Every Christian is a missionary – either a local or trans-local missionary. We don’t get to choose whether we are going to be missionaries – just if we are going to be good or bad missionaries. Check out the message on what makes a great missionary!
Teaching Notes:
The Making of a Missionary – Pt. 2
Acts 14:1-28
This morning we pick up in the middle of the story of Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey. We have been studying this story with interest because it teaches us what makes a missionary. In a very real sense, every Christian is a missionary. The word “missionary” is not found in our Bible, but the reality is that every Christian has been given the Great Commission, and sent on a mission by Jesus Christ. That mission is to make disciples of all the nations. That mission was not given only to 11 men, but to the entire church of Jesus Christ. We know that because Jesus said, “And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” If the Great Commission was only given to the 11 apostles, there would be no need for Jesus to tell us that He would be with us as we performed this mission to the end of the age. No, this mission has been given to His Church. Therefore, we at The Bridge in 2012 have been given a mission, and thus are missionaries. Some missionaries travel to another country and engage in this mission cross-culturally and with a different language. Some missionaries engage in the mission locally in their own language. But all of us are doing the same thing. What is it? Making disciples. Notice 14:21 “And after they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples…” That was their goal in every city. Now, since our goal is the same as theirs, let’s see if the Holy Spirit will teach us what makes a good missionary.
In our last study, we noticed 4 marks of a missionary: He is propelled, powerful, preaches, and is persecuted. In our study today we will add 5 more: He is passionate, persistent, perceptive, and he plans, and presents.
1. He Is Passionate: 14:1.
How did the apostles speak? 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!
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 bold, 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. He Is Persistent: 14:2-7
Why did the Apostles Remain in Iconium after the Gentiles were embittered against them? 14:3. “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.
What attended their preaching? 14:3. Signs and wonders. This is exactly what we read in Mk.16:20 “The Lord confirmed the word by the signs that followed.” Who did these signs? “Their hands.” It was both Paul and Barnabas. These miracles were confirmation that the message of grace they brought was indeed God’s true message.
Who are the apostles in 14:4? 14:4 says that both Barnabas and Saul were apostles. But wait a minute? I thought there were only 12 apostles and Paul, and that was it! The word “apostle” simply means “sent one.” The number of apostles will vary depending on who is the one who sent them. Apostles sent by the Father? 1 – Jesus Christ (Heb.3:1). Apostles sent by Jesus Christ? 13 – the 12 & Paul. Apostles sent by the Spirit? We don’t know. There is a difference between apostles of Christ and apostles of the Spirit. The apostles of Christ had great authority to establish and regulate the church, as well write Scripture. The apostles of the Spirit were sent on a mission as well, but evidently didn’t carry the same authority as Paul and the 12. Who were the apostles of the Spirit? Well, Barnabas, Andronicus and Junias (Rom.16:7), James the Lord’s brother (James 1:19), Silas and Timothy (1Thess.1:1; 2:6). We are also told that there were false apostles disguising themselves as apostles of Christ (2Cor.11:13). But think about it. If the number of the apostles was fixed at 13, it would be impossible for anyone to disguise themselves as an apostle of Christ. They would automatically be eliminated! So is the Holy Spirit sending out apostles today? Yes and No. No, we do not have apostles with a Capital A as in Paul and the 12. Yes, in that the Spirit is still sending out apostles with a small “a”. These men carry out the mission of evangelizing, planting churches, and providing oversight to the young churches, but do not carry the authority of a Peter or Paul. Today, we would probably call them “church planters” or “missionaries” instead of “apostles.”
Why did the Apostles finally leave Iconium? 14:5-7. They hung in there, teaching and preaching and nurturing the new believers as long as possible. But they eventually caught wind of a plot to stone them. It was at that point that they decided to flee. 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 the apostles were driven out by the Jews in Antioch, they fled in Iconium. Now Jews from both those cities 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. Usually the victim would be tied to a post or buried to the waist in sand with a hood over his head so he had no idea where the stones were coming from. 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). He will also write in 2Cor.12:1-3 that he was caught up into heaven, but he didn’t know if he was in the body or out of the body. He’s probably referring to this stoning. 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: The apostles were tenaciously persistent in their preaching of the gospel in spite of heavy persecution. 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 actually 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. He Is Perceptive: 14:8-18.
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.
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 andd 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 oxe 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! We are just men like you! Since these were pagans they didn’t start with OT Scripture and the history of Israel like they did in Antioch. Instead they spoke of God’s creation, and His goodness to all men in giving them food and gladness.
Summary: I wonder how spiritually perceptive we are to the promptings of the Spirit. Is God able to get our attention and direct us, or are we just too thick-headed and set in our ways for Him to get through to us? We need to be sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit!
4. He Plans: 14:21-23.
Why did they return they way they had come? It would have been much easier to just return by land to Antioch. They were only about 100 miles from home! They could be home in 4 or 5 days. Instead they chose to take a much further route which would take weeks to get home. Further, the route they chose was very dangerous. They were headed straight back into the cities filled with people hostile to them and who wanted to kill them! They went back, because they were following carefully devised Plans they had made. These plans included making sure that the disciples went on to spiritual maturity. So how would they accomplish this?
1) Personal Exhortation: 14:22. These disciples needed to be strengthened and encouraged. How did they do it? By exhorting them to continue in the faith. They were honest and told them that the only way they would enter the kingdom was through many tribulations. Of course the disciples knew this just by observing the apostles! They must have told them things like, “I am convinced that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom.8:18)! This is the same kind of exhorting ministry that Barnabas exercised in Antioch (Acts 11:23).
2) Appointing Elders: 14:23. The apostles needed to make sure that there were leaders who would care for the souls of the disciples. Their way of organizing the churches was to appoint elders. Notice that elders were not appointed immediately on their first visit. They were appointed later on a return visit. These elders could not have been more than 6 to 12 months old in the Lord! However, they may have served their whole life as faithful Jews steeped in OT Scripture.
Who did the appointing? Paul and Barnabas, the apostles. The church didn’t appoint them. Who should appoint new elders in churches today? The established elders of the church. They should take the lead in recognizing, confirming, and appointing new elders. Of course, they should not do this without asking the church for their input, but ultimately the leaders are responsible to train, and appoint more leaders.
What is an Elder? There are 3 terms in the NT that all refer to the same person: Elder, Overseer, Pastor (Tit.1:5,7; Acts 20:28; 1Pet.5:1-4). Elder refers to his spiritual maturity. Overseer refers to his duty to manage the affairs of the church. Pastor refers to his duty to feed and care for the sheep. It is similar to calling a believer a Brother, Disciple or Saint. These are all terms that refer to the same person.
How many were appointed in every church? Elders is plural. In other words we know that there were at least 2 in every church. Why would the apostles do this? Wasn’t 1 elder enough? In many churches today there is only 1 Pastor, with a team of deacons that assist him. The problems with this are many. No one man has all the gifts necessary to take a church to spiritual maturity. Also, a man who leads on his own, is prone to lead his church into imbalance, and perhaps into danger since he has no one he must submit to and be accountable to. The apostles set up this kind of church government for the health and safety of the sheep.
How did they decide who to appoint? They prayed and fasted. No doubt they also talked to the disciples and asked them who was caring for the brothers. They would also have watched the church as it gathered to see who was doing the ministry. They would also need to get to know these men because a life of godly character and self-control was necessary. They would find out which men were pastoring their wives and children. Then they would go to the Lord in prayer and fasting and ask Him to confirm which men should be elders.
What did the apostles do before leaving? They commended the elders and disciples to the Lord. They “entrusted” them to the Lord. This might have been a bit scary for the apostles. These were brand new believers with brand new elders in a hostile environment. Most of the believers were illiterate. They had no NT. Communication was difficult. If they had problems or questions they couldn’t e-mail or text Paul. They had to seek the Lord and figure it out on their own. But the apostles had great trust in the Lord that He who began a good work would perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
Summary: We need to plan for the spiritual maturity of our disciples. We need to bring them into the church so that they have the support of the other brothers and sisters. We need to bring them into DNA groups, and our Bridge group. We need to bring them along when we are involved in making disciples. We need to train them to trust Jesus, go to His word daily, spend time with Him in prayer, overcome sin, and worship Him. We need to have leaders who see it as their duty and joy to care for these new disciples. That’s exactly what we plan to do here at The Bridge.
5. He Presents: 14:24-28
Where did the apostles return to? Antioch, the very place they set out from.
What did they do in Antioch? They gathered the church together and reported all things that God had done with them, and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Notice that they didn’t report all the great things they had done for the Lord. They reported the things God had done with them; how He opened a door of faith. That must have been a joyous gathering! The apostles had been gone between 1 and 2 years.
How long did they stay in Antioch? A long time. Most commentators believe it was between one and two years.
Summary: The principle is that those who are sent should report back to their sending church. That way the sending church can know how to support and pray for them. That’s why missionaries will often come back to their sending church while they are on furlough and report what God has been doing through their ministry. When we grow to where we are able to start a 2nd Bridge Group, we should maintain good communication between the leaders of the groups, so that we can support and help one another in the work. Should the Lord grant us grace to plant sister churches in the future, we should work towards unity, cooperation, and communication.
Conclusion: So these are the great qualities that make a missionary: He is propelled, powerful, preaches, is persecuted, is passionate, persistent and perceptive, he plans and presents. Which of those characteristics are you lacking in? Let’s go to the Lord of the Harvest and ask Him to build them into our lives for the spread of His fame!
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