ENGAGE
If, like me, you are a University of Arizona sports fan, the last couple months have been a real roller coaster, to say the least. And that has been especially true for the basketball team who has faced injuries, suspensions, the arrest of an assistant coach and major accusations leveled against the head coach that resulted in him not coaching a game last week.
But in the midst of all the turmoil, the players on the basketball team have been remarkably resilient. They have had to deal with the signs and chants from the fans of opposing teams when they play on the road, a change in coaches, and constant questions from the press. But they seem to have been able to rally around each other and largely shut out all of the outside pressure. And because they have been able to press on when problems pressed in, yesterday they accomplished their mission of becoming PAC-12 champions.
TENSION
Being a disciple of Jesus also has its share of external pressures, too. And how we respond when those problems press in is going to determine to a large extent how successful we are going to be when it comes to accomplishing our mission of bringing the kingdom of God near to others.
I don’t need to tell you that the church is facing increasing pressure from our culture. As a nation, we are increasingly illiterate when it comes to the Bible and increasingly hostile to Jesus, His teachings, and His disciples. But we really shouldn’t be surprised by that. Jesus warned His disciples that they would face tribulation in this world and He reminded them that if the world hated Him, they would also hate His followers.
So it’s not surprising that the early church also faced intense opposition, too. And had those disciples not pressed on when those problems pressed in, the church may have very well collapsed before it ever really got going. But the fact that we’re gathered here together this morning is proof that they were successful in persevering under that pressure. So let’s see what we can learn from them this morning.
TRUTH
We’re going to pick up with our study of the book of Acts in Acts chapter 13 this morning.
Last week we left off with the account of Peter and Cornelius and saw how God used their encounter to show Peter that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well as the Jews. After that Peter returned to Jerusalem to report what had happened there in Caesarea to the other apostles.
By that time, because of persecution, a number of the disciples had spread as far as Antioch so the apostles in Jerusalem sent Barnabas to encourage the believers there. Barnabas then went to find Saul in Tarsus and brought him back to Antioch to help disciple those believers. When the believers heard that their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem were in need, they took up a collection and sent it back to Jerusalem with Paul and Barnabas.
While they were in Jerusalem, King Herod killed James, the brother of John and arrested Peter. After Peter is miraculously freed, King Herod is struck dead by God because he refused to give glory to God. After all that takes place, Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch with John Mark.
That brings us to the beginning of Acts chapter 13. The events that take place in this chapter occur about 13 years after Paul’s conversion experience on the road to Damascus.
[Read Acts 13:1-3]
Luke records the names of five church leaders in Antioch. We’re familiar with Paul, who is still called Saul here, and Barnabas, but the other 3 are probably not familiar to most of us.
There could not have been a more unlikely group of people that God had brought together to lead the church at Antioch. Barnabas is a Hellenistic Jew from Cyprus. Saul of Tarsus is also a Jew, but not the same kind as Barnabas. He is a Hebraic Jew. We don’t know where Simeon is from. All we know is that He is called Niger, which is Latin for black. So he was likely a dark skinned man. Lucius is from Cyrene, which was in Africa. Manaen was a Palestinian Greek who is described here are a lifelong friend of king Herod, the very same Herod who had killed John the Baptist at the request of his step daughter as a reward for her dancing sensuously before him and his friends.
The fact that these five men were serving together in leadership in the church at Antioch is a powerful testimony of the power of the gospel to break down prejudices. These five men, who would have been trained from birth to despise each other, have been made one through the power of the gospel.
And as they are worshiping together, the Holy Spirit directs them to set apart Barnabas and Saul and send them off to proclaim the Word of God and establish new churches in other places.
All throughout the rest of the book of Acts, Barnabas and Saul are going to face a number of problems and potential obstacles as they embark on that mission. But even here in the first few verses of the chapter there is a potential problem that lurks beneath the surface.
But before I point out that potential problem, let me first share with you our main theme for this morning’s message:
The kingdom of God is brought near to others
when we press on when problems press in
So what is the potential problem here in these first 3 verses? Think about what is happening here. Paul and Barnabas had spent a year in Antioch, preaching and teaching and were instrumental in building up the church there. It’s very likely that they had trained the other three church leaders mentioned here. But now God is calling them to leave that local church and go plant new churches.
There are two potential problems here. One is that Simeon, Lucius and Manaen could have been selfish and tried to prevent Paul and Barnabas from leaving because they wanted them to continue to serve their local body. But had they done that, they would have prevented Paul and Barnabas from spreading the gospel and planting new churches in places beyond Antioch.
The other potential problem is that the three remaining leaders would be ineffective in maintaining the growth of the church there without the ministry of Paul and Barnabas. But historical records indicate that these men must have pressed on in spite of those problems because by the fourth century there were about 100,000 Christians there in Antioch.
As Paul and Barnabas set out on their journey, they are going to run into a number of problems. Since this chapter is relatively long, instead of reading it all, I’m going to summarize a lot of it for you and just read a few key passages.
Paul and Barnabas leave Antioch, accompanied by John Mark, and head to the seaport of Seleucia and then set sail for Cyprus and arrive at the city of Salamis. [Show map]. There they proclaimed the Word of God in the synagogues.
They make their way across the island until they came to the city of Paphos. There they attempt to present the gospel to the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, but they are opposed by a false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was also known as Elymas the magician. But Paul refuses to let that obstacle keeping him from bringing the kingdom near to the proconsul and he rebukes Bar-Jesus quire forcefully:
[Read Acts 13:10-11]
And because Paul had pressed on when problems pressed in, the proconsul became a disciple of Jesus.
From there, the three men sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to the city of Perga in Pamphylia. [Show map]. There they encountered another problem when John Mark left them to return to Jerusalem. That would later become a matter of disagreement between Paul and Barnabas, but at this point they did not let that become a hindrance to their mission. So once again they pressed on when problems pressed in.
From there they travelled to another city named Antioch, this one located in the province of Pisdia. On the Sabbath, Paul and Barnabas went to the synagogue. After the reading of the Scriptures, they were invited to speak a word of encouragement to those who were in attendance. Obviously Paul had preached many times before, but this is the first of his sermons that is recorded in the book of Acts.
In that masterful sermon, Paul summarizes the entire Old Testament in just a couple paragraphs and explains how Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises God had made to His people there. I would really encourage you to read that sermon this week.
When Paul wraps up his message, the response seems to be everything that he could have hoped for.
[Read Acts 13:42-43]
Let me be clear up front. When I preach each week, my primary goal is to share what God wants to communicate to us as a body through His Word So I don’t do what I do for the sake of getting praise from any of you. Sure, it’s nice when someone occasionally comments about how God spoke to them through the message, but that’s never my goal. But I have to admit that I wouldn’t be disappointed at all if all of you longed for God’s Word like the people of Antioch did that day.
But only a week later, things are about to take a turn for the worse.
[Read Acts 13:44-47]
Those same Jews who had been clamoring for Paul and Barnabas to come back and preach just a week before, became filled with jealousy when they saw that Paul and Barnabas were also bringing the gospel to the Gentiles as well. So they began to revile Paul and contradict what he was saying. But once again Paul and Barnabas pressed on when those problems pressed in. And as a result, the Gentiles who had heard the Word of God preached rejoiced and gave glory to the Word of God. And the gospel spread throughout the entire region as a result.
Not surprisingly the Jewish leaders stirred up even more persecution against Paul and Barnabas. But once again they pressed on when problems pressed in. They just shook the dust from their feet and proceeded to their next place of ministry in Iconium.
So throughout this chapter we see that…
The kingdom of God is brought near to others
when we press on when problems press in
APPLICATION
So obviously if we’re going to apply that principle in our own lives, we need to see what we can learn from this passage about…
HOW TO PRESS ON WHEN PROBLEMS PRESS IN
1. Rely on the Holy Spirit
There are 4 references to the Holy Spirit in this passage:
• In verse 2, we see that the Holy Spirit spoke to the five church leaders in Antioch while they were worshiping God.
• In verse 4, Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the Holy Spirit
• In verse 9, we see that Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit before he rebuked Bar-Jesus
• Finally, in verse 52, we see that the disciples in Pisdian Antioch were also filled with the Holy Spirit.
The idea of relying on the Holy Spirit is certainly not something that we can cover in just a few minutes this morning. Back in 2013 I preached a series of 7 sermons on the role of the Holy Spirit and if you’d like to study some that in some more detail let me know and I can help you find the text for those messages.
But there are a couple of basic principles that we can find here in this passage that will at least get us pointed in the right direction.
First, we observe here that the Holy Spirit operates in concert with God’s Word. When God’s Word is being read, studied and proclaimed, the Holy Spirit works to help apply the Word of God in the lives of those who disciples of Jesus. That shouldn’t surprise since Jesus had earlier told His disciples that one of the main functions of the Holy Spirit would be to remind His disciples of what He had said:
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
(John 14:26 ESV)
So if we want to rely on the Holy Spirit and be led by Him one of the most important things we can do is to be spending time in the Bible on a consistent basis.
The second thing we see here is that the Holy Spirit is able to do His work best when we are seeking God. At the beginning of the chapter, we saw that it was while the five church leaders were worshiping together that the Holy Spirit revealed God’s plan.
Neither of these ideas are new, are they. We essentially saw the same things a couple weeks ago when we were talking about how to hear the voice of God.
2. Be confident in my beliefs
Paul and Barnabas were clearly so grounded in the Scriptures that they had developed a great deal of confidence in what they believed about Jesus. And, as I’m going to discuss more fully in a moment, they had also spent considerable time with the apostles and others who had been eyewitnesses of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. That was also instrumental in developing confidence in their beliefs.
And because of that confidence, they were able to counter the lies of a false prophet like Bar-Jesus, refute the contradictions put forth by the crowd in Pisdian Antioch, and endure under the persecution of the Jewish leaders there.
Remember that Paul and Barnabas had both been at this for a while. These events occur around 13 years after Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And Paul also had the benefit of having studied the Scriptures under one of the best teachers of his day. So that kind of confidence certainly does require some time to develop.
So to a large degree, your confidence in your beliefs is going to be a function of how long you have been a disciple of Jesus. But it’s also a function of how committed you are to intentionally reinforcing your beliefs through the consistent reading and study of the Bible.
Unfortunately, when I first became a disciple, I didn’t do a very good job of bring the kingdom near to others because I wasn’t very effective in pressing on when someone questioned my beliefs.
When the Mormons or the Jehovah’s Witnesses would come to my door, I would often try to pretend I wasn’t home because I knew that they were much more grounded in their beliefs than I was in mine.
But today, now that I’m so much more confident in what I believe, I actually relish an encounter with them. But apparently after several of those encounters when I used the Bible to contradict some of their claims, our house has not been red flagged. So now I often see their teams pass right by our house and I don’t often get to engage them. But I’m certainly more effective in pressing on now that I’m much more confident in what I believe. And hopefully that is true for you as well.
3. Spend time with other disciples
We’ve talked often before about the idea that Jesus never intended for His disciples to try and live out their lives in isolation. And while He was on this earth, he consistently modeled that principle.
Jesus was God in the flesh, so obviously, He could have accomplished His entire mission without the help of anyone else. But He intentionally chose to involve others in carrying out that mission. Jesus spent all night praying about the 12 men He would choose to invest His life in. And for the next three years, He did just that, including them in almost every aspect of His ministry.
And then on the occasions where He sent the apostles and His other disciples out to minister in His name, He never sent them out alone, but rather in teams. Perhaps He was thinking of this familiar passage from Ecclesiastes:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
(Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 ESV)
In his book EntreLeadership, Dave Ramsey illustrates the importance of this kind of teamwork:
One of the largest, strongest horses in the world is the Belgian draft horse. Competitions are held to see which horse can pull the most and one Belgian can pull 8,000 pounds. The weird thing is if you put two Belgian horses in the harness who are strangers to each other, together they can pull 20,000 – 24,000 pounds. Two can pull not twice as much as one but three times as much as one. This example represents the power of synergy. However, if the two horses are raised and trained together they learn to pull and think as one. The trained, and therefore unified, pair can pull 30,000 – 32,000 pounds, almost four times as much as a single horse.
Apparently, this was a principle that Paul and Barnabas had taken to heart. So in the church in Syrian Antioch, they had brought other godly men into leadership, so that they had a team of at least five men who could build in to each other’s lives and encourage each other. And later on when Paul would plant churches in other cities, he instructed them to develop a leadership team of godly men rather than put all the leadership responsibilities on one person.
Having once been a church planter who did not have that kind of leadership team, I can vouch firsthand for the tremendous burden that I experienced when I was trying to lead a church on my own. So I’m really grateful for the godly men that I serve with here at TFC.
Not only that, but these five men worshiped together on a regular basis along with the rest of the church there in Antioch. Even before it was written down, they were following the familiar command that the writer of the book of Hebrews would pen years later:
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
(Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV)
“The Day” is definitely drawing near, isn’t it? Every day it gets more and more difficult to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ, but at the same time bringing the kingdom of God near to others becomes more and more urgent. So that means we’re going to need each other more and more.
Even after they left Antioch, Paul and Barnabas continued to minister as a team. For a while that team also included John Mark, but after he left to return to Jerusalem, we see evidence that Paul and Barnabas had other godly men who came alongside them in each city where they ministered. And if Paul and Barnabas needed to spend time with other disciples, just think how much we need to do that.
INSPIRATION
The kingdom of God is brought near to others
when we press on when problems press in
I think that sometimes, often with good reason, that we tend to think that bringing the kingdom of Jesus near to others, is more difficult than it has ever been. But the more I read about the problems that pressed in upon the early church, the more encouraged I am. The obstacles that they had to overcome were much greater than the ones we face. So if we’ll rely on the Holy Spirit, be confident in what we believe and spend time with each other, I’m convinced that it is possible to press on when problems press in.
ACTION
So I want to leave you this morning with three very concrete steps for you to consider.
1. Of course I’m going to encourage you to continue reading your Bible on a consistent basis since that practice plays such an important role in helping us to press on when problem press in. We’re a little over two months into the year now so hopefully you’ve been able to settle into a good rhythm there. If not, that’s OK, just find a plan that works for you and start that today.
2. If you’d like some help developing some confidence in your beliefs, the materials for our New Members class contain a whole section that goes into detail about our beliefs. That would be a great tool for you to use to help you understand some of the basics of our faith. If you would like a copy of that, let me know and we’ll get one to you.
3. Commit to spending more time with other disciples. That could take a lot of forms. For some of you it might mean making a commitment to participate in our corporate worship on a more regular basis. For some of you, it might mean joining one of our small groups or staying for our Bible Roundtable on Sundays at 11:00. For some that might mean entering into a personal mentoring relationship with another believer.
Finally, I want to just applaud many of you who are already doing a great job in these areas because I know God is working in your life to help you press on when problems press in. Just keep doing what you’re doing.
Together we can bring the kingdom of God near to others by pressing on when problems press in.
