Acts 14:23-27
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.
And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia:
And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.
And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles
Now, we come to the end of Paul’s first missionary journey which he undertook with the apostle, Barnabas and so we now pick up our previous text from the Acts of the Apostles (14:23):
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.
We will recall that what this text really tells us that these prayers with fasting, and this ordination of elders in every church, was really, the culmination of Paul’s first missionary journey and that that first missionary journey was undertaken between the years 46-48 AD and that missionary work was centred in Galatia, in the south of that country known then as Asia Minor, and now is modern day Turkey.
Again, I remind you that Paul and Barnabas preached in those Galatian cities or towns known as Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe and finally Perga. From Derbe they retraced their steps, visiting once again, Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. And this they did to strengthen and consolidate the fledgling churches that their work led by the Holy Spirit had created. We really should be impressed by the scale of this achievement, we should be impressed by the power, and the clarity of Paul’s teaching that brought a leadership to those cities that could be trusted to continue with the development of those new churches that he planted.
We might pause for a while to consider again the courage and audacity of Paul and Barnabas and no doubt the courage of the followers who would have been part of their entourage. And now we see Paul and Barnabas on the homeward journey returning enroute to those cities where they had met such opposition, and where in Lystra Paul had nearly lost his life. I used that word ‘entourage’ which of course you could say would have been the support group, perhaps just a handful of followers accompanying Paul and Barnabas, some joining, and perhaps some leaving as they traveled on their way; loyal supporters.
One such loyal supporter, it seems, was a young man named Timothy. Timothy we will meet again as we continue our reading journey through the Acts of the Apostles. We know that Timothy had been with Paul at this time in Galatia because Paul has mentioned it, in his Second Letter to Timothy 3: 10-11. Paul wrote:
But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
In this letter to Timothy, we have this very relevant reminder of that life-or-death struggle to establish the churches of Galatia. It would have been easy, especially after the stoning at Lystra for Paul and Barnabas to just have slipped out of the country and then to have declared the mission a success and to have gone back to their mother church in Syria and to have rested on their laurels, so to speak, and simply to have recounted the mission thus far and simply to declared that mission a success. We can easily see that such a report may well have been sufficient to the ears of the Syrian church in Antioch. But what in fact Paul and Barnabas knew and understood was that that work was incomplete, that work was by no means finished. And because that work was unfinished, they knew that despite all the previous violence and hostility in those cities, those towns and cities would have to be re-visited and the mission continued, the killers and the hostile Jewish communities were still there and we can be certain that they had not changed their minds about Paul. Still, there were now these new churches and the leaders of these churches in those cities who now needed support, they needed encouragement, they needed inspiration.
What enormous pressure these new leaders must have been under, converts, indeed they were, but to be sure they would lack experience and could still be vulnerable in the face of all that opposition, opposition from all quarters, from the Jews, from the gentiles, and from false opportunist teaching and corrupt doctrine.
It is one thing to become a Christian convert in the first flush of inspiration, in that first flush of enthusiasm, but to prevail, to continue in the faith in the face of a hostile local community, in the face of adversity is quite another matter.
I mean, we really do have to understand how important sound doctrine is. How important the essential Christian doctrine is to the survival of any church. What is the point of belonging to a church that won’t even stand up for its Christian beliefs? What use is a church that falters and changes course according to the whims and pressures of society and will not even stand up for its own central teachings? Again, in the second letter to Timothy, Paul made precisely that point. Paul said to Timothy “But thou hast fully known my doctrine.”
The doctrine, the preaching of the church was paramount to Paul and so he gave this warning to Timothy when he said:
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they keep to themselves teachers having itching ears. (2:4:3)
In other words, Paul was saying that firm and challenging Christian doctrine will always lead others to seek an easier, softer line that will ultimately lead them astray, lead them on to that path of destruction. There are always preachers and opportunists, careerists who want an easy life, those kinds of people who are ready to take advantage of weakness, and gullibility. Therefore, there is always the need, the need to clarify the theology and strengthen those doctrines that are the very foundation of the church. And apart from this, Paul knew that other pressures would come to bear on that young leadership in his churches: intimidation, exclusion, ostracism such prevailing conditions creating a situation that demands that courage, conviction, and faith should come to the fore. The temptation to give in and weaken had to be resisted.
I think that this steeling of oneself and being prepared to tough it out is dramatically and inspirationally addressed in another of Paul’s letters; his Letter to the Ephesians where he tells the Christians to put on the armour of God. The armour of God. Paul wrote:
Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities, against Powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (6: 10 -12)
When we think now, of the gravity of that undertaking – that bringing to birth of the infant churches in that country in Galatia – surrounded by dangers and enemies on all sides, we cannot but feel that the exhortation to put on the whole armour of God would be wholly appropriate to those converts too, to those churchmen who were to be its leadership and its guardians. And so, we are left in no doubt about that weight of responsibility that was laid upon the shoulders of that new leadership in those Galatian churches
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. (14: 23)
Now as we get ever closer to the end of Paul’s first missionary journey, between those years of 46-48 AD, an epic adventure covering 1,400 miles, we now find Paul and Barnabas preparing to leave for home. Again, we find in this text of Luke’s (the author of the Acts of the Apostles), that economy of words:
And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia: And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. (24:26)
They then sailed home to Antioch, they arriving at the church from which they had been sent. There arrived they informed the elders and the congregation of the success that they had experienced in Cyprus, in Antioch Pisidia, in Iconium, in Lystra and in Derbe and lastly in Perga.
And now I refer once again to that economy of words that just seems to have skimmed over the hardships of that journey, of that missionary journey that they had just made. And so, I remind you once again; was a journey that covered 1,400 miles between those years of 46-48 AD. That hostility and the violence that almost cost Paul his life in Lystra, and notwithstanding that, that journey, that homeward journey that involved once again, that crossing of the Taurus range of mountains, before they could return to Perga where Paul and Barnabas then preached. And then continuing though Pamphylia till they came to the sea port of Attalia before embarking onboard a ship for their home church in Antioch Syria. Remember that there were two Antiochs, one in Asia Minor (now Turkey) that is Galatia and the other Antioch was in Syria.
Let’s just reconsider those mountains that just had to be crossed on the outward and return legs of that journey. William Barclay wrote that the Taurus range of mountains was ‘one of the hardest roads in Asia Minor, a road which was also notorious for robbers and brigands.’ ‘They were setting out’ wrote Barclay, ‘on one of the most dangerous of journeys.’ If that wasn’t challenging enough, let me remind you of that place name, Galatia- that was the area or region where Paul planted his churches on that mission. That is why we have that letter of Paul’s, that Letter to the Galatians and that letter can also be found in our New Testament. Why I mention this is because Paul wrote these words to his churches in Galatia:
Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. (4:13)
What Paul meant in that letter was that when he first arrived in Galatia, and preached at Antioch, preached at Iconium, and preached at Lystra, he was quite ill. He was as Paul said, ‘preaching through the infirmity of the flesh.’ We are told that the oldest tradition is that despite suffering the ravages of Malaria when Paul first met the people of Galatia, he nevertheless preached to them. All of this added to the difficulties of his missionary work not to mention that dangerous and arduous journey over the mountain ranges which would have tested the strongest and fittest men and women let alone someone trying to cope with the effects of malaria.
Now we come to the point where Paul and Barnabas crossing the sea on their homeward journey, finally arrive at their church in Antioch, Syria; they arrive in triumph. But what kind of triumph would that have been? Certainly not the vainglorious revelling of the returning Roman conquering hero, but a triumph altogether different. That triumph was to be found in the completion of the work mentioned in our text (14;26). Work commended or recommended as the texts says, recommended to the grace of God. It was the work that was entrusted to Paul and Barnabas, by the congregation so that by God’s grace it should be completed and of course it was.
But really what was the triumph at the heart of all this, what really and truly was all the joy and excitement about? Yes, it was about the spreading of the churches, but more than that, much more than that it was significant, that more and more gentiles were being won to the message that Jesus was not only the long-awaited Jewish messiah of Bible prophecy, but even more than that. Jesus had opened the door of faith and salvation to the gentiles, and that the God of Israel, that God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was no longer the preserve of one small nation, Israel, but rather now the door was flung open to anyone who would believe and repent on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God.
And so, this return to that Church in Antioch, Syria, and the report of Paul and Barnabas gave witness to that movement, that working of the Holy Spirit that was alive in the world, working through Paul who had indeed proclaimed himself to be the ‘apostle to the gentiles.’ This not to say that such work had not been carried out before at the hands of other apostles. Of course, it had! Notably by the apostles Peter and Philip. But it’s also true to say that Paul’s work and his writings, and his letters would eventually come to eclipse the work of any other church leader of the first century in developing and laying down the foundations of the Christian church. Out of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament fourteen of them are written by Paul.
The Acts of the Apostles, as you know, was written by Luke. Paul, despite his achievements and his favour with God was after all just a man. We will recall that he said as much himself, he said the same thing to that somewhat bemused pagan crowd in Lystra, he said that he was no different in like respects to any one of them. What we can say though, without fear of contradiction is that the story of Pau's life remains an inspiring testimony to others today, to others who would wish to serve God. Who knows what plans the Lord God may have for any one of us, or what work we may do for him, however great or humble? God was with Paul, we know that, because God had spoken with the disciple Ananias all those years ago in Damascus and God had told Ananias that Paul was a chosen vessel and that He, that is God, had chosen Paul to bear his name to bear the name of Christ before the gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. Let us give thanks that he, Paul, did exactly that, faithfully.
