The return to Antioch (Acts 14:21-28) // On mission with the risen Jesus

The return to Antioch in Syria. They preached the gospel in that

city and won a large number of disciples.

Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch,

strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true

to the faith. We must go through many

hardships to enter the Kingdom of God, they said.

Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church

and with prayer and fasting committed them to the Lord and

whom they had put their trust. After going through Presidia,

they came into Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word

in Parga, they went down to Italia.

From Italia they sailed back to Antioch where they had been

committed to the grace of God for the work they had now

completed. On arriving there, they gathered

the church together and reported all that God had done through

them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles

and they stayed there a long time with their disciples.

We started our time and Acts back in September.

It's been quite a long time actually.

We're taking a break to do a short Easter series across

April. Then the plan is we're going to

be looking at the Old Testament Book of Proverbs in the summer

term. And before we go back to our

Summer Sam series, which is a standard Ave. we hope to return

to the Book of Acts sometime in the near future.

But it's helpful because we're taking a break from it just to

pause and reflect a bit on what we've learnt together from this

book of Acts over the last few months.

I guess we remind ourselves again and again of the big idea

behind the book of Acts, which we want to say is this actually

that we are witnesses for Jesus in this world, in the power of

the Holy Spirit. That is our core identity, says

Luke, the writer of Acts. Any follower of Jesus, they are

a witness to him in the world we live in.

If you're a Christian reading the book of Acts, Luke wants you

to see that Jesus is your Lord, Jesus is your rescuer, and

therefore you are one of his witnesses in this world wherever

he has placed you. And the second part in the power

of the Holy Spirit, Luke wants to see we can't live as

witnesses for Jesus on our own. Sometimes I think we can think

that we think, well, I just need to learn something about Jesus,

then I'll tell people about him. But actually look is really

clear. Jesus is really clear.

We cannot live as his witnesses on our own.

We need the Holy Spirit and God the Holy Spirit has come down to

us, sent by the Father and the Son, receive when we put our

faith in Jesus to live in each one of us, to change us and make

us more like Jesus, to empower us to live as his witnesses in

this world. That's why we need to pray

together for our witness individually and corporately.

That's why we proclaim the word of God regularly in our times

because it's through prayer on the word of God that the Holy

Spirit works in people's lives, convicting them of their sin and

opening their eyes to Jesus. So we are witnesses for Jesus in

this world in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And there's been a number of other themes we've seen

throughout this. If you've been with us over the

last few months, one thing I'm going to I'm going to flip

between power and power because that's what I do, the power of

the gospel. So to quote the Apostle Paul and

Act shows us that the gospel is the power of God to bring

salvation to everyone who believes, even the most unlikely

people. We've seen that in Acts, people

like Saul of Tarsus, who hates Christians, ends up becoming a

follower of Jesus because of the power of the gospel, the power

of prayer as well. Throughout the book of Acts, God

works through the prayers of his ordinary, weak, flawed people to

accomplish his purposes. The place of suffering in the

Christian life. That's a big theme, actually.

We see throughout Acts the 12 apostles suffer as witnesses for

Jesus. Stephen suffers as a witness for

Jesus. Paul and Barnabas suffer as

witnesses for Jesus. And we also see the vital part

the local church plays on mission with Jesus in the

opening chapters of Acts. That's the church in Jerusalem.

Later on, we focus a bit more on the church in Antioch and where

we're headed today. Our our closing passage before

we take a break from Acts is going to focus on the last two

of those, the place of suffering in the Christian life and the

vital part the the local church plays on mission with Jesus.

But in all of this, Acts is here to show us who we are and why

we're here in this world. We are witnesses for Jesus in

the power of the Holy Spirit and adding to that message, that big

overarching message. What's this bit of Acts 14 about

that Clara just read to us? I think, again, maybe simply we

could just say this, that disciples of Jesus need healthy

local churches. If we're going to live out that

identity as witnesses for Jesus, we need healthy local churches

to live as Jesus witnesses. That's the mission strategy of

Paul and Barnabas here. I hope you saw that when you

looked at what? What do we see them do in Acts?

We see them planting healthy local churches.

According to Paul and Barnabas, for followers of Jesus to live

as witnesses for Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, we

need healthy local churches to strengthen and encourage us in

the faith to walk together with us through hardship and to

partner together on mission with Jesus.

And that's important to get those things together, mission

and the church, because in my experience chatting to

Christians over the years, some of us love evangelism and

mission. We just want to get out there

and share Jesus with people. And we get impatient with other

believers who are more hesitant or nervous.

The church can feel like it's holding us back.

The local church can feel like it gets in the way of mission.

I wonder if you ever felt like that and you talk to other

Christians and they and they love the church.

We, we love the community of God's people.

We love sharing life together. We love praying for each other,

caring for each other, enjoying life together.

And, and if we're honest, we're, we're sort of happy with the

local church as it is. We sort of got enough people to

get to know. We don't have time to start

speaking to about Jesus to new people.

We actually, if we're honest, we don't really want the church to

grow that much because it might, it might feel different and

mission feels like it gets in the way of the local church.

All that stuff we've got to do. I wonder, have you ever felt

like that? You need to see in the message

of Acts and Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas love mission and they

love the church. They have learned from Jesus

that those two things go together.

Jesus loves mission. We are told He came to seek and

to save the lost. He's committed to making

disciples of all nations. He's committed to building his

church. And why?

Because Jesus loves the church. The church is his bride, His

body. The church is made-up of people

he delights to call brothers and sisters.

And and because of that, in order for us to make disciples

for Jesus in this world and to live as his witnesses in this

world, we need healthy local churches.

That is Paul and Barnabas's priority as they return home to

Antioch. So let's look at this bit of

Acts 14 together now. And by verse 21 of of Acts 14,

they're beginning to head home. Just kind of say, is this

projector just wonderful? I love it.

I love it. Mark Harrison, thank you very

much. I, I kept doing comments like,

oh, if you want to see the map, look back there.

But no, look, it's lovely and shiny.

So, so here's that. And this is often called Paul's

first missionary journey there. There are two others recorded in

the book of Acts, and the dates for that is round about AD 46 to

47. So actually in the last three

weeks here, we've been covering a period of time that's roughly

about two years in the lives of Paul and Barnabas.

I think it's always worth remembering that we were saying

that in our Home group the other week.

The kind of it feels like all this happens just in a long

weekend, all this amazing stuff. Actually, it's two years.

Paul and Barnabas know that mission takes time and requires

patience and perseverance, even when you're travelling as a

missionary. So where have they travelled to?

Well, Luke's told us it's on the map there.

They started off in Cyprus, which was Barnabas homeland,

moved to Antioch in Basidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derby.

And they've seen people hungry for the gospel and they've seen

people opposed to the gospel, both Jewish people and Gentile

people. They have seen fruit people

trusting in Jesus and they've seen opposition from both Jewish

people and Gentile people. And now finally, they're

preparing to travel home to Antioch.

And what do we see Paul and Barnabas doing on their journey

home when we see them making disciples for Jesus and

establishing healthy local churches?

First of all, they make disciples for Jesus.

Here's how Luke describes it in verse 21.

This is referring to their time in Derby.

He said they preached the gospel in that city and won a large

number of disciples. Literally look rights.

They discipled many people. Other translations.

They made many disciples. Why does Luke describe it that

way? Well, because he's picking up

the language of the risen Jesus to his disciples just after

resurrection, the words of the Great Commission.

This is part of our verse for the term, this past term.

Jesus says go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I

am with you always to the very end of the age.

What does it mean when Jesus says make disciples of all

nations? I think he's saying it's more

than just sharing the gospel with people.

It's more than just looking for converts.

I think people have met somebody go.

Oh, yeah, we saw 15 conversions on the streets the other week.

You know, that's great. But but what happened next?

What did you just or we never see them again.

Actually, for Paul and Barnabas, it's really important that

discipleship is the language of being a follower, A learner, a

student, or an apprentice of Jesus.

To be discipled by Jesus means to take time with him, to follow

him and learn from him and listen to him over and above all

the other voices in our world. See, Jesus isn't just looking

for converts, he's looking for disciples.

And Paul and Barnabas get that. So they don't just share the

gospel people and leave them on their own.

No, they they establish healthy local churches.

They want these new disciples to to belong to gospel communities

of other disciples who will love them and encourage them and

speak the truth in love to them, who will share a life together.

They place disciples in local churches because to be a

disciple of Jesus, it's not something you do on your own as

a lone wolf. You need other disciples around

you. And Paul and Barnabas go to

great lengths to establish healthy local churches here.

Again, back to the map. Not just because it's so

beautiful on that screen, but if you look at verses 21 and 23 and

you look at the map. So Derby is up here and

Antioch's there. And actually when you look at

the map, it's quite a short walk over land to get back to Antioch

from Derby. They they could have got home a

lot quicker than they did in the end.

But Paul and Barnabas take the long way home.

Why? Well, verse 22, they wanted to

strengthen the disciples and the places they already visited.

So Lyster, Iconium, Pisidian, Antioch, and encourage them to

remain true to the faith. So they travel back to all the

places they visited the first time.

And and if that doesn't feel strange, remember they

experienced huge amounts of opposition and rejection in

those places. Paul, if you remember in Lyster,

was stoned and left for dead outside the city.

They could be forgiven for never wanting to go to those places

ever again. And yet Paul and Barnabas chose

to take the long way home so they could strengthen and

encourage the disciples in those places.

See, Paul and Barnabas know that these disciples needed churches

to nurture them and to partner with them on mission.

Look at verse 23 in the passage. Paul and Barnabas appointed

elders for them in each church and with prayer and fasting

committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust.

Here we see that's a real priority for Paul and Barnabas,

that these new believers, they need a local church around them.

They go to great lengths to ensure that that these believers

belong to a local church. They actually don't set up one

big mega church for Asia Minor. No, they established local

churches in each of the places they visited, Derby, Lystra,

Iconium, Pisidium, Antioch. And they ensure that each of

these churches have a group of godly elders to oversee them.

Look at how they appoint them. They appoint them prayerfully,

we're told, with prayer and fasting.

They commit them to the Lord. They appoint them in out of out

of those churches themselves. It says in each church they

appointed leaders. It was leaders from those places

who were appointed as elders, and we make sure there's more

than one elder in place. In the New Testament church,

leadership is always plural leadership.

It's never just a one man show or one leader dominating

everyone else. So Luke's showing us that a

healthy local church is a prayerful church with godly men

appointed as leaders and committed to strengthening and

encouraging the believers in the faith.

And why is that so vital in mission?

Well, because if we want people to see the power of the gospel

at work in people's lives, the church is the place we see it.

The church should be the place we see lives transformed by

Jesus. If we want people to say well

this gospel is actually true, we want to show people the

community, the relationships in the local church and I guess a

brief application for us. We've been saying this a lot in

family meetings. Please keep praying for the

elders Ave. and please pray for new elders to be appointed,

recognised and appointed from within our church.

We've got 3 elders currently, Joel, Chris, and myself.

But are there other men in our church who are teaching God's

Word, loving God's people, leading people in the direction

the Lord wants us to go? Please do pray for that.

So disciples of Jesus need healthy local churches.

And Luke goes on to tell us why we need that, to strengthen and

encourage us in the faith. That's what Paul and Barnabas

do, verse 21 to 22, their return to these places, strengthening

the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the

faith. Why?

Because it can be hard living for Jesus as a witness to Jesus

in this world. We live in a world that does not

worship Jesus as Lord. As Matt McDermott pointed out

last week, we are out of step with the world around us.

We are weird. I love that.

We are weird, and we're weird because we belong to Jesus and

because we've been sent by Jesus as his witnesses.

And so if we just are living on our own, it's we're just going

to get discouraged and weary. We're going to start trusting in

other gospels, other things, other people who might save and

satisfy us. And Paul and Barnes know the

believers in these places. They are young Christians.

They need a community around them who will strengthen and

encourage them in the faith. What does the faith mean?

It means the gospel message of Jesus Christ.

That's why we meet together like this.

We need to hear the Word of God together.

We need to pray to God together. We need to sing God's praise.

I love the way the New Testament says singing is so important in

having the Word of Christ dwell among us richly.

We need to speak the truth in love to one another, to share a

life together as a whole. Church community on a Sunday, in

smaller groups throughout the week.

Home groups, Tuesday morning Bible study source.

Disciples of Jesus need to belong to a local healthy church

to be strengthened and encouraged in the faith.

And if we really need to be convinced of that, we need to

see the heart of Paul and Barnabas message in verse 22.

And Paul and Barnard are taking the long way home there visiting

these churches. They've got a message to

strengthen and encourage them. And I wonder if you wanted to

strengthen and encourage a group of young believers, what message

would you share? I think I would probably say

something like Jesus loves you. That's pretty encouraging or, or

you're not alone. There are other Christians

around the world or we're praying for you.

Those feel like encouraging truths.

But Paul and Barnard's message is quite different.

Verse 22. We must go through many

hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.

That does not sound encouraging. That does not sound like what

you need. If you're feeling a bit

beleaguered, actually, it's going to be hard, says Paul.

Again, that's maybe not the message you or I would choose,

but as ever, the living God loves us more than we can

imagine and says things to us we need to hear even when we think

we don't. We must go through many

hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.

That word hardships that somebody translated as

tribulations or afflictions, more simply troubles.

And that's been a big theme actually throughout Paul's first

missionary journey, particularly Acts 14 themes of persecution

and suffering are front and centre.

See Paul and Barnabas experiences in Iconium and

Lystra. See the opposition they

experience everywhere they go. And again, Paul and Barnabas

experience is mainly persecution.

But it's interesting, Paul doesn't use the word for

persecution here. He broadens it to hardships.

So that includes when when people persecute us for a living

as witnesses for Jesus. But it's a broader category of

suffering. It's other types of struggle and

pain in a fallen world. As we follow Jesus and look at

Paul's word must he's not saying some of you will go through

hardships. Christians, it's not optional.

It doesn't just apply to some Christians.

We all will experience hardships for following Jesus.

Now we need to be clear, that's not an entry requirement that

gets you into the Kingdom of God, but it's a vital part of

following Jesus in a world that doesn't.

We experience hardships because we live in a fallen world and we

follow a suffering Savior. And Jesus was really open about

this, just as Paul and Barnabas are.

They don't hide this. Jesus never hides this.

The night before he goes to the cross, he says to disciples in

this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have

overcome the world. Or another part in Luke 9, he

says whoever wants to be my disciples must deny themselves

and take up their cross daily and follow me.

For everyone's to save their life, we'll lose it, but whoever

loses their life for me, we'll save it again.

It's appropriate we're looking at this passage just a week

before Easter when we remember that the King, the Lord we

worship, went through many hardships to rescue us.

Paul wants us to know here that when we live as Jesus witnesses

in this world, hardships will come.

They'll come because it's a fallen world.

Even more than that, they'll come before we follow a

suffering Savior. If the world rejected him, it

will reject us also. And Paul and Barnabas want to

tell this really openly to these young Christians because he says

when hardships come, he doesn't want to think, well, this means

God has abandoned us. This means God doesn't love us.

That's often how we feel when we go through hardships.

Paul says, no, There I see a sign that you're following

Jesus. They're a sign that you're

following a crucified Savior who is familiar with suffering, and

you're not home yet. It's interesting that Paul and

Barnabas are on their way home. Literally at this point, but

every Christian is on their way home to the new creation, but

we're not there yet. And Paul says before we get

there, we will experience hardships.

And again, I this is a truth I don't need to prove.

We're not a very big church, but we have plenty of people who are

experiencing hardships at the moment.

We're praying for Lisa in hospital at the minute.

We're praying for the Finney family, we're praying for Joe

and Hannah Lockhead. We're praying for the Dolan

family corporately. And if you belong to your Home

group here, you will know there is plenty of hardship that

people in our groups are experiencing.

Sort of struggles in our families or in our marriages,

struggles in our workplaces, struggles with our physical

health or mental health, struggles with uncertainty.

We live in a fallen world and we will go through hardships.

Paul and Barnabas want these young Christians to know that.

Luke wants Christians of every generation to know that.

That's why he records this message.

But Paul's also clear that the hardships are never pointless

for the follower of Jesus, and that can be hard to believe

sometimes. But notice again how Paul and

Barnabas see hardships as part of God working out his purposes

in the world to make us more like Jesus, to bring us into the

Kingdom of God. I mean, look at Paul and Barnas

themselves. They experienced huge amounts of

hardship in the places they visited.

Again, Paul was was stoned and left for dead.

They were rejected, they were insulted.

But standing in front of them as they give this message is the

fruit of their hardship. There are Christians in these

places that would not have been there if Paul and Barnabas

hadn't been willing to suffer. And one of the hardest things

about suffering and one of the hardest things of hardship is it

feels like a waste. But Paula Bars want these people

to know, no, there is a reason behind it.

We will not always understand it at the time, but hardship and

suffering are not the sign the Lord has left you.

They're actually an invitation to us to draw near to him.

They're an invitation to us to admit we're not in control, to

come to Him, to collapse on Him, and then to seek to love one

another as we all experience hardships.

God works through hardships in ways we see and ways we don't

see. But Paul and Barnabas are

confident that does not stop us entering the Kingdom of God.

And they're equally confident that hardships will not have the

final word. The destination is the Kingdom

of God. When you put your trust in

Jesus, if you're a Christian, you're today your home became at

that moment the Kingdom of God, the restoration of all things.

When Jesus returns, the new creation where sin and death

will be no more and where God will welcome us and wipe every

tear from our eyes. Paul and Barn is saying there is

going to be hardships, Christians, there are going to

be hard times that will expose our need for God, will expose

the limits of what we can do. But actually, we are on our way

to a place where there will be no more hardships, where Jesus

has won that new creation for us high through suffering in our

place, so that when we suffer, He is with us.

He is compassionate, He knows what it's like, and He is

accomplishing His purposes in US and through us.

Again, at first glance, it's a hard message.

But remember, This is why we need healthy local churches to

walk through hardship together, to live as witnesses for Jesus

in this world. We will need one another.

And I'm a writer. I really enjoy put it like this.

Basically, in the church, we are all needy and we're all needed.

We are all needy people. We are weak, we go through

hardships. We need God's grace, we need the

help of God's people, but we're also needed because we have a

part to play in helping and loving and encouraging the

suffering believers around us. And remember, this is not just

to individual, this is to churches.

We must go through hardships. Chatting to someone recently, we

both were sort of saying if we didn't belong to a local church,

it feels like we might be spared quite a lot of hardships because

we we share it together. One part of the body of Christ

suffers. We all suffer and it's hard, but

actually to walk together through hardship is to learn

more of Jesus walking ahead of us into suffering on his way to

glory. And we also suffer on our way to

glory, but we do not walk alone. The Lord walks with us, and

amazingly and beautifully, He invites each one of us to walk

together on those roads. We need healthy local churches

to strengthen and encourage us to walk together. 3 hardships.

And finally, and briefly, we need local churches to partner

together on mission with Jesus. In the end of Acts 14, it's just

a wonderful little moment. Eventually they've taken the

long way home, but Paul and Barnabas arrived back to their

sending church in the city of Antioch.

Let me pick up from verse 26. From Italia they sailed back to

Antioch where they had been committed to the grace of God

for the work they had now completed.

On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported

all that God had done through them and how He had opened a

door of faith to the Gentiles. And Paul and Barnabas stayed

there a long time with the disciples.

Remember again, Paul and Barnabas been away for best part

of two years. This is a joyful homecoming.

You read these verses, you imagine the hugs and the

laughter and the excitement and the questions.

Because you see, the whole church at Antioch had played

their part. Admittedly, only Paul and

Barnabas had gone into Asia Minor, but the whole church had

committed them to the grace of God.

The whole church had prayed for them on their journey, and now

the whole church had them home again and they could all hear

together what God had done through Paul and Barnabas.

This is a privilege of being in a church where we get to partner

together with others on the mission field.

We all have different mission fields, different callings, but

we get to travel together. I was reading these verses this

week and I just confess, when I saw Matt and Lisa in the

hospital a few weeks ago back from Nigeria, just to give Matt

a hug was just amazing. And you're a lovely hugger.

I couldn't give Lisa a hug because she just had open heart

surgery, but sort of waved. And then just to ask questions

and just say, tell me what's going on, What are you doing?

You're here. Tell me more.

And that is the joy of partnering.

Said a minute ago something wouldn't it be easier and

simpler if we weren't part of a local church?

We'd be spared some some hard stuff.

You'd also miss out on the joy of partnering together with

brothers and sisters in Christ. I love the way Luke puts it,

verse 27, Paul and Barnes reported all that God had done

through them, and I'd open the door of faith to the Gentiles.

They're not saying look what we did, saying what God did through

them. God is the one who saves.

God is the one who leads us on mission.

I hope we've seen that again and again in Acts.

That's why as a church, we need to be prayerful.

We need to go, Lord, what would you have us do?

Where would you have us go? But amazingly, God chose to work

through Paul and Barnabas to accomplish that.

And amazingly, God chooses to work through people like us to

accomplish his purposes. The end of Acts 14 is this great

picture of the joy that comes through partnering together on

mission with Jesus in this world.

So we're taking a break from the book of Acts.

But Acts 14 reminds us of some really vital truths that we need

healthy local churches to strengthen and encourage us to

remind us that God is God and Christ is risen and Christ is

coming back. We need local churches to walk

together through hardship. They that will come hardship,

but it is never pointless and God can use us to comfort one

another in those times and we are We need local churches to

partner together to each play our part in what God wants to do

through us. Even today we have an egg trail.

We have a holiday club this week.

We could be praying each one of us, whether or not we're here in

person that the Lord would work through us to accomplish his

purposes. The message of Acts 1 to 14.

We are witnesses for Jesus in this real world, in the power of

the Holy Spirit that seek to live out that identity together.

Let me pray for us. Let's pray.

Father God, thank you so much that you love us more than we

can imagine. And Lord, you speak to us.

Truths we need to hear, not always truths we might choose to

hear. And this promise that we must go

through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God, many of us

would choose for that not to be here in your word.

But thank you that You love us enough to be honest with us.

And thank you that you promised us that that hardship will not

be pointless and it will not have the final word in our

lives. Keep us trusting in You that You

are working out your purposes. And thank You, Father, that at

this time of year particularly, we remember the King who

experienced many hardships to win the Kingdom of God for us.

We remember Jesus who lived and who suffered and was rejected

and beaten and condemned to death and died and rose again to

bring us into the Kingdom of God.

Thank you Father, you're a God familiar with suffering and

hardship, therefore you're able to help us when we are

experiencing suffering and hardship.

Would we know your help and would you lead us in how we can

help one another in the days ahead?

And we ask it in Jesus name, and for his glory.

Amen.