The sermon 'Faithful Gospel Ministry' by Trent Moody, based on Acts 14:21-28, emphasizes the role of perseverance and the local church in gospel ministry. The speaker recounts Paul and Barnabas's missionary efforts, focusing on their return to cities where they faced persecution to strengthen disciples and appoint elders. Moody stresses the importance of the local church's role in commissioning missionaries, underscoring that gospel work is not a solitary task but supported by the church's authority. The sermon also highlights the necessity of enduring tribulations as part of Christian life, drawing parallels between historical and contemporary challenges faced by believers. The speaker reflects on his personal growth and understanding of missions, emphasizing the need for a structured church order and the appointment of elder-qualified leaders to guide congregations. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to find contentment in their roles within the church, whether they are called to go on missions or serve locally.

So Acts chapter 14 and beginning with verse 21 and read down through verses 28. I hear pages turning, that's good. Acts 14, 21. And thus says the word of the Lord, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

And after they had passed through Bessidia, they came to Pamphylia. Now when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Adelaia. From there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. Now when they had come and gathered the church together they reported all that God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. So they stayed there a long time with the disciples.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you yet again, Lord. You, Lord, you pour out your blessings abundantly upon your people. Lord, you have given us the word of God today and Lord not only have you fed our souls but you've fed our bodies and now our souls yet again with your word the living word of God and I pray Lord that this would be a grand encouragement Lord for your people that we would continue faithfully in the gospel ministry. Lord we thank you for bringing us from darkness to light Lord that you have given us eyes to see.

Lord you have given us the greatest motivation ever. The love of Christ has filled our hearts and minds. And Lord I pray that you would do your work today as only you can and we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, Faithful gospel ministry.

That's what I've entitled this section of Scripture really an encouraging section as we finish up Acts 14 and can you know keeping in mind what what we talked about last time was the difficulties and the trials and the tribulations that Paul and Barnabas faced, the links to which that they were willing to travel and to go. I think this has been on some people's minds, especially those who participated in the long walk. I think they were discussing Paul walking so far after being stoned and left for dead, yet he continued on. He had something that pushed him, something that drove him to continue in faithful gospel ministry. And it was more than what was just in his flesh, but it was something greater.

He was compelled by the love of Christ. He says this himself. And it was something about this desire to see Christ glorified. Remember we spoke about that last time. It was this great desire to worship God, but in worshipping Him, glorifying Him.

He knew and understood that Jesus Christ was worthy to be praised, not only by himself but also everyone that he could preach the gospel to. He desired for more worshipers. So these last two chapters in the book of Acts 13 and 14 have been one of the most instructive for me in the last, I'd say, five or six years in my life, in my Christian walk. And it began back in 2019, some of you were there, it was before I was here, in 2019. And I went to a G3 conference that some young men had asked me to tag along with them and I did and brother Paul Washer preached a message at G3 that year regarding the definition he was defining what it was to be a missionary because he believed that so many had the wrong concept almost like they had created a new category of officer or new category of a person to take the gospel.

It was really eye opening for me and understanding the work of missions and missionaries. And this was part of what brought him to this conclusion and also what has helped me as I've studied the Book of Acts and have been doing this series through the book. And so I've read the book of Acts numerous times before this happened, but it seemed like it had, my eyes did not see the things that were here clearly before me. And as we hold to the word of God and understanding that the word of God is our sole authority. We want to conform our lives to the word of God.

We want to do only what God prescribes for us to do. And before this, I saw the Apostle Paul as simply an apostle going about doing his thing. That he did have a calling of God and he was doing the work of the ministry, but in a sense he was on his own. He was somewhat of a loner, except for Barnabas and later Silas and then Timothy, but he was kind of doing his own thing and he was a man not really under the authority of a local church, but doing the work of God as he felt called by God to do it. However, what Paul Washer brought out and what ultimately the Scriptures, not just Paul Washer, but the Scriptures speak to us regarding these missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul was not only was he called by the Holy Spirit of God, but he was sent and commissioned by the local church at Antioch.

And I want to mention this previously, early on, I know it's been a long series just due to the space in between preaching times, but it's one of those things that I believe will help us to understand the order that God has brought to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He really does not have people out there all on their own doing their own thing. He has actually created an institution and it's called the local church and it's a beautiful thing that God has done and is doing. Jesus Christ gave his life for the church and that that expresses itself in local congregations throughout the world. If you'll remember in Acts chapter 13 and verse 3, the church there at Antioch, it says this, then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away.

And again in chapter 15, we're going to see this later, so being sent on their way by the church. Again in chapter 15 verses 40 and 41, but Paul chose Silas and departed being commended by their brethren to the grace of God, and he went through Syria and Cilicia strengthening the churches. Then at the end of his second missionary journey in chapter 18 and verse 22, and when he had landed in Caesarea and gone up and greeted the church, he went down where? He went to Antioch. And this was the Antioch of the church that sent him out.

This was his, if you would, this was his local church, the church that was sending him to do these great missionary journeys, obviously called by God. I think what's important to understand though, in Acts chapter 13 we see that the Holy Spirit said to the Apostles and prophets, now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." And they didn't just send them instantly like that. We have verse 3, then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them out. And so it was a, if you will, a cooperation of the calling of the Holy Spirit and the commissioning and sending and praying for of the local church there at Antioch, and they sent out Paul and Barnabas to this work. Now this work that we see and we're going to see in this text is kind of interesting here because it says that this work in verse 26, it says the work which they had completed.

Now when you read that we understand the gospel work and taking the gospel and planting churches is not complete. So what does that mean? We're going to look at that. It was a specific call for a specific work that God had called him to with Barnabas, but that was not the only work that Paul and Barnabas and Silas and we are called to do. We're actually called to a great work that God has laid before us.

And so after this, after Acts chapter 18, he went back down to the church at Antioch and they sent him on his way. So what I want to do is I want us to see the orderliness of Paul's missionary journeys. Again remembering what I titled this, faithful gospel ministry. There have been times I'm sure that you've seen them or perhaps met them when there's men standing in the street and they're preaching. We call them street preachers.

They're preaching the gospel, thank God. But I have communicated with different ones at different times, not all of them, I'm not saying that, but there have been some that I've communicated with and I asked them, what church are you a part of? And too often, I'm not gonna say all the time, I'm not gonna say most of the time, but too often these brothers do not have a local church. They just do their thing. They don't attend church.

Why? You know, we could speculate about the reasons behind that. I believe that these brothers are out of order. Even though they're proclaiming the gospel, God has called all men, and we're going to see even the Apostle Paul was under the authority of the local church. It's actually very instructive for us to understand that.

And so what we see here in the local church or in the book of Acts is that sending men on mission is is something that is done by men who are elder qualified, and that's really at Hope Med Church, that's one of our requirements is that before someone is sent on a mission or maybe to go start a church, this is an elder qualified man who was able to lead a church. That's what Paul was doing. He was going through and establishing churches, and as you'll see here in just a little bit, he was appointing elders in those churches, and we see that in other places throughout the New Testament as well, and I'll point out a couple of those in just a few moments. And so these are elder qualified men who are able to start churches, they're able to disciple churches, and ultimately we hope to multiply churches throughout the world, that God would begin to set up churches throughout the world, even in not only in large cities but in small towns and everywhere that the gospel will go and God will establish solid biblical churches. And so in this, let's jump into our text and see just how God was working in these men to accomplish this faithful gospel ministry.

Just two things that I want to talk to you about, two main points that I want to talk about. The first is in verses 21 through 23, and it's the work of the gospel continuing. I say that because if you'll remember, let's back up just for a moment and let's look at what took place in verse 19. Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there and having persuaded the multitude, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby and when they had preached the gospel to that city.

Remember what I said that Derby was some 62 miles away. It would again it was it was nearly the equivalent of leaving this church and going to, where did I say, my mind just went blank. Burlington, thank you. Meben or Burlington, close out that way. So it was further than Meben, but all the way to Burlington.

What a trip after being stoned. So the work of the gospel continuing in my mind when I read this and I'm trying to like put myself into this situation mentally of thinking this man was a driven man. He was driven and compelled by the love of Christ to continue faithfully in the gospel. What would hinder most of us and what most of us will say, hey that's a bridge too far, that's more than I can handle, I need to do something else. Paul continued faithfully in gospel ministry.

And I say this because it's not as a shaming thing, but it's something I hope that would be an encouragement to us to persevere through difficulties because of the things that he says here and we're going to get that momentarily, what he tells these believers to expect. So in the work of the gospel continuing on, we see Paul and Barnabas making disciples everywhere they went. And they, in verse 21, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. You remember what I said last time? It seemed as if, okay, Paul was stoned, he was left for dead, he gets up and he goes to Derby.

And it was not because this dear brother lacked courage. He was not fearful. He wasn't escaping in that sense, but I believe what we see here is that these men, definitely not cowardly, but they left the city rather out of discernment and wisdom of God. I believe that they were giving room for things to cool down so that they could come back and strengthen those disciples who remained in that place of persecution. Does that make sense?

There's a play, there's there's wisdom sometimes to give a little room when the temperature gets really hot. I would say this was a hot temperature when men travel 92 miles so that they can stone you. And so these were not fearful men and here's how we know it because after they make disciples and they're preaching the gospel they turn around and they go right back to those three cities where they were persecuted most hotly. They were not fearful men. They were discerning men.

They were being led by the Spirit of God. They were men who were courageous. I mean, who of you, me included, would turn around after being stoned and left for dead, would turn around and go back there so that we could strengthen other believers. You know, one of the things I think that struck me about this too is Paul's love not only for Christ, but for other brothers and sisters in Christ. He went there, it says in verse 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples.

How important is it to each of us that our brothers and sisters, not only in this congregation but elsewhere, are strengthened? To what lengths are we willing to go to strengthen the souls of the disciples and new believers? What value do you place upon a new convert? So it's really astounding to me. It's very convicting to me and the love that I should have and I desire to have for new converts and for brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so this passage here is proof that Paul loved the church, He loved the disciples. And so Paul and Barnabas, again, they're preaching there. And their goal, as I said, is to strengthen these souls. Verse 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, we must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God. You know it almost seems like there were not any disciples made.

When we're reading it through the first time it sounds like there's some disciples and we know in some places there's disciples, but now we're seeing that they're actually going back to those very same cities where we were unsure at least. And there are disciples there. There's real genuine believers. There's people who have repented of their sins and they're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and Paul and Barnabas go back to that very place so that their soul would be strengthened. You know that's why preachers preach.

We want your soul to be strengthened. We want you to benefit from the Word of God. We want to encourage you. We want to, as he says here, we want to exhort you to continue in the faith. One of the saddest things ever is to see someone not continue.

To see someone turn from the faith, to see someone cool in the faith. We want to see, we want to see Holy Spirit fire, if you will. We want to see people warmed in the faith and energetic and zealous in the faith. And so Paul returned to that very place to which he was stoned so that these new converts, these true believers, would be strengthened. No doubt these new converts needed to be strengthened.

I mean imagine being born again and you're living in a city where they just stone the guy who was teaching you. You think there might be some timidity there? There might be a little bit of trepidation of maybe sharing your faith? And so they went back to encourage. He exhorted them to continue in the faith.

And what does this mean? What does he mean continue? Why does he have to tell a believer continue to believe? Continue in the faith. What was that?

Well, he tells us, he says right here, saying we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. I don't know what the circumstances were for each of you when you came to Christ. I have a feeling living in America in the century that we've lived in, I kind of doubt that that was part of the gospel presentation. Did anybody tell you or forewarn you that is through tribulations, many tribulations, you will enter the kingdom of God? You know what we have is Joel Olsteins on the TV and they are promising health, wealth, and prosperity.

Paul wasn't much about the health, wealth, prosperity gospel. Paul's message was the trials, tribulations, and persecution message. He was the one that was telling you the truth. He was telling these disciples what they needed to hear, especially because listen, our circumstances here is not the rule but the exception. Christianity in America is the exception to all of history.

We have it unlike anyone else. I thank God for it. I'm so thankful that God has allowed us to have the freedom to preach the gospel, that there's no real persecution other than words of, you know, putting people down or trying to do things like that. There's no real hard heavy persecution. Paul believed that people needed to know the cost and consequences of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

They needed to know what awaited them if they were going to live for Christ and preach for Christ. And when I say preach, I'm not limiting that to preachers of the gospel. I'm not limiting that to pastors and elders, I'm saying to all of us who take the gospel everywhere. They needed to know what was going to take place and and our lot is so different. Our lot is so easy comparatively.

We've had the privilege of living in a nation founded upon Christian principles, and therefore we've been the beneficiaries of that. But to most of our brothers and sisters today throughout the world, they do not have that same comfort. They have heard gospel presentations like this through many tribulations, you enter the kingdom of heaven. There are brothers and sisters daily who are being killed for their faith in brutal ways. Ways that I would not even feel comfortable describing to you this morning or this afternoon.

You know, I pray that these tribulations do not come, but when they do, if they do, when they do, I want us to be a church and I want us to be fathers and mothers that are prepared. And I want our children to be prepared. Peter says this, I want us to teach our children Peter and Paul theology, Okay? This is what they say, beloved do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you. Listen to what Peter says, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed you may also be glad with exceeding joy.

If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blest are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. On their part He's blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified." In this verse 19, therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good as to a faithful Creator. You see, your circumstances of having tribulation, trials, and persecution is not a defined definition of the goodness and faithfulness of God. Okay? It's easy to look at your circumstances and deduce God's not being faithful right now.

Because of X, Y, Z this thing happened. Something bad. But he says here, those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him and doing good as to a faithful creator. Tribulations do not equal unfaithfulness of God. We have to teach our children that.

They must know these things. So not only did Paul want to strengthen the souls of these new disciples and prepare them for the tribulations, but he wanted to establish God's order in the churches. Look in verse 23, he established biblical leadership. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. I call it God's order because in Titus 1 5, Paul writes to Titus and he says this, for this reason I left you in Crete that You should set in order the things that are lacking.

So what's lacking, he tells us, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. A church without elders is a church out of order. It doesn't mean it's not a church though. I'm not saying that. But I am saying it's not a church in order.

There are things that are lacking there. It shouldn't last long. And in fact, it's only in cases like this when people are taking the gospel to new places that that should even happen because they're preaching, there's new believers, and these believers are gathering together to pray, and if they have the Word of God to read the Word of God, there may not be elders in those type situations. And I think that's the context here of what Paul is saying to Titus, but in the normal way that the church is governed, there will be biblically qualified elders and there will be an orderly church. It doesn't mean that all elders though are qualified and all elders are good.

There's a whole other gamut of things that we could talk about with elders who are out of order and elders who are not doing things correctly, but a church without elders is a disorderly or unorderly, I should say, church. So the purpose then of elders, of establishing biblical leadership in these churches in the form of elders, it was very important. And I know again I'm preaching to the choir in a sense here, you know the value of elders, You appreciate your elders, you're thankful for your elders, you tell us this, it encourages us. There's never been a people that I could preach to like this and you say, yes, give us more. So it's a wonderful thing that you know and love what God has established and in his way.

Because see elders are for the purpose of doing good to the church. And it's really good for our children and again I know that you adults especially know this, but it's good for our young people to know this. They need to understand churches need elders. They need biblically qualified men to lead the church. Ephesians 4, 11-16, I'm not going to read all of that, but we are told that God gave these pastors and teachers, and we can throw in there this equates to elders and overseers of the church, and he did that, listen, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

That would be the same thing here as we read at what Paul was talking about, strengthening the souls of the disciples. And in order to strengthen the souls of the disciples, what did he do? He appointed elders in every church. And they prayed, it says, they prayed with fasting. They commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Also in Acts chapter 20 verse 28 Paul speaking there regard he's speaking to the elders of the church at Ephesus and he says this therefore this is some of the responsibility or the roles or the duties of an elder. Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood." Boy, that causes me to stop when I read that. I am to take heed to myself, I'm to take heed to you, I'm to oversee. Elders are to shepherd. Scott and I shephard this flock.

But listen, this flock is described as the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. When I look at you, I see blood bought people and it wasn't my blood, it was the blood of Jesus Christ my Lord. And how we care for you is very important to God and therefore it's very important to me. And when I read things like this I look at all of my insufficiencies and I look at all the ways I'm not a good elder. I look at all the ways that I'm weak in certain areas and not gifted and I thank God for plurality there.

Paul was very concerned about these churches. He was willing to suffer for the churches. He was willing to sacrifice. But secondly, we see in these passages in verse 24 through 28, the commissioned work of the gospel is completed. And I put that word in there commissioned work because as I said earlier, It's not that the work of the gospel is complete.

Like we're still doing it here, right? We're still, we still have a calling to take the gospel to the world, but this specific portion of work, this is the commission work of Paul and Barnabas to the work to which I have called them. That's the work I'm talking about very specifically here. We have a work that we are doing that's not completed and it will not be complete until the second advent of Christ. Then the work will be completed, but not until then.

So we work, we continue to go, and we continue to preach, we continue to take the gospel faithfully. But as for Paul and Barnabas, they were finishing their circuit mission, if you will. They were wrapping up this work and coming back and you can look I'm sure almost every Bible in here turned to the maps and you'll see the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul and you'll see in this first missionary journey he's making his circuit he's now he went to Derby and in Derby he did a 180 and he turned around and he started going right back through those same churches where he had gone previously and then right back to a certain church, the church at Antioch. So he's finishing this circuit and he says in verse 24, and after they had passed through Vesidia they came to Pamphylia. Now when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Atalaia.

Now this Atalaia here is right near from there they sailed to Antioch. Now in this passage of Scripture, I want you to understand there's two Antiochs. There's two different places. One is in verse 21 is Antioch of Poseidon and the other one is the Antioch of the church that sent Paul and Barnabas on their mission. So sometimes you can get confused with that, but understand there's two different Antioch.

One sent Paul and Barnabas and the other one did not, but it was where they had preached the gospel. So once Paul and Barnabas preached in Derbe, they turned around to visit all of these places and to strengthen the souls in every place where they preach the gospel to establish these young disciples so that they would be strengthened in their soul so that they would understand that through many tribulations they would enter into the kingdom of God. They were telling them the truth. And so, you know, anytime you have the gospel preached in new lands, there will be little churches that begin to be established who don't have these elders or pastors. And again, it's not the ideal situation, but we have here that Paul is going back through to establish this missionary work, and as I said earlier, part of that establishing was to ordain these elders.

It was not done either haphazardly. We understand that the qualifications of elders were mentioned in 1st Timothy, chapter 3, and Titus, chapter 1. It was an important role. It wasn't that he was putting baby Christians in these roles. He was coming back to establish these churches and those men who were biblically and qualified to be elders, they were ordaining them.

They weren't as mature as they could be or would be, but they were standing out as men who were mature in the faith, who believed the gospel, and they were going to shepherd these churches. And so what they did was is in these churches they saw, they wanted the churches to prosper, and they were prospering because of this work which Paul and Barnabas were doing. And then once they finished up at Atalaia, we see that they returned to their sending church, back to the church at Antioch. And in verse 26, from there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. Now this is where I started my message and I want us to understand that this verse shows us again the importance of a sending church in the ministry of missionary work.

It is a work that is super important because missionaries as we call them are not a separate office or a function of the church but it's rather men again who are elder qualified to lead churches and to establish churches. And Paul being an apostle was one such man. He was a man who could do these very things but called by the Holy Spirit to a specific work of starting churches through the world, through the known world there and through places where the gospel had not gone. And it was a work that the church prayed about and fasted over and laid hands upon these men to accomplish this work. And so they took it very seriously.

Paul and Barnabas, you know, as a sign of the blessing and the authority of the local church on their lives, they did this. They laid hands on Paul. We did this just a couple weeks ago with Mike Kennan. We laid hands upon him because that's what the scripture teaches us to do, that you lay hands on these men and you pray for them because they're called to a work. There are two offices within the church, deacons and elders, and both of these are a called work and it is a work that shows the authority of the local church to do this.

The person that is having their hands laid upon is not the authority. The church is the authority and that's laying hands on that person to do a work. And that's what Paul and Barnabas were doing. You see, the laying on the hands, it was showing this understanding that it was, they were being commended to the grace of God. And what I mean by that, this word means to commend, it means to hand over, to commit to, and to entrust with a work.

They were commended to this work. They were entrusted or committed to this work. And so, this work was a work that was empowered by the grace of God. We mustn't acknowledge that. This is not a work of man.

It is not a work of the flesh. It is a work of the Spirit of God and the grace of God in the life of these men. And this work specifically here for Paul and Barnabas was now completed, it says in verse 26. They completed the work that they were called to do. You know it's important to note that some specific works of gospel ministry are temporary in duration.

There are some things that the church will do that they do for a time. Not the gospel though. The gospel ministry overall is a gospel ministry that is unending until Christ returns and he brings judgment upon his enemies. He makes all of his enemies his footstool. We as a church need to understand and we need to read into this and to under not read into this in a negative way but we need to understand the meaning of this and we need to enter into specific gospel work opportunities for the advancement of the kingdom of God.

These things will come about that's what happened here with Paul and Barnabas there was a calling of the Holy Spirit to do a work. They were, they prayed over that work, they fasted that work, they had their hands laid upon them for that work, and then they accomplished that work. And I believe that there's going to be opportunities in our church when there are gospel ministry opportunities that we take very seriously and it may be a temporary work that's done and then that work may be completed. But ultimately again in the big picture there will always be gospel work to do. There will always be preaching of the word of God to do.

We keep in mind God is always at work. If you're looking for God to work, you're going to see it everywhere. I see it when I go to work and I step into a homeowner's house. I was telling a homeowner just last week, he was a faithful brother in Christ. We had such communion together while I'm in there remodeling his bathroom.

It was wonderful. And this brother, he was an encouragement to me and I told him this. I said, you know, it's interesting when I go, when we go as a church and we knock on doors, they're not always pleased that we're there. I have way more reception from people who have hired me to fix something and they say, oh, you're here. Come on in.

It's really a neat opportunity because I can come right in they just invited the gospel and they didn't know it but they just invited the gospel into their house and they're glad I'm there unlike sometimes when we do the cold call and they're not so happy that we're there But it's interesting how God gives us opportunity. These are the opportunities that I want you to look for as a church. And guess what? Moms and children, you're not left out of this. God gives you opportunities all the time for these things.

And a lot of it may be right there in your living room with your little children, but it's also at the grocery store, it's also wherever it is you're going, there's opportunities for you to share the gospel with people. Now what is interesting also is in verse 27 what we see Paul and Barnabas doing. Look at what it says, now when they had come and gathered the church together they reported all that God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. You know I think we would call this a missionary report. If you've ever been in a Southern Baptist Church, you've heard of these things where they want to come in and let's give a missionary report and tell you what your money did.

No, we're actually, they're telling them what God did through them and it's so exciting to see. Can you imagine the stories that Paul and Barnabas were sharing, this report that they were giving? It was not limited. Look at what it says again. Look at what it says.

They reported all that God had done with them. They told him all of these things. They gathered the church together and they were warning them to understand, you prayed for us, you fasted for us, you laid your hands on us and now let me tell you what God has done. And they were there, it was encouragement to the church, it was informative to the church. Now on January 25th, we're going to do something kind of like that not to this extent but we're going to have a ministry update if you will of the different ministries of this church and and a financial report and things like that.

This is a time really I want you to come with the idea and the thought this is a time to hear what God is doing. It's actually a very important part of the life of the church to understand seeing what God's doing in different areas. You're not involved with everything but God is doing great things to encourage us and to see what he's doing here. And Paul and Barnabas report this and tell the church this and they said look at what God has done. You know this no doubt this report here included the the telling of miracles.

We love to tell stories, don't we, when we have neat, unusual gospel opportunities with people. And you know they came back and said, let me tell you about this sorcerer. He was trying to stop the procounsel from believing, And by the power of God, he was blinded and could not see for a time. It was amazing. And you know what happened?

Let me tell you what happened. The procalcel believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and he was saved. I think that was part of the report. I think also, as they came in in chapter 14 verse 3, they said, you won't believe what God did. There were signs and wonders done by our hands so that people would believe the gospel.

Let me tell you about some of it. It's multiplied here. Signs and wonders. There were things that were done we don't know about. It's not written.

But when they gave their report, they were telling the church at Antioch to encourage them, and to tell them, and to brag on what God had done. Not only that, there were conversions. There was the opening of the door of faith to the Gentiles. Can you believe this? It's not only started with you church in Antioch, but God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles everywhere we went.

People were turning, even Jews were turning to the Lord. And Gentiles, not only the poor and not only slave, but also even rulers of the Gentiles were turning. Can you imagine what that report was doing as they were hearing these encouraging things? It's much like when Brother Paul came to share some of what has happened through the app, and you hear about all of these people who are who are reading this and getting access to this and when we can hear of just one story with a name to it as a soul for eternity. Those are encouraging things, but also they told them all things.

Let me tell you what God did in the midst of all of this, through all the miracles and signs and wonders and conversions, brothers and sisters, we were greatly opposed. We were expelled from some places. We actually had Jews following us, miles, multiple miles, to stir up crowds, and in one instance they stoned me they thought I was dead they left me but the dear disciples there they gathered around me and they helped me up and I went on and continued in the grace of God to preach the gospel and he blessed it because in that next city in Derby many disciples were made and by the grace of God we turned around and we went back through all of these places and there were men who were there who were qualified to be elders and overseers of this church and we appointed them and there's churches there in every one of these cities now. God has done a great thing. Can you imagine the report and the encouragement that that was?

And no doubt they praise God. And look at what else. All of these things reported to the church of what God had done. And in verse 28, so they stayed there a long time with the disciples. I just get the sense that Paul and Barnabas were not in a hurry to leave.

They weren't always thinking, what's the next thing? Let's get on with it. They stayed there in Antioch a long time. What were they doing? I don't believe it's a stretch to say that they were integrated back into normal church life.

I think it's not a stretch at all to say they were faithful church members. I think that they ministered no doubt through preaching and teaching the Word of God, but I do think it's very significant that they stayed there a long time. I think it's significant to note that they were not discontent with staying at Antioch a long time. You know, so many people are discontent with where they are. They think, hey, there's bound to be a ministry out there for me somewhere, but here you have the Apostle Paul in Barnabas who was a apostle and a prophet, not discontent staying there with the disciples at Antioch for a long time.

And there, no doubt, there was mutual encouragement. I think Paul and Barnabas were encouraged by the faithfulness of these church members, and I think that the church members were encouraged by the faithfulness and the humility of the Apostle Paul in Barnabas. Barnabas being the son of encouragement was no doubt continuing to encourage right there where he was. So brothers and sisters I want to encourage you, you may not be on mission going from city to city preaching the gospel and establishing churches, but you may be right here in a local church and God has called you to be faithful, to be content, to stay a long time and to minister one to another and to encourage one another and to exhort one another and to love one another. So let us do that.

Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, Lord as always I stand here amazed at the beauty and the power of your word to encourage your people. I pray, O God, that the strengthening of souls has been accomplished today. I pray that your people are exhorted and encouraged and Lord that you have produced within each of us a contentment to do only what you have called us to do. Lord, we see within this Lord, we see within this passage of scripture men who are commissioned and called to do go and do things and also we see people who are called to stay and do things.

And so Lord I pray that you would give us great wisdom and discernment. I pray that you would give us great contentment. Lord that our lives are yours. Paul was not a man who lived for himself and Barnabas either. Lord we know that these men were men who delighted to do your will.

Whether that meant go or whether that meant stay, they were content and so Lord I pray that you would encourage us with that and I ask it in Jesus name amen.