Sunday, June 2, 2024 AM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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Heavenly Father, we come before you today, and we recognize our dependence upon you.

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We come as children who are needy, and you are our Father who knows our needs before we ever ask.

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But we ask so as to glorify you, and we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, and we ask being filled with the

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Holy Spirit, knowing that you care for us, and indeed you are our

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Father. We pray today as we worship you, as we consider the truth of your word, as we share together in this communion with Christ, one another, that all would be glorifying to you.

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I pray that you would work your will in us by your word. We would not be the same after this day, but all the more, because of your grace, that we would be more conformed to the image of your

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Son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. I invite you to open your

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Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts, Acts chapter 14, and we will be reading verses 19 through 28 as we look to complete the first half of the book of Acts.

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It's only taken us two years, so you can do the math, anticipation and charting and finding out when the end will come for the book of Acts.

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So we'll see what the Lord has in store. In Acts chapter 14, we are looking here in verses 19 through 28 at the conclusion of Paul and Barnabas' missionary journey that began in Antioch of Syria, proceeded to the island of Cyprus, and then moved into the regions of Galatia, where they spent some time at Antioch of Pisidia.

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And now, under threat and persecution from zealous Jews, they have moved further inland and are in the city of Lystra.

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And we are following along this missionary journey, seeing how it is that Paul and Barnabas are meeting each challenge and how it is that no matter what city it is or what the nature of the persecution is, they continue to do something very similar.

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They make disciples. They preach the gospel. They call sinners to repentance.

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And once there are conversions, they baptize the new converts and then begin to teach them how to follow

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Jesus Christ, whether they be Jew or Gentile. And as we come to this latter portion of Acts chapter 14, we find that things get really rough for Paul and Barnabas.

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The growing tension, the threats that are against them take actual form, and we find persecution hitting them, literally hitting

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Paul as he is stoned and left for dead. But then I want us to watch and see what happens as this apostle and his brother

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Barnabas respond to that persecution and how the Lord leads them through to a successful conclusion in this missionary journey.

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Let me invite you to stand with me as we read God's holy word. Acts chapter 14, beginning in verse 19.

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This is the word of the Lord. "'Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned

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Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.

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However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city.

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And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, we must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God.

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So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the

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Lord in whom they had believed. And after they had passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.

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Now when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Ataliah. From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed.

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Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them and that He had opened the door of faith to the

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Gentiles. So they stayed there a long time with the disciples. This is the word of the

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Lord, thanks be to God, you may be seated. With so much against Paul and Barnabas, they continued on.

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And for a reason far greater than whatever they faced in terms of opposition, Jesus Christ was risen and He was ascended to the right hand of the

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Father. And He had showcased His glory, His splendor, and His power by sending forth the

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Holy Spirit. They had far more reasons to continue than they ever encountered to quit.

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I would like us to consider our communion this morning and think about where it started, where it is now, and where it is all going, even to the everlasting feast.

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I want us to recognize that what we do now in making disciples matters.

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It always matters. It matters for always. How do we make sense of this passage of Scripture where Paul is stoned by his enemies, left for dead, and then he gets back up and heads straight back in, continuing on?

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How do we make sense of that? How do we make sense of our supper this morning, what we do here together in communion?

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Making disciples is our utmost priority.

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Making disciples in the name of Jesus Christ is our utmost priority.

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And when we see how it goes for Paul and Barnabas here in chapter 14, we are reminded how to make disciples.

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We are to make disciples by that famous triad of Christian virtues, the graces of Jesus Christ that He bestows to us by His Spirit.

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We are to make disciples by faith, by hope, and by love. These fruits are manifested here in the passage, and I want us to look at faith this morning.

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How to make disciples by faith. In this, what I'm encouraging us to is that we are to make disciples by the power of Christ.

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Make disciples by the power of Christ, to take up our great commission by the grace of Christ, lest we are tempted to make excuses rather than make disciples.

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We are to make disciples by faith. I've had some time to meditate on this passage, preparing this sermon long before today in preparation for vacation and so on.

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As I read through this passage and meditated on it, three things really stand out. I imagine you see these things as well, that there is this stoning of Paul, but then he gets back up and continues on.

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That is striking to me. Also striking to me is this travel log about the completion of the journey that Paul took, even going back through the very cities where he was stoned into the cities where his assassins came from, preaching the gospel there.

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That caught my attention. But also this note that the apostles ordained elders, plural, in each church, singular.

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That's a very important verse in the history of our church. Decades ago, many decades ago, as legend tells it, as Brother Harry Boydston was preaching through the book of Acts and came to this passage and noted that there was a plurality of elders in each church singular, and in good faith said, we must change the way we have polity in this church, the way we govern in this church.

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There needs to be a plurality of elders in our church. So here, many decades later, we return to this very passage, but we should mark the

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Ebenezer and remember the grace of God. We are to make disciples by faith.

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Now, this faith is a particular faith. It's not simply a matter of having a sense of resoluteness or having a warm feeling of assurance.

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We're talking about a particular faith. As we can tell in the passage and from the context, making disciples requires a very specific faith.

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We're making disciples of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, who is the

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Christ, the Savior and Son of the living God. The particularity of this faith is the entire reason why the

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Jews have come from Iconium and from Antioch pursuing

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Paul to kill him because of what he's saying about Jesus of Nazareth.

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Indeed, the Gentiles at Lystra wanted to deify Paul and Barnabas when they came preaching the gospel, and there was a man who was born lame and he was healed.

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The Gentiles wanted to deify them, but Paul and Barnabas refused. These were people of faith.

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Lystra was full of people of faith. Each person there would say, I'm a person of faith. But they were believing in pagan mythology.

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Boy, did they believe it. Boy, were they sincere. Boy, were they wrong and in need of the gospel.

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So Paul and Barnabas are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, a particular faith. Notice in verse 21 of our passage that it says, when they had preached the gospel to that city, verse 22 says that they exhorted the disciples to continue in the faith.

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Verse 23 says that they commended the churches to the

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Lord in whom they had believed. Notice verse 25, that they had preached the word.

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You see how particular the faith is that is being proclaimed.

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So we're not talking about a spiritual force or some manner of subjective trust primarily.

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We are talking about a particular faith that is biblically revealed, historically manifested, and culturally transforming.

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That's what we see in chapters 13 and 14 in our text particularly. This faith is biblically revealed, historically manifested, and culturally transforming.

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Paul and Barnabas have been preaching the Bible the whole way through from the beginning of chapter 13 even to now.

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They continue to preach the holy scriptures. They even preach the

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Bible to the Gentiles who didn't grow up with the Bible. The Gentiles overhearing the preaching in the synagogues at Antioch, Paul and Barnabas preached the

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Bible. Jesus as prophesied in the Old Testament now fulfilled.

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They preach the Bible to Gentiles, even to outright pagans. This group of pagans who wanted to deify

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Paul and Barnabas, they respond to them refusing to worship and saying, there's only one true

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God whom you should be worshiping. And although some commentators look at what

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Paul and Barnabas say in verses 14 through 18 of our chapter and say, well, they were preaching natural revelation, general revelation.

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It's hard to miss all of the textual allusions to Genesis 8 and 9 and the covenant that God made with Noah.

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Paul and Barnabas are still operating fully entrenched in Bible, preaching to those who didn't even know about the

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Bible at all. And that is significant for us when we think about making disciples. The particular faith that we want to disciple others in and that we ourselves want to grow in and be discipled is a biblically revealed faith.

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We are to make disciples by declaring the faith, which is from the Scriptures.

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Jesus said to the Jews who believed in Him in John 8, 31, He says, if you abide in My Word, you are

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My disciples indeed. If you abide in His Word, we are His disciples indeed.

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And Jude verse 3 says, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation,

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I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints.

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Well, where was it delivered? It was delivered in the Word of God. So catechisms and confessions and creeds and counselors and confessions, conferences,

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Christian books, they all have their place. These are the things we often turn to for discipleship material and growing in the faith.

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Catechisms, confessions, creeds, counselors, conferences, Christian books, they all have their place. And it is bowing humbly before Christ, that's their place, bowing humbly before Christ revealed in all the

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Scriptures, as the Father reveals the Son by the Spirit throughout the entirety of the Scriptures. So they're helpful, but they are to be in submission.

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In John chapter 5, verses 38 through 40, Jesus tells the religious scholars of His day, you do not have

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His Word, God's Word abiding in you. All they memorized it, all they translated it, all they copied it, but He says,

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Jesus says to them, you do not have His Word abiding in you because whom He sent, him you do not believe.

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You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and it is these that testify of me, but you are not willing to come to me that you may have life.

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So Jesus is certainly turning us to the Scriptures, not away from the Scriptures, but He's saying when you come to the

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Scriptures, who are we to be looking for? Who are we to be believing Jesus Christ?

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Paul writes to Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 15 through 17, he says, from childhood you have known the

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Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

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Of course, Timothy was raised on the Old Testament, and those were able to make him wise unto salvation where he would believe in Christ.

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Verse 16 says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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Our particular faith is biblically revealed.

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Now when some people hear that, they think immediately that that must mean that it is not historical. The Bible is to be implicitly not trusted as historically reliable.

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For many folks, when they hear the Bible, they think that this is a very poor resource for understanding what actually happened in history.

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So deep is the lie of the enemy implanted into the hearts of rebels. The Bible is historical and it is accurate.

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The Bible truly is not a science textbook. The Bible truly is not a psychology manual.

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The Bible truly is not an historical encyclopedia. But where the

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Scriptures do speak to matters that pertain to science or the soul of man or to history, it is authoritative.

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It is true. Every objection that is brought against the Word of God from any field of science may stand anywhere from five minutes to a hundred years, but eventually it is proven false and it crumbles along with all who held to that as the reason why they rejected

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God. Our particular faith is biblically revealed and historically manifested.

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We do not have an idealistic faith. We do not have a mythological faith. We have an historical faith, as we find from Paul's preaching in chapter 13.

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He went through the entire history leading up to Jesus of Nazareth. And the very term gospel denotes historical wonderment, historical importance.

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A euangelion, a gospel, was issued from the throne of Rome, from the Roman emperor, when something of great historical importance occurred.

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Thus, good news then spread from the throne throughout the whole empire. In a far greater sense, because of Jesus Christ, His incarnation, because of His death upon the cross,

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His resurrection from the dead, His ascension to heaven, the gospel goes forth proclaiming the good news of the kingdom.

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Jesus Christ is king. So the gospel that we read that Paul preaches in verse 21 is testifying to an historical moment of great importance.

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Now, when others hear the term biblical or historical, they immediately think irrelevant.

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If it's in the Bible, the Bible is a spiritual book, so it has no real impact in life. And if it's historical, then it's old -fashioned, and who cares about it today?

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But making disciples proves otherwise, because our particular faith is not only biblically revealed and historically manifested, but it is culturally transforming.

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From the proconsul on the island of Cyprus to the social dynamics in Antioch at Pisidia, the gospel, the making of disciples by the gospel of Jesus Christ, left the world a different place.

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The island of Cyprus was never the same again. Antioch at Pisidia was never the same again. Galatia was never the same again after the gospel was preached and disciples were made.

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The lines were no longer in the same place. Case in point, we have

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Jewish zealots and Gentile Zeusites cooperating together, which they never, ever did before, to kill

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Paul. Look at them working together now. The gospel has an impact, a real -world, culturally transforming impact.

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The lines just move. Everybody has to redraw the maps after the gospel is preached, after the kingdom advances through anyone's territory.

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Sinners are right to fear. Sinners are right to fear, but sometimes they fear too small.

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Many who are in rebellion against Christ are afraid of phrases like Christian nationalism.

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Your fear is too small. It's not about one nation having

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Christian principles and ideas. It's every nation. Every nation is in the bullseye of the preaching of the gospel.

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The whole idea is that Jesus Christ reigns from the right hand of the Father until all of His enemies are made a footstool for His feet, and then

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He returns. Everybody's in view of the gospel.

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Everybody must hear the gospel. Disciples must be made of every nation. All nations should be taught to obey

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Jesus Christ in all that He has commanded because He is that kind of King. Sinners are right to fear that their world will not remain the same.

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They are right to fear that their values may be ignored. They are right to fear that everything could change.

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Our God is a consuming fire, and Christ suffers no rivals.

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This particular faith that is preached by which we are to make disciples is not simply to remain a matter of objective consideration from afar.

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It is also to be a personal faith. We are to make disciples by faith. It is a particular faith, but it is also a personal faith.

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How often do we find Paul saying, according to my gospel? He's not saying that because he made it up.

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He's not saying that because he has a copyright on it. He's not saying that because it's his own personal set of beliefs and you can believe what you want to.

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He's saying it's my gospel because it is personal to him. It is true that it is biblically revealed and historically manifested and culturally transforming.

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It is far bigger than Paul, but he says it's still mine. He still personally owns it.

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It's my gospel. This is the good news which I believe. So, this personal faith needs to be a knowing and an affirming and an entrusting.

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Paul goes and preaches the faith, the particular faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ. He preaches to the

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Jews in the synagogues and says, you know, all these promises from Genesis to Isaiah, the promises from 2

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Samuel all the way to Malachi, these are fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. And he informs them of the facts of who

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Jesus Christ is. Here is the truth of the gospel. And much of this is entirely brand new to the

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Gentiles who don't have that frame of reference of the covenants and the promises that the

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Jews grew up with and considered. But nonetheless, whether Jew or Gentile, they all need to know the facts, the truth about who

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Jesus Christ is. They need to know and have essential information about who

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Jesus is. But it's more than simply having the content all together.

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There is also the need to be convinced that it, in fact, is true.

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Many a liberal scholar is able to completely and thoroughly describe the gospel of Jesus Christ and not miss any important values as it is expressed historically by the church.

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They don't think it's true, but they can sure get all the facts right. Faith in Jesus Christ, salvation in Jesus Christ by faith is not simply a matter of you having all the facts and being able to repeat them in order.

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But it's also that you think it's true, 100 % true.

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It all happened just that way. Convinced, convinced.

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Is this not what Paul is preaching to those in Lystra and Iconium and Antioch and Derbe?

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That they would not only know the truth about Jesus Christ, but be convinced, convinced indeed that it is true.

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But do you know it's even more than that? Do you know it's even more than that? I remember a striking story about an apologist who was able to prove without the shadow of a doubt that Jesus of Nazareth indeed was raised from the dead the third day, just as the

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Bible declares it. And he was able to convince a student on a campus who was an atheist.

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And she finally said, you've convinced me. This first -person account and all these evidences have convinced me that indeed

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Jesus, this man, he raised from the dead. But I don't believe he's God and I'm not going to serve him.

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This question is sometimes posed by apologists who are out to atheists who are in the crowd and said, but what if it is true?

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What if everything I'm saying here is true? What then? Would you worship him? And the answer comes back, well, it depends on what he wants.

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And this is where you move away from the evidence to the presuppositions. We move to who do you trust?

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Who do you believe? Who do you entrust yourself to? What is it that you actually confess?

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So we have to have a knowing of the content to affirm, to be convinced that it is true, but also to entrust ourselves to confess

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Jesus Christ as our Savior and as our Lord, which means that we are in full dependence upon him, that we are satisfied in him.

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I need no other water. I need no other bread. I need no other blood.

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I need no other Savior. I am completely, utterly satisfied in Christ as the

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Father is satisfied in Christ upon my behalf, and I submit to him as my

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Lord. I am in his yoke. I am bowing my knee to him.

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I'm entrusting myself to him. Wherever he leads, I go. You see, this is the kind of faith by which we make disciples.

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Not simply the knowing faith and the affirming faith, but also together with the entrusting faith that, yes, indeed, we confess

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Christ. Again, the revelation of this particular faith is by the grace of God that anyone would know it.

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And this personal faith by which we are united to Jesus Christ is, again, the gift of God that we would be in union with Jesus Christ, all his righteousness to our account, all our transgressions he bore for us upon the cross, his life for ours.

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And it is also a powerful faith by which we are to make disciples, a powerful faith.

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The faith that saves is the same faith that is from the Savior and by the Savior and in the

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Savior. Why did Paul get back up? Why didn't he just say,

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I'm done? To be absent from the body would be a relief.

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Why did he get back up? Why did he go back to Lystra, Iconium, Antioch? Why did he go back?

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And how can Paul go around and encourage others to face the same fate?

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He got up after getting stoned in Lystra and went to Derbe and said, you too should believe upon Jesus of Nazareth.

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Paul, why is your face that color? How dare he convince them and encourage them and call them to believe in Jesus Christ when he knows that the rocks could fall on them, too?

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But notice that it is a powerful faith that continues. It's a faith that continues.

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He went back to Lystra, then to Derbe, then to Lystra, then Iconium, and then Antioch, and then Pisidia, and then Pamphylia, and then he went to Perga, and he went to Adelaide.

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He just kept going in spite of the persecution, and in fact, on account of the persecution.

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Well, given this level of resistance, I better go back and strengthen the disciples to get ready. He went in the face of persecution.

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I don't care where they came from. I'm going back, and he went far beyond persecution because it was not what defined him.

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He was not scarred by it. He was not scared by it. He was not arrested by it, not limited by it.

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This is a powerful faith that continues. We see this in verse 22.

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He strengthened the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, saying, we must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God.

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Verse 23. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the

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Lord in whom they had believed. You see this commending? The elders are ordained by the apostles, elders in each church.

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What do elders do? You can read about that in Acts 20, in 1 Timothy 3, in Titus 1, 1

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Peter 5. What do elders do but feed the Lord's sheep?

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Tend to His lambs. But notice that the saints, the flock, was not entrusted to the apostles who had ordained the elders.

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The flock was not entrusted to, commended unto, the elders who were put in position to serve them.

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But who were they commended to? To the Lord in whom they believed.

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To the Lord in whom they believed. That's who we are entrusted to, commended unto.

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Powerful faith continues and commends the saints and the self unto

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Christ. And this is important because of verse 26.

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This powerful faith is not only one that continues and commends, but also completes. From there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed.

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Completed. This kind of faith sees fruit.

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Do you know that in discipling others, and you'll know this as parents especially, but you'll know this as parents or as teachers, in the cycle of a school year, in short -term mission work, or in relationships, discipling and counseling and so on, as you're making disciples, you are going to cross many finish lines before that last finish line.

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There's a finish line when you die and your body is planted as a seed of hope for the resurrection, and to be absent from the body is to be present with the

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Lord. There's a finish line when the Lord comes back and gathers us all to Himself. There is that finish line, but there are many finish lines before that.

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At the end of Acts chapter 12, note at verse 25,

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Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and they also took with them

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John, whose surname was Mark. And then what did they do? They hung out. They rested. They rejoiced.

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Here at the end of chapter 14, again, they completed their work and they came home and told everybody how good

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God is, and then they just hung out with the disciples a long time. You see that crossed finish line before the finish line?

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How could they rest? Those new churches, those baby churches with these barely discipled disciples.

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Oh, and the persecution they faced. What about if the Jews come and try to stone everybody in a church? What happens?

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But Paul and Barnabas, you see, had commended the saints unto Christ, not to themselves, so they could go home and rest.

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What about that church? Oh, Jesus has it. But what if something happens?

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Oh, He's Lord of the church. He's got it. When you make disciples, it's not about making people spiritually dependent upon you as their mediator unto

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God so they feel more spiritual when they hang out with you. You're not making disciples of you. You're not being the expert in their life to solve it all for them.

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You have to commend them unto the Lord or you'll never cross the finish line. Don't commend them unto yourself.

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Don't make disciples of yourself. Make disciples of Jesus Christ. So that at the end, we may praise

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God for the work that He accomplishes. Well, we're kind of left without excuses given the clarity of the

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Gospel and the power of Jesus Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the instruction that we have in the

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Word of God. We just don't have excuses. We can't say, I'm in no position or I have no power or I have no idea.

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We are left without excuses. So we are to make disciples.

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Make disciples. Let's close with a word of prayer and then sing and share our supper together.

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Heavenly Father, we thank You for the day that You've given us. We thank You for the Word that You have given us. And I pray that You would help us to make disciples by faith.

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Make disciples by faith that You grant. And I pray that as we commune together,

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You do so around this particular faith in Jesus Christ. Personal faith that is gifted deep within because of Your grace.

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a faith that is powerful unto the glory of Your name. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.