80 Acts 14:21-25 PAUL & BARNABAS STRENGTHENING NEW CONVERTS Introduction: In our text today Paul and Barnabas retrace their steps to some of the cities where they had organized churches and strengthened the new converts which they had made in those places. I. The stay of Paul and Barnabas at Derbe In our previous text Luke mentioned that after Paul was stoned at Lystra they went to Derbe. Luke makes only one brief statement about their stay at Derbe. V. 21, “And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many...” But in that brief statement we learn quite a bit. We learn that they had great success in Derbe. They were able to preach the gospel to the city at large. We learn that many people believed the gospel as a result of their preaching. We know that many believed because the teaching process took place after they were converted. The people first became believers and then after they were saved they were taught. We learn that they were able to stay for a considerable time in Derbe. Converts may be won quickly, but the teaching process takes a considerable length of time. Furthermore we learn that they had no major trouble at Derbe. We can be sure that the Devil made some kind of trouble for them at Derbe because he always does resist the preaching of the gospel and the teaching of Bible truth. But there was no effort to run them out of the city. And there was no effort to stone them to death. There was no problem which prevented them from successfully winning souls to Christ and then staying long enough to teach those who had been won. It was a special blessing of God that they had the privilege of staying at Derbe long enough to teach and train the converts. They had not been given that privilege at Antioch, Iconium nor at Lystra. Yet they would have opportunity to return to those places and do the teaching and training of disciples there. But Derbe was the end of the line as far as this mission trip was condemned. They were not moving on to a new and different city from which they could return to Derbe and do the needed teaching. They needed to stay at Derbe longer than they had stayed at Antioch and Iconium. They needed to teach the people about what constitutes a New Testament church. They needed to teach the people about the Great Commission and about how a New Testament church is to function and to carry out that commission. . They needed to train leaders within the church to lead the church after they were gone. It was by the special providence and blessings of God that they were given that privilege of staying at Derbe long enough to do the needed teaching. But after winning many people to the Lord at Derbe and then teaching and training those new converts in the word of God and in the will of God, they left Derbe and started retracing their steps back to those young churches which they had gotten started and had not yet had the opportunity to teach and to ground those new Christians in the truths of God. They now needed to leave Derbe and to return to those cities where they had left young churches and teach and train those Christians in the will and way of the Lord Jesus Christ. II. Their return back to the cities of Lystra, Iconium and Antioch (V. 21), “...they returned again to Lystra...” Lystra was the city where Paul had been stoned. Luke said that Paul and Barnabas went right back to the city where Paul had been stoned. Can you imagine that? Would you have done so? Would have gone back there --- ever? I think it would have been very hard for me to ever go back to that place. I also think that it took the grace of God for Paul and Barnabas to go back there. They did not know but what they would both be stoned this time. What they did know was that the Christians there needed to be taught. They also knew that God had given them the responsibility of teaching them. So they went right on back to Lystra knowing that the people who had stoned Paul would soon be aware that he had returned, knowing that he might be stone again, knowing that this time he might be killed. They both might be killed So they went back to Lystra and this time they stayed long enough to teach and train the Christians in the church there. These were the people whom they had been unable to teach when they were there before. (V. 21), “...and [to] Iconium...” After teaching and training Christians in Lystra, Paul and Barnabas returned to the city of Iconium. Neither Paul nor Barnabas had been stoned in this city. But they had been forced to leave because the Jewish leaders there had plotted to kill them both. They had left, as we would say here in East Texas, “just ahead of the hounds.” It was still a very dangerous move for them to go back to Iconium. But I think they must have found it easier to go back to Iconium than they had in going to back to Lystra. God had provided protection for them when they went back to Lystra and this must have reassured them that He would protect them in Iconium. At any rate, even though there was danger in going there, there was still the need to go there to teach and train the new Christians who were there, and so they braved the danger and went. (V. 21), “...and Antioch.” Keep in mind that this was Antioch of Pisidia, not Antioch of Syria, from which they had been sent out as missionaries. This Antioch is the city where the Jewish leaders were located who had traveled all the way to Lystra to stir up trouble for Paul and Barnabas. They had not attempted to stone either Paul or Barnabas earlier when they were at Antioch, but they were the very men who caused Paul to be stoned at Lystra. So it was not easy for Paul and Barnabas them to decide to go back to Antioch where those bitter enemies were located. But the young church which they had organized there was untaught in the word of God. This meant that the young church was in danger of being led astray into doctrinal error if they did not go back and teach this church . So in spite of the danger to themselves, they went back to Antioch. V. 22, “Confirming the souls of the disciples, [and] exhorting them to continue in the faith...” This statement was intended to inform us what Paul and Barnabas did, not only in Antioch, but in all three cities, in the cities of Lystra, Iconium and at Antioch. Actually this is what they also did at Derbe before they left Derbe. Luke says that they “confirmed the souls” of the disciples. The word, confirm, means “To strengthen.” They confirmed them, not by performing some special religious ceremony, but by teaching and training them in the doctrinal faith. They taught them the things which Jesus had taught the twelve apostles during His personal ministry. They taught them the things which Jesus had taught the Apostle Paul when He caught Paul up to heaven for special schooling in the truths of God following Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus. In all these churches they taught the disciples about the work that God had assigned His churches to do in The Great Commission which Jesus had given to the Jerusalem church as recorded in Matthew 28:19-20. They taught the disciples that they were to be witnesses for Jesus as Jesus had instructed the church at Jerusalem in Acts 1:8. Let me point this out to you: Other than winning souls to Jesus, the most important thing that you can do is to teach and train those who are saved. They taught those disciples that doing the work of God was not going to be a gravy train. It was not going to be easy. Those disciples were going to be persecuted as they had seen Paul and Barnabas persecuted in their cities. They taught them that serving the Lord Jesus Christ was going to require them to make sacrifices. They might have to endanger their own lives. They most certainly would have to sacrifice and use time that they could spend in some pleasure for themselves in order to use that time for the Lord. (V. 22), “...and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” In effect they said, “We had to make sacrifices to come to you and bring the gospel to you and to teach and train you in the will of God. Now you are going to have to make sacrifices if you are going to render the service to the Lord that He would have you render to Him.” In addition to teaching and training, there was one other especially important work that Paul and Barnabas did in all those new churches. They ordained men to take positions of leadership in those churches so that the churches would have capable leaders after they were gone. V. 23, “And when they had ordained them elders in every church...” The word, elder, is a word which primarily referred to one who was older in years. It was common practice in that part of the world for most of the leaders to be men of age. If a younger man happened to occupy a position of leadership he was still called “an elder” even though he was in his youth. He was called an elder simply because he was a leader. In Scripture, the term “elder” is not used exclusively to speak of the office of pastor, although in Scripture it does often refer to that office. It was apparently sometimes used to refer to men who occupied the office of deacon. Both deacons and pastors were called elders because they both occupied positions of leadership. The deacon’s office was different than that of pastor, but they were all leaders and, therefore, all were called “elders.” Since those churches needed both pastors and deacons, it is to be understood here that Paul and Barnabas ordained both pastors and deacons. (V. 23), “...and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” Before leaving each church Paul and Barnabas spent time fasting and praying and urging the Christians there to be faithful to worship and serve God. In other words, they urged the people not to return to their old ways of life, but to be loyal and faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ. III. Their journey back to the church which had sent them out After teaching and training the disciples at Derbe and returning to the churches at Lystra, Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas returned to their sponsoring church, the church at Antioch of Syria. This was the church which had sent them out. They returned to give that church a report on the work that they had done on the mission field. V. 24, “And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.” Both Pisidia and Pamphylia were regions in a nation that we now call “Turkey.” These regions compared with what we would call “states” here in our nation. V. 25, “And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia:” Perga was the capital city of Pamphylia. They had traveled through this city earlier. They had been in Perga when John Mark left them and returned to Jerusalem. If they had preached there on their first visit to this city Luke says nothing about it. He does say that they preached there as they passed back through the city, but there is no mention of any converts and no indication of a church being established there. They quickly moved on through Perga and went on to Attalia. It appears that all they did at Attalia was to catch a boat. IV. Serving the Lord Jesus Back in verse 22 we read, (V. 22), “...and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” Paul and Barnabas did not mean that God requires one to suffer in order to get saved. Salvation is not gained by works of righteousness of any kind. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost,” Titus 3:5. In Ephesians 2:8-9 the Apostle Paul wrote, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” But after one gets saved it does cost him something to serve the Lord. He must be willing to give up his old sinful lifestyle. He must be willing to spend time in worshipping the Lord and in working for the Lord. He must be willing to suffer the reproaches of those who are enemies of the Lord. He must be willing to be persecuted for Jesus’ sake. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” II Tim. 3:12. Any Christian who is not willing to sacrifice and to suffer in order to serve the Lord is not going to amount to very much in the Lord’s service. Any Christian who is not willing to sacrifice of his time for the Lord is not going to amount to very much in the Lord’s service. But the person who is willing to sacrifice and to suffer for the Lord will be able to accomplish many worthwhile things in the service of the Lord and he will be able to help many individual people in the cause of Christ.