Stoned and Standing : Witness, Suffering, and the Cost of the Mission | Bill Dogterom

You're listening to GARDEN CHURCH Podcast. We're in a series called Church on Fire, a journey to the book of Acts. This is the story of ordinary people filled with the spirit carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of the world. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set on fire for his mission.

Well, good morning. Happy July 4 if it's not too late. Yeah? Everybody have a good fourth? Yeah.

I'm I'm I'm originally from Canada. You people do things like really big here. You may not know this, Canada Day is July 1 And this year, at least one of the provinces, my hometown province, Alberta, is deciding whether it wants to leave the country, because they have felt the federal government has been taking their rich resources for far too long and not representing them adequately and accurately. One nation under god, are we? Undivided, indivisible.

Boy, we're sure putting that to the test this year, aren't we? So a red hat MAGA walks into church, sits right next down to a democratic socialist, Right behind him singing far too loud is a brown skinned advocate for immigrants rights. Sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it's the reality of the body of Christ. And here's the challenge that we can all quickly and readily and you maybe were waiting for me to get to your category, but I gotta get back to h b, so where we find ourselves placed, right, and here's the deep tragedy, some of us will identify more with those labels than we do with the lordship of Jesus. And to the degree that we do, the church's voice is not just muted, it is weaponized against the kingdom, against the kingdom.

Now take those ways of knowing and understanding yourselves and turn I like this. I can get my steps in today. Turn turn that up to volume 11 and put a smear of religious superiority over the top of it and you have the first century church. Jews who have been for centuries told that they are God's people with the rights and privileges appertaining thereto. What they didn't understand was that the rights and privileges including being a blessing to the nations, that part was secondary and replaced by the idea that we are precious, we are specific, we are special.

The rules of other engagements don't apply to us. Right? And and and particularly then the sense of lordship of of, excuse me, of of dominion over the Gentiles who who, aren't aren't aren't aren't aren't aren't aren't aren't to the party. They're they're not included. And and so as we as we land this kind of first travelogue for the first missionary journey of Paul, it's gonna be three and a half in total.

But this one, he's he's he's made his way from, Syrian Antioch up through Cyprus, up into the Asia Minor, just bumping his head on the southern part of Europe and now making his way down. I remember last week he was left in a bloody pile outside the city and the disciples gathered around him, prayed, apparently we don't know, Luke doesn't tell us what they were doing. They were just gathering around, maybe making funeral arrangements. We don't we don't know. But the outcome of whatever it was that he got back up and went back into town, which is just nuts.

I mean, what? Right? And then left town with Barnabas and went to Derby right on the border of the land that they are the, province that they had decided to to serve him. And this is this is this is where we are this morning. He's made his way to Derby, and as a result of that, we have begun to see the kind of the stirring of the pot.

Right? There are there are are many people who are accepting and receiving with great gladness the good news that God fearers become Jews who who who who for the first time understood that they actually belong and are part of what God is doing. They're not kind of redheaded stepchildren brought in that is sitting at the kids table. They are actually they are actually included in the community. Right?

And then right next to them are the Gentiles for whom this has been the good news that God has sought to to to give to them since Abram was called in the first place. This is You guys You you belong too. You're you're you're you're you're not a Everybody's adopted into this family. Everybody. Even those who thought that they belonged actually are included in the new thing that God is doing as well.

Well, of course, this is going to tick off the people whose whose power, whose privilege, whose prestige, whose is dependent on keeping things the way they were. And there is nothing more damaging than religious jealousy, than spiritual jealousy. Especially if you believe that God is on your side. The question is never, brothers and sisters, is God on our side? The only question is, are we on his side?

Are we with him? Not is he with us, are we with him in what he is doing? And and this tension, this religious jealousy, erupted in violence. We saw it last week. Right?

And this is not the last time and it's and it certainly wasn't the first. Some of it's just verbal and oppositional. Now it started to become physical. Right? I'm not centered.

Okay. There we go. Equal balance left and right, know. So here they are in Derby and look at what he says, verse 21 chapter 14, they preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, 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 then appointed, elders for them in each church and with prayer and fasting committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust. Then after going back through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia when they had preached the word in Perga, went down to Italia and from Italia they sailed back to Antioch which they had been, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. And on arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles and then they stayed there a long time with the disciples. So we're we're we're watching Paul's missionary journey with Barnabas, they've had some tension with with one of the their their coworkers who who have, for Paul's perspective, abandoned ship, and and so it's been it's been an an interesting interesting travelogue.

Right? As we've as we've gone through the story. And now they're in Derby and notice just this now Luke is just almost short handing the story. They large number of disciples were one. A large number of what?

Oh. Not converts, not believers, not people who can pass the doctrinal test, but people who have said, my being a gentile, my being a Jew, my being a red hat, my being a progressive is no longer my primary identification. My primary identification is apprenticeship to Jesus. I wanna learn how to live my life as he would if he were me. That's what a disciple is.

That's what a disciple is and and and Paul and Barnabas are not interested in a show of hands. They're interested in people who repent, who turn and live a different way as a result of the impact of the gospel. The kingdom comes as people not just believe the right things, but on the basis of that belief, trust not just in Jesus, but trust Jesus. Right? It's not just believing, what he says, it's it's it's living it out, on the on the foundation regardless of what what happens and and and stuff is gonna happen.

Things are gonna be challenging in in in this season. So they they are are are winning a large number of disciples, then they return to Lystra, Iconium, Antioch strengthening the disciples. Again, this is and maybe because this is my life's work for the last thirty years, but I wanna underline that. We have we have I think sometimes in the church we preach a disciple less gospel, that that that there's no actual intention of following Jesus across the street, much less letting him tell me what to do with my money. Why in the world would I ever do that?

Or or speaking to my sexuality or talking about my relationships or talking about how I should live with integrity on the stock market floor or how how I should manage that difficult employee or employer that I'm with. No. No. No. Jesus, you stay in your lane.

I'll I'll visit you in your house on on Sunday when I get around to it. But Monday through that's and and Jesus is not gonna have any of that. The kingdom is not going to come through these kinds of of of shallow, easy believism. And so the the disciples, Paul and Barnabas, excuse me, the apostles as they're making their way now and and encouraging the church as as these folks have have jumped in and and started to join in and now they've gotta figure out how are we gonna do this? How are we gonna live life together?

This is this is just crazy. When you think about the the the old ways, I mean, was it was a reliable system that they grew up in. Paul is writing letters by this time also. He's within this next couple of years, he's been on tour with Barnabas for year and a half to two years, maybe a little bit longer. When he gets back to Antioch, he's gonna be caring for the churches with letters, he's gonna be writing them and one of the things that he's gonna write to these people is that your previous ways of understanding yourselves are now irrelevant.

Jew, Gentile, gone. You cannot use that as a primary Oh, here's another one, male, female. It's not that those disappear, it's that in terms of the kingdom, they're irrelevant. The holy spirit can gift whomever he wants to do whatever it is he wants them to do. This is the nature of the gospel.

This is the nature of it and our and and and and and we buy into that or not is lot important. We don't actually get a vote on that as it turns out. And here's one that really messed messed them up, slave and free. Can you imagine coming to church on a Sunday morning and the elder who is caring for you is a person you own as a member of your household slave staff. Can you imagine the social disruption that is represented by those extremes?

Paul chooses those three very categories very carefully when he's writing that. So here he is writing to the church and saying, you know, this is what it means to be disciples and and recognizing that that will mean they're gonna have some challenging times. They're gonna need to be encouraged and I think Barnabas probably had something to do with that given that's his nature and his name. So there, here they are going back through. Remember, these people have only been in the kingdom for ten or fifteen minutes.

I mean, maybe a year and a half, right? Two years, some of them. I mean, it's just it's just like, this is just nuts as you think about this because we we, you you have been around the block a few times. I know the routine, the rhythm. These folks did not know the routine and the rhythm.

They didn't know where they're supposed to sit. They don't know the songs to sing. They're learning everything, brand new. They're trying to figure it out. And and in the middle of all of this, Paul thinks, Barnabas thinks they need to be they need to be encouraged, they need to be built up, they need to be challenged so they make their way back through their their And here's how they encourage them.

Guys, it's gonna suck. It's gonna be really tough. You're gonna have some hardships here. You're gonna go through some tough times. Please notice, not pray for a miracle.

They'll come as needed and we want to be a congregation that and it lives with anticipation. Yeah. We wanna be a congregation that prays for healing. We wanna look at that, but we also wanna be a people who are faithful through the hardship of prayer that was answered no. Right?

We wanna be we wanna be a community of people who don't tap out when it gets challenging or difficult with a neighbor that we have to forgive or seek forgiveness from. You're gonna have some hardships. There's three major categories. The first one is the one that we normally think of, that is the hardships that come at us from the outside. People who who and you can imagine the social upheaval, we're gonna see it more and more as we work through the book of acts because this is a major disruption.

You wanna talk revival? Has nothing to do with what happens in here on Sunday morning. Happens with how you choose to spend your money in the marketplace on Monday morning and the merchants who used to become wealthy because of your irresponsible use of money are gonna start to rebel because revival has come. Right? The the the Wait a minute.

What My income stream has dropped way down here. Why? Well, people became Christians. They're not buying idols anymore. Oh, gee.

What can we do about that? Let's put those people in prison. So you you see the you see the you see the challenges from the outside. Right? Those aren't gonna be the most problematic challenges, the most challenging hardships.

The tensions between the brothers and sisters in the community, the hardships that exist through the rubbing on metal on metal rubbing with brothers and sisters that we disagree with people that we can't come to terms with, with people who are dead set in their rightness and they're dead set in their rightness and now their rightnesses are colliding. Right? And there's no there's no wiggle room. There's no there's no room. Right?

There's gonna be hardships with and and not not just that, there's gonna be heresy, there's gonna be a false prophet, there's gonna be people who are gonna leverage the gospel for the sake of their financial income, there there there anybody been hurt by the church? Two or three? That's not bad for a crowd this side. Here's a better question. Anybody hurt the church?

I have. This is why I'm saying, guys, there's gonna be hardships. Don't don't tap out. Don't quit. Don't get People are gonna do stupid things in Jesus name and so are you.

So so so don't quit. Don't don't don't give up. Keep pressing in. Right? And then of course, there's the really the hardest places where the hardships are gonna come and that's with the battle that takes place in here.

Yeah. Where Jesus says, can we talk about that? That anger, that lust, that that that resentment, that unforgiveness, can we talk about that? And our response to the lord of lords and the king of kings is, no. We can't talk about that.

How dumb. How dumb. But the hardships, and and by the way, those ones are much more difficult to deal with than the other two. And the church will not be taken down by the hardships from the outside. It will be taken down by the hardships at the second layer and more particularly, weakened to the point of irrelevance by our failure to do the hard work from the inside out.

That's why the language of discipleship is so important. Jesus has to have say over your money, he has to have say over your relationships, he has to have say over all. If he's not Lord of all, he's not Lord at all. Right? And so Paul is encouraging the folks that double down, press into this, This beloved community of yours is gonna be challenging and difficult to be within.

Don't quit. Don't tap out. Stay in the game. All of the things that are are necessary here. Sometimes you get a miracle in response to to to a deep need you have and other times you don't.

Don't let the miracles, either the longing for them or the lack of them, undo your faithfulness. Stay in the game. Stay in the game. Live with expectancy but not expectation. Expectations are a recipe for disappointment.

Expectancy opens our eyes to what God might be doing in the challenge, the difficulty, the pain. Right? The the things that go sideways with with us and how we respond to them because that by the way is gonna be by far the most prominent place of witness to your neighbors. How do you handle a pink slip? How do you handle a diagnosis that was other than what you had expected?

How do you handle a kid who's gone sideways? How do you handle, all of the things that everybody else has to face? In Jesus name. How do you handle them in Jesus name? That's what a disciple is about.

Yeah? So Paul is encouraging them in this and then it says in verse 23, Paul and Barnabas then appointed elders for them in each church with prayer and fasting. Now just remember again, remember what I said, these people have been in the kingdom for ten or fifteen minutes, year and a half, two years maybe. Elders? What is an elder?

Short answer, somebody who's elding. That is somebody who and because it's a technical term. They These Jewish believers would have recognized this. They've had elders in their community. They know people who are caring for the community, who are who are checking in on the widows, who are caring for the orphans, who are are looking after the disenfranchised, who are making sure people have a seat at the table, who are visiting the sick in the hospital, who are who are are are are are caring for folks along the Those are the elders, not the position they occupy, but the person they are.

Right? And out of that there is a recognition, oh yeah, you're an elder so I'm appointing you as an elder. You don't become an elder when you get the business card. You're an elder whether you have an official appointment or not, right, and and are working that out. So they just wanna recognize, yeah, there's some folks here who we are now officially asking to step back from the front lines of ministry and serve those who are on the front lines.

Those are called pastors. Right? Because everybody else is on the front line. Right? It only takes 15 to 20% of the people who go to a church to run the thing.

Let me say that again. It only takes between 1520% of the people who go to a church to run the thing, to do all of the volunteers, to do all of the things and this is a great community, God bless you all, but 80% of you have gifts given to you by the Holy Spirit not for use in the church but for use as the church in the world. That's where the kingdom is needing to come. That's where dark confronts light. Right?

As you stand before your classroom of preschoolers, you stand in Jesus name confronting the darkness that is in the heart of that two year old. And why is this important? Because that's where the gospel needs to go. Amen. This isn't the main event.

This is this is this is a launching pad and it's a hospital. It's a it's a it's a seminary. It's a place of learning and developing, but the more programmatic stuff we do as a community here and we need to do it, we need to do stuff. This is part of our discipling. I get it.

I get it. I get it. But don't ever think that showing up at the courses and being here on Sunday, etcetera, ticks all the boxes. This is preparatory and if it doesn't work its way out in how you treat people on Monday morning or at the restaurant after church today, what what what are you doing? So he's appointing elders to encourage, to challenge, to support them in in in in in the work and with prayer and fasting, he does the scariest thing possible.

He commits them to the Lord. Now just think about this. These are newbies. These are babies in Christ. Many of them.

These are people who have not resolved the issues. These are people in whom on any given Sunday morning you you you could have an argument about just about anything you These are these are folks who are living in tension and he's he's trusting them to the Lord. He's committing Paul and Barnabas really trust the Holy Spirit to do the work that even good teaching can't do. Right? So they commit them to the lord.

They are trusting them, placing them into the lord's hands because if god doesn't do this, it's not gonna get done. We don't know how to build the church. We know how to get crowds. Well, we don't know how to build a church. Jesus knows how to do that.

So why not and and it's like, well, wait, did they get their doctrine right? Paul doesn't care. I'm guessing they got a lot of it wrong based on the letters of the New Testament. Anybody else grateful the early church was so messed up that we had to have all of these letters? Not this but this.

Yeah. They got they they got they got a lot, an awful lot wrong. And Paul has committed them to the Lord. He really trusts the Holy Spirit. And I gotta be honest, as a classical Pentecostal, I grew up in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, came down here to the Assemblies of God, I've been a Pentecostal my entire life.

I don't trust the holy spirit as much as Paul did. I'm trying. I'm I'm trying to learn because I finally realized that if we don't, the game's up anyway. But but but but I think they could use my help. You know?

So here they are because they're not gonna They may never see any of these people again. They trust them to the lord in whom they had put their trust. Doesn't this sound an awful lot by the way like parenting? Get your kid up to 12 or 13, 14, then you gotta trust them to the Lord because you're pretty much done by that time, parenting. You dedicated them maybe when they were kids, that's what Paul's doing here.

He's taking these infant disciples and placing them in the hands of the one who loves them most. And then after going through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia, back to preach the word in Perga and and Luke is noticeably quiet on what happened in Perga. Historically, it's likely nothing much happened in Perga. It was one of those shake the dust off your feet towns historically. We don't know that for sure, but they go down then to Italian and finally end up back in Antioch where they give testimony of what happened on their missions trip.

Remember this is a community that supported them, who had listened to the language, who had committed them to the grace of God for the work now completed. The full circle, they brought them all back to this place and on arriving there, they gathered the church together and told them what God had done and specifically how he had opened the door, slammed it wide open for the inclusion of the Gentiles, and then they stayed there a long time until they were sent on mission again. What do I wanna leave you with this morning? I felt particularly in praying into this that some of you are at the place where the hardships are becoming heavy, where staying true to Jesus is damaging your relationship, where staying true to Jesus is starting to impinge on your income stream, where staying true to Jesus is just beginning to peek around the corner of that anger, bitterness, and resentment that you have warmed your hands at for a long time. And Jesus is essentially saying to you, can we talk about this?

You're gonna have hardship. Some of you have actual hardship from people outside, families that showed up yesterday in conversations you were having with people who cannot understand for the life of them why you have committed yourself to the cause of Christ. It's okay. Don't quit. Don't Some of you are bored in the following of Jesus and are thinking, I signed up for the fireworks.

This is this is like normal. Yep. Yep. Yep. Don't tap out.

This is this is what a hardship looks like. You got lots of miracles at the beginning, not so much lately. Now what are you gonna do? Don't quit. Don't tap out.

Keep pressing in. Keep pressing on. Keep being filled with the Holy Spirit. Keep leaning in to what God is doing in and through and with you. Remember how you got here.

Be encouraged and don't quit, don't give up. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank you for the privilege of this place, of this time, of this season, for the work that you are doing just astonishing, oh lord. But help us to realize that renewal, revival, the wonder that we are seeing here in this place, in this community has some real life implications in how we treat our spouses, how we treat our kids and parents, how we treat our neighbors, our coworkers. We want to not just be believers in Jesus, we want to be disciples of Jesus. We wanna let you, Lord, determine the values and priorities of our lives knowing that that will bring some challenges, some from the outside, most from the inside. And I pray for courage in those things, oh God, to press in with faith and faithfulness. In Jesus name, amen.

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