Paul and Barnabas were disciple-makers extraordinaire! In this message we notice their Passion, Persistence, Humility, and Love as they set about making disciples. May we follow in their footsteps.
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4 Marks Of An Effective Disciple Maker
Acts 14
In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas are in the middle of their first missionary journey. We have already seen what the Lord did through them on the island of Crete, and then in Psidian Antioch. Today, we are going to see what the Lord did through them as they ministered in the towns in the region of Asia Minor – Iconium, Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe.
In Acts 14:21 we read “After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples…” They made MANY disciples! Paul and Barnabas were disciple-makers extraordinaire. Before they went to Asia Minor, there were zero Christians there. When they completed their first missionary journey there were disciples and churches in Crete, Antioch, Lystra, and Iconium. I want to focus on this aspect of their work with you today.
Folks, we too are called by God to make disciples. It’s not just Paul and Barnabas, or just the apostles. In the Great Commission, Jesus commanded the entire church to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them everything He had commanded. How do we know this was not just for the 11 apostles? Because He concludes by saying, “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” If this command was only for the 11 apostles, there would be no reason to tell them that He would be with them to the end of the age. At most, He would only need to be with them to the end of the first century.
So, we need to welcome this Great Commission, and embrace the part that God would have us play in it. Are you involved in disciple making? What are you doing in this regard? You say, “Brian, what do you mean? What is disciple making?” Well, Jesus said it includes “going, baptizing, and teaching.” First you must be intentional. You need to actually go. That is, you need to set out to do it. Secondly, you lead a person to Christ and baptize them. Third, you don’t walk away at that point, but continue to teach them to observe everything Jesus had commanded.
So, how are you being involved in disciple making? If you are a Christian, this is your command and your responsibility. You can’t shrug it off by saying that you are too young in the Lord, or not knowledgeable enough, or not mature enough in the Lord. I have known believers who have been saved 20 or 30 years make those excuses. If you truly know Jesus, then this command is for you. It’s not enough to be in a bible study where someone is pouring into you. You need to pour yourself into others.
So, with that as a Biblical foundation for disciple making, let’s go to Acts 14 and see what made Paul and Barnabas so effective at making disciples. I’m going to show you 5 marks we find in their lives that made them so effective: passion, boldness, humility, persistence, and love.
1. Passion
How did the apostles speak? Acts 14:1, “In Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks.” Now this verse is very interesting! This text links the way we speak to the effects produced! Sometimes, because we believe in the absolute sovereignty of God, we can get the idea that God is going to do what He’s going to do, and our actions don’t matter at all. Now, it is true that God ordains the end. He has ordained who will be saved, and He has done so from the foundation of the world. But He has also ordained the means to that end. One of the means He has ordained to accomplish His purposes is passionate preaching! In other words, we learn from this text that there is a manner of speaking that is more calculated to produce results than another. If we speak as if we don’t believe what we are saying, or have not been impacted by the truths we are sharing, we shouldn’t be surprised if no one pays any attention to us. If we want our preaching and witnessing to transform others, it must have already transformed us. The gospel must be communicated not only in words, but in passion!
J.C. Ryle writes of George Whitefield, the great evangelist of the 1700’s: “A leading characteristic of Whitefield’s preaching was his tremendous earnestness. One poor uneducated man said of him, that “he preached like a lion”. He succeeded in showing people that he at least believed all he was saying, and that his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, were bent on making them believe it too. His sermons were not like the morning and evening gun at Portsmouth, a kind of formal discharge, fired off as a matter of course, that disturbs nobody. They were all life and fire. There was no getting away from them. Sleep was next to impossible. You must listen whether you liked it or not. There was a holy violence about him which firmly took your attention by storm. You were fairly carried off your legs by his energy before you had time to consider what you would do. This, we may be sure, was one secret of his success. We must convince men that we are in earnest ourselves, if we want to be believed. The difference between one preacher and another, is often not so much in the things said, as in the manner in which they are said.
It is recorded by one of his biographers that an American gentleman once went to hear him, for the first time, in consequence of the report he heard of his preaching powers. The day was rainy, the congregation comparatively thin, and the beginning of the sermon rather heavy. Our American friend began to say to himself, “This man is no great wonder after all”. He looked round, and saw the congregation as little interested as himself. One old man, in front of the pulpit, had fallen asleep. But all at once Whitefield stopped short. His countenance changed. And then he suddenly broke forth in an altered tone: “If I had come to speak to you in my own name, you might well rest your elbows on your knees, and your heads on your hands, and sleep; and once in a while look up, and say, What is this babbler talking of? But I have not come to you in my own name. No! I have come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts” (here he brought down his hand and foot with a force that made the building ring) “and I must and will be heard”. The congregation started. The old man woke up at once. “Ay, ay!” cried Whitefield, fixing his eyes on him, “I have waked you up, have I? I meant to do it. I am not come here to preach to stocks and stones: I have come to you in the name of the Lord God of Hosts, and I must, and will, have an audience.” The hearers were stripped of their apathy at once. Every word of the sermon after this was heard with deep attention, and the American gentleman never forgot it.
Summary: In our witnessing we must be earnest, passionate, and sincere. We need to be convinced of the truths we are presenting and present them as if the person’s very life depends on it, because his eternal destiny does!
2. Persistence
How did the apostles respond to persecution in Iconium? 14:2-3, “But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands.” Why did the apostles remain in Iconium after the gentiles were embittered against them? “Therefore” – it was because of this embittering that they stayed. Now, that doesn’t make sense. We would have thought it would say, “In spite of that, they remained.” But instead, it says, “Therefore they spent a long time there.” What is the connection? Remember that 14:1 tells us that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. If the apostles had hightailed it out of town at the first sign of opposition, they would risk allowing these unbelieving Jews to poison the minds of their converts. They needed to stay because of the persecution. They needed to ground these new converts in the truth so that they could not be moved by the ungodly poisoned minds of unbelievers.
In spite of the opposition against them, the apostles stayed. Later in verses 4-7, the opposition got so intense that there was an actual attempt to stone them to death. At that point they fled. But they persisted in ministering to these saints until it looked like their lives were in danger. Now at this point you might think they would decide to hang up their hats and go home until the persecution cools off a little bit. Instead, they continued to preach the gospel! You just couldn’t stop these guys.
How did the apostles respond to persecution in Lystra? 14:19-21a. Remember that when the apostles were driven out by the Jews from Antioch, they fled to Iconium. When the persecution in Iconium got too intense, they fled to other towns and villages. Now Jews from both Antioch and Iconium team up and come all the way to Lystra (over 100 miles away) to put an end to their preaching. What was their strategy? They won over the crowds. They got their dirty work done through others without dirtying their own hands! (13:50; 14:2; 14:19). In Iconium they got wind of the plot to stone them and fled. Well, they aren’t so fortunate this time. Why was Paul stoned and not Barnabas? Probably, because Paul was the main preacher and leader of the team, so they targeted him.
Stoning was a gruesome, horrible thing. After they had unleashed their fury on Paul until he appeared as though he were dead, they dragged his body out of town onto some garbage heap to rot. “But while the disciples stood around him.” Paul and Barnabas had made disciples in Lystra. They must have gathered first to mourn, but as they saw signs of life, they probably prayed for his healing. Paul’s body must have been gashed, lacerated, caked in blood and dirt, with welts all over his body and head. Later he will write to the Galatians that he bears in his body the brand-marks of Jesus (Gal.6:17).
So what does he do now? He gets up and goes back into the city! The very place in which he was stoned and left for dead! Then the next day he heads out on a 58 mile trip to Derbe and continues preaching the gospel there! How in the world is he able to start out on a 58 mile hike after being stoned the day before? Dr. Jowett: “I once saw the track of a bleeding hare across the snow. That was Paul’s track across Europe.”
Summary: Paul’s dogged determination and persistence in spite of intense trials is amazing! If things got so hot that their lives were in jeopardy, they would just go to a different town and preach there. I love their undaunted persistence! They were absolutely unstoppable! You drive them out of town, they just go to the next town and preach. You come up with a plan to assassinate them, they flee and continue preaching. You do stone him, and he gets up, comes back into the city, and then walks 58 miles to the next town and continues preaching! We are so quick to give up at the first sign of opposition. We have so much to learn from Paul and Barnabas! Let’s resolve that by the grace of God we will continue to spread the gospel until Jesus returns!
3. Humility
14:8-10. In Lystra, there was a man listening to Paul’s preaching who was lame and had never walked, but Paul perceived that he had faith to be made well. How did Paul see that this cripple had faith to be made well? You can’t see faith. “Fixed his gaze” tips us off that God is speaking to Paul. Somehow God gave Paul the ability to see what was happening in the invisible, spiritual realm. This is probably a word of knowledge. Not only that, but Paul probably exercises the gift of faith and the gift of healing. It would take great faith to command a man who had never walked to stand upright on his feet! But God provided a miraculous healing.
14:11-13. How did the Pagan crowds respond to this miracle? They thought Paul and Barnabas were 2 Greek gods who appeared as men, Zeus and Hermes, and they wanted to worship them, by offering sacrifices! Why would they do this? About 50 years before this, the Latin poet Ovid had narrated an ancient local legend. The supreme god Zeus and his son Hermes once visited the hill country of Phrygia, disguised as mortal men. They sought hospitality but were rebuffed a thousand times. At last an elderly peasant couple, Philemon and Baucis offered them lodging in their tiny cottage, thatched with reeds and straw from the marsh. Later the gods destroyed the rest of the village with a flood, but rewarded this couple. The people of Lystra must have known this legend and were anxious not to suffer the same fate as the earlier generation if they were ever visited again.
How did the Apostles respond? At first they didn’t understand, because everyone was speaking in a language they didn’t understand, but when they saw the priest lugging an ox toward them and then trying to put a garland around their heads it finally clicked. They reacted in horror. They tore their robes and rushed into the crowd to stop this act of idolatry. How different was their reaction than Herod’s in Acts 12! Herod accepted the worship and was eaten by worms. Paul and Barnabas reacted in horror, and God continued to use them.
Summary: This was a very dangerous moment for the apostles. The people thought that they were gods. How tempting it would have been to let them think that? Hey, perhaps it would have meant they got their own palace and temple and harem. They might have justified it by saying, “Why don’t we let them think that we are gods. Maybe if they think that highly of us, it will help us when we tell them about Jesus.” When God begins to use a man in a powerful way, there is the danger of accepting the glory and the credit that only belongs to God. If he does, he’s through! God will not share His glory with another. He will put him on the shelf. Even if his ministry continues, God will not bless it.
God is not interested in using Christian super stars who will bask in the glory that is rightfully His. That’s why God delights in using a Moses, who felt he was not qualified to be able to speak to the Pharoah. Or a Gideon who was from the least family in the tribe of Manasseh, and he was the youngest in his father’s house. Or a David, who was the youngest of 8 sons. It is common in our senior year of high school for a committee to name someone as “Most Likely To Succeed.” Well, God loves to use those who are least likely to succeed! In fact in 1 Cor. 1:26-31 Paul says that God chooses the foolish, weak, base, and despised so that no one may boast before God. God hates our boasting. Let’s learn a very valuable lesson from Paul and Barnabas – never receive the glory that should go to God!
4. Love
Acts 14:21-23. We could call this mark “Follow Up”, for that is what we find the apostles doing here. They returned to towns where they had already made disciples and they continued to build into their lives. In fact, they did four things for them.
1) Strengthen. The word means that they made the solid. They gave their souls a solid foundation. They taught them the Word, so that they would have something rock solid to base their lives upon.
2) Encourage. This is the same Greek word translated as “exhort.” They not only taught them, but they urged them to a course of action. They challenged them to put the Word into practice in their lives.
3) Leadership. Verse 23 says that they appointed elders for them in very church. In other words, they provided leadership to care for them after they had gone. They loved them enough to make sure they had pastors to care for their souls and continue to teach them the Word.
4) Commend. They brought them to the Lord in prayer and committed them into His capable hands. They asked the Lord to watch over them, keep them, and bring them safely into His heavenly kingdom. They entrusted them into the Lord’s hands.
Summary: Folks, this is what we must do for any disciple we are working with. We need to teach them (especially to observe Jesus’ commands), exhort them, make sure they have godly leadership to care for them in a local church, and pray for them.
Conclusion
I want to encourage you this morning to put these principles into action. In order to help you do that I have prepared a handout. Let’s take a few minutes together to think through how we can be more effective at making disciples.
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