Persevering in spite of Persecution
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning Church!
It’s good to see each and every one of you who could make it out this morning and I also want to welcome all those who may be watching online with us as well.
Before we get into the sermon today, how many of you are familiar with the classic Rocky Balboa series?
I mean it’s hard to be an American and not be familiar with Rocky, right?
Now, for those who are familiar, what is one thing that happens in every single movie?
It never fails, Rocky finds himself being the underdog and even gets beat up really bad in most of them but then perseveres and climbs to the occasion and comes out on top, right?
One of my favorite lines is where he’s beating the dickens out of Rocky but Rocky just keeps coming back and the Russian goes to his corner and tells his coaches… “He is not human! He is like a piece of iron!”
Man, gives me chills just thinking about it!
Now, you may be wondering what Rocky Balboa and our sermon have to do with one another this morning.
The answer to that is this…in today’s scripture we are going to see Paul & Barnabas continue on in their missionary journey but it would be no easy road.
They face persecution & peril but persevere and in the end, come out on top for the Lord and live to tell about it back home in Antioch!
And the thought I want to share with you today is this…being a Christian is not easy. It is not always easy going.
There will be times when you will hit road bumps.
There will be times when you face scrutiny for simply believing in Christ.
There will be times when you lose friends or family members because of your faith in Christ.
And there may possibly even come a day when you are persecuted to the point of death for your faith.
The encouragement I pray you glean from this mornings message is this though…you aren’t the first to suffer for your faith, nor will you be the last.
There have been many who came before and unless the Lord returns, there will also be many who come after who have and will also suffer persecution for their faith in Christ.
These prosperity preachers who tell you that being a Christian is always sunshine & roses are false teachers who apparently aren’t reading the same Book we’re reading from this morning.
Today’s passage is one filled with triumphs and turmoil but one thing reigns supreme through it all…God is sovereign over all is mighty to save all those who put their faith and trust in Him!
And before we get into the message I want to ask you one very simple question....
There are two types of people in attendance with us here today. Only two.
Actually, all of humanity falls into one of two categories…those who have trust their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ and have been saved and those who haven’t.
The question I want you to ask yourself this morning is this…which category do I belong to?
I pray everyone here falls into the first but if you don’t, if you have never trusted in Christ as your Lord and the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart here today and tells you that you need to be saved, there’s no better time than right now to trust in Jesus.
With no further ado, if you have your Bibles turned to Acts 14 with me, please say, Amen.
The Spurning of the Spirit — (Vs. 1-7)
The Spurning of the Spirit — (Vs. 1-7)
The first thing I want us to look at this morning is “The Spurning of the Spirit.”
Chapter 14 starts out here where we left off last week in Chapter 13.
If you look at at the end of Chapter 13 the Bible says...
49 And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
50 But the Jews stirred up the devout and honourable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them out of their coasts.
51 But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came unto Iconium.
52 And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.
Even though they were run out of town, they left Antioch of Pisidia on a high note.
They had witnessed God do a mighty work there, a great number of Gentiles came to know the Lord and they weren’t about to let some evil minded, empty Spirited Jews steal their joy!
They shook the dust on their feet on the way out of town and just kept on going where the Holy Spirit led.
The Bible says they made their way to Iconium.
Now, Iconium lie about 90 miles SE of where they currently were but they weren’t going to let a little distance stop them.
Iconium is one of the oldest cities on record dating back to the 3rd millenium B.C.
So, here we have Paul & Barnabas and they have made the trek some 90 miles to Iconium and the first place they find their way to is the Jewish synagogue.
Now, don’t miss something very important here.
The Bible says… “they went both together into the synagogue.”
These two were inseparable. Their bond was one of brotherhood. They had each other’s backs no matter what came their way.
The Bible says in...
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!
Paul and Barnabas were knit and twain as one with the common bond of the Holy Spirit!
And this morning, if you have been born again that same Spirit is living within each one of us, Amen!
The Bible says in...
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
2 Corinthians 4:13a
13 We having the same spirit of faith,
These men shared the same Spirit and in turn in intertwined each of their own personal spirits as one and where one went the other was sure to be close.
So, they come to Iconium; they enter the synagogue and they began to preach!
I like how the NLT reads here...
1 The same thing happened in Iconium. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers.
I can only imagine these fellows were still fired up from their time in Antioch of Pisidia and so they enter the Jewish synagogue and begin to share the good news with them with fire and fervor!
John Phillips —They “so spake” that this result followed. It is through the foolishness of preaching that the Holy Spirit often works. He energized the words of His servants so that they produced conviction and conversion. It is “not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth” but in words “which the Holy Ghost teacheth” (1 Cor. 2:13).
They preached in such a way that a great multitude of Jews and Gentiles believed!
But, as with every mighty move of God, it wouldn’t be long before that ole deceiver, the devil, would find his way into the fold and begin trying to turn those from believing in God.
Look what happens next.
2 Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas.
The good news of Jesus had been preached but the unbelieving Jews spurned the message of God!
The word “unbelieving” used here is the Greek word (apeitheō) and it means.... "to refuse to be persuaded, to refuse belief, to be disobedient,"
These Jews heard the gospel preached and they shunned it! They refused it! They flat out rejected it!
One variation of this word Jerry Vines says… “implying that the unbeliever has had a full opportunity of believing and has rejected it.”
Dear friend, before we move on this morning let me implore you to not make that same mistake!
If the Holy Spirit of God speaks to your heart and tells you that you need to be saved don’t dare spurn the invitation!
The old hymn we sing says...
“If you spurn the invitation till the Spirit shall depart, then you’ll see your sad condition unprepared to meet thy God!
Oh dear friend are you prepared this morning?
If today should be your last, are you ready to meet the God of all creation?
Are you sure He will welcome you in with open arms because you have trusted in His Son or will you be rejected because you rejected His Son?
Just as there are only two kinds of people in this world…the save and the lost; there are also only two places every single one of us here this morning will end up when we say goodbye to this world.
There is Heaven where God is and there is hell, a place created for the devil and his angels where you will be separated from God for all eternity!
Where will you spend eternity this morning?
Do not spurn the invitation of God to salvation!
These unbelieving Jews spurned the invitation and immediately went to work trying to turn the people from believing their message.
Look down at Verses 3-7.
3 But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders.
4 But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.
5 Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders, decided to attack and stone them.
6 When the apostles learned of it, they fled to the region of Lycaonia—to the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding area.
7 And there they preached the Good News.
Nothing they could do would sway the minds of these unbelieving Jews.
Not even signs and wonders were a match for a hardened heart.
They stayed though as long as they possibly could and tried sharing the gospel with all those who would respond.
After a while though, the unbelievers decided they had enough. They hatched a plan to stone these two preachers of the gospel for no other reason than they didn’t believe the message they were preaching!
Upon hearing of the plan, Paul & Barnabas decided they had done all that the Holy Ghost had asked of them up to this point.
Just as they had to do in Antioch, they dusted off the dirt from their shoes and continued on.
They make their way down to Lystra and Derbe and notice what the Bible says they did?
“And there they preached the gospel!”
There is no other message in the world that contains the amount of power as the gospel does!
It has the power to save a lost soul from dying and going to hell!
It has the power to change where a person spends eternity!
It has the power to give unto all who believe upon the one and only Son of God eternal life!
Nothing else in this world has the power to do that!
They preached the gospel! They preached good news of Jesus Christ!
Now that we’ve seen “The Spurning of the Spirit,” let’s look on down now at “The Stirring of the Spirit.”
The Stirring of the Spirit — (Vs. 8-10)
The Stirring of the Spirit — (Vs. 8-10)
Paul got to preaching and the Spirit got to stirring and I don’t know what this man’s name was and neither did Paul but all that mattered was that God knew his name!
And the Spirit of God was moving in this cripple man and the Bible says that Paul, “perceiving that the man had faith to be healed” said to him… “Stand up!”
Praise God, I can tell you from experience that there’s nothing more exciting than when I get to preach to a crowd and God points out that one person whose mustard seed of faith is stirring within them!
It’s something that you wouldn’t understand until you’ve experienced it but I’ve been preaching before and the Spirit get to moving and tears start welling up in people’s eyes and then I give the invitation and they trust in Christ with their whole hearts!
It’s the most amazing thing a person can experience on this side of eternity; seeing the Spirit of God move and people respond!
It’s a work that can only be done of God and what a special thing it is when it happens!
Paul seeing this man’s faith to be healed said, “stand up” and immediately jumps up and begins to walk!
This man’s feet knew not what it was like to walk much less leap but this fellow needed no lessons on what to do! He just got up and did it!
This crippled man’s faith had made him whole!
And what I want you to know this morning is that your faith can make you whole as well!
You just have to put it into action like this man did!
He believed and he received and the same can be said of you this morning if you will but simply believe that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God, that came to this world of woe, lived a perfect life, died a sinner’s death in our place, and that He rose from the grave 3 days later and now sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for you and I!
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
It’s as simple as that!
Don’t complicate it this morning!
If God is dealing with your heart, just trust Him this morning!
We’ve seen “The Spurning of the Spirit” & “The Stirring of the Spirit.” Now, let’s move on down to “Setting the Record Straight.”
Setting the Record Straight — (Vs. 11-18)
Setting the Record Straight — (Vs. 11-18)
When the people of Lystra seen the miracle that was done, they were amazed and began to speak in their native language of Lycaonia.
Paul & Barnabas couldn’t understand what they were saying but they could tell that there was some excitement over the miracle that had just taken place and that’s when it happened!
Barnabas — Jupiter — Zeus — Chief God of the Pantheon
Paul — Mercurius — Hermes — son of Zeus and messenger to the Greek gods.
When Paul and Barnabas finally figure out what’s really going on it’s almost too late!
The people had thought them to be Greek gods which could not be further from the truth and ever further from what Paul or Barnabas would ever want for themselves!
The last thing they wanted was personal praise!
Paul had been down that road once and knew all too well the results of a prideful life!
They rush in and begin to rend their clothes the Bible says.
They said, “Look! Why are you doing this? We’re just men like you are and we’re here to turn you from these fake idols and false gods! We were trying to introduce to you the real God, the God of the Jews…Jehovah!”
There is some confusion amongst the crowd but they finally talk them down from sacrificing to them and wouldn’t you know…just when the confusion sets in guess who is there to capitalize on it?
Satan himself!
Look on down at “The Scrutinizing and the Stoning in Verses 19-20.
The Scrutinizing and the Stoning — (Vs. 19-20)
The Scrutinizing and the Stoning — (Vs. 19-20)
It didn’t take long at all to forget about the miracle that had just taken place!
The impotent man was still running wild around the crowd no doubt but it mattered not.
The focus had now become the fact that they were not the gods they thought them to be.
This was the perfect setting for Satan to sneak in and sneak in he did…in the form of unbelieving Jews from Antioch and Iconium!
Had they been following Paul and Barnabas?
We can’t be for sure but it would seem that way.
Either way, they capitalized on the confusion and turned the people against Paul and Barnabas and the message they were delivering and we went from Paul being a hero one minute to being stoned the next!
The same fate he had witnessed happen to Stephen was now happening to him also!
They stoned him to the point of death and the Bible even says, “supposing him to be dead” they took Paul outside the city and left him for dead.
But God wasn’t quite done with Paul just yet!
The Bible says the disciples gathered around Paul and he stood up!
Now, we don’t know the particulars but I bet as they gathered around their beloved preacher they joined hands and began to pray for Paul.
And a second miracle came to fruition!
Paul stood up and the craziest part of all was the fact that he walked right back into the city where he was just stoned!
Talk about perseverance!
Can you imagine the look on people’s faces when Paul came walking back in?
“Didn’t we just stone this guy to death? What is happening right now?”
What do you do with a man that just won’t die?
He ends up spending the night in the very city that tried to kill him and the next morning he and the crew make their way to Derbe.
Look with me at...
The Steadfastness of Paul & Barnabas — (Vs. 21-25)
The Steadfastness of Paul & Barnabas — (Vs. 21-25)
They finally find a place where no persecution followed and were able to share the gospel without recourse or at least as far as we know of up to this point.
The Bible says they preached the gospel to the city and taught many and then they do the unthinkable.
They returned to the very cities where they had just been persecuted unto the point of death and look what they did as they retraced their steps in Verse 22.
The Bible says they confirmed the souls of the disciples.
That word “confirming” means “to strengthen.”
They strengthened the souls of the disciples and exhorted them (encouraged them) to continue in the faith and explained that the road wouldn’t be an easy one but ultimately would be worth it!
Isn’t the goal of this life to enter into the Kingdom of God?
That’s the ultimate goal; to make it to Heaven!
And as they retraced their steps confirming and exhorting the Bible tells us in Verse 23 that they ordained elders in every Church, they fasted and prayed for them and then they “commended” them to the Lord.
This word commended means “To entrust something to someone with the intention of preservation.”
Paul & Barnabas entrusted these new Churches and their leaders to the one who has the power to keep them from all harm and able to empower them to accomplish His will!
We just studied last Wednesday night in the Book of 1 Peter Chapter 1 and Verse 5 where the Bible says...
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
They were steadfast in their work for the Lord and they continued their trek back home.
Look down at Verses 26-28 as we finish this out.
The Setting Sail for Home & Sharing of the Good News — (Vs. 26-28)
The Setting Sail for Home & Sharing of the Good News — (Vs. 26-28)
From Attalia they boarded a ship for home. Their first missionary journey was in the books and what a journey it had been!
John Phillips — What Paul left out Barnabas filled in. On Cyprus confounding the magician and converting the magistrate; at Perga the loss of Mark and the lure of the mountains; at Pisidian Antioch the Jewish blasphemy and Gentile belief; at Iconium the multiplied conversions and malicious contention; at Lystra deification and death; at Derbe more souls and more goals; the homeward way, skirting perils, selecting pastors. Thus the story unfolded, showing the decisions, the difficulties, the dangers of pioneer work on the mission field, and how to deal with them all.
After sharing the good news with the Church it was back to work on the home front. They would settle back in and get in the routine of everyday evangelism.
Close
Close
As we come to a close this morning there’s a few things I want to leave with you before we go.
For the saved this morning, just as Paul & Barnabas journey was filled trials and tribulations it was also filled with triumphs!
It’s very easy to get caught up in the trials and tribulations but if we persevere, there is sure to be a triumph and one day, when we draw our last breath on this side of eternity we will gain the ultimate triumph and that is eternity with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
The road will not always be easy but rest assured it will be worth it!
18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
And for those who may be here this morning and lost; those who have not trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior…if God has spoke to your heart this morning and let you know that you are lost, please do not spurn the invitation of God to be saved.
Choose today to trust in Him before it’s too late.
So many people put it off and say, “Today’s just not the day. Right now is just not the right time.”
Dear friend, the Bible says, “now is the accepted time and today is the day of salvation.”
You are not guaranteed tomorrow so get things right with God today!
