SUNDAY - NOVEMBER 9, 2025 "Strengthening the Church" Acts 14:21-28

Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.

You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.

We hope you enjoy.

God bless.

This morning we'll be in Acts chapter 14.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

We'll begin reading in verse 21.

This week, as I was preparing and pondering even Veterans Day that is coming up, you know, if you recognize and go through scripture, uh Scripture uses military language a lot.

Paul especially uses military language a lot throughout uh throughout his letters, throughout his uh writings.

In Philippians chapter 2, verse 25, he even calls Epaphroditus there a fellow soldier of the gospel.

Philippians 2:25

Uses military language all throughout.

We're going to see other places even uh in the message today as we go along and recognize that that this idea, this concept that we are like a military is throughout through throughout scripture.

You know, there there is a veteran who uh once said what he will miss the most about military isn't the uniform, it's the people.

It's knowing that someone always has my back.

You know, and a good veteran knows that that you're only as strong as the person next to you.

And even within the church, that is that is an idea, that is a concept that we need to understand and know.

As a church, we are strong as the people who stand beside us, who are laboring beside us, who are working beside us, who are serving beside us, and we should come along and help each other.

And as he says, have each other's back as we go throughout our lives together and as we are the church together.

As we come into our passage today, what we're gonna see is that Paul and Barnabas, uh, they are going to return to the Syrian Antioch.

There's two Antiochs that we've seen.

There's the Syrian Antioch, who the church there sent them out, and uh then they go through also Antioch of Poseida, which we're gonna see today too, but but they're gonna return to their sending church in Antioch, Syria, in Syria, and and as they go back, they're going to go through towns that they've already visited, and the purpose there is to strengthen the church.

And as we look at this passage and as we understand that, listen, this is a big deal that they're going back to these towns.

They have been persecuted, they have been thrown out, they have been stoned, and it is a danger to their lives to return to these towns that they're going back through.

So we must understand that for us, we must understand that it must be a very serious and important endeavor for them to go back and to strengthen the church.

That being said, we must recognize and we need to see the importance of our growing into faith.

We need to recognize that we must be, we need to be growing.

So the challenge for us is this it's it's a two-part challenge today.

First of all, is we need to be strengthened into faith.

Personally need to be strengthened.

You need to be strengthened in the faith that we have placed in Christ.

The second part of this challenge is this: while we need to be strengthened, we need to be strengthening.

We need to be reaching out to others.

We need to be helping each other to grow in the faith.

If a unit is as strong as the person next to you, if our church is as strong as the person next to us, guess what we need to be doing?

We need to make sure that the person who is standing next to us in our congregation, in our church, is strengthened as much as we are strengthened.

So the challenge is to be strengthened and also to strengthen.

So as we walk through this passage today, we want to strive to answer the question of how did Paul and Barnabas strengthen the church?

As we look at this question, hopefully, and seek to answer this question, hopefully, what we can gain is ways that we can be strengthened, but also ways that we can be strengthening those around us.

So again, the question is how did Paul and Barnabas strengthen the churches in whom they came in contact?

So I'm gonna ask if you are able this morning, if you will stand with me as together we read God's word from Acts chapter 14.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

Begin reading in verse 21.

And when they had preached the gospel in 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 to them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia, and when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Atalia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had fulfilled.

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.

Let's pray together.

God, we thank you for today.

We thank you for this opportunity that we have now to open your word.

God, we pray that through your word and by your word and because of your word, our lives will be eternally changed.

God, we ask you that you enlighten our hearts to how you have revealed yourself to us today.

Jesus, it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So again, how did Paul and Barnabas strengthen the church?

Well, there's two major things that we see them doing today.

First is they returned to the church plants.

They returned to the churches that they had begun on this missionary endeavor.

And let's remember, let's take a moment, though, to reflect on what has happened in their lives, especially just back in verses 19 and 20.

And in verses 9, or even before that, they were in a city called Lystra.

While they were in Lystra, some people from the other towns that they had came, they had been came and stirred up the people in Lystra to the point that they stoned Paul and they presumed him to be dead and drug him outside of the city because they thought he was dead.

And then when believers gathered around Paul, he arose, he got up and went back into Lystra, spent the night, and the very next day he got up and traveled to Derby.

Where we pick up in verse 21 is they are in Derby.

What happens when while they are there is they they preach the gospel, and many disciples come to Jesus, and then after that they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch.

They go back through these places where he had been stoned and threatened to be stoned two other times.

They get up and go back, and the reason for doing this is to strengthen the churches.

We see it right there in verse 22.

Strengthening the souls of the disciples.

So how did they encourage them as they returned back?

What did they do when they returned to the church planets?

Well, first they strengthened the souls of the disciples.

John MacArthur in his commentary, he talks about how strengthening the souls of the disciples means that they were strengthening, actually, the disciples.

We see this idea, we see this word throughout the book of Acts.

Even a little bit later down in verse 37 of chapter 15.

We see that it says, now Barnabas wanted that's I'm in the wrong.

We see it also in Acts 18, verse 23.

Acts 18:23

In Acts 18, verse 23, he says this, after spending some time there, he departed and went from one place to the next through the region of Galatia and Fergia, strengthening all the disciples.

Acts 18:23

Then in verse, in chapter 20 of Acts, verses 31 through 32, Paul says this, and from among your own, Acts 20, verses 31 through 32, he says, Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease, night or day, to admonish everyone with tears.

Acts 20:31–32

Night and day for three years.

He admonished everyone with tears.

And now as he's leaving, he says, and now I commend to you, to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

See, understand what Paul and Barnabas are trying to do.

They are not trying, they are not simply trying to make converts to Christianity.

Their goal is not to just lead someone in a simple prayer, and through that simple prayer, all of a sudden, okay, great, you're a believer now.

It's all done, it's all over.

That's not what they're trying to do.

Go back to even when they were in Derby.

What did it say?

When they had made many disciples.

What they are trying to do as they go back, and now, as they go back through these cities, as they go back to Lystria, as they go back to Lystria, as they go back to Iconium, as they go back to Antioch, the goal is to go back to those places, to those people who had believed and to encourage them, to strengthen them, to help them to become disciples, not just converts.

See, the call on us, the call for us is not to just say a prayer and say, okay, I'm going to heaven and nothing else changed about us.

The call on our lives is to become disciples of Christ.

Go and make disciples of all nations.

So as we are going to make disciples, when I was a student minister in Crystal Springs, I used to tell my students this all the time: it is really hard for you to make a disciple of Christ if you are not a disciple of Christ.

The goal for us, the challenge for us, what will you see Paul and Barnabas doing is following up.

Making sure the people who had who had accepted Christ, who had turned to faith in Christ, were becoming disciples of Christ.

We must be strengthening the souls.

Strengthening the souls of the disciples, challenging them, helping them to grow, helping them to strengthen their faith.

That's what you see Paul and Barnabas doing here.

The next thing you see them doing, besides just strengthening the souls of the disciples, again, back in verse 22 of chapter 14, he says, encouraging them to continue in the faith.

The second thing we see them doing, we see in them strengthening the souls of the disciples, and then we're seeing them encouraging them to continue.

Now there's two things that we see them trying to get them to continue to do.

First of all, we see them encouraging them to continue in the faith.

We've talked about this.

If you'll remember back to Acts chapter 13, uh when Paul is in Antioch and he preaches that great message in chapter 13 to the people there in the synagogues in Antioch.

Acts 13 · chapter mention

And as he does that, it says in verse 43 of chapter 13, after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.

If you remember, we talked about this.

We spent some time talking here and talking about what they are talking about.

What is the concern here to continue in the faith?

Well, the concern is not that people would lose their salvation.

That's not the concern.

We see throughout other places of Scripture that once we have placed our faith in Christ, that can't be taken away from us.

Jesus even says, You are my sheep and you are in my hand, and nobody, not even you, can pluck you out of his hand.

And in Hebrews, he talks about how we are once and for all saved for all time.

So he's not talking about losing our salvation here.

What he's talking about is believing is people who claim to be believers who never were.

We read it when we were there out of 1 John, how he says they went out from us, but they were not of us.

See, the the perseverance, the continuing in the faith, even in times of tribulation and in hard times, the continuing in the faith to the end is the mark of a true believer.

How do we know?

Listen, I'm not the judge.

I can't look at you and say, he's a believer, she's not, she is, he's not.

I can't do that.

I'm not the judge, I'm not to, I'm not, I can't.

But he gives us signs and he gives us markers of what a believer looks like.

One is they bear fruit.

Another mark of the believer is they continue in the faith until the end.

They never leave.

Those who lose their salvation, the question is not did they lose their salvation?

The question is they weren't ever believers.

The mark of a believer is to continue in the faith.

And so what they are doing as they are going back and traveling into these cities is they are making sure they are following up that the faith that they declared is a real faith, that it is a true faith, that they can then continue in the faith as a mark of a believer.

They're going and encouraging them to do so.

Not only are they encouraging them to continue in the faith, they are encouraging them to continue through tribulations.

Look at the end of verse 22.

And saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

I want it to be easy.

I I want it to be, okay, I pledge my life to God.

Let's go, let's just walk down this easy path.

That's never been the promise.

Jesus warned his disciples back in John chapter 16, verse 33.

John 16:33

He said, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world, you will have tribulation.

But take heart.

I have overcome the world.

In this world, we are going to face tribulation.

In this world, we are going to face trials.

In this world, we are going to face hard times.

In this world, we are going to face death.

In this world, we are going to face opposition.

In this world, we are going to face numerous things that are not easy.

But the encouragement of Jesus, but take heart.

I have overcome all of these things.

What Paul and Barnabas were doing as they traveled back through these towns is they are encouraging those who had come to faith in Christ to continue on through sufferings.

Even Jesus told them that they would go through them.

Paul.

Paul does it as well.

We made reference to the military language throughout Scripture in 2 Timothy as he is writing to a young Timothy who is pastoring, who has come up, who has been discipled by Paul.

In 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 3, he says this to Timothy Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 2:3

Share in suffering.

Because Paul knows for Timothy there is going to be suffering.

There is going to be tribulations.

There are going to be trials.

But he is admonishing him, encouraging him to continue on through the suffering.

James.

In James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

As he is writing to Christians who have been spread throughout the world, do you know why they have been spread throughout the world?

Persecution.

They've been run away, run out of their hometowns.

It was called the dispersion.

They had been dispersed throughout the world because of their beliefs, because they were followers of Jesus Christ.

They had been spread all throughout the world.

And in the beginning of his letter to these believers, in the very beginning, chapter 1, verse 2, he says this, Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Paul says you are going to, James says you are going to face persecution, but as you do, count at all joy, because God is going to use the trials and the tribulations and the persecutions and the suffering that we go through.

God is going to use all of those things to grow us, to make us stronger, to make us lacking nothing.

Mature in the faith.

So as we face those times.

Woe is me.

Why me?

James tells us.

It's in those moments that we need to count at joy.

Knowing that Christ has overcome the world.

And he will use these things to make us stronger.

Paul and Barnabas are traveling back through these towns to remind them of these things.

Strengthening them in the faith.

Encouraging them to continue in the faith through tribulations.

They also, as they returned to these town, returned to these cities, committed leaders to the Lord.

Listen to verse 23.

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.

Now there's some debate about what this looks like and what this means.

Did who who committed the elders?

Was it Paul and Barnabas?

Or what who who picked the elders?

Who appointed them?

Was it Paul and Barnabas?

Was it the congregation?

Was it all the it's not clarified here?

We know this.

We know that there were elders who were appointed.

But we also know this that what he says for them to do with these elders is this.

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.

Understand this.

And look, I'll preach to myself for just a moment.

Listen, while I understand the nature of that the church called me here, that you called me here.

You had a search team, you put it together, they came to me, we went through the interview process, the team felt good to present me to the church.

We presented to the church, I preached, you voted, DeSoda Hills called me.

Okay, and while I understand that, I get that.

At the same time, I need you to know this God called me to DeSoda Hills.

And while I understand that there is some accountability, there is accountability that I must hold with you.

There is that.

And I'm going to have to hold that with him greater than what I hold with you.

And so what he is telling them here, and what they must do, is they commit these leaders not to the church, they commit them to the Lord in whom they have believed.

Let me ask you a question.

Do you trust God?

Do you trust him in every aspect?

Do you trust him that he placed me here, that he placed David and Laura here?

Do you trust him that he called us here to lead us, to lead you?

Do you trust him that he called us?

Do you believe?

Do you trust him?

Now look, I know that I'm not perfect.

I am a man and I need some accountability from you.

I understand that.

And I'm not trying to make light of that.

But I'm also saying, do you believe and trust God is doing the same thing?

That He is holding me accountable.

And that I am answering to Him.

If so, what they did and what we need to be doing is committing to prayer and fasting for our leaders.

They went back strengthening the church because they knew that godly leadership would lead them well.

Finally, not finally, but we see them also as they returned through these church, these places, speaking the word.

In verse 24, it says they passed from through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia.

When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went to Atalia, and from there they sailed to Antioch.

Now, as they came back through these places, Pamphylia and Perga and Atalia.

What we've seen that they've been there, but there's no evidence necessarily that in those places they spoke the word.

So to not leave anything undone as they traveled back to Antioch in Syria, as they were going back to these places, guess what they did?

They spoke the word.

They spoke the word.

Listen, if we are going to strengthen people, if we are going to make an impact on the world around us, listen, it's not going to be my opinion or your opinion that changes anything.

It's not going to be my strategy or your strategy that changes anything.

It's not going to be my acceptance or my rejection of anything that's going to change the world.

It is only going to be God, and He has revealed Himself through the Word of God.

And so what we must be doing is speaking the Word of God in all of these places.

As they went through, they spoke the word of God as they traveled through all these towns.

How did Paul and Barnabas strengthen the church?

They returned to church plants.

But then we see them this morning returning to their sending church.

As you come to verse 26, they sail from there to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled.

Do you remember back in chapter 13?

Do you remember back in chapter 13 when the Holy Spirit sent Paul and Barnabas out in verses 2 and 3 it says this, while they were worshiping, that's the church in Antioch, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them.

Then after fasting and praying, they laid hands on them and sent them off.

I need you to see it again.

I don't want us to make light of this.

I need you to see it.

Who sent them?

The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit called them.

What the church did after the Holy Spirit came alongside of them was come alongside of them and pray and fast for them.

And now what's happening is Paul and Barnabas is coming back to this church.

And what they do as soon as they get back, it says that they gather this church together, this church that had commended them to the Lord.

They gathered them together, and here's what they did: they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

They declared not all that they had done, all that God had done through them.

Listen, that is an important task.

To be reminded of what God is doing.

How God is working.

It is encouragement to us, it is helpful to us to see that.

And so what they are doing to strengthen this church is to remind them and declare to them how God is working.

Church, we need to take some time to do that.

Individuals, you need to take some time to stop because we can get so overwhelmed of all the negativity, and we can get so overwhelmed of all the on all the problems.

But what we need to do is we need to stop and see how God is working and see what God has done.

So again, here's the challenge for us.

First, be strengthened.

Grow in your faith.

Get into God's word.

Grow in your faith by continuing in the faith, by continuing through struggles, by committing our leaders and committing even ourselves, committing them to God by prayer and fasting.

We need to grow in our faith and be strengthened by speaking the word of God.

We need to strengthen ourselves and grow.

But then we also need to strengthen.

We need to be disciples of Christ.

Who are helping to make other disciples by encouraging them in the faith, by encouraging them through struggles, by committing to pray for them in prayer and fasting, by speaking the word of God to them.

Are we doing that?

Listen, we've got to do that as a church.

The only way we can do that as a church is if you are doing that as an individual.

My challenge to you is to do that.

Listen, as we are about to enter into a time of invitation, here's what we're inviting you to do.

First of all, you can't do this.

Just as I told my students, you can't make disciples if you are not a disciple of Christ.

So let me tell you how to do that.

Let me speak the word of God to you.

We are lost and we are sinners separated from God, dead in our trespasses and sins.

But God sent Jesus, his Son, who came and walked on this earth and lived a perfect life, and who died on the cross, taking the punishment of my sin, taking the punishment of your sin upon himself.

He died on the cross, he was buried, and three days later he arose.

And in the resurrection, now he proclaims and declares and has victory over our sin and victory over death.

So that now when we trust in him, we are no longer dead in our trespasses and sins.

But God has made us alive and brought us into a new life with him.

So now that we can walk with him, so now we can continue in the faith.

Now we can continue through strugglings.

Now we can speak the word of God.

Now he can make more disciples like us.

And if you have never trusted Christ this morning as your Savior, as we sing this invitation, we invite you to come.

If you have.

But this morning, you are not being strengthened.

You're not walking and doing these things that they encouraged believers to do.

I challenge you this morning to commit to those things.

Maybe this morning you're not making disciples.

Hear who Paul and Barnabas was encouraging to do this.

Not the apostles and not just the leaders, the congregations to make disciples.

We must be doing that.

And if you're not, I challenge you this morning to commit to doing that.

I'm going to pray for us.

We're going to stand and sing.

If you have a decision to make, we invite you to come.

Let's pray.

God, we love you.

I thank you for today, and I thank you for how you love us.

God, you have been so good to us.

Throughout history, you have been working.

And you have brought us here for this moment.

So, God, I pray that we will not let this moment pass us by.

For those who need to trust in you the first time, I pray that today will be the day of salvation.

For those who need to commit to you to grow in their faith, I pray that they will do that.

For those who need to commit to helping grow other people in their faith, to make disciples.

God, help us to do that.

Give us the faith that we need to make the decisions we need to make now.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotohills.com.