Introduction
Video Ill.: Mom vs. Dad Vacation Prep - Holderness Family
I can relate to some of those things!
You know, the weather outside tells us it is summer (though the first full day of Summer isn’t for another couple of weeks on June 22). Many of us have either already taken our vacation or we are planning our vacation for this summer.
The kids are out of school. The weather is great for traveling. We are ready to hit the road.
It’s time for our Summer Road Trip.
Well, this morning, we are going to hit the road as well for the next few weeks. We are beginning a series of sermons that I’m calling our Summer Road Trip. We will be looking at Paul’s missionary journeys as recorded in Acts, seeing some of the people he visited along the way, and learning some lessons from the events that happened on those journeys.
As we begin, this morning, rather than me reading two whole chapters from Acts, I would like to share with you a summary of Paul’s first journey, as recorded in Acts 13 and 14. Take a look.
Video Ill.: Paul’s First Journey - Graphe
Let’s look, this morning, at a few things from this first journey Paul took.
First thing to note is that the gospel will spark a reaction.
Sometimes that reaction is positive. Sometimes it is negative.
In one of the early stops, in Antioch of Pisida, there were Jews and Gentiles who believed what Paul taught the first Sabbath they were there. But quickly, there were also those who became jealous and wanted Paul dead.
From Acts 13, we read:
44 The following week almost the entire city turned out to hear them preach the word of the Lord. 45 But when some of the Jews saw the crowds, they were jealous; so they slandered Paul and argued against whatever he said.
46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and declared, “It was necessary that we first preach the word of God to you Jews. But since you have || rejected it and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we will offer it to the Gentiles. 47 For the Lord gave us this command when he said,
‘I have made you a light to the Gentiles,? to bring salvation to the farthest corners
of the earth.’”
48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were very glad and thanked the Lord for his message; and all who || were chosen for eternal life became believers. 49 So the Lord’s message spread throughout that region.
50 Then the Jews stirred up the influential religious women and the leaders of the city, and they incited a mob against Paul and Barnabas and ran them out of town. 51 So they shook the dust from their feet as a sign of rejection and went to the town of Iconium. 52 And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 13, NLT)
There were Jews who heard the gospel message from Paul and became believers. They became part of what was known as “The Way”.
There were Gentiles who also became believers.
The reception was so good that Paul and Barnabas were asked to stay until the next week and speak again in the synagogue on the Sabbath.
So Paul and Barnabas did. They stayed until the next week. They shared the gospel. They ministered to the people.
And the next Sabbath, they had such a turnout at synagogue that the Jews actually became jealous of Paul and Barnabas.
You can just imagine what they were thinking. All the years that the leaders in the synagogue had served there, they had never had such a turnout for the Sabbath. What was it that drew people to Paul and Barnabas?
And so, these Jews couldn’t see the good work that was happening. Instead, their pride got in the way.
The Value of Pride
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2008/september/1092208.html
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The story is told of a minister who took a 45-minute drive in an old, beat-up van with a guy he barely knew. Along the way they ended up talking about Jesus and whether this man would give his life to Christ. His response to the minister laid out humanity's resistance to the gospel with striking clarity.
He said, "My biggest problem is pride. I can't humble myself. And you wanna know the reason I can't give up my pride?" He leaned up onto the steering wheel and paused for effect. "Because it's brought me so far."
The minister couldn't believe his ears. He knew that his pride had brought nothing but great pain. It was all he held onto while growing up in gangs—while his father died of a drug overdose and his mother was in the mafia. The minister knew that this self-made man beat his wife regularly, that he was unemployed, that he had just gotten out of prison. In fact, he found out a week later that this man was on his way back into prison!
In a separate conversation, his wife told the minister that the man’s young daughters are terrified of him, that he is an alcoholic, and that she is planning to leave him. She even told him that the old van the man was driving was going to be repossessed in a week.
Yet despite all their differences, the minister couldn't help but notice that in some ways, this guy and he were similar. Both struggle to lay down their pride, because it's brought them so far—or so they think. What it's really brought both of them — and you and I today, no doubt — is pain, isolation, and ruined relationships.
Pride kept these Jews from hearing the good news that God did still love them — that God had sent His Son to bring an end to the sacrifices and once and for all bring about forgiveness of our sins.
So instead of fostering the gospel, the Jews stirred up a mob to run Paul and Barnabas out of town.
The truth of the story, though, is that the reaction to the gospel will always be mixed. Jesus told us that in Matthew 13 when He told us the parable of the farmer scattering seeds.
Remember how that parable went?
Some seed scattered by the farmer fell on the path, and was eaten by the birds.
Some seed fell in shallow ground, and though the seeds sprouted quickly, they died quickly under the hot sun because they didn’t have deep roots.
Some fell among thorns, and were choked out.
But other seed feel in good, fertile soil. It grew, and produced a crop 30 fold, 60 fold, and even 100 fold.
Then Jesus gave us this explanation:
19 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. 20 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 21 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 22 The seed || that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. 23 The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
(Matthew 13, NLT)
This morning, as we go about our lives, sharing the gospel, we too will have some of the same reactions as Jesus explained, and that Paul and Barnabas experienced. And like Paul, we should not be discouraged, but we should press on, not giving up, continuing to share the message of good news to all who will listen because even if one life is changed, it is worth it all.
2. We also see that Satan will always be working to try to disrupt the spreading of the gospel.
In Paphos, Paul and Barnabas were spreading the good news and encountered a sorcerer.
In Acts 13, we read:
6 ... [T]hey reached Paphos, where they met a Jewish sorcerer, a false prophet named Bar-Jesus. 7 He had attached himself to the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor invited Barnabas and Saul to visit him, for he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas, {El - uh - mus} the sorcerer (as his name means in Greek), interfered and urged the governor to pay no attention to what Barnabas and || Saul said. He was trying to keep the governor from believing.
9 Saul, also known as Paul, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he looked the sorcerer in the eye. 10 Then he said, “You son of the devil, full of every sort of deceit and fraud, and enemy of all that is good! Will you never stop perverting the true ways of the Lord? 11 Watch now, for the Lord has laid his hand of || punishment upon you, and you will be struck blind. You will not see the sunlight for some time.” Instantly mist and darkness came over the man’s eyes, and he began groping around begging for someone to take his hand and lead him.
12 When the governor saw what had happened, he became a believer, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord. (Acts 13, NLT)
This isn’t the first time that Satan tried to thwart God’s plans. Satan wants nothing more than to keep as many people as possible from following God and making it to the promised land. After all, Scripture teaches us that Satan is a lion, roaming around just looking for anyone he can devour! (1 Peter 5:8)
It started in the Garden of Eden, where he found just a little bit of success, bringing death into the world for the first time.
Satan tried in Egypt, with God’s people being enslaved. If it were not for God’s intervention, Moses would have never lived to be God’s deliverer for His people.
Satan tried when Jesus was born. If the wisemen had not been warned in a dream to go home a different way, Herod would have known exactly where Jesus was, and Jesus would have been killed.
Satan tried again by having all of the babies under two years old in Bethlehem killed, but God intervened again, sending Mary, Joseph and Jesus to Egypt.
Satan tried in his tempting of Jesus to get Jesus to mess up, and no longer be the perfect Son of God. But he failed.
The old devil thought he had successfully stopped God’s plans when he used Judas to betray Jesus. But Satan found out on Resurrection Morning that he had lost again.
Despite his best attempts in Paphos, the governor became a believer in Jesus anyway, not because of the miracle Paul did, but because of the teachings about Jesus. Yet again, Satan’s attempts backfired.
While that will not always be the case, and sometimes Satan will be successful, we can be guaranteed that we will also find opposition to sharing the gospel. It will happen. Things will try to prevent us from sharing God’s love. Satan does not want us to be about God’s business.
But just like Paul, we need to not fear the devil, for the one we are serving is stronger and more powerful. We just need courage and boldness from God, like Paul, to stand up for what is right, for the One who is right!
We must keep telling, we must keep sharing, we must keep serving. And who knows, it might just happen for us as it happened for Paul in this case — those whom we are trying to reach will believe in spite of the attacks of Satan.
3. Finally, we must be careful of pride.
When Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra, they healed a crippled man. Immediately the people wanted to lift up Paul and Barnabas, wanting to worship them as gods in human form — Zeus and Hermes.
But Paul and Barnabas were not there to be worshipped. Their hearts were in the right place. Their minds were clear about their mission, and so Paul immediately tried to put an end to this distraction from the gospel message, saying to them in Acts 14:
15 “Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings—just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. 16 In the past he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, 17 but he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness. For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.” (Acts 14, NLT)
In the church, sometimes, it’s easy to allow ourselves to become filled with pride based on what we have accomplished.
We can easily begin to think about everything we have done. Look at me. Look at what I have accomplished. Look at all I have done.
It can be easy to allow others to build us up and put us on pedestals.
But we must be careful of such temptations.
We need to have an honest view of ourselves — remember that we are here to serve God. What we do is not because of who we are, but because of who God is.
But these days, we need to be even more cautious — because humility has become our pride.
Humility’ Is Really Our New Pride
Source: David Brooks, “Truly Humbled to Be the Author of This Article,” The Atlantic (7-3-22)
https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2022/december/humility-is-really-our-new-pride.html
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Columnist David Brooks mocks what passes for humility these days. He points to a tweet from the president of the European Central Bank: “I was humbled to be awarded an honorary degree by the London School of Economics earlier this week. Thank you so much for this prestigious honor!” Brooks notes the three rules of this fake humility:
Never tweet about any event that could actually lead to humility. Never tweet: “I’m humbled that I went to a party, and nobody noticed me.” Never tweet: “I’m humbled that I got fired for incompetence.”
Use the word humbled when the word proud would be more accurate. For example: “Truly humbled to be keynote speaker at TedX East Hampton.” The key to humility display is to use self-effacement as a tool to maximize your self-promotion.
Never use a pronoun. Start your tweets with “Humbled to be …” or “Honored to be …” This sends the message that you have only a few seconds to dash off this tweet, because you’re so busy and important.
We used to dance around our “humblebragging”, but now Brooks says “our [so-called] humility is explicit, assertive, direct, and unafraid. We blaze forth so much humility that it’s practically blinding. Humility is the new pride.”
We have to make sure we do not act like that either.
We must truly remember to give God the glory for all that happens, for the souls that are saved, for the accomplishments that God worked through us.
And that is exactly what Paul did. And that’s what we must do as well.
Conclusion
This morning, Paul and Barnabas experienced a lot of things on their first missionary journey, some bad, but also some very good.
The gospel message certainly did spark a reaction — The Lord’s message spread throughout the region (Acts 13:49). The crippled were healed (14:10). People were turning to God. Believers were encouraged (14:22). Most importantly for us today, the message of the gospel had now been preached to the Gentiles (14:27).
When it was all over, they returned to the congregation in Antioch from where they had been sent out to share the stories of their journey — the good and the bad.
This morning, we too, have been commissioned to spread the good news around the world — from our neighbors, to our community, to our state, to our country, and to the rest of the world.
And God has handpicked us for the exact audiences to whom we have the opportunity to share His love and grace. As we learned from the story of Esther, nothing happens by coincidence. God is working and placing us where we can serve Him best.
To whom could God be calling us today to share the message of salvation?
I pray this morning that we are open and ready to share what God has done for us through the sacrifice of Jesus for us, and just how much God has loved us.
But we first have to experience God in our own lives before we are in a position to share His love. So this morning, if you’ve never given your life to Him, we offer you the opportunity to surrender to Him, repent of and confess your sins today, be washed clean in the watery grave of baptism, and rise to walk a new life — a life of telling the world about Jesus and His love for us.
