I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Acts chapter 14, Acts chapter 14, as we continue our study in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 14, let's give our attention to God's word this morning. Now at Iconium, they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided, some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them, They learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and to the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the gospel. Now, Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet. And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the Lycanian language, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas, they called Zeus, and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds but when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out men why are you doing these things we are also men of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to the living God who made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them in past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and gladness even with these words they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them but jews came from antioch and iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned paul and dragged him out of the city supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city. And on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Then they passed through Sidia and came to Pamphylia. And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Italia. And from there, they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they arrived and gathered, and when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles and they remained no little time with the disciples. There is the reading of God's word. Well, I'm very much enjoying, I hope you are, the study through the book of Acts because it's giving us perspective about Christian ministry, the perspective that we need about Christian ministry in our day i think i've said already a few times in the study we're looking a lot more like the first century in our time and this is a timely book to consider how to go forward in the perilous times in which we live with christian ministry i was just hearing the other day that the evangelical church right now is having a mass exodus out a mass exodus people are just not going and they're done with it um there are many challenges today that that we face and i i believe that acts is so incredibly helpful because it's giving us a look at the apostles and how they did ministry in very challenging times and showing us certain things that we've forgotten about this in our day sometimes it's willful ignorance and sometimes it's just forgetful in that we have not listen carefully to the record of scripture to see what is being said. If we lose what is before us in the book of Acts, what they're showing us, how easy it is for ministry over time to lose direction as we become confused and disoriented when things get hard. This is just life, isn't it? How easily are we confused and disoriented when things get hard? Well, this is acts 14 and one great truth permeates this this entire chapter i i wrestled with what what is the heart of this what are they telling us what what is the spirit want us to see in this great chapter and i couldn't get away from the sense reading this over and over meditating upon it that these guys were absolutely relentless and undeterred in what they were called to do it's really inspiring if you look at it this way um they had no fear no fear how do you go through life that way how do you go through ministry that way how do you go through it without anxiety when everything seems to fall apart and nothing seems to be working these guys give us such motivation and help to understand what the christian ministry is to look like and what it is to be and the lord is showing us this that they understood the ministry was a calling it was something he had called them to remember back he had set them apart for the ministry paul and barnabas and they were called to fulfill that calling um when you look at acts 14 and you study the opposition the great question that i had the great question that you should have looking at this is how in the world did these guys get through it at times it must have felt like that how are we going to get through all this. I mean, Paul gets stoned in this chapter. Did you hear that? None of you have ever thrown a stone at me, by the way. I'm really grateful. I wouldn't want one pebble to hit me in the head. He was stoned. And by the end of this, you have a beautiful statement. He fulfilled his ministry. Did you see that at the end? He came back to Antioch, the first place where he was sent out and he tells them he fulfilled it. I love that. The beautiful thing about studying missionary journeys, Paul's missionary journeys, is you have the beginning and endings and they're sort of cycles of ministry that you study and you see little snapshots of how to understand and look at ministry. It has beginning and it has endings and you're working to fulfill the calling that God has given you in the ministry and you have the beginnings and the ends here it captures the joy they had in doing the work through circumstances you think how in the world did they have joy doing that and it presses us in every circumstance to finish well to finish well how many times in the bible do we see people who struggle in finishing well well that's what's before us today and i don't i want to jump right into this because there's a lot here. But we read in chapter 14 that at Iconium, they entered the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. Now remember, we are on Paul's first missionary journey here. This is the first one. And last time we studied his first sermon that we have in the scriptures, we had a glance at his very first sermon. And that sermon was obviously very effective, for by the time it was done, it had evoked such belief that masses were coming together to hear. But it also had evoked a lot of unbelief, so that by the time we were done with chapter 13, Paul and Barnabas were driven out of the city there at Antioch, and now we've entered and had them come to Iconium. This was a hundred miles southeast of Antioch in Pisidia. Today it's Turkey's fourth largest city, Konya. Paul does the same thing. He's, you can figure out exactly what's on his mind as he enters into a city. He first would go to the Jewish synagogues and he would do the same thing. He would go into the, take the gospel to the jews first and then if they rejected it he would take it to the greeks but you'll notice here that he does the very same thing coming into iconium that he was opening the scriptures with people who knew the old testament bible stories and it wasn't just moralistic lessons was it he was showing from all the scriptures the things concerning jesus that's preaching that's the gospel ministry this is what he's doing everywhere well it went okay he had another mixed response here it says that both jews and gentiles believe but then in verse two in the next breath we read that the unbelieving jews stirred up the gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers now this is no little persecution that i'm going to show you here we're not talking about little criticisms at the door as you walk out that's that's not what he's getting this is big stuff there are certain things in the midst of all of this that we see driving the apostles it's so helpful and it's so encouraging for all of us i i believe the great intention because Paul will look at his life and say, look at me as an example. And at the end of it, he tells the whole church to look at his life as an example, explaining through his life how we all enter the kingdom, that we're to have this mindset about Christian living and Christian life and about life in general that we typically don't have. Certain things are driving them. What is it? What is in their heads what are they finding as they're out on the mission field preaching well the ministry is generating two kinds of responses two kinds there is glad reception there are people overwhelmed by the message begging as we saw last time to hear it and then there's violent hatred for it and i'm thinking to myself if this is not spiritual if the work of the spirit and the cosmic battle that we know is going on that we studied in the book of revelation when we preached through it between the devil and his kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light if you can't see that here you go look how do you get such radical responses that are so different one of give me more of the word and the other of get out of here we're going to kill you that's what they God. It's wonderful when the message is received, isn't it? It's another thing when the message is hated, when conviction for gospel truth is despised. I mean, it's not like they're running around preaching a law of works. Here's how you get into the kingdom and putting impossible burdens on him. Preaching a message of freedom. A wonderful message. Well, all of chapter 14 is about response to the word. That's what this chapter is about and how they handled it. That's what you're getting here. I think you see this in life when you're talking to somebody about the gospel and the different responses you get. It's all right here showing us again the human heart. And what makes this chapter so wonderful for us is the perspective that is shown on the part of the apostles. Now I'm going to say something right now that I've said to myself the whole ministry and I still don't get it. No matter the response, no matter how it went, no matter whether the word was rejected or accepted nothing deterred them from what they were supposed to do they believed that the lord was fulfilling his word and that the promise of isaiah was coming to pass that his word was not returning void jesus told them how it would go jesus told us all exactly how this would go some he said in the parable so you got to go through this this parable every now and then because it's so helpful. He said, some will hear that word and what will happen, they will immediately hate it. It's like the seed landing on the path. They will hate that word and that will lead to persecution. The worst I've had it in this country is after I preached at a funeral one time, a girl came up and bumped me right in the shoulder. That's the worst I've had it, okay? Rammed me. And I thought, that's exactly what happened. She hated the message. some will hear it jesus said and they'll immediately love it they'll spring up quickly but as soon as they realize this is not so easy this is not i didn't think christianity would be this hard i didn't think it would be like this as soon as persecution and tribulation comes why because of the word all of a sudden now it's confronting sins and and all of that and they they're gone jesus said that happens and then he said there will be those who because of the cares of life and the deceitfulness of riches they may sit and receive it but it doesn't go anywhere but then jesus said that there will be those who hear this word and they're going to respond and they're gonna they're gonna flourish in that word they're gonna grow some 30 some 60 some 100 fold and he looked at all them and he said blessed are your ears for they hear you're blessed now why see why that's important here if you don't keep that in front of you if you don't understand that about christian ministry you're going to be all perplexed and confused when this thing goes south what they did was never driven by the results except when they finally shook the dust off their feet uh none of it was driven and determined by the opposition or fear thereof it has to be that this is one of the reasons jesus told even christians in general don't be anxious. I don't want you anxious. It's like Mark Twain once said that anxiety is like paying a debt you don't owe. Think about that one for a little bit. The same thing in ministry. The results are never yours. So in other words, the opposition to the message and the truth, it didn't deter them. I'm preaching something today I still struggle with, and I'm 15 years in. If anything, they looked at opposition as the reason that they needed to keep saying with all boldness what they were saying. I'll come back to that thought because that's not what we do today. Notice this here. Minds are being poisoned against the preaching of the gospel. those who had heard it, the Jews have come and now they're poisoning their minds right away to the word that was heard. That's first soil. So the next word that is said there is, so they stayed a long time in that place. Huh? You'd think, time to go, right? They're not hearing, time to go. What drove them? That's my question. What drove these guys? It's so inspiring that they're this relentless. Verse 3, because of this, they remained there a long time and they continued relentlessly preaching. Why? Look at the verse there. This is just a fabulous verse. They continued speaking boldly for the Lord who bore witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by them. What a verse. The apostles here, Paul and Barnabas, and Paul particularly, I'm talking apostle, did the ministry believing one thing that he always kept in front of him. They were working for the Lord. It says it right there. That's in their heads. We're working for the Lord. You don't think about this a lot, do you? With the privilege of that. Remember the labors in the vineyard? The master bringing you in to serve the master. Give us our wages. You're working for the Lord. They were so conscious of this as apostles that they understood that when they spoke faithfully God's word, that the Lord himself was their bearing witness of that word of grace that they were preaching. Grace. You're still marveling that anyone's ready to throw stones over a message of grace, aren't you? This is how tightly they viewed the ministry. That what they were doing, the Lord was not only for him, but the Lord was bearing witness through them as ambassadors. Remember something else that Paul learned in the ministry that he said later that I so appreciated in this connection. When Paul earlier was called and Jesus told Ananias, set him apart, go baptize him. Remember what Jesus said to Ananias? He is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. You see, Paul had a perspective on ministry that we don't have as Americans. When he was explaining life to the Philippian church who was confused about hardship and their sufferings for the gospel. He said this, in light of what he knew the Lord had done when he called him. For it has been granted to you for the sake of Christ, not only that you believe, but that you also suffer for his namesake. Huh? The hardships we face, the pains we undergo the oppositions we are granted are given to you by the lord for him you don't think like that i don't think like that i'm not talking about the oppositions we receive when we do stupid things or be jerks peter said you can suffer in this life because you're a busy body and a divisive person a meddler and so on what we're talking about here is suffering for doing what's right. When you're facing pain for these things, the apostles so looked at it as something the Lord had specifically appointed and given to them as a particular blessing that they could suffer it for Jesus's sake. It's all over their writings. It's there they knew that Jesus shows identification with us what a privilege paul wrote the surpassing power belongs to god and not to us listen to this great statement we are afflicted in every way but not crushed perplexed but not driven to despair persecuted but not forsaken struck down but not destroyed always carrying about in the body the death of jesus so that the life of jesus may also be manifested in our bodies for we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus's sake so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our moral flesh and most of us will never face what the apostles did but they did want them us to look at their lives as an example for a reason this is why the apostles back in chapter 3 when they were beaten for the faith they walked away remember Peter? They walked away rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for his name's sake. There it is again, and I've captured that in the title. So as they're going forward, this was never the stuff to run from, right? We all want to run when things get hard. We all have our little maps of where we're going to go when things get hard. We think of Elijah in the cave running. what are you doing here? What are you doing? When a ministry, and I struggle with this even taking a call here, with the ministry is going well, which it was in Linden. We had 17 families in membership. That's not the time to go, is it? Yeah, it's the time to go. Pass the baton on while it's going well. You don't leave when it's going bad. You press on until the Lord calls you out. But these are the sort of things that they're thinking about that we don't look at the hardships and the sufferings this way. And Paul is thinking this way in all of this. And I stopped and I thought this way, can you imagine if we looked at life this way? It's going to change everything you're doing. It's going to give you purpose in the hardships. It's going to give you a reason to live in the hardships, isn't it? Remember Paul when he said, I have a thorn in the flesh. I need this gone. Lord, take it away three times. Take it away. Please take it away. And the reason Paul said that was given was because he was being attacked as an illegitimate apostle because there was no glory in his ministry. He was not a big name to these people. where's the success paul and jesus changed his whole perspective in it didn't he say that's why i've given you the thorn you don't understand i've given you the thorn so that you will understand they may not i'm not worried about them so that you will understand my power is resting on you in weakness because you think that when everything's great and you're strong then the lord's power is on you no the soil he loves to work on is this so first they were driven by understanding who they were serving the lord all of it's under his control second they understood this that through all of this the lord was saving his elect finally as the persecution got so strong to the point of stoning as soon as then when the stones were ready to fly they fled and we read that they went from iconium to lystra it's a glorious moment again for paul starts preaching we read there was a man there who could not use his feet he was crippled from birth this is acts 3 revisited same scenario as peter in solomon's portico with the lame man as paul's preaching he can see now think of responses here that acts 14 is showing us he can see that this guy has the faith to be healed i should stop and capitalize on that moment by the way you can tell when people are checked out as a pastor people would always ask me can you see what we're doing pastor is i can see what all of you are doing i want you to know that okay if you're sleeping back there i can see you okay you can see people nodding off and all that but i want to encourage you here i'm not here to beat you up on that point i know people can be tired that when the holy spirit is working and this is why i always encourage you we have a prayer of illumination to pray that when the word is being proclaimed your hearts are receptive and open because you know all the worries of life can take that word you can see it as a pastor when somebody's taken in that word you can see the response in the heart so i have not just been bumped i've also seen that it's encouraging it's wonderful and Paul zeroes in. He's preaching the gospel and this guy's sitting there. Give it to me. Paul sees this and as he sees it, he heals him right there by the Lord's power, not his. Remember, this is Acts. These are apostles. Stand up on your feet right now. You can imagine this. He's preaching the gospel. He sees this response. He's overwhelmed by the response and right then he focuses in, stand up on your feet. Can you imagine that in a service? It's just a beautiful moment that the man gets up, springs up, and he begins to walk. Same thing as Acts 3. And this ignited in the city something that in Lystra they had known before. There were records of writers saying that the gods had come down to Lystra and they had not treated them with respect before and the reason then their city was cursed because of that, there was no writings to that effect. When they saw Paul do this, we're in now Gentile pagan territory. When they saw Paul do this by the power of the Lord, immediately they said, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. To which you would think that's a lot more receptive they might be to the message of Jesus Christ, the true God. taking on human flesh, coming down. These are Gentiles. Paul, they called, Barnabas, they called Zeus, and Paul, they called Hermes. And they're speaking in this language that the apostle doesn't know. And all of a sudden, Paul looks up and sees that the priests are now bringing sacrifices to sacrifice to them. I think we get right here to the heart of a pastor right here look at it look at how gripped these people are in the darkness you come here today and you take for granted that you know the lord and that you worship him but what is your attitude toward those all around us who are gripped by idolatry and worshiping in that right now. Paul is looking at pagans who don't know the Bible and his heart's bleeding for them. He's not going to open the Scriptures to prove that Jesus is the Christ immediately. He knows they don't even know the Scriptures. So what does he do to these Gentile pagans? He appeals to what they do know. Men, we're also men like you. Don't do this. We're bringing you good news of Jesus. That you should turn from these vain things to the living God who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. In past generations, he allowed all these nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness. For he did good by giving you rains from heaven, Fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. See what he did? Look at all you're enjoying right now. Look at, it's all goodness from the Creator. And you have a knowledge of this. Now Romans 1 tells us they have suppressed it, but Paul worked hard on it, didn't he? He gave you rain. He gave you food. Look at all this abundance. It's from him. That was his starting point with these pagans. Here's the thing. Even with these words, they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifice to them. Why is that being shown to you? Who's he working for? Jesus. What does he have a bleeding heart for? What's the second reason he's doing this? A love for people. The heart of the pastor here is the nations have suppressed the truth of the creator god is opening the door now to the nations when the evidence is all around them he appeals to creation the goodness of the lord the fact that they have food rain blessings and he calls them to turn as he preaches the gospel the good news of what jesus has done here's the point you know what happened here failure according to us failure. Look at this. It didn't work. It didn't stop them from sacrificing to them. Talk about mass discouragement. Mass discouragement. But then what happens? The oddest of all events in Acts the Jews from Antioch and Iconium get together and come all the way to Lystra and what do they do they stirred up all these crowds against them how fickle the crowd so then what do they do they take Paul out and they begin to grab boulders and they stone him i don't really have too much to be discouraged about today do you you think you had a bad day this is a bad day if you're looking at it that way i mean paul preaches gets run out of the city for preaching jesus runs here preaches he can't stop them from sacrificing the people from the other city come and like jesus the word that was heard was snatched away as jesus said by satan now he gets stoned paul would later write because of this listen to this five times i've received at the hands of the jews the 40 lashes less one three times i was beaten with rods once i was stoned three times i was shipwrecked A night in the day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys and dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, danger from my own people. You know the pain of that? Danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and in thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from all these other things, there is daily pressure on me of anxiety for all of the churches. Who is weak and I'm not weak? Who is made to fall and I'm not indignant? Who is this? And then he says this. It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ for your building up, beloved. If I walked out of here today and some of you started throwing stones at me, I don't know if you'd see me tonight. I don't know if you would. I'd be pretty offended, you know. I might even have to go to the hospital. What does Paul do? The next day, he gets up, and he goes back. Right back into the city. Are you kidding? He went to Derbe, preaching the gospel, and then he went right back to all the opposition. He went right through there. Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. Did you see that? You stop and you say, why are you doing that? Why is he enduring all this? what Paul told us in the pastoral epistles. Therefore, I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they may obtain salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. You've forgotten about the man that was already saved in Lystra, didn't you? The man who heard. God saved a man. He had many people in these cities. So the point is, is that if you look at the account, you would say, and this is the point, you would say that was a failure. That first missionary journey, it went well at some points, but overall, what a massive failure. And Paul and them understood that the opposition, the hardship that we undergo is for somebody else. And that's what's being shown to you here, that we know that the life of Jesus is being made known in in in our bodies and as that message goes out through our tribulation the lord is saving you don't see it always but he's promised you that on that day there's a multitude no man can number so so he is saving so that as the church and the ministry as we speak the truth when opposition comes you need to know that as we are committed to continue to do that as the church remains faithful to do that he's saving you and your children you saw it today that was the lord doing a saving work he appoints to eternal life through the faithful ministry of the word now i trust you see why this is important let me close with this application today because because we are all driven by results i mean it we have no ability in the church today to handle rejection of the word. We have no ability to process that anymore. We just can't get, we can't even process that it's a possibility. We almost think that it absolutely shouldn't happen. And if it does happen, something's wrong with the ministry and the pastor. And we go forward with that assumption. These guys are being persecuted to the point of fleeing cities. So what's the message for the church today? Well, the church is crippled today for the single great reason we have been taken captive by a single great problem. We are afraid to offend. I don't know how else to characterize it. It's success today. I mean, I've seen the greatest of writers and scholars compromise right here are our fear of offending for losing financing for their institutions ministries all afraid of this because of donors because of any conflict over the word most if not all of our christian institutions today are compromised over this this issue they are so money and donor driven donor driven its success is dependent on keeping donors happy so they avoid conflict at all costs and any perceived conflict over theological issues is just the worst thing that could happen keep it in house don't ever let it get out house you could never make that case to the apostles you just couldn't we struggle with this in our lives Christians are compromised today you don't think as a dad I feel the pressure to say nothing when my kids do something because we all today fear our kids strange everything's nice but my point is to have the truth to know the truth to be ambassadors of Jesus sent with that truth and then to not speak that truth is as cowardly as it gets it has the effect of producing an environment of absolute deadness because what is forgotten is that a willingness to speak the truth is how god saved compromise doesn't ever appease naysayers anyway outside reactions never determine what we are called to say and do jesus is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense but i want you to see that the apostles understood as this section ends that the church is needed to understand that for in verse 14 paul viewed that his work was being fulfilled as he went back to all the churches and then we read that he completes his first missionary journey in verse 26 they fulfilled the work that god had given them to do and then they went around to the churches and what was their message it was this did you see it there don't lose heart remember who you're serving and remember the fruit of what we're doing through much opposition through much conflict we all enter the kingdom of god that's that's what he was encouraging the church with through much opposition and i think of jacob this morning that i get to say to him look Your light momentary affliction is just for a moment. It's working in you something of much more weight of eternal glory. There's something so much better coming, right? So yes, because our callings are given, we do them for the Lord, for His glory to fulfill that responsibility. And the Lord is telling us through that, He'll save His people. I hope that helps us to encourage and appreciate the real reason we're here today. Jesus gave his life. He died and was killed on the cross and murdered for speaking the truth. And we're no better than him. We're not greater than him. But the Lord wants you to encourage you to know he'll save through this. He's building his church through this. Don't lose heart in the conflict. Live in the joy of the comfort of knowing that you're serving the Lord, right? That's why we get up in the morning. That'll give you more joy than anything else in this life. Knowing that you have Him as your God and that He loves you. So the word will never return void. Beloved, remember then that it's been granted to you, Not only to believe, but to suffer for his namesake. That'll change your perspective on everything. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your wonderful word. And we thank you how you encourage us with it. This is not the message that we often want to hear. Because we'd love to ride on into heaven on a couch. We'd love to have everything to be easy. But you've told us this is a momentary affliction that we endure for Jesus' sake. But we need your help because we're so weak, we'll run from all of it. Give us boldness. Give your church courage today. Give your believers here the help they need to look at life this way and to realize they're serving the Lord who loves them and that His purposes are indeed being fulfilled when it seems that everything else is failing. Jesus has won the victory through his own suffering and death. Thank you for this truth and for encouraging us in your word today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.