Suffering for the Gospel

· INTRODUCTION: Good morning GPC! It’s so good to be together! Would you turn in your bibles with me to Acts 14? We’ll be in Acts 14:19-23 today. As you turn there, let me go over a few announcements.

o (Announcements)

o Would you please stand with me for the reading of God’s word? This is God’s Word! (Read passage, pray, you may be seated, drink)

o No one likes hard times. I mean, can you honestly sit here and say that you ENJOY hard times? We may know that they can be used by God for good, but that doesn’t mean that we LOVE and live for hard times!

§ Yet, assuredly, we will encounter them. Every person in human history has had hard times. We can find examples of this anywhere we look. In the Bible, in history, in our community; we can see examples of people who have gone through hard times.

§ One of the very unique things about the Christian life is that we have a guide given to us on how to handle these difficult times. Our guide comes straight from the Bible.

· See, in the Old and New Testament we see people struggling. We see examples of people handling their struggles well and examples of people handling them poorly, like Jacob and Joseph’s brothers!

· Today, we see an example of someone handling their trials iin a God-honoring way. We are going to see Paul ENDURING trial after trial and we will see HOW HE IS ABLE TO DO THIS!

o See, when we look back at trials, we can often see ways that God used them for our good. Yet, as we are in them, it can feel extremely defeating.

o What we get to see in Acts 14 is someone in the MIDST OF A TRIAL and we can see in many of Paul’s epistles, how the very events that we are studying in Acts shaped who he was and helped him grow!

§ As we go begin our time looking at Acts 14:19-23 together, I want you to take a second and think of a tough thing in your own life. Maybe it’s current, maybe it’s something your concerned about. For me, I found out that my Grandma Good’s cancer had spread on Thursday and Saturday she was put into in-home hospice care. That’s hard! It’s hard to lose a loved one.

§ Keep that in mind as we examine how scripture can shape our responses in a difficult time.

· This morning our main point is simple. It is simply, THE LORD IS WORTHY OF IT ALL!

· BODY: Acts 14 is an emotional roller coaster! There is joy, there is sorrow, there are many coming to know the Lord and there are many rejecting everything that has to do with Jesus!

o Talk about a roller coaster! Paul and Barnabas have been threatened with being stoned; they’ve seen the Lord heal a man, AND they’ve been called Zeus and Hermes and had to stop sacrifices from being offered to them.

§ It’s been a wild ride.

o Honestly, verse 19 is just as wild. It says, “But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.”

§ PAUL IS STONED!

§ Remember, the Jewish populations of Pisidian Antioch and Iconium both wanted to stone him, but both times he escaped. This time he does not.

· Now, these people show up, they cause trouble and they persuade the crowds to stone Paul!

· These troublemakers think that they have solved their problem but they really have not!

§ Stoning is a grotesque punishment. It began by being thrown off a small cliff, or into a ditch of some type. Then, large rocks would be thrown and pushed onto you.

· To be clear, these are not little pebbles, these are LARGE ROCKS! These are heavy and hard to throw. These rocks were thrown until the person being stoned had died.

o Here, they throw rocks and assume that Paul has died.

o Little do they know that he has not!

o Even in the midst of this horrendous tragedy, God is good to Paul and He delivers Paul from this.

§ Now, I know what you may be thinking. Why would God allow Paul to go through this?

· Well, there’s a few reasons that I think are clear even just from the next few verses, but one is that it transforms Paul’s ability to sympathize and empathize with suffering Christians.

o Look it, this is an absolutely brutal trial to go throughl. But, God has a plan and a purpose for this trial!

· Verse 20 says, “But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.”

o The other believers come to Paul, unsure if he is alive or not and he gets up and enters the city!

§ Paul is OK! I’m sure he was in pain, but, he was healthy enough to travel about 20 miles to Derbe!

§ God preserved Paul’s life! Trials are not easy. This tests Paul’s faith. Yet, God is still good! God still keeps him alive!

· Assuredly, Paul is bruised and battered. THE DAY AFTER HE WAS STONED though, HE WAS BACK ON HIS TRIP!

o Why? Because nothing can stop him from sharing the gospel.

§ Later in Acts he’s shipwrecked, he’s beaten, he’s jailed, and yet NONE OF THAT STOPS HIM!

§ Paul is totally consumed by the gospel! Jesus is his CENTRAL AND COMPLETE FOCUS!

· Honestly, it gives us a challenge. Is Jesus our focus? Are we totally focused on Jesus? Or do we let ourselves get distracted by the pain of our world?

o Let’s be clear, life is hard. Our world is fallen, full of sin and of sinners. Yet, as we deal with this, how do we handle it? Do we hide away, or are we bold with the gospel, enduring whatever hardships may come our way?

§ For Paul, he knew what he was called to do. He persevered time and time again.

§ What kept him going was Jesus! Jesus strengthened him! Just as Jesus strengthened Paul, HE WILL strengthen us. So, if you are in the midst of a trial, CALL OUT TO HM!

§ It doesn’t have to be a stoning! God is good! Call out to HIM!

· Verse 21 fills me with so much joy. Luke writes, “When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,”

o Look at that! Paul and Barnabas preach the gospel in Derbe and they see many come to Jesus. One day Paul is being stoned, the next, God is working through these two!

§ God is in control and HE NEVER FAILS!

§ Even as Paul was stoned and as Barnabas faced persecution, GOD WAS WITH THEM!

o The gospel is received in Derbe, but what is most amazing to me is what happens after their time in Derbe!

§ Paul and Barnabas go BACK TO LYSTRA, to Iconium and to Antioch!

· The very people who stoned paul? Those are the ones that he wants to reach!

· Those are the ones that he labors to share the good news with!

o What an example that is! Evangelism is not simply a one time thing! Nor is discipleship! These are things that take TIME! They take consistency.

§ The other that we see here is an example of Christ-like love.

· Just as Jesus loved even the Roman soldiers who crucified him, Paul and Barnabas LOVE those who persecute them!

· Matthew 5:44 is not just empty words when Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

o Truly, that is a challenge for us to LIVE OUT!

o Those weren’t just words!

§ Do you love your enemies? Would you share the gospel out of LOVE with your worst enemy? What about with those who persecute you? Do you pray for them?

§ I remember in college, I had a classmate who absolutely despised that I was a Christian.

§ She hated it. She literally would try to cut me off from the rest of the class by going to everyone and starting rumors or just yelling over me. In seminary, there was a lady at my church who LOVED making of me for a ministry I helped run that was according to her, “a waste of time because no one at that campus wants Jesus.”

§ Do you know how hard it is to pray for that person? But yet that’s what we’re called to DO!

§ We aren’t told, “If it sounds good, pray for that person, or pray for their demise.” NO! We are called to PRAY FOR THAT PERSON and I firmly believe we are to be praying for their salvation, not out of vindictiveness but out of genuine LOVE!

It’s hard, but THAT’S WHAT WE ARE TO DO!

· In verse 22, we see the next part of Paul and Barnabas’s mission.

o They go around, “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

§ As Paul and Barnabas travel, they don’t merely head back to their beginning location in Turkey, they ALSO encourage the believers!

· They have lived out persecution and have encountered that. Paul recounts the full extent of his persecution in 2 Corinthians 11 when he says, “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food,[b] in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

o That’s suffering! Paul and Barnabas understood what it meant to suffer.

o When they encourage the believers in suffering, they get it! They know that following Jesus is far from easy!

§ But they remind the believers that it is worth it!

§ Think about that 2 Corinthians 11 passage. Paul suffered! If you or I was beaten with rods, or given 39 lashes, we might be tempted to stop sharing the gospel!

§ We might decide that something else was better.

· NOT PAUL! And that’s not meant to embarrass us, I think that should be an encouragement.

· No matter what persecution we face, JESUS IS WORTH IT!

· TRULY, JESUS IS WORTH IT! He is KING and HE IS GOOD!

· Jesus is worthy of it all, even when it is trial and tribulation!

o And it will take our all! That’s what Romans 12:1 says! When it calls for our lives to be a living sacrifice; it isn’t just empty words!

§ TRULY, we are to give our lives for the LORD! And TRULY, the LORD IS WORTHY OF IT!

o Let’s give praise for that!

§ Paul and Barnabas know what it is to suffer! They also know that JESUS IS WORTH IT! They encourage the believers in this and it should encourage us too!

· Jesus is so worth it!

· When we hear a story about a martyr, or someone who faced persecution, rather than feeling less than, let’s be encouraged by their testimony of faith!

o Let’s be reminded that Jesus is worth it all, BECAUSE HE IS!

· In verse 23 we see that they do more. We read, “And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.”

o Paul and Barnabas travel around and they appoint elders in these churches. That word, presbuteros, as we’ve discussed, means shepherd, overseer, or pastor!

§ These men are called to SHEPHERD THE FLOCK; to CARE FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE CHURCH AND TO LEAD THEM!

· It is their job to ensure the correct preaching of God’s word, to oversee pastoral care and to lead in setting a direction for the church.

o The elders are not simply a staff oversight committee, or a vision committee, or a set of building managers, or problem solvers. They are appointed by Paul and Barnabas to be BIBLICAL LEADERS!

o Paul and Barnabas go around strengthening these men and encouraging them! They don’t want to leave these believers with no support system.

o Then, look, as they leave these churches, they commit them to the Lord! WITH PRAYER AND FASTING THEY COMMIT THESE BELIEVERS TO THE LORD!

§ Paul and Barnabas take this role very seriously. They pray and they fast. These two are linked closely in scripture! Fasting after all was not merely skipping meals, it was done to help focus yourself on God!

· It’s the same reason why fasting is still something we can and should practice at times at least! We do it not for our gain, but to help our hearts focus on God!

o Our fasting may not even be from food! It may be from TV, or social media, or something else that is taking a large role in our lives!

§ Fasting is about transfixing our eyes on GOD! It’s about helping our hearts seek the LORD! As Paul and Barnabas pray and fast, they are focusing their hearts on GOD!

· As Paul and Barnabas go, they are ensuring that these believers truly follow the Lord, not just them!

o They are not trying to build a personality cult; they are totally transfixed on building the kingdom of God; just as we should be!

o More than any form of attendance number on Sunday morning, what we want to see is PEOPLE BELIEVING IN JESUS AND PEOPLE LIVING THAT OUT!

o We aren’t here trying to build our reputation, we are trying to build GOD’S!

· CONCLUSION: As we wrap up this morning, I want us to think of two things. First, what it means to suffer as a Christian and secondly, why Jesus is worth suffering for.

o As we dive into this first point, what it means to suffer as a Christian, I want to be honest. We likely will not suffer in the same ways as others have. This is not a message aimed to make us feel insufficient for this; instead, we want to take time and consider how God has blessed us, while also preparing our hearts for times of suffering.

§ I can’t see the future, but, I doubt that most of us will be beaten or imprisoned. In all honesty, that isn’t the type of suffering that is the most applicable. Instead, let’s consider another form of suffering; loss.

§ Losing a loved one or a friend, or a job is hard! LOSS IS TOUGH! Losing something stinks!

· I don’t know about you, but I HATE LOSING! I hate losing no matter what I do. But, loss is also an inescapable part of life.

o We will lose loved ones, jobs, friends, opportunities, health, athleticism and many other things!

o Loss is a real part of life.

o The Lord is with us in the loss. Paul is such a powerful example of suffering in a God-honoring way. I’m so convicted by the words he writes in Romans 8:35-39 where he writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

§ The Lord is truly with us and HE WILL BE with us through all of our challenges and trials in life.

§ Even in the darkest hour, the hour where we just want to give up, when we feel like our body can’t go any further; when we feel heartbroken because we’ve been rejected because of our faith in Jesus, GOD IS WITH US!

· Who strengthens us in those times? God!

o So what do we do with this knowledge?

§ I have 3 thoughts on this.

· First, let’s run to the Lord in prayer

· Second, let’s run to scripture for encouragement

· Third, let’s persevere with the help of the Holy Spirit

o Prayer. That’s such a broad topic. That’s our way of talking to God! We can pour out our hearts to God. It doesn’t have to be scripted or formulaic. In fact, we don’t even have to know what to say!

§ Listen to Romans 8:26! “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

§ God is with us in our weakness and it is our job to go to Him in prayer. It doesn’t mean that we know quite what to say.

· I remember being so discouraged after my car accident in college and I was laying in bed, wide awake one night, in pain everywhere. And I remember just crying. I didn’t even know what to say to the Lord! My prayer that night was simple.

o “LORD! HELP ME!”

o That’s all it was! The Holy Spirit was there to intercede, or to advocate for me, and to help me even understand what I needed!

§ See, I did need sleep and I did need to feel better physically, but more than that, what I needed was a friend to come alongside and care! That’s just a small example of God’s faithfulness! (Hudson TAYLOR!! Faithfulness of God to provide when his mission was literally burned up. He didn’t panic, he PRAYED!)

§ The Holy Spirit provided that without me even knowing it’s what I needed!

§ So when we face trials, let’s go to the Lord in prayer! Let’s pour out our hearts to HIM! It doesn’t have to be wordy or, “perfect.” There is no “perfect prayer!” Just pray what’s on your mind!

o Secondly, let’s run to scripture!

§ Scripture is God’s primary way of speaking to us. The Bible isn’t like any other book! It is alive! It is speaking in new ways to us! I know that sounds strange, but it is true!

· The Bible can comfort us in so many ways and encourage us in these hard times!

· We could read a psalm about hardship, or we could read a promise of God in the prophets, or we could read an account like Mark 4:35-41 where we see God’s power and faithfulness!

o But we have to go to scripture to see these!

o Let’s run to scripture! Let’s not just read it and forget it, let’s let it shape our LIVES! Remember it, meditate on it, KNOW SCRIPTURE!

o Finally, let’s persevere with the help of the Holy Spirit! We talked about how the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, but don’t overlook another part of the Holy Spirit.

§ The Holy Spirit is with us at ALL TIMES! AT ALL TIMES, GOD IS WITH US! THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS WITHIN US!

· So my challenge with this is to experience the comfort of knowing that you are never truly alone!

o Those long days of Physical therapy after my accident, and I do mean long, I mean a few hours in the morning and then another round in the evening, felt isolating.

o But the HOLY SPIRIT was with me in all of it! God was near! Cling to that as we walk each and every day!

§ The Holy Spirit is so faithful to bring scripture to our mind if we know it and to bring comfort to us! Know that those verses you think of aren’t just coincidence, that is GOD WORKING!

· It’s not one of our main three, but experience true fellowship! Don’t face trials, suffering, loss and even persecution alone! Come together and bring others into your life!

· Ask for prayer, ask for support! We are truly meant to be a family! Experience that!

· Now, why is Jesus worth suffering for? Simply put, Jesus is worth suffering for BECAUSE HE SAVED US! Why was it worth it to Paul and Barnabas to suffer?

o Because Jesus was their everything! When we understand WHAT JESUS DID FOR US, it becomes clear why Jesus is worth it all!

§ We all have sinned and we all fall short of God’s holy standard as we can read in Romans 3:23. BUT, GOD HAS GIVEN US A SAVIOR!

· God promised one who would come and take on our sin. That was JESUS! Jesus lived a perfect life and He died for us so that we might be made right with God!

· Jesus took the punishment for our sin and REDEEMED US!

o HE HAS JUSTIFIED US, or MADE US RIGHT, BEFORE GOD!

o It is because of Jesus that we have hope and a future! It is because of Jesus that we can live! It’s because of Jesus that we are here this morning! The only way to experience eternal life in unity with God, what our hearts truly long for, is through faith in Jesus!

o So why is it worth suffering for Jesus, facing persecution, trials, etc.? BECAUSE HE IS OUR ALL! If you are here this morning and you have not accepted Jesus as your savior, let me challenge you to do that this morning.

§ Let me pray for us as we close.