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What could make a weary man fight for fifty-five years to end a powerful empire’s slave trade? How does a preacher, left for dead under a pile of stones, stand up and walk back into the city that just tried to kill him? In this gripping message from Acts 14, Pastor Mark Hudson details the three indispensable qualities God forged into both William Wilberforce and the apostle Paul, qualities that every believer desperately needs if we are to finish our race well.
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LearningTranscript
00:00Some of you may recognize the name William Wilberforce. He was in the British Parliament
00:05in the late 1700s, 1790s actually. And his main calling, he's a believer, his main calling he felt
00:12was to eradicate slavery in Britain. So to get a law passed that slavery would be against the law
00:18in Britain. So he was fighting really hard and he had been fighting already 10 years in the
00:23Parliament. And my understanding is every year they're allowed to stand up and give a speech
00:26and he would stand up and give a speech about abolishing slavery in England and they would
00:30just laugh at him. Oh, laugh at him. He was a hoot. He thought he was funny as can be. Just completely
00:36ignored him for 10 years. And Carol Porter was telling this story. She said that he was tired
00:42and he was frustrated. So he sat down and opened up his Bible and this piece of paper fell out of
00:47the Bible. And he thought, huh, what's that? And he reached down and grabbed it. It was a note written
00:51to him from John Wesley. You've probably recognized that name, John Wesley, the famous preacher.
00:56It was a note that John Wesley had written to him prior to Wesley's death. And this is what
01:02what Robelfurst read it again. And this is what the note said.
01:06Unless the divine power has raised you up, I see not how you can go through your glorious
01:11enterprise in opposing that abominable practice of slavery, which is the scandal of religion of
01:17England and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn
01:22out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God before you, who can be against you?
01:29Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God
01:36and in the power of his might. And Wilberforce continued on for 45 more years to get slavery
01:44abolished in Britain. Talk about courage. He stood up against people who owned other people and had an
02:00economic and a financial gain in owning other people. Talk about wisdom to know how to go about
02:07getting a law established in a nation to begin with and the perseverance to go 55 years to get
02:15what he what God had laid on his heart. And that was the abolition of slavery in England. So we see
02:20in him courage and wisdom and perseverance. And you know, that's exactly what you and I need as well
02:27as we walk this walk. We need courage to do the right thing when society says no, this is the way
02:34that it is. And we're going, no, that's not what God has said. It takes courage to stand up against
02:39everyone else. It takes wisdom to know how to address people when we're talking to them. How do
02:44we address one that doesn't know anything about the Bible or one who has a knowledge about how do we
02:49need wisdom? And when we talk to people and perseverance, because you know, as well as I do,
02:54you may tell someone 50 times about the gospel and the 51st time they believe the gospel message.
03:00It just takes perseverance. And in the text today in Acts chapter 14, we're going to see this same
03:07thing, this idea of courage and wisdom and perseverance in Paul and Barnabas. And what we
03:12see is that obedience to God requires courage, perseverance, and wisdom. Takes that and we're
03:19going to see it displayed in the life of Paul and Barnabas here as they're traveling, as they're
03:25completing their first missionary journey. So you look up here at this graph, we've already been
03:30talking about this. This is their first missionary journey. They left Antioch and Syria, that's Paul
03:34and Barnabas, traveled to Cyprus by boat, traveled up to Perga, landed, went up, and we saw them in
03:40Antioch and Pisidia last time. And now they're moving on to Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, and then
03:45they're going back. And that's why the title, They're Back Again. So we'll complete the first
03:49missionary journey. We'll read about some of their experiences about courage and wisdom and
03:54perseverance in the text today here. So if you open up your Bibles or your biblical device,
04:00whichever the case may be, Acts chapter 14, we want to look at it together. This is God's
04:05words. We want to look at it together. We're going to see exactly what's taking place now as
04:10they complete this first missionary journey. So verse number one, now at Iconium, they entered
04:16together into the Jewish synagogue, which remember that was their practice. So they came into an area,
04:20they went to a Jewish synagogue first and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and
04:26Greeks believed. So the power of God was evident and people were getting saved, both Jews and Gentiles,
04:33Jews and Gentiles. But the unbelieving Jews, the ones that just would not believe that Jesus was a
04:38Messiah, of whom he came from the Jewish race, by the way, who wouldn't believe that Jesus was a
04:43Messiah, stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds. What a phrase. Poisoned their minds
04:51against the brothers. Like putting a poison in their mind to get them to think about people differently.
04:57Poisoned their mind against the brothers. So they remained for a long time. That takes
05:02courage and perseverance, even though their people are angry at them, speaking boldly or freely or
05:09powerfully for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to
05:16be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews and some with
05:22the apostles. And when an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers, in other words,
05:28the political leaders of the city, to mistreat them and to stone them, to kill them, picture that,
05:34to kill them. They learned of it and fled to Lustre and Derbe, cities of Laconia, and to the
05:41surrounding country. And there they continued to preach the gospel. Now, you would think someone's
05:46trying to kill you and say, I'm packing this thing up. I'm out. No, that takes courage to continue on.
05:51Whoever said Christians are weaklings is wrong. It takes courage to stand with the truth when the
05:57rest of the world says, no, no, that's not true. I'm not living that way. And we say, yeah, but this is the
06:00way God has designed. This is how he's ordered life. This is the right way to live. No, I don't want to
06:04listen to that. It takes courage and wisdom and perseverance. This city, Iconium, as you'll see
06:12a picture, it's a modern day, it's in Turkey. It's called Kona or Konya today. And you kind of get
06:18an idea geographically where it's located at. All of this Galatia and the Southern Galatian cities are
06:23all in modern day Turkey. So you kind of picture in your mind where it's at right now. This phrase,
06:29they poisoned the mind. You know, I think we've all experienced this before. Somebody poisoning our
06:36minds. Remember in grade school, that new person came to the school and your group of friends said,
06:41oh, they're a bunch of geeks. Yeah, that person is just really stupid. Don't hang around. They smell.
06:46Don't hang around them. And so you just don't hang around them. And then you meet the person for the
06:51first time and you go, you don't smell. You're actually quite a nice guy. I really like you. See,
06:56they try to poison the mind and you started thinking a certain way. When we arrived in Germany,
07:02our senior missionary that we were working with, Keith, he, I asked him about another missionary
07:06family in the country. And so he started telling me, he got about halfway in one sentence and he
07:12stopped and he said, no, I'm not going to say anymore. I don't want to poison your mind against
07:16them. He didn't want me to think something about them, poison them. And so they were, they got in
07:23there and they just started talking. You've seen it probably in your workplace. One group of
07:28employees are poisoning the minds about another employee. We've experienced that. That's what
07:31happened to them. Their minds were poisoned to turn against the apostles here. And the city was
07:37divided. It's half-sided with the Jews and half-sided with the apostles, but it was a, it was a division.
07:42But it says, even though there was a division, they remained a long time. They had perseverance.
07:48They had courage and wisdom and perseverance, and they remained a long time in the city.
07:52What we see here is in this division is that the gospel brings unity and division. It brings unity
08:00and division. See, something we have to come to grips with is that truth divides. It always does.
08:08Truth divides. Remember when Jesus was standing before Pilate, he says, all those on the side of
08:13truth hear my voice. There is a side. Truth divides. You have truth and error. Brings unity and division.
08:21Jesus said this in Luke 12. He said, do you think that I have come to give peace on earth?
08:27No, I tell you, but rather division. Wait a second. I thought Jesus was trying to unite everybody.
08:32He's bringing the truth, and the truth divides.
08:35From now on, in one house, there will be five divided. Three against two, and two against three.
08:42There will be divided father against son, and son against father, mother against daughter,
08:47and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against,
08:51I mean, that's the family, everyone involved. He came to speak truth, and truth divides,
08:56and we have to be okay with that. We're not arrogant when we try to speak the truth. We don't want to do that,
09:01but speaking the truth will just divide. We see that happening. They were unbelieving Jews. They
09:08would not believe the gospel message. They were unwilling to believe it, and that means disobedient.
09:12The word unbelieving means disobedient. It doesn't mean they just didn't believe. They
09:15were disobedient. They say, I will not believe. They were disobedient to the truth.
09:22Faith and obedience go together, just like unbelief and disobedience go together.
09:27You say, really? Well, how is that used in the Bible? In John chapter three, we read this.
09:31Remember, unbelieving means disobedient. John 3, 36, whoever believes in the son,
09:37excuse me, whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey,
09:42that word not obey is the same word that we see here, unbelieving. Unbelieving and disobedience
09:48go hand in hand, whereas faith and obedience go hand in hand. And the son, do not obey the son
09:55shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on them. They just, they just, they were enemies of
10:01the gospel. These Jews, these unbelieving Jews elect for the, well, you read it here in Romans 11.
10:08As regards to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. Most of the Jewish people today are not
10:12believers. They're enemies of the gospel. They do not love Jesus Christ. They don't want to follow
10:17Jesus Christ. They're mad when you tell them about Jesus Christ. But yet, even though they're enemies of
10:24the gospel, look at the next sentence. But as regards election, the choosing where God chose them as a
10:29nation, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and calling of God
10:34are irrevocable. Yeah, at this point, they're enemies of the gospel, but they're still loved of
10:38the father and God has still chosen that nation. And he will work with Israel once again.
10:43Notice that the hostility did not intimidate them. Notice that? In fact, they were even bolder
10:49in their witness. Typically, we witness to somebody and there's resistance, we kind of clam up.
10:54That's not them. There was resistance and they spoke even more freely, even more boldly about
11:00that. What a wisdom that is. You know, no one likes to be put down. And so when they reject
11:06what you're saying, you kind of just, you know, quiet down. Not Paul. He got bolder, freer in his
11:11preaching. And he bore witness, the Lord did, to their preaching by signs and wonders. And he talked
11:18about the word of his grace, his grace, that he has given grace. Gordon McDonald said,
11:26the world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church. You need not be a Christian
11:31to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There's only one thing the world cannot do.
11:37It cannot offer grace. We point people to Jesus whom he gives grace, his favor upon people. The world
11:44cannot offer grace. And he talked about the word of his grace, his favor. Notice in verse 4, and we'll
11:51get down to verse 14. You can jump ahead if you want to look. But 4 and 14, we see that both Paul
11:56and Barnabas are called apostles. Both of them, plural, apostles. So here in verse 14 is the only time
12:04Luke used the term apostle for anyone else other than the 12 disciples. The 12 original ones, well,
12:09the 11, and then the one Matthias that was replacing Judas who hung himself. So we see in the Bible that
12:15the word apostle, the idea of apostle is used in two different ways. One is a very specific way.
12:20Those people who were with Jesus from the time of John's baptism, they saw the crucifixion,
12:26they saw all of his teaching, the crucifixion, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension. Those are
12:30the 12. And then there's a group of people that are called apostles that are commissioned by a local
12:36church and sent out with the gospel message to tell the world. That's another. In fact, in the
12:42Bible, the Bible translators use the word messenger instead of apostle. Here's two instances, 2 Corinthians
12:48and Philippians. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our
12:55brothers, they are messengers. That's the word apostles. So again, sent out from a local assembly to
13:02preach the gospel, commissioned by the local assembly to go preach the gospel.
13:06A messenger of the church is the glory of Christ. And then Philippians 2.
13:10I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and
13:14my fellow soldier and your messenger apostle. Again, that very specific group of people,
13:19the 12 that followed Jesus and saw his ascension. Those are the special groups of apostles. But
13:25almost we could use the word as a missionary, commissioned by God, sent out by a local church to
13:30proclaim the gospel message. It's also used, the word apostle is used in that sense as well.
13:34Here, the text suggests mob violence. They just, you know, been around a mob, they just kind of
13:41ignite and you can't stop it. It just goes. It's mob violence. They want to kill him. So they learn
13:46about their murderer's plot and they then leave the city, which is a wise thing to do. He doesn't do it
13:51in the next place he goes, but here he leaves the city. So now they move on to a new city. Again,
13:57they're trying to complete their arc and then come back again to Antioch of Syria.
14:01So look at verse number eight. So they move out of the city, the Iconium, and they go to Lustre.
14:08Now at Lustre, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and
14:13had never walked. It sounds like the man at the beautiful gate, doesn't it? In Acts, earlier on,
14:17the man at the beautiful gate. Very similar. Peter healed him. Well, God healed him through Peter.
14:22He listened to Paul speaking. So Paul's preaching the gospel, speaking, and Paul looking intently
14:28at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well. So something in his visions, something that
14:33he was looking, Paul could recognize this guy is tracking. He's believing what I'm saying. He
14:38recognized that faith was in this man. He recognized it. So to be made well. And said in a loud voice,
14:45stand up right on your feet. And he sprung up and began walking. Sounds like the guy at the beautiful
14:51gate, actually. And when the crowd saw that Paul, what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices
14:57saying in Laconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas, they called Zeus
15:03and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. Hermes the speaker. And the priests of Zeus, whose temple
15:10was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer
15:16sacrifice with the crowds. So they preach. The city goes, whoa, the gods are among us. And then the
15:22priests from Zeus's temple come to bring oxen to sacrifice, to honor, worship Paul and Barnabas.
15:29Of course, they don't want anything to do with that. So, but when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard
15:36of it, they tore their garments and rushed, they ripped them from top to top down and rushed out
15:42into the crowd crying out, men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of like nature with
15:49you. And we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things, this worship of these,
15:54this pantheon of gods of the Greeks or the Romans to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and
16:01the sea and all that is in them. In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own
16:07ways. In other words, he did not give them a revelation, a direct verbal revelation, like he
16:11gave Israel. He didn't leave himself without a witness, but he didn't give them that revelation
16:15like he gave Israel. Let's see. Yet he did not leave himself without a witness, for he did good by
16:22giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.
16:28Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.
16:35But Jews came from Antioch in Iconium and having persuaded the crowd, they stoned Paul and dragged
16:41him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up
16:47and entered the city. And on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. Wow. Here he's doing
16:57something good and righteous and holy, preaching the good news to the people. And what do they do?
17:03They kill him, or at least they thought they had killed him. There doesn't seem to be a synagogue
17:09here because there's no mention of them coming to a synagogue. So they're speaking to mostly Gentile
17:13people, non-Jewish people. So don't have a great understanding of the Old Testament. So he begins
17:17with God as the creator, which is a great place to begin if people don't know the Bible. Start at the
17:22beginning. God is creator. This man that was lame from birth, like the guy at the beautiful gate,
17:28sprang up and he ran around. And the healing narrative is really very short. There's not
17:32much information about it, but he got healed. He jumped up and was praising God. Again, we see
17:38signs and wonders confirming the word of God spoken by Paul. There's no New Testament to confirm it at
17:43this time. So the Lord gives signs and wonders to say, yeah, he's speaking the truth. Listen to him.
17:47And this man getting healed was definitely a sign. It's definitely a sign. Now you kind of wonder,
17:54why did the people of Lystra, why did they do that? Why would they even think that they should
18:00offer sacrifices to these two? Why did they even think that the gods had come to them? What was it
18:04about their culture or their history that led them to believe this? Glad you asked. John Stott gives
18:12this kind of a background of why they probably behaved the way they did. He said this,
18:17the crowd's superstitious and even fanatical behavior is hard to comprehend, but some local
18:23background throws light on it. About 50 years previously, in other words, so 50 years from this
18:28point back, 50 years previously, the Latin poet Ovid had narrated in his metamorphosis an ancient local
18:35legend. The supreme God, again, Pantheon God, small g God, Jupiter, Zeus to the Greeks,
18:41and his son, Mercury, Hermes, once visited the hill country of Pyregia, which is in this general
18:47location, disguised as mortal men. In their incognito, they sought hospitality but were rebuffed
18:54a thousand times. At last, however, they were offered lodging in a tiny cottage thatched with
19:00straw and reeds from the marsh. Here lived an elderly peasant couple called Philemon and Bacchus
19:05who entertained them out of their poverty. Later, the gods rewarded them, but destroyed by flood the
19:11homes which would not take them in. Ah, it is reasonable to suppose both that the Listerian
19:18people knew the story about their neighborhood and that if the gods to revisit their district again,
19:23they were anxious not to suffer the same fate as what happened before. So that's what they're thinking
19:29probably. Man, they came one time and then they just, he supposedly destroyed everyone by flood.
19:33We don't want to do that again. So they wanted to offer sacrifices to them. But he says, no,
19:38I'm just like you. No, I'm not, I'm not a God. I'm just like you. And he tore his garments.
19:44Remember Herod Antipas? He preached that thing and they said, oh, the voice of a God. And he didn't
19:50say anything about it. Remember what happened? God killed him. They know that story. They don't want
19:55to be, they don't want to be in that same position. So they said, hey, we are not gods.
19:59We're just like you. So he preaches a second mini sermon. It's not really long. It's just
20:04a mini sermon here. But what's interesting is he knew his audience. Knowing his audience,
20:10Paul preaches a mini sermon geared towards Gentiles. They're not Jews. They're not, they
20:14don't understand the Old Testament. They have no knowledge of the Bible. So he begins at a
20:19place that they all understood creation. He talked about God's common grace by giving them
20:25rain and sunshine. Even Jesus talked about this in Matthew 5. Jesus said, but I say to
20:30you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your
20:35father who is in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain
20:41on the just and on the unjust. Thank God for his common grace. That creator, the one that sends
20:47rain, this is the one I'm telling you about. It's him. So he begins the gospel presentation
20:53with God as creator. He doesn't go back to the Old Testament and talk about Abraham,
20:57Isaac, and Jacob. They don't know those stories. So they go back to the beginning
21:01with creation. In times past, the only revelation given to the Gentiles was God's
21:06general revelation of creation. They didn't have anything else. But God did not leave himself
21:10without a witness. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God. So you look up at the heavens.
21:17You say, wow, I don't know. I haven't been lately outside the city and all the light pollution
21:22to a place so you can really see the stars. But you know, if you've been there, you know
21:26what I'm talking about. You just look up there and say, whoa, look at all those stars.
21:31So the heavens declare the glory of God in the sky above, proclaims, speaks his handiwork.
21:38Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. 24-7 creation is speaking about
21:44God. There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through
21:51all the earth and their words to the end of the world. There's no one on the face of the earth,
21:54whether they're in the deepest jungles of South America or Africa or a first world nation
22:00that cannot look at creation and say, oh yeah, there's a God. There has to be a God. There
22:06has to be a God. So no one is without excuse. We can't say, well, I didn't know. Yes, everyone
22:12knows. So he focuses on the creation, the natural world, what they could see. He knew his audience
22:19well, which is important. And that's something that we have to pay attention to. Our audience
22:24is changing in this country. 50 years ago, people had more of a biblical understanding. They may not
22:30have been Christians, but they understood the Bible a little bit. And we can begin with the Bible.
22:34We can't really do that much anymore in our culture. People don't know the Bible at all.
22:38They don't even know who Jesus is. Most of them don't. Chuck Colson was writing about Francis
22:43Schaeffer. I don't know if you've ever read Francis Schaeffer, but he's really good. I like him.
22:46He's a Christian philosopher. Francis Schaeffer urged Christians to practice pre-evangelism,
22:52to dismantle a person's false worldview before presenting the gospel. So a person's worldview
22:58is built on four questions. Where did I come from? Why am I the way that I am? How can I change?
23:06And what happens after I die? The answer to those four questions will tell you what a person's worldview
23:12is. Those four questions. To dismantle a person's false worldview before presenting the gospel.
23:19In today's post-Christian culture, pre-evangelism is more important than ever. We cannot simply begin
23:25with the message of salvation because people no longer understand basic theological terms such as
23:30sin and salvation. Sin? What? Me? No. Salvation? Why do I need to be saved? They don't know those concepts.
23:36So he says we need a little bit of pre-evangelism. We need to go back to the beginning. Go back to the
23:42beginning. There are people in Medical Lake that don't know who Jesus is. They've heard him in a
23:48curse word. They've heard stories about him, but they don't know who he is. They've never had a clear
23:52presentation of the gospel. They don't know. They don't understand sin. They don't understand their
23:57need of salvation. So we need to do a little bit of pre-evangelism first. So how can we do that?
24:03Well, remember those four questions that form a person's worldview. Where did I come from?
24:09Why am I the way that I am? How can I change? And what happens when I die? Those four questions.
24:15So what you and I can do in a culture that we're living that doesn't know the Bible,
24:18we can start at the very beginning. Where did I come from? Creation. We start with creation.
24:24We go back to God creating all things. Again, he's not left himself without a witness. Creation
24:28as a witness. So we speak about creation. So then we ask the question, why am I the way that I am?
24:36And we talk about the fall of Adam and Eve. What changed in the garden and what happened after to
24:42the pair and to all of humanity that followed? So where did I come from? Creation. Why am I the way
24:47that I am? The fall in the garden. How can I change? We tell them about Jesus. Redemption.
24:53A changed heart. A new heart. A changed life. How do I change? The redemption. And the last question
24:59is what happens when I die? We speak about further glorification, the promises of eternal life with
25:03God forever in heaven. But we begin at the beginning now. Talk about creation. Establish that. And then
25:09talk about the fall. What happened to the pair? And then talk about how they can, how can they be
25:13changed? Redemption. And then what happens after they die? Glorification. So he started with this idea of
25:19common grace. That was wisdom on his behalf. They didn't know the Bible. It was wisdom.
25:23He sought to bridge a gap between himself and his hearers. Good. That's good. Remember, God has
25:29never left himself without a witness. God has never left himself without. We see creation as a witness.
25:36God has never left himself without a witness. So creation we saw in Psalm 19, but in Romans
25:42chapter 1, we have something else that speaks about creation. For what can be known about God is plain to
25:49them. It's not hidden. It's not hidden. It's not a mystery. It's plain to them. Well, what does that
25:55mean? Because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and his
26:01divine nature, have been clearly perceived. They're not hidden. It's obvious to anyone who will pay
26:07attention. Ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made in the created order.
26:14So they are without excuse. God has never left himself without a revelation. He's always spoken
26:21either through his written revelation to Israel or his general revelation to the nations.
26:28We're without excuse to say God doesn't exist. Everyone knows. That's why the psalmist says,
26:34the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Why is he a fool? Because everyone knows there's a God.
26:38God. It's plain. It's obvious. The fool says in his heart, there is no God. So whenever we begin
26:45the gospel presentation, it must always end at Jesus. You start with the Old Testament, that's
26:51fine. But you start with creation, that's fine. But it always has to end with Jesus. He is the good
26:54news. It has to come to him. Of course, you can talk about that in the redemption side of it, Jesus.
27:00So they made disciples at Lystra, which means they were faithful in their ministry. They brought
27:06about disciples, the perseverance. You see them working together. And then this mob turns out,
27:12they travel about a hundred miles with one intent to kill Paul. I mean, I can't even get,
27:22you can't even get someone to drive five miles to do something. These guys are willing to travel
27:27100 miles with one intent, and that's to kill Paul. A murderous intent.
27:36And so they said, okay, we got him. Now let's kill him. So they drug him out of the city and
27:41they stoned him with rocks. Now we typically think, oh, they picked up a rock and they kind of threw it
27:46at him or maybe hit him in the head and knocked him out. It's worse than that. What they would do is
27:50they would take you and they would place you at the bottom of a little hill or a mound. And then the top
27:54of the hill or the mound, you're down below normally in a kneeling position. And on the top
27:59of the mound, they would take large rocks and throw them down on you. And if that didn't finish you off,
28:06then they would go down with smaller rocks. And then, you know, they thought you were dead.
28:09And they thought he was dead. They thought he was dead. Luke says, as if he was dead. I don't know if
28:14he died, maybe, but God raised him up. If he did, if he did die, God raised him up and he walked back
28:19into the city. And if he didn't die, it's still a miracle. When you get crushed with all of those
28:25rocks to be able to walk, get up and walk back into a city, that would be a miracle too. So either
28:30way, it's a miracle. God is working a miracle here. Second Corinthians 11, we read this. Three
28:37times I was beaten with a rod. Paul is speaking. Once I was stoned. That's probably this instance right
28:42here. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea. That's this event he's
28:47recording in Second Corinthians for us. Now, some will ask the question, why was Barnabas spared?
28:54I'll give you an answer. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe because Paul was the main speaker.
29:00We don't want to told, but Paul is the only one that they stoned. They didn't stone Barnabas or any
29:05of the other disciples, just Paul. Look at his courage. When somebody throws rocks at me to kill
29:12me, I'm not likely to get back up and go into the city. That doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?
29:17Go back to the same place where they just tried to kill you? But he didn't. He went back into the
29:21city. That's courage. Christianity is not for weaklings. It takes courageous people to stand
29:26up for the truth and to stand up against persecution like this and go back into the city. That is an
29:31amazing thought. Perhaps what happened in these areas right here is what he recorded in Second
29:37Timothy chapter three, Paul did. He said, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to
29:42me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lustre, which persecutions I endured. Yet from all of them,
29:48the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
29:55It's a promise. It's a promise. So maybe that's what all of these things that happen he's writing
30:01about here in Second Timothy. So now they retrace their foots. They're at the end of the ark. They're
30:07retracing their footsteps back, and they're coming back to Antioch of Syria. Technically, at Derby,
30:13all they needed to go was down was a little bit of southwest and caught a boat and traveled over to
30:18Antioch. But they don't want to do that. They want to go back and talk to all the people that
30:22they've witnessed to and establish them in the faith. So they go back the way they came and went back
30:27to Antioch of Syria. Look at verses 21 to the end of the chapter. When they had preached the gospel
30:32to that city, that's Derby, and had made many disciples, so I don't know how long they were
30:37there, but a lot of people believed, and they returned to Lustre and to Iconium and to Antioch,
30:42so Antioch of Pisidia, strengthening the souls of the disciples, following up on them, encouraging
30:48them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom
30:54of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting,
31:00they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. So they established church leadership
31:04as they were passing through. Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia, and when
31:09they had spoken the word in Perga, which they didn't do the first time they went through, they
31:13landed in Perga, but they didn't speak the word there. Now they are speaking the word there.
31:16They went down to Atilia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, Antioch of Syria, where they had
31:21been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. And when they
31:25arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done for them
31:29and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, and they remained no little time
31:34with the disciples. It's a weird wording. That's the way the Greek is. It just simply means
31:39a long time. No little time means a long time. That's all it's saying. They remained a long
31:43time with them. So here now they're going back to Antioch of Syria. We're not giving much,
31:50given much inspiration of what happened in Derby, although they made lots of disciples.
31:54So they persevered there. We don't know really much about there. There's no record of signs
32:00and wonders at Derby. So it's hard in Acts. Sometimes they go to a city and there's signs
32:05and wonders. They go to another city, there's no signs and wonders. So it's not like it happens
32:08every time. So in Derby, there was no signs and wonders recorded that we're aware of.
32:14Interestingly, the guy named Timothy that I read from the book that Paul wrote to him,
32:17Timothy, the guy that worked with Paul, he actually comes from this general area.
32:22In Acts 16, we read this. Paul came also to Derby and to Lustre, and a disciple was there
32:28named Timothy. I'm not sure if it's Derby or Lustre. It's two separate areas. So in that general area,
32:33that's where Timothy came from. The son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek.
32:38Maybe he heard about them as they were coming through. He doesn't join them yet, but maybe.
32:43He encourages them and he warns them. There were encouragement and warning in Paul's message to
32:49the churches of Southern Galatia. Encouragement and continuing on in the faith, but there's going
32:55to be troubles. You're going to have troubles. You're going to have tribulations. So there was
33:01encouragement and warning in Paul's message to the churches of Galatia. So they wanted to, Paul and
33:07Barnabas wanted to follow up with the new believers. That's wisdom. They wanted to make sure they were
33:11grounded in the truth that they didn't drift off. We know that Paul wrote the book of Galatians to
33:16those churches in Galatia who had a problem already just a few years after he had arrived back.
33:21Oh, by the way, this whole trip takes two years. We read the Bible. It's like two chapters. We're
33:27going, oh, that's like a couple of months, right? No, it's two years that they're gone from Antioch,
33:31Syria. They're gone a long time. In each of the cities, Paul and Barnabas did three things. They
33:37strengthened the disciples. They encouraged them, and they appointed elders. So they would
33:41have church leadership. Church leadership is important. He warned them, though. He encouraged
33:47them, but he warned them. Tribulation awaits all believers. Tribulation awaits all believers.
33:53It's something that to be expected as a believer in Jesus Christ. Tribulations. You say, well,
33:59I don't like that. I don't like necessarily either, but at least I'm warned about it, that there are
34:04going to be hard times. There's going to be pressure on me to conform to the culture. There's
34:09going to be stress to begin to think a certain way that the culture is thinking. This stress,
34:15this pressure upon me, it's the word tribulation. That's in John 16. It's like that same idea,
34:20stress and pressure. John 16, 33, Jesus is speaking. I have said these things to you,
34:27his disciples, that in me, you may have peace. Shalom of heart. In the world, you will have
34:34tribulation. You will be stressed out and pressured to conform to this world day in
34:40and day out. Be aware it's going to happen. Happens in the workplace. It can happen in
34:44your own family, in your neighborhood, in your extended family. The pressure to say,
34:48ah, stop being a Jesus freak, would you? Come on. You're taking this overboard a little
34:53bit. The stress and this pressure to conform to what the society, it's there and we'll have
34:59it. But look at what he said, but take heart. I have overcome the world. Don't worry about
35:08it. It's coming, but he has overcome the world. And someday when it's all said and done and
35:13we stand in his presence, well, it'll be worth it all. But just be aware, they'll come.
35:19So now his missionary, first missionary journey is complete. The courage it took to, they traveled
35:26700 miles by land, 500 miles by sea. That takes a little, that takes a lot of courage. And I don't
35:34know about being on a boat that long. I mean, I'm, I don't mind water. I can swim, but I mean, I don't
35:40think I want to be in the middle of the ocean and the boat goes down. That doesn't sound like a good
35:43idea. Seven, no trains, no planes, no automobiles, foot or horse, donkey by the, by the, by the
35:51best. So when he wrote to the Galatians, this is the same general area again, Galatia. I wonder
35:58if he meant the wounds he received at Lystra in, in Galatians 6, 17. He wrote to the Galatians,
36:04the last chapter of Galatians. From now on, let no one cause me trouble for I bear on my body,
36:11the marks of Jesus. That happened in the area of Galatia. So I wonder, I mean, if you get hit
36:16with a rock, you still may have a scar. God heals you, raises you up, but you still may
36:20have a scar. He bears on his body, the marks of Jesus. It probably happened in this general
36:24area. And God had opened a door to the Gentiles and no one could shut that door. So the word,
36:32they landed in Antioch. They're there for a long time, but word gets to Jerusalem that a
36:36lot of Gentiles have been, have been, have been believing the gospel message. And so
36:41the Jerusalem church has got some problems and some questions. What do we do with these
36:46Gentile Christians? Do they need to be circumcised and follow the law of Moses to be good Christians?
36:51Or what do we tell? We're not sure what to do with, that's chapter 15. So that'll be next
36:55week. I believe when you come, we'll look at the Jerusalem council. What are we going to
36:58do with these Gentiles who come to faith? That's the question. So as we look at the text
37:04here, we say, what do we, what do we take away from this text? What can you and I learn
37:08from this text? First thing is this, you and I, we need courage to open our mouths and speak
37:14about Jesus. It takes courage to do that. We've been shut down so many times. You know it. I
37:20know it. We've been there, but it takes courage to continue to speak about Jesus, to open our
37:25mouths. We cannot be cowards. We are not weaklings. We are not cowards. We are faithful to our
37:32master or one who has commissioned us to take this message out. Two, we need wisdom
37:37to know what to say when we open our mouths about Jesus. What do I say? Do they know the
37:43Bible at all? Where do I begin with the message? How do I point them to Jesus? Someone says,
37:47how do I go from golf to God? Yeah. How do I go from golf to God? How do I, how do I make
37:53that transition to begin talking about Jesus? We need wisdom. God's word contains that wisdom.
37:59And third, probably guessed it, we need perseverance to endure the hardships that
38:04will come our way when we open our mouths and speak about Jesus. They'll come, but we need
38:10perseverance to continue on, and the Holy Spirit will strengthen us to continue on speaking about
38:15Jesus. So like these apostles, we need courage, and we need wisdom, and we need perseverance as
38:22we're living this Christian life. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the encouragement and the warnings
38:27that we have here, that you have been so faithful over all of the ages to let yourself be known to
38:33humanity. You have not left yourself without a witness. They see creation, and they should
38:38recognize there is a creator, but because they suppress the truth and stomp it down, they don't
38:45want to believe it, but they know because it's plain. So Father, I thank you that you have always
38:50spoken about yourself. You've given a witness about yourself in creation, and then you've given us your
38:55word, your special revelation that gives us more details about who you are and who we are and how
39:02we can change, that we need to be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. We'll have this glorification.
39:08Someday we'll spend eternity with you. This is what we find in your word, and that strengthens us to
39:13continue on when perseverance comes our way. Excuse me, when persecution comes our way. So Father, I pray,
39:19please help us. Help us to be courageous people. Help us to be wise people, and help us to persevere
39:27in the face of the stress and the pressures that society is putting on us, that we will remain
39:33faithful to you and to the gospel. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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