Turning the world upside down (Acts 17:1-15)

A new year means a new start. A new change. Exercise more, eat more vegetables, that sort of thing. But some people are serious about their habits. Some people have seriously weird habits.

Take Mark Zuckerberg, who is big on new year’s resolutions. In 2009, he resolved to wear a tie every day. In 2011, he resolved to only eat animals he had personally killed.

Or Bill Gates. Bill Gates at business meetings likes to sit on a rocking chair. Apparently, when Bill is excited about an idea, he starts rocking that chair.

Steve Jobs ate carrots for weeks until his skin turned orange. Jack Ma eats instant noodles every day for the last 18 years.

Why do I mention this? Because everyone is looking for that secret recipe to success. Everyone wants that one thing to make them smarter, happier and fitter. But new year’s resolutions remind us just how hard it is and how long it takes to change even one thing. To change even one habit.

Why? Because changing habits means changing ourselves - our likes, our dislikes. It is one thing to change your circumstance, it is another to change your character - your wants and desires.

Three things we are looking at in today’s passage from Acts Chapter 17. Three habits. A good habit, a bad habit and a weird habit. Come with me to Acts Chapter 17.

A good habit

When Paul and his companions had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. ‘This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,’ he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women.
Acts 17:1-4

We begin with a good habit and the question is: What makes a good habit good? Going to church - a lot of you are expecting me to say that. And yes, verse 2 says Paul went into the synagogue but that’s not what I mean.

What makes a good habit good is consistency. You know it is good and you keep doing it because it is good. You don’t give up.

Verse 2: Paul goes to the synagogue and he keeps doing this for three Sabbath days. He keeps reasoning from the Scriptures, he keeps preaching from the Old Testament.

Verse 3: He tells them, “This Jesus is the Messiah.” Now the fact that it only says this once means Paul keeps saying this again and again. Jesus is the Christ. He doesn’t talk about one thing this week then another thing next week. It’s Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

And verse 4: Some of the Jews were persuaded, meaning, they became Christians. But notice, it wasn’t just the Jews who became Christians. God-fearing Greeks and prominent women, too (Cantonese: Tai tai). It’s like preaching in the Chinese Church and yes, some Chinese people become Christians but actually most of the new converts are English, BBC or Indian. The synagogue was Jewish but here were Greeks. The synagogue was primarily for men but here were women coming to Christ.

Meaning, what? Paul did the same thing wherever, whenever, to whoever. He told them about Jesus. He told them to give their lives to this Jesus who died for our sins, who rose for our justification.

Now verse 2 begins, “as was his custom,” and if you look through the entire bible, the entire New Testament, that phrase - “as was his custom” - occurs only two times - here in Acts and in Luke Chapter 4 verse 16, talking about Jesus.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read.
Luke 4:16

Both written by Luke. Both talking about the synagogue. Both talking about the bible. I don’t think that’s an accident. Paul is doing exactly what Jesus did in his ministry - explaining, proving and preaching the bible to people who knew their bibles.

If nothing else, Luke who wrote the gospel and Acts is saying to us: Don’t give up. Keep reading the bible especially as God’s people.

Why? Because even though we know something is good, if we keep doing it long enough, we will feel tempted to give up. You see, what makes a good habit good is consistency. You keep doing it. It’s faithfulness. You don’t give up.

A bad habit

Well, that’s a good habit. Next, we look at a bad one. Verse 5.

But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the market-place, formed a mob and started a riot in the city.
Acts 17:5

What makes a bad habit bad? Forming a mob, rioting, trouble-making - according to verse 5.

But no, that’s not what I mean. A bad habit is something you know is bad but you keep doing it anyway. Your parents tell you it’s bad. Your friends tell you it’s bad. But you keep doing it anyway. Look down to verse 13.

But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up.
Acts 17:13

They do it all over again in a different place, in a different church. But the same people cause the same trouble all over again. What do you call that? An addiction.

We think of addiction and we think of smoking and drinking and spending too much time on the Internet, that sort of thing. And because of that, we think: I’m not so bad. I’m not causing trouble like these Jews.

But, you see, verse 5 looks at the sin under the sin. Why were they causing all this trouble? Because, verse 5 tells us, they were jealous. The symptom was rioting, trouble-making but the disease was jealousy.

If you think about it, that’s crazy. Verse 5 doesn’t say they hated Paul or his teaching. Instead, they were jealous, meaning part of them loved it. Part of them said, “I wish I was like Paul. I wish that could preach like Paul and win lots of people to Jesus like Paul.” And that’s crazy.

Except it’s not. Sin is wanting something from God without God. Wanting to be God instead of God. And when I don’t get what I want, I get depressed, jealous, angry, anxious but that’s not sin in itself, those are just the symptoms. Those are just on the surface. The problem is in my heart. I want to be God instead of letting God be God.

The point is: I can try to change my habit but only God can change my heart.

The most serious sins in our lives, I’m guessing, you know you shouldn’t do it, you know it’s bad but you just can’t help it. You keep doing it again and again.

You can try to change your habit. Only God can change your heart.

A weird habit

So far we have seen a good habit - looking at Paul. A bad habit - looking at the Jews. Finally, we see a weird habit, this time looking at the crowd in verse 5.

They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other believers before the city officials, shouting: ‘These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.’ When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they put Jason and the others on bail and let them go.
Acts 17:5-9

The crowds are just people who are there minding their business, doing their shopping, but what happens? Suddenly they become a mob, or as we would say today, suddenly things became viral.

Verse 5: They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. The word there is actually “demos” (people) where we get the word democracy. This is the will of the people.

Verse 6: The city officials get involved. “These men who have caused trouble all over the world (literally: turned the world upside down) have now come here.” Meaning: We don’t want this sort of people in Cambridge. We don’t need this kind of religion in Cambridge.

Verse 7: They appeal to nationalism. “They are defying Caesar’s decrees saying there is another king called Jesus.” If you love Caesar, you must hate Jesus. If you love democracy, you can’t love Jesus.

Verse 8: It works. “The crowds and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.” The enemy of my enemy is my friend. These guys are smart and their plan works.

Now, why is this weird? Because no one is really thinking about what they’re doing. Everyone else is doing it so it must be right. Everyone else likes this Instagram post so I must like it as well. It’s weird because it shouldn’t work except it does - here in Thessalonica, there in Berea, perhaps even here in Cambridge where a whole of smart people think a lot of stupid things.

If you are here and you are not a Christian, can I just ask: What are you? What do you actually think everything you’ve just heard the last 13 minutes, the last 13 years of your life. Whether you agree or disagree, how much is your opinion, your opinion. Not just something you watched on Youtube? What do words like truth, falsehood; right and wrong; heaven and hell mean to you?

Look with me to verse 11.

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Acts 17:11

Is it true? Whatever Paul said to these guys in Berea about Jesus dying on the cross and rising on the third day, they received it with eagerness, yes, but they also asked themselves, “Is it true?” And because of that, the bible calls them noble. I would just call them mature. They are thinking like grown-ups. They are thinking for themselves.

If nothing else, that is what I hope happens here every week at the Chinese Church, that as we keep up the habit of opening the Scriptures, as we are honest with one another about our sinfulness - none of us perfect, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God - that each one of us will simple walk out of the door each week asking this question, “Is it true?”

And that as we look for the answers as the Bereans did, examining the Scriptures, we might say with conviction together with Paul, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you really is the Christ.”

Changing the world

The title of this sermon is “Turning the world upside down” and I get that from verse 6 - “These men who have turned the whole world upside down have now come here,” an accusation made against Paul and his friends.

If you think about your life for a moment, what would it take for you to change the world, to make a huge impact on society? How could you live your life in such a way that you could turn the world upside down?

If you arrange the three habits we looked at not side-by-side but from top to bottom - the good, bad and weird - what you get is a pyramid. At the bottom is the crowd. Everyone is doing it, everyone is into it. In the middle would be the Jews - these few influential men pressing the right buttons triggering a riot, starting a movement. And right on top, you have Paul - one guy from from city to city telling people about Jesus. It’s a pyramid. Or think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

And if you asked that question: What do I need to do to change the world? Almost everyone thinks the way to do that is to be like the crowd. Go viral. Get as many people as possible excited about your cause. That’s success. That’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. You get as many people as possible liking, tweeting and posting and you change the world.

Or some people would be like the Jews. Knowing the right buttons to press. Making alliances and compromises. The ends justify the means.

But very few would do what Paul did. One guy going from city to city, opening the bible, saying, “This Jesus is the Christ.” It’s so inefficient. You have reason with people, explain stuff again and again. If you asked anyone in Thessalonica and Berea what they thought of Paul, they’d say, “Loser.” Getting kicked out of the synagogue. Getting kicked out of the city. Again and again. Getting your friends into trouble. Again and again.

Yet in God’s wisdom, it’s people like Paul who change the world. Even his critics agree. After all, it was the Jews who describe Paul and his friends as turning the world upside down with their teaching and preaching.

And the question is: Which kind of person are you going to be?

If you are like Paul, someone who is in ministry, the lesson is clear: Don’t give up. Keep preaching Christ. Keep preaching the bible. It will be lonely. You will face opposition. Keep going and keep speaking out for Christ.

If you are Christian, the lesson is clear: Don’t be ashamed of the gospel. You look at people like Jason who was dragged out to the courts. The brothers who had to arrange for Paul to escape again and again. It is tempting to think, “I didn’t sign up for this.” But remember what Paul said of the Christ: The Messiah must suffer and must rise from the dead. We follow a Messiah who himself was rejected, who himself suffered, who himself told us to count the cost, pick up our cross and carry it daily.

You do that and maybe, just maybe, God will one day use you to turn this world upside down for Christ.

Man vs Food (Acts 11:1-18)

I was seventeen and it was the last day of a summer school I was doing in Malaysia and as I got back to my seat in class I found a card on my desk. It was from a girl and it said something like, Dear Calvin, Great knowing you. Stay in touch.

I was seventeen - remember - and I thought, It’s now or never. So I walked up to the girl in front of everyone in class holding the card to my chest and I said, “Thank you for the card.”

And I said, “I just want you to know that I really, really, really…” - and it was around about the third “really” that I noticed, Hey, that guy has the same card as me. And, That girl over there has a card, too. (I later learned that she had given a card to every student in class)

“... really, really, erm, thank you for this card,” and ran back to my desk. Smooth.

If you can imagine the embarrassment, the surprise, the foolishness of being in such a situation, then maybe you understand the impact of what Peter says in verse 17 of Acts Chapter 11 - God gave them the same gift as he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ - it is the impact of learning that God loves people who are very different from us. That God gave his Son to die for other people and not just for us.

For Peter, that impact resulted in a series of confrontations - a series of conflicts - with man, with food and with God - our three points from our passage today from Acts Chapter 11.
(1) Man vs Man. (2) Man vs Food. And (3) Man vs God.

Man vs Man

The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticised him and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
Acts 11:1-3

Peter gets into trouble. The moment he gets back to Jerusalem, the moment he steps back into church on Sunday, he sees everyone holding up a sign that says, “Intervention.” Some of them are angry. You idiot! Most of them are disappointed. How could you do this to us?

What did Peter do? He went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. That is the accusation of verse 3 by circumcised men, which some take to be a small radical group and that’s possible. But verse 1 reminds us there was a wider audience - “the apostles and believers throughout Judea” - who were concerned, who were confused by Peter’s actions.

You see, Peter broke the rules. He broke the Old Testament food laws - no eating unclean foods; no eating with unclean people, meaning, unbelievers - not unlike a Jewish person today eating food that is not Kosher or a Muslim eating food that is not Halal. But it was worse for Peter because Peter was their leader. Peter was Apostle Number One.

The amazing thing is Peter does not pull rank. He does not push back and say, “How dare you question my authority?” Why? Because Peter understands it is a good thing to be held accountable, especially, being held accountable to God’s word and that’s what they were doing. And what he does in response to that is bring them back to God’s word, notice that. Verse 4, “Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened.” That is a mark of a godly leader - someone who submits himself to God’s word and someone who calls us to do the same.

Man vs Food

“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’”
Acts 11:6-7

If you’ve been to Korean BBQ or Chinese Hot pot BBQ, the great thing about that is you get to cook your food before eating your food and it is a lot like that here in Peter’s vision, except, Peter is told to kill his food before eating his food - four footed-animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds - basically, every kind of meat there is, kinda like a Zoo-Buffet-BBQ type restaurant.

And Peter gets that this is a test. So he says in verse 8, “Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.” God was testing him with this vision and Peter thinks he nailed it. All my life I have been preparing for this test: I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. He expects God to say, “100% A++, Peter. Well done!”

But that’s not what God says.

“The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.”
Acts 11:9-10

EEEEEHHH! Wrong answer!

What is more, this happened three times (meaning, either just the last bit happened happened three times - “This is clean! This is clean! This is clean!” - or that the vision happened three times and Peter denied God three times, “Surely not, surely not, surely not!” - three times!) How confusing this must have been for Peter. He thought he knew the answer, he was so confident he was right. But God reminds him three times not call something wrong that God has made right, not to call something impure that God has made holy.

What does this mean? All foods are clean? If that was all that happened that day, sure - God is saying it’s OK to eat char siu pao and chilli crab. But right then, something else happened, something else that made Peter think this was more than just a vision about food.

“Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’”
Acts 11:11-14

The word “house” occurs four times in four verses. They arrived at the “house” where Peter is staying. Peter goes with them into the “house” of this man (Cornelius, from Chapter 10) who talks about how an angel appears in his “house” and how Peter is meant to bring a message that will save him and his “house”.

What was the significance of entering this non-Jewish, non-Christian, non-Kosher man’s house? It was the crossing of boundaries. It meant entering the space, the lives of people you previously shunned, you previously avoided and you previously discriminated against. Up to gate? Yes. Up to the door? Maybe. But to enter into this uncircumcised man’s house was to have fellowship with him. To yum cha with him. To make friends with him. Remember the accusation of verse 2, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”

And all this happens immediately after the vision. (Verse 11: “Right then.”) Meaning, there is a connection between what God was saying there and what God is saying here. “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” - not referring to unclean foods but unclean people. Verse 12, “The Spirit told me to have no hesitation,” literally, “no discrimination about going with them.”
Friends, what does discrimination mean? Holding back the gospel. Holding back Jesus from people who are not like us and not one of us.

And it is not enough to say, “Come to the Chinese Church. We do not discriminate against anyone.” It is not enough to say that because what was Peter commanded to do? Go to this man’s house. Bring the gospel to him - not bring him here to our church, our community - but to enter into his. It is crossing boundaries and crossing cultures.

The vision of the food and animals left Peter confused but even after he understood the significance of the vision I think Peter was still confused. How could God do this? What does this mean? In the end, Peter did not let his confusion get in the way of his obedience. Notice, everything God says to Peter is a command. Get up. Kill and eat. Go with them. Preach to them. It is a good thing to seek clarification from God’s word but never to use it as an excuse for disobedience (or delayed obedience). God gives us enough clarification to obey him fully and wholeheartedly in his word. And in the end that’s what we see in Peter - his obedience and submission to God’s commands.

Man vs God

“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
Acts 11:15-17

So Peter is there in the house. The man tells him he is supposed to tell them the gospel so that’s what Peter is doing at this point - telling them about Jesus - his life, his death, his resurrection (Acts 10:39-43) - when suddenly the Holy Spirit comes on them in a powerful way.

And it is important to see that this happens for his benefit not just theirs. I mean, it was wonderful for God to bless the new believers in this special way, but notice how Peter internalises everything he sees. “Then I remembered...” verse 16. “Who was I to think…” verse 17. God was teaching Peter something significant about what he was doing through these new believers - they have received the same salvation, the same Lord, the same Holy Spirit as Peter the his friends did at Pentecost. And the only condition was faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 17, “we who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

For Peter, this is especially convicting to his soul. “Who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?” What does that mean? It means that up to that point, up to that moment when it finally dawned on Peter’s consciousness that God wanted to save these non-Jewish, non-Kosher Gentiles into his kingdom, Peter was, in fact, opposing God. And that’s an awesome thought. “Surely not, Lord,” he said back in verse 8. Peter was so sure of himself back then, thinking he was right and, by implication, that God was wrong. But step by step, God reminds Peter that God is God. Step by step, God reminds Peter that this was his plan all along. “You will be my witnesses,” Jesus said in Acts 1, verse 8, “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The gospel is for everyone. You don’t get that, you don’t get the gospel.

Amazingly still, Peter’s testimony convicts everyone else in the room.

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Acts 11:18

Notice, Peter never says to them, “You need to change. You guys are wrong. You need to repent.” They instinctively do this on their own. Why?

Two possible reasons. One, Peter’s conviction becomes their own. Remember, Peter is their pastor and there is something very powerful about a pastor standing up in front of his people and saying, “I messed up,” standing up in front of the whole church and saying, “I was wrong.” It reminds us of our sinfulness. It reminds us of God’s grace. Peter was just like them, denying God’s word, denying God’s grace, denying God’s plan for the Gentiles. We see this here in his testimony and actually we this all throughout the gospels. Peter was guy who said the wrong thing, did the wrong thing again and again and again but was restored by Jesus by his grace again and again and again. And his heartfelt, genuine repentance and submission to God’s word made it possible for everyone else to do the same.

So that’s one reason but I think there is another: They finally understood God’s love. It might be a strange thing to say but in God’s sovereign wisdom we understand God’s love better and clearer when we see it operating in the lives of others and not just our own.

“God gave them the same gift as he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter was talking about the Gentiles. People who never had the Old Testament. Unclean people. Sinful people. Here in Cambridge, think of someone uneducated. Here in the Chinese Church, think of someone disrespectful of their elders. Here in a civilised nation like the UK, think of a corrupt cruel despot. Now imagine God saving them. Imagine God pouring out his Spirit on them. Imagine God giving his Son to die for them.

That’s the impact of the encounter that Peter had seeing the Holy Spirit poured on these uncircumcised, uncivilised, unclean, impure Gentiles. If God can love them, boy oh boy, do you realise that is what it means for God to love me?

Friends, it is one of the reasons why International Ministry is such a precious gift God has given us here in Cambridge. It is not a convenience - “How convenient it is we don’t have to get on a plane to some far off country to preach the gospel?” or “How convenient it is they can go back to their countries and we don’t need to send anyone?” It is not convenience but conviction. When you see someone so different from you get it, you get it. When you hear someone so unlike you praise God, you start praising God. When you embrace someone you used to shun and avoid and discriminate but now you call them “brother” and “sister”, you begin to realise: That is how God embraces me in Jesus Christ - as loved, as accepted and as his own.

Such a truth will cause conflict. If that happens, we go back to the word of God and submit ourselves to it. Such a truth will cause confusion. If that happens, we must never be disobedient. God always gives us enough to know what it means to obey.

But such a truth will ultimately result in praise.

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

And I pray that will be true for us.

Still angry (Acts 9:1-31)

I watched Spider-man four times this summer with friends who hadn’t seen it before but whom I was keen to watch it with. It’s a great movie. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. But I noticed something watching Spider-man four times with my friends. Everyone thinks they’re Spider-man. No-one ever thinks of themselves as the villain.

Come with me to Acts Chapter 9.

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
Acts 9:1-2

Saul is the bad guy. No doubt about that. He is breathing out murderous threats against Christians (verse 1). He literally wants them dead.

The thing is, Saul thinks he’s the good guy. That’s what makes him so interesting and so dangerous, I guess.

He goes up to the high priest and says “I’m going to help you deal with this Christian problem. I’m going to save the day.” He thinks he is being the hero by offering to catch all these Christians who have run away to Damascus. “I’m going to bring them back.”

Yet, at the same time, he has an agenda. It’s not justice, it’s hatred. If you’re a Christian, he hates your guts. If you’re a Christian, Saul is coming to get you.

What do you do with someone like Saul? You call the police, right? Except Saul is the police; you’re the criminal. “He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus” - like a warrant - “so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem”. In Saul’s mind, you’ve broken the rules, he’s keeping the rules. In Saul’s mind, he has every right make your life miserable. Because in Saul’s mind, he is the good guy, not you.

What do you do with a guy like Saul? Saul’s anger and hatred is the kind that can never be satisfied. Notice the word “still” in verse 1. He’s still angry. Stephen is dead but he’s still angry. The church is destroyed but he’s still angry. Jesus once said, “The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God” (John 16:2). That’s Saul. He’s angry because he thinks, “God wants me to be angry.”

No, he doesn’t. No, he doesn’t.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
Acts 9:3-5

Who does Saul really hate? Jesus. No, that can’t be right. He’s persecuting Christians. God wants me to kill these Christians. But Jesus says, “The one you are persecuting is me. The one you are trying to kill is me.” How can that be?

Jesus is so connected to the church that if you hurt anyone in the church, you hurt him. The church is his body. When you hurt someone here in the Chinese Church, Jesus knows it. Jesus feels it. The church is a part of him because he died for his church. He gave his life for the church.

But take it a step further, Jesus is saying: The one you hate is me. “Saul, Saul,” he begins. He is speaking to a man deeply angry at God, deeply frustrated with God.

And when Saul says, “Who are you, Lord?” he knows and he doesn’t know. I mean, he knows it’s God - the light from heaven, the voice from heaven - Saul knows enough to call him Lord. But what Saul doesn’t know is that Jesus is Lord. What Saul doesn’t realise is that Jesus is God, though, maybe part of him did.

Martin Luther once said, “Love God? Sometimes I hate him.” People look at you and see a good guy who is serving God, who is so in love with God but on the inside, if you’re honest, you hate him. That’s why you hate Christians. That’s why you hate churches. And there on the road of hatred, as it were, the risen Lord Jesus appears to Saul and says, “That’s enough.”

“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

The men travelling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
Acts 9:6-9

This really happened. These witnesses confirm that what happened really happened, it wasn’t just in Saul’s head. And yet, only Saul could hear Jesus and see Jesus. This encounter was just for him.
“Get up. Go to the city.” All commands from Jesus. Saul is no longer in charge. “You will be told what you must do.” He gets it. He gets up and realises he’s blind. He has to be led by the hand into the city. Is he being punished - struck blind for his sin? More likely, it’s a sign of lifelong blindness towards God. Saul gets it. For three days, he did not eat or drink anything.

This event - Saul’s conversion - is recorded three times in the book of Acts. That’s worth saying. We find it again in Chapter 22 and again in Chapter 26 - it’s a big deal. Here’s a guy so blind to his hatred until he met Jesus; so blind to his sin until he met Jesus. And any Christian worth their salt will say the same thing: Meeting Jesus opens our eyes. To our lifelong blindness. To our lifelong rejection of God.

For Saul, it was literal. He was struck blind and for three days, he did not eat or drink anything, meaning, he was repentant. He knew he needed to change. He knew Jesus was Lord.

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!”
“Yes, Lord,” he answered.

The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
Acts 9:10-12

I love Ananias. Jesus appears to him, calls him by name and what does he say? “Yes, Lord.” Not, “You’re real?” (Or in Cantonese: Hak Sei Yan!) Not even, “Who are you, Lord?” which is what Saul said. “Yes, Lord.” He’s ready to do whatever Jesus wants him to do.
Except when Jesus says, “Go help that man Saul.”

“Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
Acts 9:13-14

Ananias never says, “No.” But you get what he’s trying to say. “Are you sure, Lord? That guy, Lord?” I recently learned what passive-aggressive means and now that I’ve learned it I’m doing my best to unlearn it. It’s saying no without saying no. It’s not very nice and not very Christian. Ananias is essentially saying no to Jesus.

And Jesus has to tell him a second time. “Go!”

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Acts 9:15-16

“Acts is about God using unexpected people to do unexpected things,” one friend said to me recently and that’s true. God can save anyone and use anyone to reach everyone.

But there is something special about Saul. “This man is my chosen instrument,” Jesus says. You see, Saul is not simply an unexpected person, he is the most unexpected person ever! I think that’s the point. God loves to do this. He loves to show his grace, his love and his goodness to the most unlikely person ever - the kind of guy who will never become a Christian, the kind of girl who will never accept Christ - they are precisely whom God loves to reach.

Saul writing later as Paul would say, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15) I am sinner number one!

And what Jesus is saying is: I know what I am doing. When Ananias questions him, when we question him, we forget that God is God in sovereignty and in salvation. People like Saul are exactly the kind of people God wants to save.

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptised; and taking food, he was strengthened.
Acts 9:17-19

What does it mean when I call you “brother” or “sister” here in church? It means I’ve forgotten your name. Hey, brother!

But for Ananias, it meant forgiveness. Everything you did in the past was paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. God forgives you; I forgive you. You are family. Ananias places his hands on Saul and immediately he is healed physically (“he regained his sight”) supernaturally (“immediately… scales fell from his eyes”) and spiritually (“that you may be filled with the Holy Spirit”).  He was baptised - no delay - Saul was now a Christian. “Brother Saul.”

The story should end here. In fact, the story should end with verse 31: “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace.” They lived happily ever after.

Except it doesn’t. Jesus says, “This man is my chosen instrument,” and he means it.

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, ‘Isn’t he the man who caused havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?’ Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah.
Acts 9:20-22

Saul preaches. Saul grows more and more powerful proving that Jesus is the Messiah. And that sounds great until you realise not a single person becomes a Christian. Instead, what we see is a lot of people wanting to kill Saul.

After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall.
Acts 9:23-25

By the way, Saul (aka Paul) recounts this in one of his letters as possibly the most embarrassing, humbling experience in his ministry (we find it in 2 Corinthians 11, where he says, “I am not lying.”) Epic fail.

But Saul is Jesus’ chosen instrument. Maybe things will be better in Jerusalem.

When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
Acts 9:26-30

Interesting, isn’t it? The same thing happens. He is viewed with suspicion by the church (as Ananias did earlier). He preaches Jesus but they try to kill him. He runs away and only after that does the church experience peace (verse 31). What’s going on?

Two things. Firstly, we see the same anger we saw in Saul in others, specifically, the people who try to kill him; specifically the people who try to stop him from preaching about Jesus. We see it in Damascus in the synagogues he was sent to by the high priest. We see it in Jerusalem, interestingly, in the Greek/Hellenistic Jews - the significance being these were the same people who killed Stephen and the same people Saul supported when they were killing Stephen. Now they wanted to kill him.

Why? Because Saul’s anger is our anger when we are offended, when we are frustrated with God and the spark that lights that anger is God’s word about Jesus. That’s the first thing we see.
But secondly we see the same suffering the church experienced now in Saul. Jesus says, “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” That’s important because it’s not a punishment but a reflection - an identity that Saul now bears as a Christian and as a member of the body of Christ. In a word, it’s rejection. Rejection from within and without. Rejection from his old family - the Jewish religious order, the synagogues. Rejection, in part, even from his new family - viewed with suspicion by other Christians, understandably so, but still. What’s the point? Saul would forever bear the marks of his conversion and commission. Saul would forever bear the marks of Jesus in his ministry to outsiders, the Gentiles.

Only then do we get to verse 31.

Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.
Acts 9:31

The question behind verse 31 is: What is peace? Peace is life without Saul, we might think. Peace is God getting rid of Saul, we are tempted to say. He is kicked out of Damascus, kicked out of Jerusalem in order for us to have peace.

Friends, this is peace at the end of a war. Peace is not a quiet Saturday morning sipping tea on the verandah. Peace is the opposite of conflict, of war, and as we’ve seen, this was a personal war between Saul and God. And the way Jesus ended this war was by dying on the cross for Saul. That’s what it means, by the way for someone like Saul to become a Christian. On the cross, Jesus takes all the hatred, all the sin, all the punishment of Saul on himself and in exchange a man like Saul receives all of Jesus’ righteousness, love and blessing. That’s what it takes for us to have peace, not just with one another, but with God.

And in case we forget that, the verse ends with the church living in the fear of the Lord (as opposed to living in the fear of Saul). Jesus is Lord. Jesus knows what he is doing and we as his redeemed people live rightly under his rule.

Paul the apprentice (Acts 11:25-26)

So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Acts 11:25-26

A plumber from Peterborough - who was expelled from school at age 15 - is this year’s winner of the Apprentice. In his final interview, Joseph Valente was asked why he should be Lord Sugar’s business partner. He replied, “What you see, is what you get. I’ve got experience... I’m driven, passionate, hardworking.” Those of you who watched the finale will know that Joseph was shrewdly quoting the title of Lord Sugar’s book (entitled, “What you see is what you get”), identifying himself with the business magnate’s humble beginnings. (Lord Sugar, too, left school as a teenager.)

Still, it did remind me of how even the Apostle Paul began his ministry as a humble apprentice. Yes, Paul did have a miraculous call and conversion on the road to Damascus - struck blind, meeting the risen Lord Jesus, preaching powerfully in the synagogues in Acts Chapter 9. But then he disappears off to Tarsus, his hometown, never to be seen again until Chapter 11 when an enterprising pastor named Barnabas took the initiative of seeking Paul out (verse 25) and bringing him back to lead a new church plant in Antioch.

Barnabas was the guy the apostles knew and trusted. In verse 22, Barnabas is the official representative sent from Jerusalem to check things out in Antioch. (The last time they did something like that was back in Chapter 8 where two of the apostles, Peter and John were sent from Jerusalem to assess the situation in Samaria). And in verse 24, Luke goes out of his way to describe Barnabas as “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” On the other hand, no one knew Paul. But for some reason - we don’t know why - Barnabas decided he needed to bring in the new guy. Maybe it was part of his encouraging nature (Acts 4:36 tells us his name Barnabas means “Son of Encouragement”). Maybe he was humble enough to ask for help. But whatever it was, Barnabas took a chance and travelled all the way to Tarsus to brought Paul back as his partner and apprentice.

Again, most of us assume (or at least I did for the longest time) that a powerful figure like Paul was always in the forefront of ministry, leading the team and setting the pace. Didn’t Jesus say of Paul that “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel”? (Acts 9:15) Wasn’t his preaching so persuasive that he “confounded the Jews” (Acts 9:22)? And yet, at the end of that same chapter, we meet none other than Barnabas introducing Paul to the leaders in Jerusalem HQ. Why? Verse 26 tells us, “And they were afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple.” You see, it was Barnabas who stuck his neck out for Paul before the brothers and said, “Listen to what this guy has to say.”

Barnabas is doing the same thing here in Chapter 11. I once heard Mark Dever say, “We should advance trust the same way we advance credit.” He was talking about what it meant for older ministers to entrust responsibility to younger leaders. It’s an investment. There will always be an element of risk. But we advance trust the same way we advance credit - not expecting an immediate return on our investment.

In the case of Barnabas, that investment began all the way back in Chapter 9. When everyone was afraid of Paul, when no one would dare to speak to Paul, Barnabas was the one guy who stood up for Paul. He does the same thing here in Chapter 11. If you were hiring a new pastor, you want a guy like Barnabas. He’s the right age. Everyone loves him. (With a nickname like “Son of Encouragement”, who wouldn’t?) He is “full of the Holy Spirit and faith” (11:24). And yet, the first thing Barnabas does is in his role as the senior pastor is appoint a guy - whom either the church in Antioch had never heard about (or if they did, they would have heard really, really bad things: “That guy used to persecuted Christians!”) - to be their associate minister.

Of course, when we read in verse 26, “For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people,” we immediately see the investment paying off. Paul was, after all, a gifted scholar, preacher, theologian and apologist. We might be tempted to think, therefore, that Paul was in his element. He would immediately be recognised for his gifts and come into his own. Today, someone like Paul would go off and start his own church and develop his experience elsewhere.

But that isn’t the case with Barnabas and Paul. Read on the following chapters - 12, 13, 14 and 15 - where Luke, the author, keeps referring to them as “Barnabas and Paul.” That is, Barnabas is always named first in the partnership. In Chapter 13, for instance, Barnabas is first in the leadership roster at Antioch (and Paul is referred to at the very end of the list - number 5, in fact). Even the Holy Spirit says, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” (Acts 11:2) In a rather odd situation recorded in Chapter 14, the people of Lystra mistake Paul as the Greek god Hermes after he miraculously heals a crippled man. Even so, they call Barnabas Zeus, the chief of the gods, and the priest of Zeus comes out to offer sacrifices to them (Acts 14:11, 12).

The point is, Barnabas was still the first of equals. And Paul was still the apprentice. It could be that Barnabas was just more well-known and possibly, much older than Paul, and hence, more respected. Furthermore, these same chapters record the sermons that Paul gave, not Barnabas. Paul was clearly the one used by God to preach the message of Jesus to the Gentile world. Undoubtedly, Paul was the gifted one. Having said all that, Paul was the apprentice and Barnabas was his mentor, at least for this season of ministry.

There are so many points of application from these verses. Barnabas’ humility in bringing in Paul to help him out and Paul’s humility in serving under Barnabas’ leadership. Barnabas’ wisdom in investing so early in a young preacher right at the beginning of his ministry and Paul’s wisdom in taking those initial years out to prepare for ministry in Tarsus.

But the one thing I take away from this is their relationship. Barnabas stuck his neck out for Paul way back in Damascus and he never stopped looking out for him. He was more than a nice guy, a spiritual guy or an encouraging guy. Barnabas was intentionally gracious and loving and encouraging towards Paul. It was an intentional relationship. An intentional investment in one person. And we see the same pattern in Paul’s ministry approach in his later years when he takes Timothy under his wing. This is a much more laborious way of raising leaders compared to, say, running a course and awarding a qualification. It takes much longer. And it is painful. But unlike Lord Sugar, our investment is not money that we deposit into someone’s bank account, but our time, our lives and the gospel which we pour into someone else who is willing to do the same.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Philippians 2:17-18

Coming home (Acts 14:21-28) - MP3 recording

Preached at the Chinese Church on Sunday, 29 September 2013.



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Coming home (Acts 14:21-28)

What did it mean for Paul and Barnabas to complete their mission and to finish the work that God had called them to?

1. They followed up on new Christians

They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.

Acts 14:21

Paul and Barnabas go back the exact same way they came - through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, which were the three cities they had just come from, where they had preached the gospel, and also where they had just been kicked out of for preaching the gospel. They intentionally made it their mission to go back to these three cities to follow up on the new believers who had just put their trust in the gospel.

Or, as it says, in verse 22, they returned, “strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.” What does it mean to do follow-up? It means strengthening the disciples - teaching new Christians to grow in the knowledge of and obedience to God’s word. (Hence, the word “disciples” or “students” of God’s word.)

But also, it means reminding Christians to remain faithful to Jesus in the face of temptation and hardship.

“We must go through many hardships (the ESV has ‘tribulations’) to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

Acts 14:22

It means being a new Christian was difficult if you were lived in Lystra, Iconium or Antioch, where Paul was almost killed, if you remember. But suffering is part of the Christian life. After all, we follow Jesus who suffered rejection and persecution before entering into his glory.

Paul and Barnabas loved these Christians enough to teach them the importance of suffering for the gospel. “We must go through many hardships.” He does not say, “We might go through some inconveniences as Christians.” He says to them and to us: We must face rejection and tribulation for bearing the name of Christ.

This is follow-up for new Christians. As we see here in Acts, it means two things: Strengthening them through the scriptures and reminding them the reality of opposition. Paul and Barnabas saw it as their responsibility not simply to preach the gospel and then leave. They had just “won a large number of disciples” in Derbe. That would have been a great way to end the mission - on a high! No, they did not do that. Instead, what did they do? They went back to each and every place they had preached the gospel; back to each and every city where there was a response of faith in order to follow up on the new believers. This was part of their mission - not simply to preach the gospel - but to strengthen these new disciples through the gospel.

Additionally, they appointed elders in each of these cities and churches.

Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.

Acts 14:23

These elders were leaders of the church, who had responsibility over the church, who had authority over the church. Elders in the bible are elsewhere called overseers or pastors. The three job titles are interchangeable: elders, overseers and pastors. They mean the same thing. You only need to turn a few pages to Chapter 20, where Paul speaks to the elders of the church of Ephesus (Acts 20:17) whom he calls overseers and pastors in verse 28. The same connections are made elsewhere in the New Testament: in 1 Timothy 3:1 and Titus 1:5 where the qualifications of overseers and elders are one and the same; and in 1 Peter 5:1-2 where Peter appeals to elders to pastor the flock, serving as overseers. The elder is the overseer, is the pastor. The word elder denotes seniority and authority; the overseer has responsibility and purview, the pastor’s role is to take charge and lead the flock. Together, these are descriptions of leaders who have been entrusted with the care of God’s church.

Now it is amazing how Paul and Barnabas appoint elders in these churches because remember: all of them were new Christians. All of them were new believers. And yet, what Paul and Barnabas did was so important. They did not take it upon themselves to become the senior pastors of these churches. They did not import leaders in from their home church in Antioch. No, what they did was appoint elders from each church and within each church to become leaders and pastors and elders. Paul says the same thing to Titus, “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.” (Titus 1:5)

And that is because they knew from Day One that what they were doing in preaching the gospel was planting new churches. They knew this day would come. You see, their job as missionaries was not simply to call individuals to faith in Jesus Christ, it was to gather men and women together as God’s church.

The end of mission is not more mission. The point of doing ministry is not to create even more ministry, as if the cycle goes on and on and on. No, Acts dares to say to us there is a point to ministry. There is an end to mission. That end is the church. The point of bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth is so that men and women are brought into the kingdom of God. We see that in the church.

In the appointment of leaders, what we see is the headship of Christ. Verse 23 again, “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.” The appointment of leaders is a reflection of Christ’s headship over the church.

Yes, the church is a community. Yes, the church is a family. But the church is also the body of Christ of whom he is the head. And again and again, the bible contends that our submission to Christ is seen in our submission to our leaders. If one of the reasons why you have problems being part of a church is because you have problems submitting to your leaders here in the Chinese Church, the bible says quite frankly to us: You have a problem submitting to Jesus.

Again, this ties back to what the bible means by follow-up. It doesn’t use that term, of course. Paul and Barnabas are simply completing the mission they had set out to do. But what we tend to do by way of following up new Christians is somewhat strange when you look at what Paul and Barnabas did. What we mean by follow up is more like checking up. “Hey, have you been doing your quiet time?” “Are you going to church?” We do follow-up one to one, over coffee, through Skype and email, as friends and acquaintances. That is, follow-up tends to be done outside the church, independent of the church.

Follow up, according to the bible means three things: obedience, faithfulness and submission. Obedience to God’s word. Faithfulness in the face of trials and temptation. Submission to your leaders in your church. Paul and Barnabas ended their mission by following up on the new converts - on these new churches - and calling them remain faithful in the gospel.

2. They kept on preaching the gospel

After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.

Acts 14:24

The second thing they did is rather a short point and it comes from this one verse: They kept telling people about Jesus. They go to this place called Perga. Again if you turn the page back to Acts 13:13, Paul and Barnabas arrive in Perga. It was the first place they got off the boat; their first stop on the mainland.

And what verse 24 tells us is that they went out of their way to make one last stop in Perga just so that they could preach the word. They were on their way home and one of them said, “Hey, we didn’t get a chance to tell people about Jesus at Perga, we were in such a rush. Let’s go back and do it properly.”

You see that it really is the case because after Perga, they go down to Attalia, which is another port city, in order to catch their boat. It’s like saying, “Our flight leaves from Heathrow tomorrow but we are going to make one last stop in Stansted airport.” Both Perga and Attalia are port cities and the reason Paul and Barnabas go all the way to Perga was not to catch a boat. It was to preach the gospel!

My point is simply this: These guys knew the one thing they were there to do - preach. I know of some guys who can do everything but if you asked them what was the one thing they are there to do, you get a blank. That’s not Paul and Barnabas. Their one mission was to preach about Jesus. They were in Antioch to preach about Jesus. They were sent to Iconium to preach about Jesus. What was their job as missionaries in Derbe? To preach about Jesus. Why did they go back to Perga? To preach about Jesus.

And here at the end of their mission what was the one thing on their minds as they thought to themselves, “What haven’t we done yet? What else do we need to do to complete this thing that God has called us to do?” Preach the gospel.

3. They came home

But finally, what did it mean for Paul and Barnabas to finish their mission. The last thing we see is this: They came home.

From Attalia, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, 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. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.

Acts 14:26-28

The job was done. It was time to come home. Look at how “home” is described in verse 26 - it was where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. Turn back to Acts Chapter 13. “In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers.” The first name we get is Barnabas, the last name on the list of leaders is Paul’s. This was their home church. Barnabas was senior pastor of the church. Paul was resident theologian of the church. Together they planted this church.

But in the verse next verse, in Acts 13, verse 2, the Holy Spirit says to them, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Some people use this verse to say the Holy Spirit needs to give a special confirmation before we can appoint new pastors in the church. We need to pray and wait for God to confirm that this choice is the right choice. Actually, it’s the opposite. This is not talking about appointment of new leaders. God is telling the church to send away their most senior pastors. The Holy Spirit says to the church: You have to let these guys go. Send Paul and Barnabas off as missionaries - your two most senior, most beloved pastors - send them away from your church to preach about Jesus in places who have never heard about him before. And they did.

Here in Acts 14 we see the conclusion to that episode. Paul and Barnabas come home. They tell them all that God had done through them and especially “how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” This is a pretty amazing verse, let me tell you why. You need to remember that Antioch was Gentile church, that is, non-Jewish. These guys were converted out of pagan backgrounds. In fact, Christians were first called Christians in Antioch, if you remember, back in Acts 11:26.

And now, God says, “I’m opening up a door to the Gentile world.” Who does he send? Two Jewish men. Paul and Barnabas. Out of all the people he could have chosen, out of all the leaders in this entirely Gentile church in Antioch, he chooses the only two Jewish fellas. How amazing is that? More importantly, why? Why does God send two Jewish men to open the door to the Gentile world?

So that when these two Jewish men come back to this Gentile church and tell them everything that has happened, they will get the message: God opened this door. God did this. This is God’s mission.

Do you see? God knows what he is doing in mission. He is sending out his word about his Son. He uses you and me. He sends out people to be missionaries. But every step of the way, God is doing his work of bringing all glory to Jesus.

And here at the end of Acts 14, we are reminded of the end of God’s mission: God’s church. Verse 28: And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. Paul and Barnabas were part of a church. In the mission field, these two were appointing leaders to care for the new believers but now back home, Paul and Barnabas were being cared for in their home church. This was the place where, verse 26 tells us, they were committed to the grace of God.

Missionaries are not guys who can’t stay put, who need to be “out there”. No, the best missionaries are those who know where they are going and where is home. Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel and planted churches. They entrusted these churches into the care of elders, they returned to the welcome and support of their own church family. They weren’t restless wanderers. Paul and Barnabas were rooted in Christ, they were established in his word, they were part of a local church, his body. In other words, they had a place to call home.

Conclusions: The end of missions

What did it mean for Paul and Barnabas to complete their mission and to finish the work that God had given them? We see three things:

Firstly, we see the end or goal of missions. The end of missions is not more missions. There will come a time when there will be no more missions; when the Lamb will be enthroned and all who follow him will fall down in worship before that throne (Revelation 7). That reality is seen today in the church, the gathering of God’s people under the headship of Jesus Christ as Lord. The goal of missions is seen in the local church.

Secondly, we see what it means to do missions. It is to preach the gospel. Jesus says in Act 1:8 you will be my witness - in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria - and to the ends of the earth. Missions is the act of proclaiming Christ to the nations. Until Jesus returns, that is what our mission is, here as the Chinese church, here as believers in Cambridge, to preach the cross of Jesus Christ.

Finally, we see God at work in missions. He has opened the door to the Gentiles. He sends out his missionaries and he brings them home. He uses two Jews, sends them out to the Gentile world and brings them back to a Gentile church. Missions is God’s idea and mission is done God’s way. What he calls us to do is to obey, to stand firm and to speak out for Jesus so that at the end of the day all glory goes to him.

Keep calm and carry on (Acts 14:1-20)

1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

Acts 14:1

This was the routine: whenever Paul and Barnabas went to a new place, the first thing they did was talk to the Jews. Verse 1 says, they went “as usual” into the Jewish synagogue. It’s like when Chinese people look for Chinatown. The first thing we do when we move to a new place is look for Chinese food. We look for a Chinese school to send our kids. Some of us look for a Chinese Church. Maybe that is why you are here today: Today is Mid-Autumn Festival and you know there are going to be lots of Chinese people here at the Chinese Church, which is true!

For Paul and Barnabas, the first thing they did, when they arrived at a new place was to look for their heng tai and tell them about Jesus. “They went as usual to the synagogue,” and, it says there in verse 1 that “they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.” Lots of people said, “I want to follow Jesus.” Amazing! Lots of Jews believed and became Christians.

But notice, lots of Greeks also believed. That is because Iconium was Greek city, not Chinese, I mean, Jewish. Even though Paul and Barnabas began with their heng tai - their brothers - their job was to tell the gospel to everyone. Their job was to go to places where no one knows Jesus and talk to the non-Christians, to talk to the non-Jews, to talk to the non-Chinese in that city, and tell them, “You need to trust in Jesus as your Saviour and Lord.”

Well, that is what they did. As a result, lots of people became Christians. As a result, lots of people began to oppose the Christians in that city.

2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.

Acts 14:2-3

They didn’t give up on that city even though their heng tai, it says there in verse 2, the Jews were poisoning the minds of their friends. Instead, they kept on talking about Jesus. And God enabled Paul and Barnabas to do miraculous signs and wonders as a confirmation of their message of grace, saying, “Hey, you need to listen to what these two guys are saying.”

Even with persecution, Paul and Barnabas did not give up. Why? Because they weren’t surprised they were being persecuted. Because God was with them, causing miracles to happen. Because it’s possible that verse 2 is not talking about persecution against Paul and Barnabas but persecution against Christians - the “brothers” in verse 2 could refer to the new Christians who had just said, “I want to follow Jesus,” - and Paul and Barnabas were concerned for their brothers who were new believers facing rejection from friends because of their faith.

Why did they spend “a considerable time” in that city? Because they could see the gospel working on that city. Wherever the gospel is preached you get both positive and negative reactions to the gospel. Wherever the gospel is preached clearly, you get repentance and rejection. Both are responses to the gospel.

That is, what the gospel does is divide us.

4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5 There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them.

Acts 14:4-5

I know that some will say, “This is the problem with religion. It leads to conflict.” It is sad when something like this happens. Lines are drawn. People pick sides. But I want you to see that this division was not simply two people disagreeing with one another - two political parties debating with one another, for instance - but that this division resulted in one side persecuting the other. Verse 2: The Jews stirred up the Gentiles against the brothers. Verse 5: The Gentiles and Jews plotted to stone the apostles. In response, what did Paul and Barnabas do? Just one thing: They kept preaching the gospel.

This week I read of a preacher in Scotland who was arrested for talking about Jesus openly on the streets. A crowd gathered around him. Some shouted abuse at him. He kept on preaching. The police were called in. They warned him that he was too loud and pointed to his microphone. It wasn’t a microphone but an MP3 recorder. He kept on preaching. Finally he was arrested.

Verse 5 tells us that both the Gentiles and Jews (so it wasn’t just one culture), together with their leaders plotted to harm the apostles. But...

6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued to preach the gospel.

Acts 14:6-7

They kept on going. They went on to the next city and continued preaching the gospel.

Same difference

Now, it’s in Lystra where things start to get interesting because on the one hand, Paul and Barnabas do the exact same thing they did in the previous town: they preach the gospel, they perform miracles. In a sense, what we see in Lystra is just an expansion of what we saw in Iconium. There are miracles: a healing of the lame man. There is the gospel: Paul preaches to the crowd. In both places, there is a plan afoot to stone Paul and here in Iconium they succeed in carrying out their plan before he gets a chance to escape.

But on the other hand, there are big differences, the biggest one being that Paul is evangelising a non-Jewish crowd. In verse 11, we see that they speak the local language of Lycaonian, meaning this was a rural town with its own culture separate from the rest of the Roman world. Only in verse 19 do we see Jewish people coming over from the neighbouring towns of Antioch and Iconium (the place Paul just came from) to cause trouble. Lystra was, as far as we can tell, 100% Gentile.

This becomes a source of confusion. It is frustrating for Paul who says one thing and gets misunderstood as another thing. You are speaking into a culture that is so different from yours and trying to relate a different language, people and worldview. That is the challenge faced by an missionary, of course. How do you communicate the gospel to a culture so different from your own? And yet the main lesson we learn is not that of cross-cultural communication but idolatry.

You see, the temptation is to change the message to suit the culture; to adapt the gospel to the culture; when actually what we are meant to do with the gospel is expose the idols of the culture. You might be from a religious background or you might call yourself a free-thinker; you might be Asian or maybe you grew up here in the UK; whoever you are and wherever you’ve come from, the gospel says to every single one of us, “You are idol worshippers.” Every single one of us have hearts that bow down to something that gives us our true fulfilment, joy and identity; to something other than God. And the bible says, “That’s your idol.” In that sense, an idol can be something good. It could be your career, your marriage, your kids. It can be your university education. An idol is anything and anyone you are looking to for ultimate joy, happiness and fulfilment, anything, that is, other than God.

Such that when we finally see the real thing, when we encounter God revealed to us in Jesus Christ, when we hear the gospel clearly explained, our first reaction might not be to acknowledge God as God but instead to fall down and worship idols That is what happens here in Lystra.

8 In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.

Acts 14:8-10

Paul is preaching and he sees a man who can’t walk, he sees (verse 9) that he has faith to be healed, and so, Paul heals him. “Stand up on your feet,” Paul says. The guy stands up immediately, this guy who been crippled all his life, gets up and walks. Now remember, what is the reason for such miracles in the bible? Verse 3 tells us: God enabled Paul to do miracles like this to confirm “the message of his grace.” To get us to pay attention not to what we have seen in the miracle itself but to what we have heard in the gospel.

Instead, the crowds see the miracle but they ignore the message. That’s very dangerous. They see what they want to see: evidence of their own gods. They see the real thing but they respond by worshipping a false god.

11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

Acts 14:11-13

The crowds shout out in their local language. They call in the local priest in order to sacrifice to their local gods. You could make an argument here for contextualisation. “This is a good thing,” you might say, “At least they acknowledge a higher being.” They have no problems with God becoming a man, so you could, perhaps, talk about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. They even understand the concept of sacrifice - the offering of bulls and goats at the temple - and you might use that as the basis of explaining the cross.

But no, Paul and Barnabas saw this reaction in the crowd and to them, this was bad. “They tore their clothes,” verse 14, as a sign of blasphemy. What the crowd was doing was an offense to the one true God.

14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Acts 14:14-17

Now it is possible that Paul and Barnabas didn’t realise what was going on until it was too late. Back in verse 11, the crowd speak to one another in the Lycaonian language, meaning perhaps that Paul didn’t know what they said, or perhaps, the crowd didn’t understand what Paul was saying in his preaching about Jesus. So, it wasn’t until Paul and Barnabas saw the bulls. It wasn’t until Paul and Barnabas saw the priest carrying the wreaths and sharpening his swords that it finally clicked in their minds, “Whoa, this is bad! They weren’t listening to a word I was saying about Jesus!”

But more importantly, Paul responds by preaching to the crowd in a way that they could understand. He says three things. Firstly, Paul says: It’s not about us. “Men,” (verse 15), “we too are only men.” Secondly, Paul says: It’s about God. Verse 15: He is the “living God who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.” But thirdly: Turn away from your idols and face the true God. This is the main point of his message: To turn away from these “worthless things” as Paul calls them to face the true and living God.

Again, Paul is does three things. He establishes what they do have in common, what their differences are and what the gospel does. “We are just men,” the King James Version adds, “with the same passions”. Or, a Christian can rightly say to a non-Christian, “I am a sinner and my sin equally deserves God’s judgement.” But secondly, there is a difference; it’s not a difference between you and me, that’s not what I’m talking about; it is the difference between my God and your god. The bible tells us there is one God; one maker of the universe. He is not be confused with the pagan gods of Zeus and Hermes. He is not to be confused with Allah and Krishna. Only God is God alone.

But thirdly, the gospel calls us to face this God. You can turn away from idols and see the real thing in Jesus Christ. Back in verse 4, I said that one thing the gospel does is that it divides and maybe when you heard that, you thought, “What a horrible thing.” The solution to that, we think, is to get rid of religion. Get rid of all the God talk. But here in Lystra where there are no Jews, we see the result of that: a whole city which can’t tell the difference between God and man. A whole city which doesn’t care whether it is God or Allah or Buddha or Zeus. A city gripped in idolatry: the worship of whatever and whoever it wants.

“In the past,” Paul says in verse 16, God let all the nations go their own way. Before, you might have lived your life your own way, doing whatever you wanted, not worrying about the consequences. But now the gospel says it’s time to grow up and turn away from worthless things. By that Paul is talking about the worship of false gods like Zeus and Hermes, but he is also talking about the gods of our hearts. An idol is anything that we look to for our ultimate joy and meaning. It can be our job, our degree, our achievements. These are not necessarily bad things. After all, Paul goes on to say, “He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.” But these things are not themselves God. Be careful of turning your search for happiness into God; your strive for success into God.

The problem with worshipping an idol is that ends up disappointing you or destroying you. Benefits you think you gain from worshipping an idol never last. You might say, “It’s harmless. Let the crowd sacrifice a couple of bulls in the name of their pagan god.” Well, this same crowd ends up trying to kill Paul, the same guy they tried to worship as their god.

19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20 But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

Acts 14:19-20

The crowd try to kill Paul (and probably almost succeeded). But he gets up; goes back to the city. I’m not sure if this was something miraculous. It could be, considering Paul recounts this episode in 2 Corinthians Chapter 11, alongside the five times he was lashed, three times beaten with rods and three times shipwrecked. This is a guy who has been physically beaten again and again because of his job as a missionary, because he kept talking about Jesus. Frankly, my question is, “Why get up again?” He just moves on to the next town and preaches the gospel all over again.

I think this passage shows us three things: Why Paul gets up; why he goes on; and why he keeps going on. The three reasons are hope, repentance and grace.

Why does Paul keep getting up? Because his hope is in the God who raises the dead. Hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is trusting in God who is in control. Paul preaches the gospel in hope that God will save through the hearing of this message. God knows whom he will call. God is the only one who can change hearts. That’s God’s job. Paul’s responsibility is preach faithfully, clearly, boldly.

Why does Paul keep going on? Because he understands repentance. People need to turn away from idols and face the true and living God, and the fact is, this takes time, patience and persistence, to expose those idols and destroy those idols. The people of Lystra heard the gospel yet fell down to worship their idols. He calls them worthless things. Money, success, sex, career, Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Worthless things not because they have no value but because we look these things to get something only God can provide. An identity. Approval. Love. Salvation.

Finally, why does Paul keep on keeping on? What I mean is, why risk his life so recklessly like this? They just tried to kill him, at least, take a holiday, Paul! No, for Paul, mission is a 100% full on commitment.

Why does Paul keep going full steam ahead? Grace. The answer is grace. God enabled them to perform miracles, it says in verse 4, to confirm his message of grace. God continues to provide us with food, with happiness, with life - verse 17 - as a testimony to his grace. Grace means goodness that God gives us - food, happiness, Jesus - that we do not deserve.

Why does Paul risk everything for the gospel? Because everything he has comes to him by God’s grace. He has nothing to lose and everything for him to gain.

I was talking to a brother recently who is facing a stressful situation at work. I wonder how many of you feel the same way about your job: You’re dreading going into the office tomorrow. This brother was struggling with expectations to perform. I said, “I would be lying to you if I said things will get easier. Jesus did not save us to give us a way out of our stressful situations. He saved us so that in the midst of our troubles - which are painful and stressful - we will still be able to rejoice in him. We know he already loves us because of the cross.”

I will close with these words from Paul - they’re taken from 2 Corinthians 4 - these words which tell us why he keeps getting up, going on and keeping on in Jesus. And as I read these words, I want you to ask yourself honestly, “What better reason do I have for getting up tomorrow morning?”

1 Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God….

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:1-2,7-10

The God Review (Acts 13:32-52) - MP3 recording

Preached at the Chinese Church on Sunday, 16 September 2013.



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