What normal looks like | Acts 14:8-28 | Charlie Skrine

I chose this reading because it was a passage

I had to speak on recently. I won't go into all

the reasons why, but I had lunch with the new

vicar of a church and I told him that his church

was the only one I'd ever been banned from preaching

in. And he said, well, we could fix that. So

I ended up choraling a song at St Bartholomew

the Great. in the city of london with this passage

chosen and also a far less weird passage about

sort of handover from one king to another which

you could have you know made relevant for any

boardroom in the city so i chose to speak on

this one on the passage with the miracles and

the religious mania and the attempted murder

and i told them i had chosen to speak on this

passage because that was the one the author presented

to us as typical for our christian lives not

necessarily in you know all the crazy details

but in the shape that is here so first heading

this is what normal looks like Look down, look

back at it. It certainly doesn't look normal,

does it? There's a man who was lame from birth

and had never walked. Paul commands him to stand

up and he jumps up and he walks. No rehab, no

physio, no muscle and bone regrowth, which has

the impact you'd expect. A well -known local

figure, dependent on the community maybe for,

what, 30 years? Now jumping and walking. So they

go wild for Paul and Barnabas. And the obvious

conclusion in a religious Greek city is they

must be gods. Paul is Hermes because he's the

chatty one, and Barnabas is Zeus. And they want

to worship them, temples and priests and sacrificial

animals and roots. So Paul has to work out what

to say. And did they? What did they not train?

Did they train you here what to say on the occasion

of the youth group thinking you are gods? They

told me, use the summer to write your first wedding

sermon and your first funeral sermon. But if

you need it, these verses, it's there. That's

what you say when they think you're a God. And

Paul, he gets quite upset, doesn't he? This is

one more way that you can tell Jesus he really

did think he was God. Because anyone else in

monotheism would react the way that Paul does

here. Abraham, Moses, Paul, Muhammad, it's the

same. He tears his clothes, rushes out and shouts,

we're only human, there's only one God, turn

to him, stop sacrificing to us. So you'd think,

phew, crisis averted, we're all going to be okay

now, but no. Weird week is not yet over. Some

of Paul's fellow countrymen from the last city

on the tour, they show up. And the crowd that

had loved Paul so much they wanted to worship

him on Thursday is suddenly so angry with Paul

they want him dead on Friday. It's quite a rollercoaster.

They stone him to death, or they try to. They

only stop because they thought he was dead. And

he crawls away injured and bleeding to Derby.

And all of that... The author presents to us

as if it was here to teach us what normal looks

like. It's the same pattern as Peter's first

miracle and sermon in Acts 3, not first, first

miracle in Acts 3 and 4. It's the same as the

range of reactions through the whole book. And

Paul tells us in verse 22, look down at verse

22. What does Paul want to tell all the Christians

in the region? Does he want to say, look, I'm

sorry. Sorry I offended everybody. I hope it

all settled down for you. Normally, it's not

like this normally. Does he want to say that?

Verse 22. We must go through many hardships to

reach the kingdom of God. This is normal. And

I hope from two rows. I hope this is kind of

miserably encouraging for you in October. I think

if we'd said this to you in June, that would

just have been miserable. But three, four months

in now, many hardships. That is normal in the

life that you have chosen. You should expect

wild swings of approval and disapproval. And

some may even want to worship you. And then the

same people, they may want to kill you. That

is what normal looks like. Okay, but more than

that, second, this is what success looks like.

So look ahead to verse 26. Verse 26, they return

to base back to Antioch, which is the place they

were sent out from. And it says, verse 27, they

gather the whole church. For a report. What would

you have told them about in the reports? Yeah,

that people of Pisidia, they're mad, aren't they?

One week it's the bulls and the sacrifices and

the next week it's the rocks and the murdering.

We've had a horrible time. It's really dangerous.

I never want to go there again. That's what I

would have told them. Look down at verse 27.

They reported all that God had done through them.

and how he had opened a door of faith to the

Gentiles. And this is what success looks like.

He says, you committed us to the grace of God

before you sent us. Verse 26, they do that here

at Oak Hill. Pray for you before you went out

to be women's workers and children's workers

and assistant pastors. God's grace be with you.

Paul says it worked. And God worked what God

did through us. And what he had experienced with

the wild rollercoaster of positive and negative

reactions, what we saw happening really was a

wide open door for Gentile people to have faith.

In Acts, this is the first time they've deliberately

gone out to offer the Christian rescue to every

kind of people. Gentiles have been becoming Christians

for a bit, but this is missionary journey number

one. Let's see if God really meant it when he

said that anyone at all could call on the name

of Jesus and be forgiven and be rescued from

death and live forever. Just as a reminder to

family here, of why your daughter, your brother,

your dad has launched themselves on this unusual

journey of college and then service in a church.

It is because they are convinced that the door

is wide open and that Jesus, he will welcome

anyone who walks through it and that they can

give the rest of their lives, they want to, to

helping people find their way in there. And the

message here actually is no matter how miserable

they are and their service is, if you were to

say to them that you want to talk about Jesus

and find out if it's worth believing in him,

they would come back full of joy and tell us,

look what God has done. The door is open, even

for my sister, for my mum. So this is what success

looks like. That's point two. It is not whether

they like you in wherever you've been sent since

leaving here. It isn't whether things go to plan.

I wonder this morning, have there been some stories

swapped? You'll never guess what my church did

in the summer when the vicar went on holiday

and I was on my own for the first Sunday. It

was just me. No, success is people walking through

that open door, receiving forgiveness from Jesus,

and starting to walk through many hardships to

enter the kingdom of God. Okay, so this is what

normal looks like, and this is what success looks

like. And third point, this is also what ministry

looks like. And there is so much in Acts on what

ministry looks like. You should really have a

course on Acts, I feel, here at Oak Hill. What

you should do and what you should expect. I just

want to show you some possibly surprising things

from verses 21 to 25. So in your head for this,

you need to pull up in your mind the map of the

Mediterranean. So they had left big Antioch,

which is kind of in the armpit. of Turkey. So

this is Turkey. Antioch is in the armpit of Turkey.

And they went on to Cyprus, and then they went

to another town called Antioch. That's annoying

and confusing, isn't it? Little Antioch, kind

of halfway along the arm. And then they worked

their way inland. Iconium, Lystra, Derby, is

that what Greeks pun, my saying? The key thing

you need to know about Derby is that Derby means

nearly home for Paul. In fact, not just nearly

back at Antioch. There is a direct route from

Derby to Granny for Paul. Paul is from Tarsus,

so assume with me that Paul's granny still lives

in Tarsus. Certainly his old workmates and his

friends do. There's a direct route there. He

uses it often later in the book. It's no distance.

Just go and see Granny. You've had a rough few

weeks, Paul, haven't you? There's bruises all

over your body. Go and see Granny. But whatever

you do, don't go back. Don't go back to the places

that mistreated you. Look at verse 21. Preached

in that city in Derby won a large number of disciples.

The door's still open. Then they returned to

Lystra. You're going the wrong way for Iconium

and Antioch. He does the whole journey in reverse

again. Isn't that a shock? And I never knew that

until somebody pointed out, my childhood at school,

I had to draw Paul's missionary journeys, maps

of them. Nobody ever told me this. He was not

all about the sort of big fly -in evangelistic

meeting, happy to see new converts and then move

on. That is not Paul at all. He is desperate

to go back, verse 22, to strengthen and encourage

them. It's the same, isn't it, in all of his

letters. So worried about you, desperate to see

you, to strengthen your faith. Now I really live

because I've heard you are still following Jesus.

Ministry looks like going back. Did you see even

the city of Stoneham today got up and he went

back for one more day. I don't know how difficult

things have been for you since the course finished

this summer. Probably. alongside the stories

you did tell, there are ones that you don't want

to tell. And frankly, the last year for me has

been the hardest year of my ministry, perhaps

of my life. The things that happen in churches

and in normal local towns like Iconium and Lystra

and Derby. And do you know in 2 Timothy 3, when

Paul says that all who want to live a godly life

in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, and you think,

yeah, except me. when he says that. Do you remember

the chapter begins with a list of place names?

Do you remember that? You know all about what

happened to me in three named places. And I always

assumed those were the three worst places that

he ever went to. The three best examples. The

places that really hated me. Three towns. Do

you know which three he picks? Antioch, Iconium,

and Lystra. It's just the first three places.

he ever went on the first missionary journey

normal successful ministry um is that what you

signed up for normal successful ministry and

just briefly look at what he does when he goes

back maybe this will remind you um and uh you

know from this chapter you'll get another three

months or another three years or 30 years from

this chapter And they go back because ministry,

it is all about strengthening disciples. It's

about growing mature believers. Our church, where

we are in Central London, we love a good event.

Sometimes they're huge. We had 14 ,000 people

at our carol services last year. The Sun newspaper

this week began advertising our carol services

by name. We have a marketing genius on my staff

team. But for the last four and a half years

I've been there. I've spent most time trying

to get everyone to see that, you know, people

at an event is nice, but it's not the goal. Each

person through the open door with Jesus needs

to be strengthened and to grow into a mature

disciple, whether she is seven years old in your

children's group or 97 years old in your local

care home. And the strengthening, it happens

when you tell them the truth. So look at the

rest of verse 22. Would you say this is an encouraging

message? Give us some encouragement, Vicar. We

must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom

of God. Going through the open door, it is wonderful

because Jesus is wonderful. And all our guilt

is taken from us and a never -ending future with

Jesus after death is placed in front of us. But

the journey there is we must. not may, and many,

not some, hardships to enter the kingdom of God.

Paul wants them all to know that how they treated

him was normal. And he wants them strong enough

to stand up in it, convinced Jesus is worth all

of the normal hardships that come with following

him. And I do actually think you get toward this.

A colleague of mine has been in Matthew Sleeman's

course on the book of Acts and says this verse

apparently the beta course, is that right, of

every church. So just ask three months in or

nearly 30 years in, is this still what I am teaching

people? And if not, am I really helping them

to finish the journey? Do you remember when Paul

writes to Thessalonica? maybe only been with

them for three weeks, been run out of time again,

he's able to say, remember, you remember how

I kept telling you that we were destined for

persecution, maybe not even the beta course,

in the first three weeks. You'd get this again

and again from Paul. And look at verse 23, you

go back and you strengthen, you tell them about

the hardships, and you set up churches. You put

in place the people, people like those graduating

today. who, like verse 23, we pray over and fast

over and commit to the Lord, who we trust in

them as they trust in the Lord for the work they

have to do. Go and build a church in the place

of the crazy, wild worship pool and stone to

death place. Go and do that there and everywhere.

Because this model of eldership, it is the support

framework of the open door of faith for anyone

and everyone. It's the way the strengthening

happens and the church survives, what you've

given yourself to. So normal, successful ministry.

You still up for that? I want to give you two

final thoughts. They're both a bit Anglican,

I'm afraid. I know not everyone in the row in

front of me is Anglican. I hope that's okay.

The first one comes from somebody else's sermon.

It was the first time I was involved in a sort

of rebellious ordination. And the previous principal

of Oak Hill, Mike Obey, came and preached at

St Helens. And to be honest, I didn't listen

to the whole sermon because the Bishop of London

had just said he couldn't be bothered to do the

litany. So I was for the first time ever doing

the whole litany in BCP English on no notice.

So I was a little bit distracted and stressed

at the time. But I do remember he said this.

Mike said, your generation must do better than

we did. And again, I didn't listen to every word,

but he meant the Acts 14 package by that. He

meant take this seriously. Tell people about

the hardships. Go back when things are difficult.

Teach doctrine, probably, he meant, knowing Mike,

because they need to understand what it really

is like. Your generation must do better than

we did. And then the Bishop of London, the previous,

previous one, not the one who's about to be an

Archbishop, the Bishop of London, he said that

was a Victorian sermon, which meant he liked

it. The only thing better from him would have

been a Cappadocian sermon. So this is serious,

what you have begun. Thank you, and please do

better than we have done. And then the final

thought I want to give you is from Archbishop

Cramer 500 years ago from the BCP. When I was

a DDO, I used to read all this with all my ordinands.

Well, now it's long enough ago, there's no ordinand

of mine left at Oak Hill. The exhortation in

the BCP ordination service. I'm going to translate

into modern English for the sake of time. It's

talking about the job that you've now started.

And he says, it is so important and so hard that

it can only be done by prayer. and studied the

scriptures and in the life that matches. So if

it was easy, well, you could do it however you

wanted. You could leave out the beta course material

if you didn't like it. People wouldn't need strengthening

or eldership. You wouldn't need to go back. And

if it was unimportant, well, you wouldn't need

to do it at all. You wouldn't need to put yourself

through all the pain if it was not important.

Was it nice being back in college this morning?

Maybe you're thinking of staying. It's great

to hear about the MA in Christian Leadership,

and please do it, but not just because things

have been difficult in your first three months.

If the first three months have been harder than

your three years here, four years here, and it's

weird being back even because of what you've

been through, that might be because what you've

been doing is so important. and so hard at the

same time. So praise God that Paul went back

to normal successful ministry. Thank you for

giving your lives to that and pray that you and

I would keep going through the hardships until

we see Jesus in the kingdom of God.