Words must come with real and visible power to transform. Words of God do that when the believers of Jesus carry the power of the words and the Holy Spirit into the harvest. In Acts 13-14 (quoted from Holy Bible NLT version in parts here) Paul and Barnabas demonstrated this truth. I shall quote only the parts wherein Paul preached a powerful sermon in Antioch of Pisidia (in today’s Turkey).
Acts 13:30-38
30 But God raised him from the dead! 31 And over a period of many days he appeared to those who had gone with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to the people of Israel.
32 “And now we are here to bring you this Good News. The promise was made to our ancestors, 33 and God has now fulfilled it for us, their descendants, by raising Jesus. This is what the second psalm says about Jesus:
‘You are my Son.
Today I have become your Father.[a]’
34 For God had promised to raise him from the dead, not leaving him to rot in the grave. He said, ‘I will give you the sacred blessings I promised to David.’[b] 35 Another psalm explains it more fully: ‘You will not allow your Holy One to rot in the grave.’[c] 36 This is not a reference to David, for after David had done the will of God in his own generation, he died and was buried with his ancestors, and his body decayed. 37 No, it was a reference to someone else—someone whom God raised and whose body did not decay.
38 [d]“Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins.
Footnotes:
13:33 Or Today I reveal you as my Son. Ps 2:7.
13:34 Isa 55:3.
13:35 Ps 16:10.
13:38 English translations divide verses 38 and 39 in various ways.
Acts 13:46-52
46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. 47 For the Lord gave us this command when he said,
‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles,
to bring salvation to the farthest corners of the earth.’[a]”
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who were chosen for eternal life became believers. 49 So the Lord’s message spread throughout that region.
50 Then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. 51 So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium. 52 And the believers[b] were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Footnotes:
13:47 Isa 49:6.
13:52 Greek the disciples.
Acts 14:1-4
Paul and Barnabas in Iconium
14 The same thing happened in Iconium.[a] Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. 2 Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. 3 But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4 But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.
Footnotes:
14:1 Iconium, as well as Lystra and Derbe (14:6), were towns in what is now Turkey.
