Acts 14:21-28 The Entire Work of the Ministry
Good morning! I’m happy to be back with you this morning, We had a wonderful trip and now we’re home and… we’ll just have to deal with it. Again, I’d like to thank the elders for bringing the Word over the last two weeks. I am again blessed to know that we have a multitude of teachers in our church family that are capable and willing to do this important work.
We are going to return to our study in the book of Acts this morning, picking up where we left off with the end of chapter 14, verses 21-28, page 923 in the pew Bibles.
Oftentimes when we read a historical narrative like the book of Acts we may struggle to find any kind of lesson or specific teaching points to grab onto. It’s hard sometimes when a text says, “Some people when to some place and then did some stuff and went to some other place.”
At first glance, our text for this morning may look like that, it did to me, if it doesn’t look that way to you, congratulations, maybe you can preach next week!
As I’ve said to you several times already about the book of Acts, it is not just a description of events, it is a prescription for us to follow. And here in our text we can see how Paul and Barnabas followed the prescription given by Jesus Himself and maybe be encouraged to do the same ourselves.
Let’s look at the text together.
21 When they had preached the gospel to that city [That is, Derbe] and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they remained no little time with the disciples.
Let’s pray.
The work that Paul and Barnabas had been doing can be summed up with one phrase found in verse 22: they were strengthening souls.
Strengthening souls, as it turns out, is the entire work of the ministry. And the way Paul and Barnabas went about it, as is described in this passage, conveniently breaks down into three points.
But before we look into those three points, I’d like to first consider the three points of the sermon that they were living out and putting on display for us to see. The text of that sermon is Matthew 28:18-20.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
In the interest of not preaching two sermons, I’ll quickly summarize the three points of this sermon so we can see how they were worked out in the previous one.
Point number one: make disciples. This is accomplished, or at least begun, with the preaching of the gospel. A lot can be said about how Jesus did not say, “Go make converts,” He said to make disciples, learners, students, followers of Jesus. That all begins with the preaching of the gospel.
Romans 10:14-15 says,
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent?
Point one, preach the gospel.
Point number two: Teach them to observe all I have commanded you. Believers must be instructed from God’s Word in order to follow God’s Word. Through the teaching and study of God’s Word, the Bible, we, as disciples, are strengthened in our faith, we are established and made strong as believers in Jesus, and as we grow we are sanctified, holy-fied, made more like our Savior Jesus.
Point two teach the Word, the Way of Christ.
Point number three: Jesus will be with us always, to the very end of the age.
The presence of Jesus accomplishes more than just having a friend when you feel lonely, it means that He will stand with us when things get hard. When trials and tribulation come He is right there with us and this should bring us comfort when, not if, those trials come.
We will suffer for following Jesus, that is a fact, but His promise is to be there with us through it all.
In regards to suffering for Christ, Thomas Aquinas, a thirteenth Century Italian Friar wrote,
“Do you think that thou wilt enter into the kingdom of Heaven without the cross and tribulation? But neither Christ, nor any one of his most beloved friends and saints had the power or the will to do so. Ask any one of the triumphant citizens of heaven whom thou wilt; they will all respond: ‘We attained to the glory of God by the cross and chastisements.’ Then, take the yoke of the Lord upon thee, which is light and easy for them that love him. Stand faithfully by the cross which blooms with virtues, and drops with the oil of grace. What else do you desire? This is the true, the holy, the perfect way, the way of Christ, the way of the righteous and elect. Carry the cross with a willing heart, and it will carry and guide thee thither, where thy sorrows will end, and where thou wilt find all for which thy soul has longed.”
Preach the gospel, teach the disciples the Way of Christ according to His Word, and remind them of His presence with them even in times of trial and suffering. That is the three point sermon that Paul and Barnabas were living out.
21 When they had preached the gospel to that city [That is, Derbe] and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
Do you see Jesus’ three points from the Great Commission at work in those verses?
They preached the gospel to that city, as well as the cities that they returned to on their way, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, they made many disciples.
They strengthened the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith. They instructed them, established them in their faith and sanctification, they taught them to obey all that Jesus had commanded.
And they told them that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God, and Jesus would be with them through those trials, even to the very end of the age.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says,
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Trials are temporary, no matter how difficult, but Jesus is eternal and He promised to be with us through it all.
Preach the gospel, Christ Jesus crucified, risen, and coming again, instruct, and strengthen, and establish disciples in faith and sanctification, and comfort believers in the face of tribulation with the presence of Jesus.
Jesus preached it, Paul and Barnabas exemplified it, but what are we supposed to do with it?
If this text from Acts, all about the strengthening of souls, is a description of the entire work of the ministry, what are we supposed to do with it?
Leave it to the professionals obviously! Wrong.
Paul would later write in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11:
11 And [Jesus] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
To equip the saints for the work of the ministry, the saints is us! The entire work of the ministry, the strengthening of souls through faith in Jesus, instruction in His Word, and comfort in the face of trials is the work of the church, all of us together!
Amen.
