Okay, we're up to Acts 14. Now what's interesting about Acts 14? It's the end of Paul's first
missionary journey. Acts 13 was the beginning of his first missionary journey. And Acts 14 ends
with the end of that. Okay. And so my goal tonight is to preach for about 40 minutes
about this chapter. And for the in the last 10 minutes, I want to show you a map on the TV,
so we can kind of trace Paul's journey and get a better visual understanding of that trip.
But look at verse number 23, Acts 14, 23, it says, And when they had ordained them
elders in every church, a title for the sermon tonight is ordained them elders,
ordained them elders. And we know that elders is a term it's used interchangeably with pastors and
bishops. And it's all about this office being men being ordained into this office. And we're going
to look at some interesting things regarding that. Now, we're in Acts 14. So picked up from
Acts 13, if you may recall, that Paul and Barnabas were, they went to Antioch of Pisidia,
not the Antioch where they were sent from the church, but a different Antioch. And they had
really great success. The whole region heard the word of God. So many people got saved, and then
they were run out. The Jews caused the unbelieving Jews caused them to be run out of the region.
And so then we pick it up here from Acts 14, verse number one, it says, And it came to pass
in Iconium. And again, for us, that is like, you know, modern day Turkey, a lot of these references
are modern day, pretty much all is modern day Turkey for us, as we read this, but then when
we have a look at the map later on, you know, we'll have a bit more of a clearer picture
biblically where these places are. Then it says this, that they went both together into the
synagogue of the Jews and so spake that a great multitude, both of the Jews and also of the
Gentiles believed. So again, they're having great success here in Iconium. They, just like before,
they went into the synagogue. And of course, the synagogue, you know, is not necessarily the
religion of Judaism, though there are many that of course follow after the teachings of the Pharisees,
but the synagogue back then was just a place to go and learn and to read God's word. And,
and of course, being far away from Jerusalem now, you'd think that the faith of these people are
much more pure, and that their hearts are at least more receptive to receive the teaching
that's coming from Paul and Barnabas. And that's why it says a great multitude of the Jews and
of the Greeks believed. Again, we're talking about Gentile areas now. We've got, obviously,
synagogues of Jews are there, but there are Greeks, there are Gentile converts that are
seeking the God of Israel. And then verse number two, it says, but the unbelieving Jews stirred up
the Gentiles and made their minds evil, affected against the brethren. So just like anytime you
had the unbelieving Jews, they're pretty much the number one enemy of the believers. You know,
whether they believe in Jews or unbelieving Jews, you can see here that the unbelieving Jews are
trying to cause drama. And what you'll notice over and over again, these unbelieving Jews,
they don't attack themselves. They like to stir up other people to do their dirty work.
Okay. And that is a very common, you know, practice of people that want to hurt churches.
And you know what, you might have someone who is angry at the church or angry at the pastor or
angry at the preacher. It's very rare for them to actually come one-on-one to the pastors,
have discussion. They often like to turn the hearts of people, you know, and, and utilize
that method to attack the preachers. Anyway, verse number three, it says long time. Therefore
above they speak in boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace
and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. So even though these people are
being worked up against Paul and Barnabas, they're still doing that there for a long time,
the preacher for a long time. And it says they granted signs and wonders. So there are people
that are coming up to them and they're performing miracles, probably casting out devils, probably
healing the sick, doing these amazing things that God has empowered them to do. And then it says in
verse number four, but the multitude of the city was divided and part held with the Jews,
that's with the unbelieving Jews and part with the apostles. So like, you know, there isn't like
this universal decision about whether they like Paul and Barnabas, pretty much half do, half love
what they preach and the other half do not. And then it says in verse number five, and when there
was an assault made both of the Gentiles and also of the Jews with their rulers to use them
despitefully and to stone them, they were aware of it and fled into Lystra and Derby cities of
Lycaonia and unto the region that life roundabout. So they're in Iconium. They've done some great
preaching. Many people believe in on Jesus Christ, the unbelieving Jews, they stir up the Gentiles
and eventually they get to this point where they have a plan to stone them, to stone them to death.
Anyway, the word reaches the ears of Paul and Barnabas. And so instead of confronting
their enemies, they decide to flee and they end up fleeing to a new area. We saw their Lystra and
Derby. Okay. Now, and then it says in verse number seven, and there they preach the gospel.
So this teaches quite a few things and we see this as the practice of Jesus Christ as well.
When they're going from place to place and city to city and all of a sudden there are enemies,
there are people seeking to destroy their ministry or to hurt them or to be just argumentative,
to rebel against their ministry. Jesus, many times, John the Baptist did the same thing
and you see the apostles. They're like, all right, let's just get out of here and let's just find the
place where people are ready to receive God's word. And I think this is a really good principle
by which we should also live out our new Testament days and our lives and our ministry, especially
when it comes to soul, door to the soul winning, you know, if you're knocking a door and it seems
like a dangerous place, there might be dogs that seem aggressive or people don't want you there
and you have that sense of danger. Look, just, just move on, move on. All right. And look,
you know, for me and other churches and other pastors do things differently,
but let's say, you know, at church, you know, the sodomites, you know, decided to,
you know, uh, protest against our church or something like that. It's happened to other
churches, you know, and, uh, you know, we have a lot of little, you know, we have a lot of young
children in our church. I don't really want, I wouldn't want my kids to have to see that filth.
I wouldn't want to, you know, potentially put them in harms, you know, danger. We don't know
exactly what their intentions might be now where we are for, uh, where we meet for church. It's
okay. Actually in many ways, because the whole car park is private property. And so if there
was going to be a public protest, it would have to be down far away down the end of the street.
We probably wouldn't even notice them anyway. Right. Uh, so, but you know, if, if they could
protest near our door or something like this, you know, I just say, you know what, let's just have
church at the park. Let's just go a little mountain common. We don't even will. They can
turn up. They can protest all they want. The building is not some holy building. It's just
a building. The church are the people. And I would just rather go somewhere where we're not
going to be interrupted. We can just, you know, not have to put our eyes on filth. We can just
hear God's word faithfully and let people waste their time to come and protest. And it doesn't
matter. Church is going ahead and I just rather go somewhere else. You know, not that I'm afraid
of them. It's just for the ministry's sake, for the point of getting God's word out there.
And you know, last thing I really want to do is just, you know, have to deal with enemies,
you know? And so if we're aware of such danger or such protest or such activity that's trying
to stop the ministry, let's just go somewhere else. I mean, we see this practice over and over
again in the New Testament. Look, if other churches do things differently, that's on them.
They're accountable for their churches, but that's probably the kind of action that I would take in a
scenario like that. Now, if we continue there in verse number eight. So now they're in Lystra,
right? They've gone to Lystra and Derby. I looked this up. Lystra and Derby are, it's about a 24
hour walk. If they were traveling, just if they were just walking, you know, if you just walked
nonstop. So maybe two days, maybe three days journey, you know, to make things comfortable
so that they're not that far away. But it says here that verse number eight, and there, sorry,
and there they preach the gospel. Sorry, where am I up to? Verse number eight, verse number eight,
I am there, sorry. And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple
from his mother's womb, who never had walked. The same heard Paul speak, who steadfastly beholding
him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed. So you've got this crippled man and he's paying
attention. He's in tune to the preaching and obviously he's a believer. He's trusted Christ
and Paul is able to perceive that this man has the faith. Okay. And not only the faith to believe
on Christ, but the faith to be healed. And so he walked up to this man and there verse number
10 is what Paul says to the man, said with a loud voice, stand upright on thy feet. And he
leaped and walked. And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices in the
speech of Lycaonia, the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. So again, they perform
this miracle. This man couldn't walk. Paul says, these words stand upright. The man is able to walk
because of his faith. And the people are surprised. They see this miracle and they speak in their own
tongue, the speech of Lycaonia. I think the reason why it's mentioned the speech of Lycaonia,
it's because the universal, like the global language at that time was Greek, which is why,
you know, the new Testament was written in Greek and sent to these churches and things like that.
That was a common tongue. The international, like English today is the international tongue.
You know, you can pretty much travel anywhere and everybody's speaking English. Well,
in these days it was Greek, you know, and that's, and so, you know, Paul and Barnabas most likely
preaching Greek. Okay. And then they start speaking in their own native tongue. The gods
are come down to us in the likeness of men. And so they think of Paul and Barnabas as gods.
So what are they doing? They're elevating these men, right? These men have done a great work for
God. They're preaching great sermons and they're performing miracles. And I'm telling you, like,
this is a lesson that I want us to learn as a church. Okay. I want any believer I come across
and can influence whether this church or some of the other churches, this is such an important
lesson to learn. Now, number one, I'm pretty confident no one's going to say that pastor
Kevin is one of the gods. I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen, right? Not in that extreme
anyway. But one thing I see play out many times, you know, in the IFB world, you want to call it
the new IFB. I say, look, I see it also in the old IFB. I see this just amongst Christians in
all kinds of churches when they elevate men and preachers with officers way too highly.
When they lift up men as gods, this man is more than a man. And they look up to a man
way too high. Look, this happens. This is, there's something in the nature.
There is something about man, we understand that as a creation of God, God has instilled within us
a desire to worship. This is why there's so many religions in the world, like, you know, I mean,
if you're not going to worship the God of the Bible, people are still seeking to worship
something. You know, and you know, you can get to the point where you might be a humanist,
and you just believe in yourself, you worship yourself, you worship mankind or something like
this. But generally speaking, in our very DNA, in our very essence, we desire to worship a greater
being. And when people are misled, they start to worship man, they start to name men as gods,
they start to lift up men as gods. And I know these people are not saved. I understand that.
But I'm telling you, I've seen Christians do this with pastors. And it's destructive.
It's destructive. Okay. Now, let's continue verse number 12. I'm going to expand this in a moment,
but look at verse number 12. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter, and Paul, Mercurius,
or Mercury, kind of like how we got that right, because he was the chief speaker. All right,
so I had to look this up a little bit. So they call Barnabas, Jupiter. Jupiter in the Roman
mythological gods is the main god, like he's the top, top god in the Roman myths, right.
And then, Mercury or Mercurius is known as the messenger of the gods. So you know, this might
get us to think about a few things. But it says here, the reason Paul was called Mercurius is
because he was the chief speaker. So he's doing most of the preaching, he's doing most of the
talking. So they're like, okay, here's the main messenger, here's the messenger of the gods. So
we call him Mercury. And maybe Barnabas was more, I don't know, maybe more stoic. I don't know.
Maybe he's an older man. Maybe he's a taller man than Paul or something like this. And I well,
that one over there. That's the big one. That's Jupiter. And they start to look at these men as
these Roman gods. And look at verse number 13. Then the priest of Jupiter, like the actual priest
of this false religion, right, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands into the
gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people. The main priests of Jupiter goes, oh,
the gods are here. They've arrived to the earth. So how do we please them? Let's get the animals.
We're going to sacrifice these animals to our gods. And they'll give us some insight. Like,
you know, you're probably gonna say, why isn't Paul and Barnabas putting a stop to this at this
point in time? Because they already said, the people already saying that, you know,
the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. And the reason I believe is because they're
speaking in their native tongue. That's why the world was kind of saying that. They're probably,
you know, I don't think Paul and Barnabas have understood what these people are saying about
them. And what's like, they're just preaching the gospel. They're trying to get people saved.
They're not probably not even aware of what the, you know, the gossip is about them, you know,
about them being gods and all of a sudden, you know, you've got this,
you know, these animals being brought to them to sacrifice. And look at verse 114, which when the
apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people,
crying out and saying, Sirs, why do you, why do you these things? We also are men of like
passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities
unto the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are there in.
So as soon as they hear about man, they're bringing us animals to sacrifice. Well,
now they react like, like we're just, and they rip their clothes. They tear their clothes.
All right. Uh, rip their clothes. Like, look, we're just men. Look at us.
Like a God wouldn't rip his clothes and just be like this humbled, you know, amongst you.
And they're trying to make the point. Don't do this. We're just men. I love what he says.
We're men of like passions with you. He goes, yeah, we're believers and you're unbelievers,
but we're just, we're still men like you. We're still faulty like you. We're still weak like you.
You know, we're not these gods. Don't worship us.
And by the way, they're preaching repentance in verse 15 and saying, sirs, why do these things?
We also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you. Look at this,
that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God.
The word repents means to turn or to change. And Paul is telling them, look, you got to stop,
you know, uh, having your, your beliefs and your trust in Jupiter and mercury
and the Roman gods. You got to turn to the living God.
Like the living God is the one that made the heaven, the earth, the sea,
and all things that are there in not Jupiter. Jupiter is not the creator.
It's the living God that made these things. And so this is repentance. This is true repentance
of the Bible. By the way, it's a repentance of faith. Their faith was misplaced on the
Roman gods. They've got to turn from that and turn to the true and living God.
Their faith on the real God of the Bible.
And then verse number 16, who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
Nevertheless, God actually allowed these other nations to go their own way,
to worship their own gods. All right. God doesn't force anybody to worship him.
Nevertheless. So even though that's the case, he left not himself without witness
in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons,
fill in our hearts with food and glads. He goes, even though God's allowed other
nations to worship their false gods like Jupiter and mercury, he didn't leave people without a
witness. Speaking of himself and Barnabas as a witness of Jesus Christ, but also throughout
history, God has always had witnesses that are preaching the true and living God from the Bible.
And he says the same God is the one that gives us rains in the heaven, fruitful season. He's the
one that gives us the sunlight, gives us the rain. He's the one that allows our crops to grow.
All right. Look, I don't know much about the Roman gods. I don't know much about Jupiter,
anything like that. You know, besides what I just told you that Jupiter is the main God and
mercury is the messenger of the gods. But he's probably trying to highlight,
maybe they had other gods that, you know, this is the God of the rain,
or this is the God of the heavens. And this is the God of this. And this is the God of that.
And he's just trying to explain like, look, it's the one and living God that
sends all of these things. This is the true God that you are to turn to.
Um, and then verse number 18. And with these things scarce restrained they the people
that they had not done sacrifice unto them. All right. So they stopped the sacrifices from
happening with this preaching. Excellent. All right. Now this is where it gets really
interesting. And this is where I want to really take some thought and stop here for a moment.
Okay. You've got this city. They love Paul and Barnabas. They praise them as gods.
They lifted them up. Okay. They even wanted to sacrifice to them. I mean,
I've seen this play out brethren on a lesser scale, but it plays out nonetheless.
Look at verse 19. And there came wither certain Jews from Antioch,
remember the Jews in Antioch earlier drove them out. Well, now the Jews have turned up to Iconium.
Okay. The Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people and having stone Paul
drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Like what happened?
You loved them. You wanted to sacrifice them. You called them gods. You thought they were a miracle.
Gods become men. And what happens shortly afterwards? Let's kill them.
What? How do you go so dramatically from loving these men to hating these men and wanting them
dead? So much so they actually do stone Paul. And the way I read this, some people have different
drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. I read that as though Paul didn't die,
but that the people supposed him to be dead. They thought he was dead, but he wasn't. He was
like maybe unconscious, knocked out, bruised, beat, like just looked dead. Okay. Cause that's
how I read it. Supposing he had been dead, meaning he wasn't really dead. Some people think that Paul
actually did physically die in this story. I don't know. We'll see. You know, I, the way I read it,
it's, it's supposed to be dead, but he wasn't really dead. He just looked that way in many
ways. And, uh, you know, this got me thinking a lot and I've, and I'm telling you Brevin,
I've seen this play over and over and over again. And when I see signs of this, I like to warn
people, but I feel like even my warnings go unheeded many times. It's when men lift up
pastors, lift up preachers, above measure, above measure, right? In Romans 11, 13,
Paul says these words, I magnify mine office. Look, the office deserves to be magnified.
The office of an apostle, the office of a pastor, the office of a deacon. We understand these are
important roles that God has instituted for the local church,
but you need to understand the men that fill those offices are just men with like passions.
And I really want this to be well understood and well absorbed. I've seen this and it makes me sad
and sometimes it makes me angry
because I've seen church members. I'm not talking about my church members so much here or anything
like that, but I've seen it in my life. I've seen it in churches. I've seen it with other pastors.
I've seen it within the new IFB and things like this, of this nature where men highly exalt a man
too much, too much, forgetting that the man that they're exalting is a man of like passions.
It's a man like anybody else. They elevate, they praise, almost worship,
and their life is just centered on a man. I've seen this in my first IFB church. I've seen it.
I was, look, I had a great pastor. I learned so many great things from this man.
But I saw other church members like, it's like the second coming of Christ or something like that.
Surely this is one of the two witnesses at the end of the trip. It's just a man.
And then behind the pulpit, like the pastors don't want that attention. They're like,
hey, put your eyes on Christ. You know, hey, we're just men. Hey, pastors are going to fail you.
You know, this and that. It's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know that. I know that. I know that.
And then what happens? The pastor fails somewhere in his life because he's a man.
The pastor offends someone somewhere along because we're just sinners. Rightly or wrongly,
the pastor's offended somebody and too many times, Brevin, I've seen a man who's just,
what if that man can do nothing wrong to go from, now I just despise him. I hate him.
And speaks so degrading about a man of God
who has done many great things over the years. Fails sometimes because he's a man.
I mean, what man doesn't fail? Any man that takes the office, let's say pastors say,
because we don't have a pastor today, will fail, will make mistakes.
And that's it. I'm out of the church. That's it. I'm done. Oh, can you read the past?
It's like, you loved him yesterday and today you want to stone him to death.
I see this and I was like, you know what? It's so crazy to me. Usually those that
exalt a pastor or preacher above measure are also going to hate that same preacher above measure.
It's like no control of emotions. No temperance. That's what temperance is. Control.
Self-control is temperance.
Look, I want to be like on Sunday, I preach a sermon saying that I'm a weak man.
And I'm trying to say that to say, Hey, my strength is in the Lord and your strength
needs to be in the Lord. And the strength which Paul used to cause this man to walk was of the
Lord. In fact, the Bible says it was the faith of the crippled man that allowed him to walk again.
I mean, if anyone should be called the God, he was the man that was crippled
because he had the faith to walk.
You know, I wanted to remind everybody that men that hold the office of a pastor
is just an example. It's a sample. Your eyes must be on Christ all the time.
And I promise you, I don't actually, I won't say promise because maybe it's not happened,
but it's very likely that over the years, and maybe it's already happened,
that I'm going to offend you. I'm going to upset you. I'm going to do something that
you don't approve of. Not that I want to, I'm not trying to.
It's just when you put human being with a human being sometimes.
And the harder thing is the pastor, if he's going to be an honest pastor,
he's got to preach all the counsel of God. And when you're preaching all the counsel of God,
sometimes God word offends and people cannot separate God's word, which offended them
with the pastor that preached that message that was offensive. It's just how it is.
I've seen it too many times, too many times brethren,
and it boggles my mind. Why is this? You know, I'll talk about my first pastor. I'll talk about
that man because I've mentioned him a few times, but he failed. He failed in his ministry,
and ended up committing adultery. And when I heard about that and destroyed his ministry,
disqualified himself, I was broken for him. I was sad. I had sorrow, right?
But I didn't hate the man. I just thought, man, if my pastor can fail, how much more me?
I better walk closely with the Lord.
But then I saw other church members, hate-filled, disgusting words about the man. I'm thinking,
man, I learned so many great things for two years under that man. God used him mightily for two
years. And he's my brother in the Lord. He's messed up. People mess up. Great men of God in
the Bible mess up worse. And we still preach about those men and the great works that they
did, not because they're great men, but because they serve a great God, a God that can use fallen
men. I've seen this over and over and over again. It's like, how can you be so hate-filled?
And when I realized now, what I've learned over the years now is that when that happens,
it's because that church member or that person esteemed a man too highly, which was wrong.
Their eyes were on a man. Their eyes were on that family. Their eyes were not on Jesus,
which is a shame. It's a real shame. It's an embarrassment. When you shift your focus from
Jesus to a man, what are we compared to Christ? I can't even save myself brethren, just like you
had to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. Fans of men more so than followers of
Christ. Fans of men more so than followers of Christ. And you know what? This isn't just in
churches. There are many examples where like number one fans of a celebrity ends up killing
that celebrity. And the most famous of them is John Lennon of the Beatles. Not that I care about
the Beatles, but the man that killed John Lennon, shot him was like a fan. And I believe he went up
to John Lennon and asked for a signature and got his signature. It's like, all right, got my hero's
signature. Now let's kill him. I don't know exactly why, but he had done something where
the fan was no longer, you know, loving the man like you used to. There are many stories like this
where fans turn on their heroes, whether it's a musician or some, you know, some sporting hero
or a politician sometimes, you know, there are stories such like this that it's strange,
but we say, well, that's strange. The number one fan killing his hero, but I see it in church.
And I don't understand, you know, when you're able to recognize that pastors are just men,
men who have met the qualification. So when you exalt the qualifications too highly,
like that must be a Superman that does it. Then you're going to think of the man that does it as
a Superman. The qualifications is just men. It's just godly men standard for everybody to achieve.
And, you know, let me encourage you to not esteem men highly, you know,
to appreciate your pastors, appreciate the men that God has put in your life to learn great
things. And then when they fail and you just appreciate them, but your eyes are on Christ
and they fail, you know, what's going to happen because you're not out of whack because you're
a balanced Christian. You're just going to be like, man, he failed. I'm sad about it.
It's disappointing, but I better learn from this lesson, you know, and hope the Lord would raise
up another man to take over and help out and lead. And I think that's really important as we get to
the rest of this chapter. I think it's really important that we keep this in mind that pastors
are not supermen and I'm glad. And I know I've got 12 kids, but you know, and some people think
that's, you know, how'd you do it? It's just because we love family. We love children.
That's, and God's given us the ability to raise kids and to nurture them and to care for them.
And guess what? We're not perfect parents either. Do you know that?
You know, when a mother of one child says, I'm really struggling. I don't think, well,
you're really struggling. We got 12 kids. No, everyone struggles.
Couples that can't have kids struggle. Couples that have one kid struggle. Couples that have
three kids struggle. Couples that have six kids struggle and couples that have 12 kids struggle.
We all struggle. No one's superman.
Let's continue Acts 14 verse number 20. Acts 14 verse number 20.
But we really need to have a balanced view of pastors. Honestly, look, it's going to settle
your heart. Put your eyes on Jesus. And what makes me sad is I say this year after year after year.
You preach this behind the pool, but, but it's just like, it goes through
one ear and out the other sometimes. It's like, why?
You know, again, bands of men rather than followers of Christ.
But verse number 20. Howbeit, so remember Paul's supposedly dead. All right.
Howbeit as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and came into the city.
And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby.
So I don't know, God does a miracle. I guess all his injuries are healed.
I mean, when you stone someone, you're breaking bones, you're causing a lot of destruction.
So for Paul to be able to just stand up and walk back in the city,
God obviously performed some kind of miracle. Okay.
If you say he was risen from the dead, I mean, that's amazing.
But even just having all your bones knit back together and all your cuts being healed.
That's an amazing miracle. And I guess they're not expecting a dead man to be back in the city,
but this is what happens. Okay. But anyway, then they go to Derby afterwards.
And then verse number 21. And when they had preached the gospel to that city
and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.
So they've gone to Derby. They've preached for a while. They get many saved.
Then they come back to Lystra to the places where they were before.
So Iconium to Antioch. And this is what's really amazing.
Verse number 22, confirming the souls of the disciples. You could say this is follow-up.
All right. So they've gone to these cities, preached them the gospel.
They're like, all right, let's go back to those cities and let's confirm those people.
Confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith.
And that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Obviously they face a lot of tribulation so far. All right. And they're saying,
look, this is how it is. The Christian life has a lot of tribulations before we go
to be with God in heaven. And this is what really blows my mind in verse number 23.
And when, so those specific places. Okay. So again, in verse number 21 at the end,
Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. Okay. Those three places. Verse number 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. Now this is what's amazing.
They've just gone into the city. They've just gotten all these people saved.
Now, most people agree that Paul's, and again, I can't prove this from the scriptures. I just,
it's a bit above me. Maybe if I sat down really and carefully paid attention to
every single detail, I might figure this out myself too. But most people say that,
you know, Paul's first missionary journey lasted a maximum of two years,
somewhere between one and two years. So they go into, they've gone to many cities,
but specifically where they've had the most, the best results have been Antioch,
Iconium and Lystra. They come back, do a bit of follow-up. They establish churches
and they ordained elders all within two years. Doesn't that blow your mind?
Like if you just got saved and you're like, in two years, I'm going to pastor a church.
Most of us would be like, whoa, slow down, buddy.
So this, like this chapter, this story, this really challenges me a little bit. And I think
again, it puts into picture perspective that pastors, elders don't have to be these superheroes,
but they've been ordained elders. They pray, they fasted. And then it says,
they commended them to the Lord, meaning they're leaving these pastors and these churches,
these elders in God's hands. They're like independent churches, if you want to put it
that way. Okay. Now Paul does visit them again in the other journeys that he makes, but you know,
he's not needing to be so, you know, involved in them because they've got their pastor,
they've got their elders. Now, keep your finger there and come with me to Titus,
please. Titus chapter one, Titus chapter one, please. Titus chapter one and verse number five.
Titus chapter one and verse number five.
So Paul is writing to pastor Titus, he's in Crete. And I just want you to look at these words here.
Titus one and verse number five. Paul says to Titus, for this cause left I thee in Crete,
that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordained elders in every city as
I had appointed thee. So Titus' job is to be in the Isle of Crete, Isle of Crete and to appoint
elders in every city. Then he says, these are the qualifications. This is the man that you're
looking for. Now for me, if Paul is to see in his epistles that this is what we're looking for
in a man, then I believe that Paul found those men when he appointed elders there in Lystra,
Iconium and Antioch. Don't you think that's logical, like common sense that would be logical
to say that is the quality of men that he found these places and appointed them as elders.
What it says in verse number six, these are the qualifications.
If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children,
not accused of riot or unruly, for a bishop must be blameless, the steward of God,
not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy Luca,
but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate.
Now I'm going to stop there for a moment before we read verse number nine.
All of these qualifications are what?
Are they doctrine based? Are they knowledge based? They're character based so far,
all of these things that we've seen.
What's really interesting about the qualifications of a pastor is that the character of the man
actually trumps the doctrine. Now doctrine is important. Please don't misunderstand me.
Look at verse number nine, holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught,
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers.
So the guy's got to know the bible, the guy's got to know doctrine, he's got to be able to preach,
he's got to have that knowledge and that ability to teach,
but most of the qualifications are character driven.
And I think about these men of these cities that have been saved,
they've heard the preaching of Paul and Barnabas, and within two years they're pastors.
How much doctrine do you think they really knew?
Maybe a lot, maybe more than we realize because some of these men were in synagogues
and within the synagogues they've heard the preaching of the Old Testament scriptures,
they've learned much of the bible, even so back then.
And I kind of think about, wow, two years or within two years, how?
And I start to realize, well, I mean, you say, well, you know, the past,
before your day in the past, he's got to read the bible at least cover to cover.
And I believe that. I believe you need to have read the bible cover to cover
if you're going to teach from that book.
But these guys didn't even have a completed bible.
I mean, just think about that, like they didn't have a completed bible.
They didn't have Paul and Barnabas constantly with them, teaching them.
So whatever Paul and Barnabas had to teach them at the time must have been some really
awesome teaching that would help them then to be able to read the scriptures
and teach from the scriptures.
I think about what that would be like though.
What kind of doctrines would that be?
And to be honest, like when I think about that, when you have a short term,
if you want to, if you want to like really accelerate someone's growth in the word
and get them prepared as much as possible to be able to in their own ability to study
and to read and preach with their own words,
it's not so much you have to teach them every doctrine of the bible,
because that will take forever.
But you have to be able to teach them the structure of the bible,
how the New Testament has come to be over the Old Testament.
What are some things that have carried from the old to the new?
What has been replaced from old to new?
You'd have to teach them the difference between the physical nation of Israel
and the spiritual nation within the New Testament.
You'll have to teach them the difference of the covenants.
Those key differences, you'll have to show them that salvation in the New Testament
is the same salvation of the Old Testament by grace through faith and a lot of works.
And you know, like I said, develop some kind of structure where they can actually
themselves then go to the scriptures, what little scriptures they had,
you know, and to be able to then, but with the help of the Holy Ghost,
read and study, remembering that framework by which Paul and Barnabas taught them
to do some great preaching and some great leading for these new churches.
But again, it makes me think a lot.
Within two years, they could find these pastors.
And I'm telling you Brevin, we need pastors.
And do we sometimes elevate it too highly though?
And again, it's just a thought.
Look, the qualifications are there.
We don't bypass the qualifications.
But are we sometimes just looking for the perfect man?
You know, and there is no perfect man.
But because we look for the perfect man, we then sometimes elevate that man.
We think of them as gods, Jupiter and Mercury.
Because we put, because you know, I mean, they didn't have time to go through
four years of Bible college or anything like this.
I mean, I'm not sure what the answer is.
I'm just telling you Brevin, I've been challenged a little bit by this chapter.
By the work.
And we know it's the work of the Holy Ghost.
They're performing these miracles.
They're causing the lame to walk.
Paul is basically coming back from the dead.
I mean, the Holy Spirit is blessing them mightily.
You know, in the labor and work that they're conducting.
Well, let's continue back there in Acts 14.
Acts 14, verse number 24.
So after they ordained elders in those three cities, verse 24, it says,
And after they had passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia.
And when they had preached the word in Perga,
they went down to Atalia and thence sailed to Antioch.
So once they're in Atalia, then they go back to the Antioch,
where they were sent from in Syria.
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.
And there they abode long time with their disciples.
So they go back and they report back to their main church.
Again, we see the pattern of the Bible.
Now, very clearly, we've seen the church in Jerusalem
send Barnabas to help establish the church in Antioch.
And then the church in Antioch says Barnabas and Paul,
we're sending you to Asia Minor.
And there they go and establish churches from that church.
Again, we see the same pattern.
Churches plant churches.
Churches start churches.
Ordained men of leadership, in this case apostles, ordain elders.
Okay, not the congregation ordain elders.
We see men holding the office, you know, pastors ordain pastors.
Apostles, if we had apostles in these days, we don't.
We'll ordain pastors because they had that authority.
It's a top-down ordination that we see in the scriptures.
And again, Paul and Barnabas, they're not just doing their own thing.
They're coming back and they're reporting back to their home church.
Hey, you sent us to what we call the first missionary journey
because they're back home, they're back in their home church
and they're just reporting back about the great work God has done with them.
All right, so as I said, the title is,
Audain Them Elders.
And you know, it's a challenging chapter.
You know, it's making me think a little bit more about,
you know, how do we appoint men?
Because I think some men think it's just too high of a standard for them to follow.
And can't be a pastor or they've got some struggling life.
Well, I can't be the pastor.
Well, get a struggling life that's stopping you.
Fix the problem.
How else do we learn to fix things unless we fix those things
that might be preventing us from meeting the qualifications?
But I'm not done, brethren.
I need to get this map up here now, brother.
Matt, if you don't mind.
We're going to look at a map.
I searched Google for different missionary journeys of Paul
and I felt this was the best one.
So brother Matt, when you're ready, you can put that up there.
And I know you closed your Bible, sorry.
Open your Bibles.
I want you to be able to see this a little bit.
And so we've got this map up here and the red arrow represents their actual,
the commencement of their journey from Seleucia.
And the blue arrows represents their journey back, back home to Antioch.
Now, if you come with me to Acts 13 in your Bible.
So let's look at this.
We won't spend too much time, but I want you to appreciate their journey
and understand it better where they went and all of this.
So we know in Acts 13, they started in the church in Antioch, didn't they?
That's where they were commissioned.
They were sent from, they were ordained.
And then when you look at Acts 13, verse number four, it says,
So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia.
So you can see why it begins from Seleucia there.
They went to Seleucia and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.
So Cyprus is that Island there.
Okay.
So Seleucia is like a port city.
We can catch a boat, catch, you know, be able to get on your boat.
And then they traveled to Cyprus.
Now look at verse number five.
So when they get to Cyprus and when they were at Salamis.
So Salamis is on that side of the Island.
They preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews.
And they also had John to their minister.
So John, John Mark finds them there in Salamis for whatever, however, they organize that.
And so Paul, Barnabas and John, they're all working together there at Salamis.
And then look at verse number six.
And when they had gone through the isle unto Pathos,
so you see Pathos is on the other side of the Island.
It's kind of like when we went to Fiji.
Where we landed, it was Nadi, but then we crossed and went to Suva.
Okay.
And there were some soul women in both places.
All right.
But they come to Pathos on the other side of the Island,
where they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus.
You may recall that story.
Anyway, they have some great success there in Pathos.
And then look at Acts 13, 13.
Now when Paul and his company loosed from Pathos,
they came to Perga in Pamphylia and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem.
So there in Pathos, John went down all the way back to Jerusalem.
Okay.
He left them at whatever, whatever reason.
We don't know exactly the reason why, but he left them and went back to Jerusalem.
But they crossed back to the mainland and they went to Perga.
All right.
Now Perga, I don't know if you can read that, Perga and Atalia are in Pamphylia.
Okay.
In the region of Pamphylia.
All of this is Asia Minor in the Bible.
And for us, it's modern day Turkey.
All right.
But they went to Perga.
And then if you look at Acts 13 and verse number 49.
Oh, sorry, sorry.
No, no, no.
Acts 13, 14.
But when they departed from Perga, so they left Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia.
They can see where Antioch is up there.
They can see that Antioch is in Galatia, the region of Galatia.
So this is why we have the, you know, the writings of the Galatians, the Galatian church.
So we start to understand that they've put elders in Antioch.
They put elders in these other places.
And that's why you got the epistle to the Galatians.
It's writing, it's writing to these same people.
I believe the epistle to the Galatians was written, as best I remember, I believe it's
his third missionary journey where he actually writes that epistle to the Galatian church.
But yeah, so they came to Antioch of Pisidia
and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down.
So they had great success in Antioch.
Okay.
That's where one of the churches was planted.
Okay.
And then dropped down to verse number 49, Acts 13, 49.
And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region.
I mean, Antioch, that's a great place.
All the region heard the word of God, but you know, they were driven out.
Verse number 50, but the Jews stood up the devout and honorable women and the chief men of the city
and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their coasts.
So they got kicked out of Antioch.
All right.
And you can see from Antioch, they went to Iconium, which is where we started in Acts 14.
So Acts 14, verse number one, and it came to pass in Iconium.
They went both together into the synagogue of the Jews and so spake
that a great multitude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.
So another great work.
You'll notice that where they had the most success is where they ended up planting the church.
Okay.
So Iconium is another place where they planted the church.
Now, so you can see them there in Iconium.
Hopefully you're following along.
And then if you drop down to verse number six, Acts 14, six,
because they tried to stone them, they tried to kill them.
And they became aware of that.
In verse number six, they were aware of it and fled onto Lystra and Derbe.
So you can see where Lystra is and Derbe.
So Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe.
They're all in the region of Galatia.
All right.
Cities of Lycaronia.
I don't know.
That's gone over my head a little bit.
And onto the region.
Maybe they're not in Galatia then.
If they're in the cities of Lyar, Lycaronia.
Maybe I need to check on that.
And onto the region that Lyaf ran about.
And there they preached the gospel.
All right.
So when they got to Lystra, that's where Paul was close to stone to death.
And they went back to the city.
Then they went to Derbe.
All right.
But again, Lystra, they've had great success.
That's why they tried to kill them.
All right.
They were having great success preaching the gospel in that area.
Anyway, they finally make it to Derbe.
And now we're at the blue arrows.
And when you look at Acts 14 and verse number 20.
Howbeit as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and came into the city.
And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
Sorry, I covered that.
But then it says here, and when they had preached the gospel to that city.
So when Derbe heard the gospel and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra.
So they went back to Lystra where Paul was stoned.
And to Iconium, a bit further north.
And Antioch, further north.
Okay.
And that's where they plant the churches.
And that's where they ordain elders in these free cities.
So they do that kind of, if you want to call it the follow up, right?
And they're like, okay, we found a man who can be the elder of this church.
Then from Antioch, verse number 24, Acts 14, 24.
And after they had passed throughout Pisidia.
Oh yeah, because Antioch of Pisidia, of Pisidian.
So they're passing through Pisidia.
They came to Pamphylia.
So Pamphylia is the region where Atalia and Perga are located.
Okay.
And then it says here, and when they had preached the word in Perga.
So they went back to Perga and did it again.
They went down into Atalia.
They went over there to Atalia.
Okay.
Now Atalia, you can see there, it looks like another port city.
It looks like it's close to the sea.
So they can catch a boat from there.
And then verse number 26, and thence sailed to Antioch from whence they had been recommended
to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.
So you can see there from Atalia, they sailed all the way back to Antioch,
where they started their missionary journey.
Does that make sense?
Is that interesting?
I hope it's interesting.
Okay.
And as I said, brethren, they ordained them elders.
Man, we need elders.
We need pastors.
We need pastors here in Australia.
Man, I've got two churches that need two pastors.
All right.
So what's really interesting, I'm like, well, you gotta be saved for at least seven years.
And well, I mean, maybe you could be saved for two years.
But at the end of the day, man, like, you know, what we really learn is that the men
have to meet these qualifications.
You know, have the characteristics that are outlined for us, you know, in the scriptures.
Have a great faith, stand firm in doctrine, be able to teach God's word faithfully.
But you know what?
Pastors don't have to be gods.
Pastors don't have to be super men.
They're men of like passions.
Okay.
And make sure you never make, please, if you made the mistake in the past, learn from it.
Never make the mistake of elevating a man.
Your eyes must always be on Jesus Christ.
Let's pray.