoice
On
earth
be glad!
with
joy
let
oceans
ring
The
fields
and
all
in
them
will
shout
At
water's
trees
will
sing
The
all
will
sing
before
the
Lord
Who
comes
to
judge
the
earth
He
will
judge
the
world
in
righteousness
The
people
sing
The
people
sing
His
truth
Receive
God's
blessing
Lord
you are
our
king
hold
us
in the
hollow
of your
hand
and send
your
blessing
upon us
and all
whom we
love
the
grace
of the
Lord
Jesus
Christ
the
love
of God
the
Father
and the
communion
and
fellowship
of the
Holy
Spirit
the
Comforter
rest
on
you
and
on
all
God's
people
everywhere
today
and
forever
Amen
God