Transcript
There are of course, according to scripture, many reasons the Lord God poured out his Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost, but according to the book of Acts, one of the primary reasons
for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was to equip and empower the church to proclaim
Jesus as the Messiah with a view of making disciples of all nations and thereby fulfilling
the great commission. The Lord Jesus in his last command to his disciples prior to his
ascension put it this way in Acts chapter one verse eight, he says you will receive
power, the word is dunamis or dynamite, you will receive dynamite when the Holy Spirit
comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria
and to the ends of the earth. And the picture here of course is a picture of ever expanding
concentric circles. The gospel message begins in Jerusalem, it goes beyond Jerusalem to
Samaria and to Judea and then it goes beyond Samaria and Judea to the uttermost ends of
the earth. And if you will remember the structure of the book of Acts is based on this instruction
in Acts chapter one verse eight. And so chapters three through seven of the book of Acts talk
about the expansion of the gospel in Jerusalem, thousands upon thousands of people come to
faith. Some people estimate the size of that early church having been as large as 30,000
people. Then in chapter seven we have the persecution being launched against the church
after the martyrdom of Stephen. And so in chapter eight the gospel begins to expand
in Samaria and Judea as all of the church except for the apostles get scattered because
of the persecution. Then Acts chapter nine gives us the apostle Paul's conversion, Acts
chapter 10 and 11 gives us the conversion of the Gentile Roman centurion Cornelius.
A huge milestone in the history of the church because now for the first time God is treating
Gentiles just like he is treating the Jews. He has given the Holy Spirit to Cornelius.
You will remember that Peter threw up his hands when people challenged him and he said
who was I that I should challenge or question the Holy Spirit? Chapter 12 is more persecution
because every time the church grows and every time life happens there's always the pushback
and then in Acts chapter 13 and 14 we have Paul and Barnabas's first missionary journey
that we have now been looking at to some degree. It's that journey that comes to a conclusion
at the end of Acts chapter 14 and here is how Paul describes it from Ataliah or Luke
rather because Luke is writing the book of Acts. Follow it on the map there. From Ataliah
they sailed back to Antioch where they had been committed to the grace of God for the
work they had now completed. On the map there you can see how they started here in Antioch.
They traveled to Cyprus all the way around to Derbe that we have been looking at all
the way back to Perga now to Ataliah and then from Ataliah they head back to Antioch from
which they began. Verse 27 on arriving there they gather 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 in the limited time that we have available to us this morning I want to try to zero in
on three phrases in those two verses and then try to sort of pluck out a lesson from each
of these phrases for your life and for my life. The first phrase then that I want to
talk about is the phrase for the work they had now completed. Verse 26 again from Ataliah
they sailed back to Antioch where they had been committed to the grace of God for the
work they had now completed. Two years had passed by since Paul and Barnabas had first
set out on this missionary journey and what a journey it was. You will recall that already
in Cyprus if you follow it along on the map there on Paphos they ran into the opposition
of the Jewish false prophet by the name of Bargesus also known as Elamaz. Then as they
continued on their journey they came to the region of Pamphylia. Who remembers what happened
in Pamphylia? John Mark, Barnabas' cousin. Their assistant bailed on them. Apparently
traveling with the Apostle Paul wasn't a lot of fun. John Mark was of rich background.
He couldn't handle the pressure and he left and as time goes on in the book of Acts well
of occasion to come back and revisit that part of the story. Then of course they traveled
on to Antioch. They started a riot there and then they went on to Iconium. They started
a riot there. They got plots made against them. On to Lystra they went and you know
what happened there? They stoned him, left him for dead and on to Derbe he went and then
back again. Every time and we've talked about this in the past Paul managed to get back
up on his feet. He ran the race so much so then that Luke now tells us that two years
later the work that they had started on they have now completed. I think that's remarkable.
And the lesson that I want to draw from that for you and me today is that by God's grace
you and I can also complete our own journey of faith. As we've been looking in recent
weeks we're all on a journey. Leave that map up for a moment if you will. We're all on
the journey to the heavenly city, the holy city, the new Jerusalem. We've all had to
enter through the narrow gate and we all have to walk the road that the Bible says is narrow.
There are few that travel it but it leads to life. It leads to this holy city where
God dwells, where there are myriads upon myriads of angels and where all the redeemed saints
of God from years ago are likewise gathered. Now it's no mystery that on that journey,
on that narrow road we run into any number of challenges. One of the challenges is to
stay on the road, isn't that true? Because the road is narrow. It doesn't take much to
drift and drifting, as one of the brothers said to me this morning before the service,
it's often gradual. You don't even know that you're off the path until you're way out
to pasture some place. Not only that, but there is always the challenge of giving up
on the task that God has entrusted to us because in Christ we've all been given spiritual
gifts. We all have a particular calling. We all have a place in the body of Christ to
participate in the process of the Great Commission. The devil, the world, and the flesh oppose
us every step of the way and so it's not difficult to get weary in well-doing, is it? I mean
how many of us here haven't started at some point enthusiastically being part of this
activity or recommitting ourselves to the Lord Jesus in this area or determined that
we're not going to fall back into that particular sin and yet time and time again we get overtaken
and we drift, we fall, we falter. And so the challenge for us then is how do we remain
faithful to the Lord and how can we complete the task when we finally stand before God?
How can we say I've run the race, I've won the prize, I've done the job that God has
called me to do? Remember the world is full of people who make ambitious beginnings in
the Christian life. There aren't too many honestly who see the race through to the very
end and who are therefore eligible to receive the crown of life. As I said, that's what
blesses me about the Apostle Paul, that scripture can say the work that they had now completed.
We can learn from Paul's example because Paul was, as I said, a man who saw it through
through incredibly difficult circumstances to the very end. And I love what he says towards
the end of his life to young Timothy as he passes the mantle on to him. Listen to these
verses from 2 Timothy 3, the verses 10 and 11. "You, however, know all about my teaching,
my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions and sufferings,
what kinds of things happen to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured."
Remember Timothy was from Lystra, was one of the early converts of Paul's first missionary
journey. Paul says, "Remember, you know what it is that I went through, yet the Lord rescued
me from all of them." And a chapter further on, he repeats it again as he talks about
the end of his life. "I was delivered from the lion's mouth. The Lord will rescue me
from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever
and ever. Amen." Paul knew his God. Paul knew the presence of the Lord Jesus. Paul knew
the ever-present power of God's Holy Spirit. And he was confident that God would either
remove all evil or turn it to his good and so he could run the race and he could finish
boldly and courageously. Jesus speaking to his disciples prior to his return to heaven,
John 16 verse 7 puts it this way, "I tell you the truth. It is for your good that I'm
going away. Unless I go away, the counselor will not come to you, but if I go, I will
send him to you." You may remember the word counselor there is the Greek word parakletos.
We have an English word paraklet that comes from that. It's often translated comforter.
It's translated counselor. But the root meaning of the word is one who is called alongside
you for the purpose of helping. And so the picture here is that of a runner in a race
and he is aiming to finish the race because if you don't finish the race it doesn't count,
you'll never get the prize. But he's getting weary and tired and it's hard and it's difficult
and the paraklet comes alongside, says lean on me and they complete the race together.
What an incredible picture of who the Holy Spirit is. What an incredible picture of how
the Lord God through the Holy Spirit accompanies you and me on life's journey to help us finish
the race by God's grace. You and I can remain faithful to the very end. We can accomplish
the purposes that God has for us. We don't have to bail. We don't have to short circuit.
God can get us there. I don't know about you, but I think that's incredibly good news. It's
incredibly good news. He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in
the day of Jesus Christ. Second phrase in this passage that I want us to know is the
phrase all that God had done through them. On arriving there, verse 27, 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. What's the first thing Bala Marni was due when they
get back to the Antioch Church? They gather the congregation together and they report
what God had done through them. That's profound because what do you suppose it was that enabled
Paul to get up again and again after he had been knocked down, left for dead, persecuted?
Why in the world would anybody want to keep on going when life is that tough? Isn't it
true you and I would throw in the towel long before we're left for dead? I mean we have
a bad day. Somebody speaks nasty to us. We have a fight with somebody in the family or
in the church. First thing we do is we want to stay home. And when the Lord doesn't answer
our prayers and doesn't give us the kind of things that we think we deserve, well then
we get into this hissy fit business of God's not fair and why should I serve you? Isn't
it true? Of course it is. What kept Paul going? What kept Barnabas going? Well I think there
were two things. The first is they had a keen sense of mission. They knew they had a job
to do. What was the job? It was to proclaim Christ and win disciples of the nations. Their
job was to help people come to faith, grow up in Christ, so that come the final day of
judgment there would be people from every tribe, tongue, and nation gathered before
God in the holy city. That was their job. They had a keen sense of mission. But not
only did they have a keen sense of mission, they had a keen sense of knowing that God
was with them. That they were in the presence of Jesus. And so when they could weary and
discouraged and tired and they could no longer keep going, they knew that God was there through
the Holy Spirit to comfort them, to encourage them, and to lift them up. More than that,
they knew that when they got up in front of those very hostile crowds to proclaim the
name of Jesus, that the power of the Holy Spirit was there, he would not only give them
words to speak, he would give them authority and power in those words so that people would
be cut to the heart, lives would be transformed, and the kingdom of God would be established.
Paul puts it this way in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12. And 2 Corinthians 12 is one of
his most personal letters because he had been attacked and he had been criticized by false
prophets and he defends himself not for the sake of defending himself, but to make sure
that the believers understood what it was that God was doing in him and through him.
2 Corinthians 12, 12 puts it this way. He says, "The signs of a true apostle were performed
among you in all patience with signs and wonders and mighty works." And we often think of the
signs and the wonders and the mighty works, but you'll notice that patience is the first
word in that phrase. It's the perseverance given by the Holy Spirit that enabled him
and Barnabas to continue on that journey. And again, there's a profound lesson here
for you and for me. In fact, I would say there are two lessons that we need to learn from
that. The first is that we too are on a mission. If you belong to Christ today, you have been
bought with a price. You are no longer your own. It's not a concept that we're very comfortable
with in the Western world where we talk about individualism and individuality all the time.
You have been purchased by Jesus from Satan's power to belong to him, which means he is
your boss and he can tell you what to do and how you are to do it. Get used to it because
he happens to be the Lord. He is the authority in your life and in my life. And when we become
Christians and we become part of the church, we share in the mission of the church. And
what is the mission of the church? It's to make disciples of all nations. There's a lot
of good things the church can be doing, but our primary job as a church is to reach the
lost, bring them into Christ's wholeness and life and to equip them and to release them
so that they in turn can carry on the mission of God. Remember, it's when the gospel goes
to the ends of the earth, when every tribe, tongue, and nation will have been confronted
by the good message of the gospel that Jesus Christ will return because now everybody will
have had their chance to accept or to reject. We are like the apostle Paul on a mission.
And one thing that has to keep us going is the realization that we're on a mission. We
are not our own. If I look back over my life, what keeps me going when sometimes things
have been really tough, as you know, is not the fact that I just like to be stubborn and
go my own way. It's because there is a calling in my life as there is in your life. We've
got a job to do and that is to proclaim the good news and see how many of our friends,
family and neighbors can be one to Christ so that when the kingdom of God comes, they
will not be lost eternally, but they will be saved for everlasting life. That ought
to be our passion. And if the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives, he will stir that
passion to one degree or another because the spirit of Jesus is always a missionary spirit.
And so when you've been touched by God's grace, isn't it true that whenever you and I have
experienced God's grace in our lives, one of the first things we want to do is we want
to tell somebody. And that's true in every area of life. When you have good news, you
can't shut out because you want other people to know what you have. We're on a mission.
It's the realization of that mission that gives us encouragement to go on. But more
than that, we're not only on a mission, but we are also in a situation where Jesus is
God with us. He is at work in us and through us. The promise of the Holy Spirit was that
he will be with you and he will be in you. And practically speaking, what that means
is that as we embrace the mission of God, as we live our lives before the face of God,
when we try to walk with him and we try to listen to his word and we try to listen to
his Holy Spirit, when opposition comes our way, when we stray from the narrow path, when
we want to throw in the towel because this is just too hard, then what the Holy Spirit
does is he reminds us whose we are and he can give us comfort. He can give us encouragement.
He can give us strength. He can strengthen our will so that despite all the temptation
that comes our way, all the situations in which we find ourselves, something inside
keeps rising up within me. I drag myself to church even when I don't want to go there.
I open my mouth to speak to my family or my friends even when everything inside me says
this is too dangerous and as I do, as I do, I will discover those odd moments when contrary
to all expectations, God shows up and he's there. And I often say to people, the best
way to experience the presence of God is just to be involved in the mission of God. Give
yourself in service to your family. Give yourself in service to your children. Give yourself
in service to neighbors and family and friends and in those moments as you are led by the
Holy Spirit, you will discover that Christ is at work not only in you but through you.
And I'll tell you one of the best motivations to stay in tune with God and to walk on the
narrow road that leads to life is to have those, even if they're rare, those rare moments
when you know that you're living in your sweet spot, you're living in that place where the
Holy Spirit breathes his Ruach, his life into you and you know that you have just stood
in the presence of God. Isn't that true? All it takes is winning somebody to Christ, seeing
an answer to prayer, finding yourself in a situation where the powers of darkness get
pushed back and I tell you there's a lot of fuel. You know, it's the oasis in the wilderness.
All you need to do is get a sip and you're ready for the next leg of the journey. I believe
that's what kept Paul and Barnabas going. They saw the mighty acts of God. So, final
phrase just very quickly if we can. Third phrase, 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. Why did they gather the church together? I can think of two reasons just
very quickly. Number one, Antioch was their sending church. You will recall two years
earlier that's where they had started in Antioch on the way to Cyprus, all the way to Derbe
and then all the way back. And what that means is this, the mission work that they accomplished,
they did on behalf of their sending church. Now think through that with me for just a
moment because the practical lesson here is this. We all share in the mission. What I
mean to say by that is that not all of us are going to be missionaries. Not all of us
are going to be preachers. Not all of us are going to be knocking on doors. Most of us,
we just take care of our families, we do our daily job and we try to honor the Lord in
building his kingdom in our daily activities. But because we're part of Christian community
and the mandate of Christian community is to make disciples of all nations, we share
in the mission of those who do so on our behalf. And so when Mike and Mary Ann are at work
in Uganda, they are our representatives. When Kathy Vanderkloet is at work in Nigeria, she
is our representative. You and I may never get to go there. But whatever fruit they bear,
they bear on our behalf, which means that you and I share in their reward to obedience.
You need to understand that. A cup of cold water given in the name of the Lord to a prophet
gives us a prophet's reward. I always think that's a great deal. I'd rather give the cup
of cold water to the prophet than be the prophet because the prophet is the one who gets stones
thrown at him. So enjoy the cup of cold water when you can because you get the same reward
that he gets or she. You see, any military strategist will tell you that it isn't just
the frontline troops that win the battle. The frontline troops are only as good as the
supply line and all the people all the way back home that enables the war effort to go
on. And you and I, by our prayers, by our support, by our encouragement, we stand behind
those who are on the forefront and when they have success, we have success. When they have
victory, we have victory. When they accomplish something, we accomplish something. I just
thought of this with reference to a story Deborah Twist told me just last week. She
and Stephen go out periodically and do these Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage seminars
and they did one last weekend in Willowdale and they've taken a number of our books along
including our newly published Chinese version of Blessings and Curses. And Deborah was telling
me that at this seminar they met up with a young woman who is Malaysian or speaks Chinese,
has been going through a very difficult time and at the urging of her pastor's wife picked
up a copy of this book and was so engrossed in it, so saw herself in it that every opportunity
she had, she went outside when she didn't have to be at the seminars to read the book
and afterwards the pastor's lady comes back to thank Deborah and Stephen for having brought
the book along and for the way that God was using it in that person's life. Now there's
a little example because you know that's been a pile of work. The number of hours Sylvia
and I spent on this over the last couple of years and all our other translators is phenomenal
and you might say well you know that's not, but it is your business see because it is
the fruit of our collective effort and when God uses it in somebody's life and we just
emailed me last Thursday from China, he's been in Shanghai and he's been handing out
the books and talking to people about it. Who knows where that can go but it is our
collective undertaking. That's why prayer, encouragement and support for our mission
is so incredibly important. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? Each one of us has
a little piece and the victory of one is the victory of the other. Enough said about that?
Second thing though that, second reason why they gather the church together is because
they want to encourage the whole congregation. As I said a few moments ago once you have
tasted the Lord's goodness in your own life then you want other people to experience it
and one of the best ways to keep your own faith alive and fresh is the stories of what
God is doing and that's why it's so important to celebrate and to share our victories in
Christ. Let's face it, the journey on that narrow road is tough by times and most of
the Christian life you spend walking by faith putting one foot in front of the other. Isn't
it? I mean you just do what you have to do. You pray and you fast sometimes and you engage,
you know you're out there planting flowers in the hot sun, you're leading a bunch of
snotty nose kids and Lord knows whatever else is all part of life in the church right? And
it's not hard in the course of doing that to say why in the world am I doing this? This
is no fun and then you look over on the broad way and you know you see people living life
out there and you say to yourself in the words of Jesus you put your hand to the plow but
then you start looking back because you wonder what's the kind of life that I have chosen
for myself here? Is this really worthwhile? Well what keeps us going are the stories of
God's redemption and sometimes we just need to know that God is still alive, that his
Holy Spirit is still here, that he still answers prayer and that the work that I'm doing in
the Lord is not in vain. And all it takes is that kind of celebration of victory, that
kind of sharing of stories for my faith to be revived and for me to be able to continue
believing that God is good, that he is alive, that he cares about me and that I can trust
him that what he has promised he will bring to completion.
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