To the Ends of the Earth:
Mission Report

Acts 14:21-28

By Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas

Now turn with me if you would once again to The Acts of The Apostles and chapter 14. Tonight we have two missionaries reporting. One is called Saul, who recently has begun to call himself Paul, and the other is Barnabas. And they've come hotfoot from a six to eight months mission trip to Cyprus and Turkey. That's what our reading is about this evening! Paul and Barnabas have returned home to their home church, the church that had sent them on this first missionary journey, and they are giving a report.

We left the reading last Lord's Day evening. They were still of course in Turkey, in the city of Derbe; and we're going to pick up the reading at the close of the twentieth verse of Acts 14, and then read through to the end of the chapter. Before we read the passage, let's pray.

Father, we thank You for the Scriptures, but we always need the illumination of Your Sprit. So come, O Lord, and write Your words now upon our hearts for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Acts 14, and beginning in the middle of the twentieth verse:

The next day he [he, that is, Paul] went away with Barnabas to Derbe. After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, 'Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.' When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. They passed through Pisidia and came into Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia; and from there they sailed to Antioch, from which they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had accomplished. When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they spent a long time with the disciples.

Amen. And may the Lord add His blessing to that reading of His holy and inerrant word.

…"When they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how He had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles." Well, this is Missions Week, and tonight in our study of The Acts of The Apostles we have a mission report. Imagine! Imagine if we had Paul and Barnabas to give their reports to us this evening…what a thrill that would be, to be able afterwards, over a meal, perhaps — tea, coffee, whatever…biscuits (cookies!) — and to just ask Paul and Barnabas so many questions about this first missionary journey that we've been studying together these last weeks.

They've been gone — oh, it's hard to be certain — six months, eight months. The year is 47, perhaps 48 A.D. And do you notice "they gather the church" in Antioch…verse 27. They gathered the church together. You get the impression that the whole church was there. Not just, you know, those interested in missions. The whole church wanted to hear the report, because the whole church had sent them out. They'd gone to Cyprus, Attalia, Perga…all the way up to Pisidian Antioch. They had gone through Lystra and Iconium and Derbe and made their way back again — this time avoiding Cyprus, just sailing from Attalia to Syrian Antioch, home base. This was church-based missions. It's the church in Antioch that sent them. And what have they done in this six to eight months? They had planted churches. There is not — oh, granted, they are weak churches, they are struggling churches, they are churches with all kinds of problems and difficulties — but they have planted churches in Cyprus and Pisidian Antioch, and Iconium and Lystra and Derbe. There are churches of Christ that have never been there before…at least, not in the New Testament sense of the church.

The church had sent them. They had planted churches, and now they are reporting back to the whole church in Antioch. And what did they report? Well, at least three things.

I. The reported all the things that God had done through them.

First of all, you notice in verse 27 they reported "all things that God had done with them [or through them]" — all things that God had done through them. There was something that they had done, to be sure. You can imagine the report: "The Exploits of Paul and Barnabas in Cyprus and Asia Minor." That would get the crowds out. "Near-Death Experiences in the City of Lystra." That would get a few more out. "The Conversion of a Roman Proconsul in Cyprus, by the Name of Sergius Paulus." That would be a wonderful, exciting story to tell…the thrills and adventures of missionary life. The journey, the sea journey. The food they ate… "What kind of food did you eat, Paul? Where did you sleep? How did you communicate with these people? What kind of people did you see?" All kinds of stories and interesting information, and yet that's not the emphasis that Luke wants us to get as he records now this mission report to the church at Antioch.

What they gave was what God had done through them. Missions, evangelism, church planting, the conversion of sinners, the establishment of groups of disciples gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ — this is God's word. This is the Lord's work. God had been at work. When Sergius Paulus was so wonderfully and astonishingly converted, it was God's work. And Saul of Tarsus (now the Apostle Paul) had been given courage to speak to Bar-Jesus, Elymas the sorcerer, who had opposed him almost like a satanic figure, an antichrist figure on Cyprus. It was God who had given to Paul the strength and courage to call him the son of the devil and to command him to stop.

Weren't you thrilled last week as you thought about what Paul did when he had been dragged outside the city of Lystra as though he were dead? They had stoned him; they had left him on the side of the road. Disciples from the city had come and ministered to him, and do you remember what he did? He went right back into the city. He paused at this city again on the way home to Antioch. God had given him that courage. This is not simply the exploits and adventures of men; it's the work of God. This is the Lord's work. It's the Lord's work, because man can't do this work. Paul couldn't convert a single soul. Barnabas, for all his temperament, his beautiful temperament — the son of encouragement — Barnabas couldn't convert a single soul. God must do His work, because the natural man is dead in trespasses and in sins. Paul and Barnabas would call upon men and women to repent, but they couldn't repent. They would call upon men and women to believe what they couldn't believe, because the natural man — his heart is depraved, his will is enslaved. His affections are running in opposite direction. The natural man is not in love with Christ. He is not drawn to Christ. And God must do His work. God must illuminate, and God must convict of sin, and God must regenerate, and God must quicken. God must bring men and women to new birth and create in them faith, so that when Paul would say, "Believe," they would believe. And when Paul would say "Repent," they would evidence signs of repentance, but it was the Lord's doing. "I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me."

It's what seventeenth century theologians (or The Westminster Confession and Catechisms, if you like)…it's what seventeenth century theologians called effectual calling. There's a call of man; there was a call of the Apostle Paul, there was a call of Barnabas, but unless the Lord calls…unless that sovereign efficacious voice of God comes that can wake the dead, the voice of Jesus that can stand outside the tomb of Lazarus and say, "Lazarus! Come forth!"….

I love that comment that is sometimes made about why Jesus has to name Lazarus there; because if He hadn't said, "Lazarus, come forth," all the dead would have come forth!

It's an effectual call. Yes, it's through men, it's through the instrumentality of missionaries like Paul and Barnabas, but this is a work of God. This is the Lord's work. This is a sovereign work. It's not meant in any way to diminish the responsibility of the church to evangelize. It's not meant in any way to diminish the responsibility of missionaries to go and to make the gospel known, and to give a free offer of the gospel — not at all! But it's the Lord's work.

And now that they're back and they're giving a report, they're giving thanks to God. They're saying 'Look at what God has done! Look at the wonderful things that the Lord has brought about!' I wonder if Paul and Barnabas were tempted in their report to appeal to fleshly matters in giving a missionary report. Imagine if William Carey were here, after being for seven years in India — seven whole years, not a single convert. Not one. Who wants to hear a report like that? And here is Paul and Barnabas, and Luke says they gathered the church together and they're saying this is what God has done. This is the Lord's work; it's not man's work.

II. God opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

And the second thing in this report that comes to the surface are the words that God had "opened a door" — at the end of verse 27 — that "God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles." I think the church in Antioch as they listened to this report were now listening with rapt attention! You'd find it hard, I think, to enter into the sensitivity of this particular factor of the report.

You see, the truth is …when they had sent them out, I wonder what they had thought? They would go, of course, as Paul and Barnabas did go initially, to the synagogues. You understand. They went to Jews, fellow Jews. But something had happened along the way in Pisidian Antioch, and they encountered hostility of the Jews, just as they had encountered it in Jerusalem - the hostility of Jews to the gospel, to Jesus Christ. And do you remember? They brushed the dust from off their sandals, you remember, and they quoted from Isaiah 19:6 — justification for turning now to the Gentiles, because the truth of the matter is that in this report more Gentiles had been converted than Jews. Now do you understand what that means? It was probably heard with great anticipation, and I think a great sense of joy in the church in Antioch. In the church in Antioch there were Jews and Gentiles. It was a mixed church. They were used to the idea of Gentiles now beginning to mingle with Jews. But all kinds of Christians are beginning to arrive. You see? Ethnic questions. Racial questions. All kinds of cultural questions. Jews didn't eat in the same room as a Gentile. If you were at work and a Gentile came in and had his lunch, you would have to get up and leave. You had to go somewhere else. I mean, forget about the pork sandwiches! You couldn't even eat in their presence. It was an offense. It was a violation of the Law. It was ethnically unwarrantable.

Well, it's OK if one Gentile or two or three or four are converted and are brought into what is largely a Jewish culture. They probably adapted to certain forms and standards and cultural distinctives of that largely Jewish Christian church. But now in places like Pisidian Antioch and Lystra and Derbe, you've got an entirely new phenomenon. You've got churches that are largely, but not exclusively, Gentile. And do you see the questions that are now beginning to form? They're going to be dominant in the next chapter. To these Gentiles — I mean, it's all very well to preach faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, but what about circumcision? That…well, we've heard "sign and seal"…but for many of the Jews and even for some of the converted Jews who had come to faith in Jesus Christ, they didn't lose all of what they had thought about circumcision just overnight. Circumcision was to many of them the sign of their ethnicity. It was a sign of who they were as Jews, as God's people, as the chosen ones. Does that mean that from now on circumcision has absolutely no spiritual value whatsoever? Because there are some Jewish Christians who are going to suggest (and especially some Jewish Christians from Jerusalem, the mother church, the First Church in Jerusalem, who are going to come up to Antioch and say, 'No, these Gentiles…it's all wonderful that these Gentiles are being converted, but we need to control them. We need to set some boundaries here, because this could get out of hand very quickly. There are certain rituals and ceremonies that these Gentiles now need to submit to. They need to be circumcised. They need to obey the ritual food laws.' And can you imagine as Paul and Barnabas are saying "God has opened the door of faith to the Gentiles," —notice, God has opened this door…the Lord has done this.

But, my friends, it has brought about a slew of problems. I mean, while you're rejoicing at the thought of these hundreds and perhaps thousands of converts from Gentile, pagan nations and cities, there are all kinds of problems now. Does that mean that we have to worship in the same church? Does that mean that we are to sit next to each other? Does that mean that we're supposed to eat the same food? These uncircumcised Gentile believers, are we now to embrace them and call them brothers in Jesus Christ? Oh, my dear friends. We're not a million miles away from that issue. The issue of race and ethnicity and cultural distinctions is right here, as it was in Belfast and as it is in London and in New York, and I'm sure it's the same in Malawi.

The gospel has brought significant issues that they have to deal with, questions that are now arising in their minds. You remember Paul alludes in The Epistle to the Galatians that …it was some time after this report…not a great deal of time after this report, I think. It's not recorded in Acts. Luke hasn't recorded it, but Paul records it in Galatians that certain men (and some of them close to James the Just in Jerusalem, Jewish Christians, you understand) have come up from Jerusalem to Antioch to this very church where this report is being given. Perhaps it was weeks, at most, months later, because whatever the church in Antioch thought of the opening of the door to the Gentiles, in Jerusalem there were all kinds of alarm bells ringing. "How are we going to control this movement? What are we going to do with all of these cultural distinctives that are ours?" ("What is the relationship between the old covenant and the new covenant?" if you like.) And you remember what Paul says in Galatians 2? Do you remember what happens? Peter and, of all people, Barnabas, all of a sudden after having sat down and eaten at the same table as Gentile Christians in the church at the potluck supper in Antioch on the Friday evening or whenever it was, all of a sudden when the heavies come from the church in Jerusalem, Peter moves to another table. He doesn't sit with the Gentiles any more.

Now, Tertullian, bless his cotton socks, has tried to give that a better interpretation by saying that Peter was only trying to be all things to all men. Well, Paul would have none of it, whatever Tertullian thinks. Paul, you remember, stood Peter to his face in public. There was a showdown in the church of Antioch! I mean it was a public showdown! Withstood him to his face because Paul said that if you stop eating with the Gentiles you undermine the gospel; you undermine justification by faith; you are giving credence to the fact that there must be some extra-plus to the gospel, whether it's circumcision or whether it's food laws, or whatever it is, you're undermining the gospel.

And you thought this report was all about joy? And it was all about giving praise to God for the converts. But you know, when…I had no problems until I became a Christian. I was brought up in a dysfunctional home, and I tell you, I never want to be 16 again. You know all about that. But I didn't know certain trials and tribulations until I began to tell my friends and my family that I belonged to Jesus now. And then came trouble. And then came difficulty.

III. They strengthened the churches.

But there's a third part to the report. It's not given here in verses 17-28; you have to go all the way back to verses 21, 22, and 23 — especially verse 22 — because I can't imagine that as they are giving this report that they didn't report what they actually said to the churches that they had established on their way back to Antioch. And what had they done on their way back to Antioch? Well, Luke tells us in verse 22 that they engaged in a ministry of "…strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying 'Through many tribulations we enter the kingdom of God.'" And in verse 23, they are appointing elders for them in every church.

Now, we have New Testament scholars here this evening and we can discuss and disagree about this afterwards, but here's the way I understand this. I think what Luke is saying is that the way he encouraged them, the way he strengthened them in verse 22 was by doing three things. The strengthening ministry of the apostles in these churches consisted of three things: encouraging them to continue in the faith; the appointing of elders in every church; and telling them that through many tribulations we enter the kingdom of God.

Now let's think along those three lines of thought for a second.

First of all, they told the disciples in these churches to remain faithful, to continue in the faith. Isn't that interesting, by the way? Isn't that interesting? You see, you might have thought that what they had done was to tell them that you're saved now, and you're saved for eternity. You might have thought that the emphasis that they would have given would be on assurance. Once saved, always saved, right? That no matter what happens now, you're safe in the arms of Jesus, and don't you ever doubt it ever again. That's not what they did. That's not what they said. What they said was 'You must remain faithful. You must continue in the faith.' It wasn't an emphasis on preservation; it was an emphasis on perseverance. They need to persevere, because there are wolves out there, and there are temptations at the door. And there's still indwelling remaining corruption in the hearts of these believers, who are fledgling believers, and they're weak believers; and some of them, once the apostles have gone, are going to be tempted to discontinue. There's going to be pressure coming from Jewish synagogue. There's going to be pressure coming from superstition that prevailed in cities like Lystra. And Paul and Barnabas are saying to them, 'You need to persevere. You need to keep on keeping on. You need to remember that it is he that endures to the end that shall be saved.' He puts an emphasis on perseverance, and not on preservation. Isn't that interesting?

And secondly, they elected elders. Isn't that interesting, too? How do you strengthen the church? How do you strengthen a young church? How do you strengthen a church that's weak and prone to wander? And beset by rumbling Christians, and proud Christians, and know-it-all Christians—we don't have any of those here, but in these churches there were all kinds of difficulties and problems. How do you strengthen a church like that? By appointing elders. By organization and structure. By appointing those who — the term here is presbuteroi, elders — but Paul will use synonymous terms elsewhere: that they are shepherds who care for the flock of God, and that they are bishops who exercise a ministry of rule. And Paul and Barnabas strengthened the church by appointing God-fearing, servant-hearted elders to care for the church. That's part of our praying for missions, that God would raise up godly elders in some of these fledgling churches in the distant parts of the world, because that's how you strengthen the church.

And then, thirdly, a word of realism (and I find this astonishingly interesting — the realism of Paul and Barnabas) that it is "through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom of God." There are going to be trials and difficulties and problems that will come and beset you. "And if any man will come after Me," our Savior said, "he must deny himself, and take up a cross and follow Me." Because if you try to save your life you're going to lose it, and it's only as you lose your life and endure the hardship, the pain, and the suffering that you will be saved. "Come to Jesus, and all your troubles will disappear." That's never been true, my friends. Never been true. Come to Jesus, and you deny yourself, and you take up a cross, and you follow after Him; because where the Master went, there His servants must go, too.

Do you remember? Paul would write to the Corinthian church, and he would talk about his trials and his tribulations and he would say, "Death was at work in us." This is the man who had been stoned in Lystra and left by the side of the road outside the city of Lystra for dead. "Death is at work in us, in order that life may be at work in you."

David Brainerd was called to missionary work amongst the Mohawk Indians when he was 22 years old. By the age of 29, he was dead. He had contracted tuberculosis and taken to the house of Jonathon Edwards, and he died. He was in missionary work barely four years, and we still remember him. His journal, his diary, is still one of the most moving things that we can ever read. He once wrote:

I could have no freedom in the thought of any other circumstance or business in life. All my desire was the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God. God does not suffer me to please or comfort myself with hope of seeing friends or returning to my dear acquaintances and enjoying worldly comforts.

You know that poem that Amy Carmichael wrote? And I'll close with this. It's called The Sign:

Lord, crucified, O mark Thy holy cross on motive;
Preference all fond desires
On that which self in any form inspires.
Set Thou that sign of loss,
And when the touch of death is here and there
Laid on a thing most precious in our lives, let us not wonder;
Let us recognize the answer to this prayer.

It is through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom of God. Let's pray.

Father, we thank You for this extraordinary work which You did through Paul and Barnabas on this first missionary journey. As we begin our Missions Week this week, set our hearts ablaze for that which You most desire: the conversion of souls, the establishment of the church of Christ in every nation of the world. Help us to put that first. And grant, O Lord, that those who come to us this week who may have experienced unusual amounts of the trials and tribulations of this path to which You have called them, may they know peace for a season…a measure of peace and quiet before they return again to the battle and the fray. And grant Your blessing, we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen.

Please stand and receive the Lord's benediction.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.