The Acts of the Apostles 57

Subtitle: Following up with Jesus

Acts 14:21-28.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 1, 2023.

Today we will see Paul and Barnabas finish their first missionary trip, which went to the island of Cyprus and then central Asia Minor (current Turkey).

Luke doesn't give us a sense of how long they took on this whole journey, but the overall timeline of Acts would put it around the magnitude of around a year.

The whole emphasis of sharing the Gospel with Gentiles as well as Jews is something that blossomed in Syrian Antioch.  Yet, another persuasion was also blossoming in Judea.  This persuasion would eventually become the source of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.  Paul and Barnabas did not teach Gentiles that they had to obey the Law of Moses in order to follow Jesus.  However, some groups from Judea believed that Gentiles had to be circumcised and taught to keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved.

That will be our topic next week.  For now, let's look at our passage.

The Gospel is preached in Derbe (v. 21)

Verse 20 ends with Paul and Barnabas leaving Lystra (where Paul had been stoned and left for dead) and going to a town called Derbe, which was approximately 65 miles east of Lystra.

In verse 21, we are told that they preached the Gospel to the city.  We are told very little about this, and can assume that they would have preached at a synagogue first, if there was one in the town.  Regardless, the reference to "the city" implies more than preaching in a synagogue.

It would be interesting to know when the Gospel first made it to each city or region in the world.  Many places that are extremely godless now have had great moves of revival in the past.  Derbe itself is now a region controlled by an Islamist State and dominated by Muslims.  You would not know that the apostles Paul and Barnabas had seen a great move of God there.

We are told that they made many disciples.  There is no mention of resistance, but it seems unlikely that everyone in town believed.  In light of the prior stoning in Lystra, we can say they only had normal resistance.  We should also note that there is no sense of Jews and people of the cities that they had visited following them.  More than likely, they believe Paul to be dead and will not find out until much later that he survived.

We should pause on the word disciple for a minute.  It is not enough to give intellectual assent to who Jesus is.  True belief will be seen in a person becoming a disciple, a student, of Jesus.  It is good to believe the report about Jesus, but this information is meant to transform your life.  You are now a student of Jesus.  You may be out of your studying years, and tell yourself that you don't read books.  However, when a person (even a non-reader) comes to believe on Jesus, they will want to know everything they can about him.  This means reading the Bible.  In the case of Derbe, there may have been only one copy of the Scriptures in town.  Thus, it would be important to gather together and read the Scriptures so that all could benefit from God's Word and learn about Jesus.  It is time to stop being a man-child who pursues his flesh and begin stepping into the maturity of seeking the truth about Jesus.

However, discipleship is more than knowledge.  It is essentially about relationship.  By the Spirit of God dwelling within us, we can develop a relationship with Jesus through prayer and the Word.  We also are in relationship with the Church of Jesus, and we benefit from those who have come in before us who are further along in their maturity and discipleship.

Discipleship is a life-long journey of growing in our knowledge and experience of becoming like Jesus, and learning to do his will.  There are ups and downs, bumps and smooth days, but all along, the character of Christ is being formed in us.  In fact, we should recognize that even the term "student" is somewhat misleading for a 21st-Century American Christian.  In the times of Christ, a disciple was someone who moved in with a master.  Each day the master would show you things, but it was always in response to what the day held.  The wisdom of the master would be both taught and caught.  It was never seen as a pure information download.

The Christian life is this process.  We will not become a "master" ourselves until we are resurrected; only then will we be perfectly like Jesus.  We are unable to physically sit at the feet of Jesus, but by the Holy Spirit, we are able to come to him through the word and through prayer.  I spiritually come before his feet in order to learn.  Each day we wrestle with the Lord Jesus about our life, what the word says, and what the Lord would have us do.  Other believers are intended to be a help to us in this process.  We can cut ourselves off from other Christians by telling ourselves that they are all hypocrites.  However, even properly dealing with a hypocrite will help you become more like Jesus than becoming a hypocrite yourself by abandoning the gathering of the saints.  When Christ says to a man to come and follow him, that man always finds others who responded around Jesus.  You cannot separate the two.

Verse 21 also tells us that they decide to return to the places where they had preached.  We are not told what the reasons are for returning back to Antioch.  They may have been running low on supplies, or winter may have been approaching.  For whatever reasons, they determine to go back to Antioch of Syria, and they determine to retrace their steps.

We should note that several of the towns had pushed them out rather abruptly.  It may be that they felt like the heat would have died down by now, and they had some more things they needed to do and say to the believers that were left in those towns.

Paul and Barnabas follow-up with the new believers (v. 22-28)

Surprisingly they go back to Lystra where Paul was stoned, then to Iconium, Pisidian Antioch and then down to the coast at Perga and Attalia.  They don't appear to focus on new evangelism, but rather on strengthening the believers who were there.  They help them to establish a strong foundation so that the church will continue.

When we share the Gospel with people, it is important to follow-up with those who have responded positively.  The Gospel is not only about relationship with Jesus.  It is also about relationship with God's people.  It is how we show that our love for Jesus is real.

By the way, we have the right and authority to share the Gospel with anyone on this planet because Jesus himself has given it to us.  However, that also begs the duty we have to determine exactly how God has gifted us to participate in spreading the Gospel.  So, telling others about Jesus is our duty to those who don't know.  Whereas, follow-up falls in this category of the duty that develops when a person has become a brother or sister in the Lord, a familial duty.

Verse 22 tells us that they strengthened the souls of the disciples.  Internal strength of heart and mind are continually assailed by our own flesh, by the world around us, and through the spiritual interference of the devil and his forces.

Jesus tells us to take possession of our souls by patience (Luke 21:19).  Of course, possession may immediately make us think of evil spirits, but the emphasis is more on a plundered inner life.  Through lusts of the flesh and the pride of life (in short, through sin), we can become a slave to many things without being actually possessed.  These strongholds in our thought-life and in our heart become a seething cauldron of all kinds of sin.  We become controlled by our flesh, and even by the culture that we have grown up in.  This puts the devil indirectly in control of us.  Jesus was purposely using the Promised Land image for our soul.  When we are being delivered by God, He will bring us to a place where we can take full possession of our soul and serve God without being in bondage to sin.  This takes trusting God to help us fight against, and tear down, strongholds of sin in our life.

Just like every one of those cities in Canaan had fortified walls and need to be torn down for Israel to take possession, so they would need to then fortify cities again against the attack of future enemies.  Christians need to learn how to guard their mind and heart against the deeds of the flesh, the corruption of culture, and the slick sales of the devil.  Through prayer, reading the word, fellowshipping with believers, and listening to the Holy Spirit, we are enabled not only to take possession of our soul, but to also fortify it against the attacks of the enemy.  Furthermore, we can help new Christians to take possession of their souls and fortify their life against the devil and his schemes.

This is why the Scripture speaks of the gifts of the Holy Spirit being distributed among God's people as He sees fit.  We need each other because this is how God has designed for us to be strengthened.  He is making us a new people of God without specific ethnic and geographical lines.  We are related by the blood of Jesus.  No matter how different the culture of their birth, a Christian can have fellowship with any believer in the world because the same Lord, Spirit, Word, etc. reigns in us both.

This is what Paul and Barnabas were doing.  They were sharing their gift of knowledge about God's plan through Jesus, the doctrine they should hold fast to, and the purpose of God in their life.

We are also told that they were "exhorting them to continue in the faith" (vs. 22).  In John 15, Jesus used the analogy of a vine to represent the relationship that a disciple needed to have with him.  We need to remain in him (a living connection) in order to stay alive spiritually and to bear fruit.  This is a living relationship and a new way of life.  This is not about a one time declaration, i.e., saying the "magic words," and moving on..  It is not about simply being on "Team Jesus."  I can say I am on the team, but only those who are drawing spiritual life from Him truly belong to Him.  We need to hold on to that.  We are going to be tested even more in the years ahead.

Essentially, Paul and Barnabas are saying to us to stay in the faith no matter what!  Don't let the enemy twist your thinking around and lose faith.  There will come days when your flesh says that it is very inconvenient for you to be so religious.  It may desire to compromise, or it may be offended and want to quit completely.  Regardless, don't walk away from Jesus.  Keep wrestling with him by faith and seeking his help to continue on.

Lastly, verse 22 tells us that they told them that they must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations.  Like I have said up unto now, there is resistance in this life to staying in the faith.  In fact, even sinners have resistance in life.  You might as well fight for the right things and receive a blessing out of it, instead of kicking against the goads of the Holy Spirit and being destroyed by our own choices.

Some of the resistance you face will be the same kind of things that all other believers encounter.  Thus, others who have faced things you are facing can encourage you on how to continue in faith.  Yet, sometimes there are things that are very unique in our life.  These times of tribulation put the squeeze on us in ways that not everyone will understand.  I think of the image of a tube of toothpaste.  What oozes out of me when tribulation puts the squeeze on my inner faith?  Let us recognize that there will be a mixture of some sorts.  God is using tribulations to refine us.  It is our job to recognize the bad stuff that comes out of us, and by faith go to war against that sin with the Spirit's help.

Notice that they use the word "must."  It is a necessity that we have tribulations.  The world is full of difficult things, but there are even more when you refuse to run with the world in the same flood of delusion that they are.  Many will despise you for it.  Yet, part of staying in the faith is accepting that you will have to face tribulation.  In fact, if you haven't had anything difficult attack your faith yet, then you may want to start preparing your inner defenses because it will come multiples times over the course of your life.

It is also interesting that Paul places entering the Kingdom of God in the future.  We go through many tribulations in order to enter it.  Yes, we are already a part of the Kingdom of God spiritually, but Paul is specifically looking ahead to the time when Jesus Christ comes back to earth and sets up a Thousand Year reign.  The righteous will be resurrected an enabled to participate in this blessed time for the earth.  In those days, Jesus will have put down one of our big problems (our spiritual enemies) by putting Satan and his cohorts in the Bottomless Pit.  He will also deal with another one of our problems by raising up an administration of glorified saints.  No government on earth today is run by glorified saints.  Rather, they generally become halls of corruption fleecing the people under their power.

God does not remove every tribulation from the life of those whom He loves.  Think on Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, and especially Jesus.  Rather, He uses the tribulation to refine us and make us shine like the stars.  So, don't blame God when tribulations come.  Rather, see tribulations and trials for what they are.  Firstly, they are the things the devil is trying to use to keep you from entering God's Kingdom, and second, they are the very fires in which God fashions you into the image of the Son of His Love, Jesus.  Yes, this life has difficulties, but God has an age planned in which all the righteous of every age will be glorified and blessed together!  Hallelujah!

We are also told that they helped the churches to appoint elders.  The churches would need some structure in their group so that they will be able to navigate the days and trials ahead.

The word "elders" comes from a Greek word at the root of the terms Presbyterian, or Presbyter.  It does speak of age, but the implication is more on the wisdom and experience that one has.  We might better think of it as the spiritually mature.

The Church is like a family.  Most of these people had been Christians for the same number of days.  However, there was a range of their prior experience.  Some had been devoted Jews who had studied the word of God and were waiting for Messiah.  Others may have been worshipping Zeus last week, and had no clue about what the Scriptures said.  They both may be saved on the same day, but one will be further ahead than the other.  Of course, this is a simplistic example that should not be pressed to strongly.  Sometimes people have been a Christian for decades, but have very little spiritual maturity to show for it.

In fact, we have an example of an "elder" so-called showing a dearth of spiritual maturity in Third John.  There a man named Diotrephes who "loves to have the preeminence among them."  Elders are not called to be kings and rulers over believers.  Rather, we should see them as older brothers who can help us younger siblings along.  Our day will come.  Anyone who is an elder today was not an elder 30 or 50 years ago.  The key is familial relationship that is fueled by the a love for Christ.  This becomes a strength to a church when it is properly done.

God in His wisdom will always provide mature believers to a church.  When I became a Christian, there were people there to help me grow.  Yet, we can come under the judgment of God when we walk in our flesh and choose elders who are not truly spiritually mature.

It may sound like Paul and Barnabas "appointed" these men unilaterally.  However, the word translated as appointed has the sense of raising the hand as if in a vote.  More than likely, they talked to the people about what was required of elders and what type of person would best qualify.  Then, the group as a whole would determine who best fit that category.  We should not read into it a democratic system, but neither is it autocratic on behalf of the apostles.  They are there to help the church not make a foolish decision.

Finally, they make it back to the coast of Asia Minor, and instead of going back through Cyprus, they go directly to Syrian Antioch, where they started.  These are the people who had prayed for them before going and no doubt while they were gone.  It was good for them to hear the testimonies of what God did through Paul and Barnabas in the cities where they went.

Of course, we never know the full effect of our efforts in the Lord, but we do not want to diminish the importance of people hearing the Gospel.  Whether they believe or not, a door of faith has been put in front of them.  They will know about it from then on, and hope will be possible.  We shouldn't diminish people responding in faith.  This is always an amazing miracle of God in the heart of an individual.

I think about the many people who poured into my life as a young kid.  They had much reason to feel like their teaching and prayers were falling short.  But eventually, God would get ahold of my life, praise the Lord!  That would be good news to my grandma and my mom.  How many people come to death's door while they still have an adult child running from Jesus.  They have to cross that threshold asking God to help their child.  "Okay, God, they are in your hands!  I'm leaving here, but please put my child on someone's heart!"  Some of those prayers are still being answered today, even though those people are in heaven.  Yet, it thrills the heart of any mom to hear the story of a son getting right with Jesus.  It gives them hope while they live in this life. 

The problem with open doors is that they eventually shut.  Right now we have an open door for faith in our world, but that day can shut for us as individuals, nations, and as a world.  May God help us to be faithful to share the Gospel while there is still time to work!

Following up audio