Let's pray. You have been faithful to us all our life long. You have brought us to this moment. We are here by your

design and no one is here or watching by accident. And so I pray, Father, that you would pour out your

Holy Spirit and by your word would awaken dead sinners, awaken slumbering saints, strengthen and unify your church, and grant that more needs would be met in this hour than I could dream.

Take the five loaves and two fish of this message I pray and make it feed 5,000.

That is, make it go beyond anything humanly possible.

In the accomplishing of your saving, strengthening, empowering purposes.

I ask this in Jesus name, amen.

So you can see the title of this message is Bethlehem's Antioch moment.

It's a break from our journey through the Gospel of John. And the reason for the break

is that every now and then a church comes to an Antioch moment that needs to be addressed.

And I take the term, as you can see from the text in Acts13 one to three. The leaders are gathered together and they are

worshiping and they are fasting and praying, evidently in the hope that the Holy Spirit would speak and give

them guidance for the next chapter in the church's life.

So the church in Antioch had come to a point in its short history

where they needed to know what next Lord and they worshipped and they fasted and God spoke and I doubt that they realized what would happen as they gathered for prayer, that they

realized the momentous event that was about to occur.

It was an event that would change the whole world forever. What the Holy Spirit said

here changed the world forever. Now we'll come back to the text in a few moments but let me

explain to you what I mean by Bethlehem's Antioch moment so so you'll know, why is he doing this?

Where's this sermon coming from?

Why interrupt John in order to do this.

Bethlehem will be 140 years old this June.

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