AUG 21 2016

Sea Change Church · Adam Stadtmiller · August 21, 2016
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples, and then they returned to Listeria, Inconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church, and with prayer and fasting committed them to the Lord, in whom they'd put their trust.

After going through Assyria, they came to Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Atilia. From Atilia, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.

And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. The word of the Lord. Thanks, Drea. Drea, if you don't know, is my executive assistant. Works here at the church for you and alongside of you. Her and Tony and Chloe are a unit. They're getting married coming up here in October. They were in a car accident two days ago. That's why she's banged up.

And she said if it was two seconds later, it would have been a lot worse. God protected you. Can we celebrate that, that God protected them as a family? Right. Right. Let us pray and then we're going to get into it. Lord Jesus, thank you, God, for your word. It is a good word that gives us counsel for our lives. We love the word of God. And we love that it represents the true word of God, which is you.

That you are the word. And in the beginning was the word. And then it was written down for us. Let this word come alive. Let it be on fire, Lord God. And give it all that we need. Give us all that we need, God, to live today in a better way. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Don't know if you're watching the Olympics. Raise your hand if you're watching the Olympics, right?

Okay. I'm watching the Olympics. It's must-see TV, kind of. We record it. And how many of you watched Usain Bolt run all of his races, right? I got to say that when I was really surprised. Guys, when Usain Bolt wins, it feels like the world celebrates, oddly. You know, I want the American guy to do well. We were in a sports bar after the Charger game the other night, having some wings or whatever he had.

And we were watching. And when Usain won, everybody cheered. And I thought, am I in Jamaica? Like, where am I? You know, why is everyone celebrating? I got to say, Usain Bolt knows how to celebrate victory. Is that not the truth? I mean, oh boy, does 15 minutes of this and that. What I think is interesting about Usain Bolt is everyone celebrates with him.

Did you see the Canadian guy lose to him in second place, DeGrasse? And as he goes across, the guy's smiling at him. They're hugging afterwards. I'm like, he just beat you. Like, why are you jumping up and hugging him? Because Usain Bolt seems to be infectious. He seems to, it feels like to me, because he goes around the crowd. There's German people hugging him with the German flag.

Like, how does he do that? How does he, everyone lose and he celebrates, it's like a worldwide victory. He has the ability to bless others, it feels like, and bring other people into the celebration. He has a life, he knows how to celebrate victory. He knows what it looks like. And when he does, he knows how to celebrate. One of the things we are talking about today in the scripture is Paul's celebrating victory.

Now, if you were to read this entire first, we're coming to the end. This is the end of the first missionary journey. We're coming to the end of it. And at the very end, as we'll read, Paul gets back to the city that sent him out. And it says that he spends a long time there. And he basically, this is a celebratory time where he comes and shares all the good things God did.

Now, remember, he was stoned. He was kicked out. He was run from city to city. He had all these trials and hardships. But at the same time, he comes back and he says, we won. And he's basically doing what Usain Bolt does. But he's giving all the glory to God. And he's saying, look, that God opened a door to whom? To the Gentiles. And he told them all the things that God was doing.

I want to say that I believe that very few followers of Christ know how to celebrate. That know how to see when God has won a victory. And actually step into it and live in celebration for a while. I don't think we're great at celebrating. One of the things recently is with my prayer partner is we will stop when we see a prayer answered. As opposed to saying, hey, that was really good.

That was awesome. We'll say, hey, we, you know, God had a victory here. Let's celebrate. God, you're so good. And we try to live and in celebration. I'm keeping a track on a separate Google calendar right now of all the wins in prayer. And all the blessings that God has been doing when something happens. To learn how to live in a culture of victory.

To understand that Christ has already given us the victory. And to live in victory. Because so often we are living in defense. Now I've told you I'm reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu right now. And there's a lot of principles that you can take out of there. That have, you can parlay them with scripture to say how do we live in a world that seems to be defeated.

Where people are living defeated. Where people feel like they're living behind the eight ball. And then live in a way where we see God taking victory, celebrating victory. And living with a passion for greater victory and greater kingdom expansion. This is what Paul was able to do and what we'll see in the scripture today as we read through it.

The first thing that I thought was interesting is. If you look at the first verse in the top part of your notes. In verse 21. It says this. They preached the gospel. It should come up here on the screen. Verse 21. It says they preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Now if I were to have just given you that scripture.

And you wouldn't have read anything that came before it. You'd say well Paul's just up to his old thing. You know he went into a city, preached the gospel and had victory. Awesome. Very great. You know great job Paul. You're pretty good at preaching. He probably had a really eloquent word and spoke. Let's go back a couple verses. To give the story a little bit more context.

Because the last time we saw Paul. He needed Miracle Max in his life. Anybody know who Miracle Max is? He's the one that said he's not dead. He's mostly dead. From the princess bride. The last time we saw Paul. He was mostly dead. He says there's a difference between mostly dead and all dead. And you know what the difference is? When they're all dead.

You shake them upside down and check their pockets for loose change. That's what he said. You need a miracle for Miracle Max. Well Paul got his miracle. Let's go back a little bit more. Because realizing there was a victory. Verse 21 talks about a victory. Many people heard the gospel. And accepted the gospel. We have to realize that these were people who had not accepted it.

Earlier in the story. Before Paul was what? Stoned to death. Okay. Or mostly death. Okay. Verse 19 gives a little context. Remember they had wanted to make Paul and Barnabas gods. Because they had seen this man healed in the power of Jesus. And so the priest from the temple of Zeus came. And they tried to make them God. And this shows the fickleness of human beings.

Jesus says I did not put my trust in people. Because he knows what's in the hearts of men. And I know that a celebratory crowd can easily become a mob like that. And people are fickle. God is not fickle though. And he never gives up on us. So one moment they're making him God. The next minute they're stoning him. So when Paul said I did not accept the temptation to be God.

But he cast it down. By him humbling himself. He set himself up to be attacked. When these other Jewish leaders from Antioch and Iconium came and stirred up the crowd. So that's where we pick up a couple verses earlier. They preached the gospel in that city. Excuse me. Verse 19. Then some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul.

Dragged him outside the city thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him. He got up. Went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. What is so interesting is verse 19 says that they were stoned. Now I got to say the Jews back in the day were good at stoning. And when they stoned you. Trust me. They did.

Matter of fact. They would often say that they would heap a pile of rocks on people by the time it was done. Three feet high. When you got stoned by a Jewish mob back in the first century. Trust me. You got stoned. Okay. And it wasn't like 420. I mean you were stoned. Let me get that. See what I did there. How does he know about that? Because I had a dealership in PB back in the day.

That's how I know about it. They stoned Paul real good. To the point where they thought he was dead. And I believe he was dead. But for some reason the scripture chooses to make this a little murky. On whether Paul was raised back from the dead. If you go to 2nd Corinthians. You will hear Paul talk about 14 years ago. And if you do the work of the dating.

On when he was writing that to the 2nd Corinthians. Which would be like 35 to 45. Excuse me. 55 to 65 AD. It can show. Because this is about 5 years after the death of Christ. This is about the time where Paul speaks in 2nd Corinthians. He says I knew a man. Who once went to where? The third heaven. And he talks about a man going to the third heaven.

And he says I knew a man. Many theologians believe that this is the man. It was Paul himself that was stoned to death. Gets up to heaven. He's like tapped out. I am done. You know. He's like Conor McGregor in the first fight. You know. He's tapped out. He's done. But God's like no you're not done. I'm sending you back in there. He's like no don't send me back.

He sends him back. What is so interesting is it says that. When the believers had done what? Gathered around them. What do you think they did when they gathered around him? What did they pray? Raise him from the dead. Now it doesn't say that so I can't emphatically preach it. But I am so close to emphatically preaching it. It's not even funny. Let me just say this.

You don't go back into the city after you've been stoned by a first century Jewish mob. Okay. Something happened. And it happened because you had disciples and believers who were willing to go out. Take the rocks off of him. And what would you look like after getting stoned? Paul gets. It doesn't say that he looked any better. Imagine him 15 minutes later coming back in.

Just to the city. All bloodied and bruised. And he's all. Oh by the way I forgot a little something. Let me tell you about the gospel. Let me just tell you. That's what happened. And what does it say there in the verse 21? They preached the gospel in the city. And what happened? A large number of disciples. Ones that probably might have even thrown some of the stones.

Because Paul got back up. And they knew when you stoned somebody. It was for good. Three points. Living a victorious life and continuing on. Here they are for today. Today's main course. The enemy of victory is often a lack of perseverance. Perseverance. The enemy of the victory lap is a lack of perseverance. How good are you at perseverance? Or do you tap out at the earliest frustration?

The earliest attack? Does the enemy even have to get an attack plan against you? Or can he just give you a word of discouragement and you are done. With whatever that thing is. Number two. The price of victory is often purchased with the currency of many hardships. The price of victory. Paul says that in the scripture. You must endure what? Many hardships.

To what? Enter the kingdom of God. And third. Victory is anchored in trusted leadership. And we'll see that at the end. First of all. First point. The enemy of victory. And I want you to think about yourself. And living a victorious life. In your relationships. What does victory look like in relationships? What does it look like in marriage? What does it look like in a work relationship?

Or in your finances? Or in an addiction that you've been struggling with and battling with? Or with your gossip? Or with being a mocker? Or whatever your thing is. We all have things. I talked about Joshua. Had 31 kings that he cleared out in a five year period. Out of the holy land. When they crossed over into their inheritance. 31 kings. What are your 31 kings?

I've made a list now. I'm making a list. I don't have all 31 yet. You actually have to sit before the Lord. If you're going to make a list of 31 things that you need to work on. Like I can get the first three. We kind of live around the three that are the biggest in our lives. But if you really want to get all the meat off the bone. Sit there with the Lord.

And say God give me another one. Trust me. He's got a bunch for you. If you want to sit. I realized recently that I like being sarcastic. And I realized that the scripture says. What is a mocker? And I thought you know what? A mocker is. The Bible talks about a mocker. I felt like the Lord said quit mocking things. Even if it's you know even little things.

Just one of my kings. I'm like ah that's such a subtle king Lord. I never would have seen that king. We're going to get rid of it. Do you have the perseverance now. To attack those kings. We're going to look at this. It says in verse 21. They preached the gospel in that city. And won a large number of disciples. And then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.

I got to say Paul was not a runner. When things got hard. He did not run from a situation. He continued to persevere over and over again. Knowing that the strength of the Lord. The strength of the battle was in the Lord's power. That his job was to show up and trust God to win the victory. Who gets up after a stoning and goes back into a city? Paul.

He wasn't a runner. But he was a man who knew how to continue walking through the valley of the shadow of death. My new friend Reed here in the front row. Nice to have you in the splash zone guys. Up in front. And it's rare. Adam and Reed. Reed just went through SEAL training. And a month ago, a graduated Navy SEAL training. He doesn't want me to tell you.

I'm telling him. Love the military at this church. Love the military. And one thing, just so you know. I want to get better at blessing the military at this church. And it's awesome. He told me that 153 people in SEAL training. You know how to get out of SEAL training? You only got to do one thing. Ring the bell. How many? 153? 153 tapped out. How many didn't?

57. You were one of those 57. These numbers hold true for the church. Probably even higher. Start following God. Things get hard. They put you underwater for six minutes. He said, I said, was that discouraging when you heard the people ring the bell in the middle of the night? And they just different things. He said, no. It means I'm not the guy ringing the bell.

That's great. That's a SEAL answer, bro. Arf, arf, arf. That is a SEAL answer. Yeah. I'm not the guy ringing the bell. You're going to say, what thing in your life right now? Just ringing the bell. Just had enough. You know what Dick Cotton told me the secret of marriage is? He could have staying married. Stay married. Awesome. Right? The secret of staying in marriage is staying married.

The secret of staying in relationships with people you have issues with is staying in relationship. Maybe you might need a break for boundary issue or whatever it is. But continuing, I'm not going to stop praying. You can have physical distance and continue to persevere. Perseverance is often the enemy of victory. How's your perseverance? Paul was not a runner.

He knew how to continue on in the valley of the shadow of death. We will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But once again, one of my favorite verses, you'll hear it over and over again, is we don't lay down in the valley of the shadow of death. We continue. As you walk. It doesn't say as you lay down in the valley. And where are you walking to?

It says you are walking to quiet waters and pastures. And in the end, where do you end up if you were a sheep in Psalm 23? Do you know where you end up? I will dwell where? In the house of the Lord forever. Let me tell you, the end of the road through hardships. And Paul says it here as well in a New Testament understanding. Is the house of the Lord forever.

He said we will, in the New Testament, enter the kingdom of God, the house of the Lord. Which it says in Psalm 23 through what? Many hardships. It is the pathway through that we see. Paul is not a runner. The same city had just stoned him. They were thinking he was dead. Now what is interesting is, I had never seen this before. Where did they go after they went into that city?

So it says they went back into the city that they were just at. And then they went somewhere else. They went to Lystrom, Iconium, and Antioch. And I thought to myself, why did they go there? Like, where was he getting his cues from to go? Like, was there a tour package? Like a first missionary journey tour package you could buy online or something?

And then I went back and I kept reading through the scripture saying, Lord, because the Lord touched it for me in my soul. And then I thought, wait a second. Two of the cities that he went to are the cities that the Jewish leaders had just come from who stirred up the crowd to incite his stoning. He is so, that guy is, I don't know the right word.

He's got a lot of courage, okay? I mean, the same, he gets in and he's like, oh, you guys just stoned me. You stirred up the crowd. Where are you from again? Antioch? And you're from Iconium? All right, we'll see you there. He takes off and goes back to their city because the work is not done. I tell you, this guy is not afraid of giants. This guy, they just stoned him.

Matter of fact, they had come from another city and riled up the crowd. How much easier would it be to rile up a crowd in their own city where they knew everybody? But Paul said, no, no, no. I just got raised from the dead. Yeah, try that. Or mostly dead. Excuse me. Let's say scripturally accurate. I just got raised from mostly dead. Goes back and fights those giants and continues to have victory.

I got to say, if there's something that you've... Throw the bell away. Throw the bell away. And say, I got to step back. Or maybe you've rung the bell on something in your life. You've given up on something in your life. You've given up on this. You've given up on that. I got to say, that is the enemy. That is a king in your life that wants to stand you down and say, you will never take that ground.

Step up. Step up again with courage and hope. Stand up because it says that perseverance leads to hope. Listen to this in Romans 5, 3. It says, we also glory in our sufferings. We glory in our sufferings. How countercultural is the scripture? We glory in our suffering. Jesus gloried in the cross because why? That was his suffering. But it led to his redemption.

Because we know that suffering produces perseverance. Suffering, what does it produce? Perseverance. Unless you give into it. If you just lay down and say, I'm just going to take suffering and give up. But if you try to go through it, perseverance. And perseverance leads to character. And character leads to what? Hope. Hope does not put us to shame or disappoint.

Because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Do you see your sufferings where it leads you? In the 23rd Psalm, it leads you to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. When Paul speaks about it, he tells you that the sufferings lead you into the kingdom of God. And as you look in Romans, it says that when you go through sufferings and say, I will not give up.

It says hope will not put you to shame. And this is your destination. Because God's love has been poured out. But when you go through suffering and you don't ring that bell, the love of God will find you. And it will pour itself out on you. And into your heart, into the love of God, experiencing God's love in your heart. Says, through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We've got to persevere. In the middle of the night, and I get that. In the middle of the night, 2 in the morning, you wake up and there's the thoughts of all the things. You know you're giants. I don't need to know the 31 kings in your life, but you've got them. And they're there. And as a church, I want us to go forward and persevere. Number two, the price of victory is also purchased with the currency of many hardships.

And I've preached this a little bit. We'll go through it quick. Verse 22, he did what? When he went back to Antioch and told all the good stories of what God had done, he strengthened. There, his victory, like I talked about Usain Bolt, people excited about his victory. He came back and strengthened the disciples, encouraging them to do what? Remain true to the faith.

We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, they said. This is interesting. The disciples were encouraged by a hard word. He said to them, this is the word. We must go through many hardships. That word, it says to enter the kingdom of God. That word, it said encourage them. Who gets encouraged by that? Like, who gets encouraged by that?

The people that hear the end of the story. Because he says, I got up and I want you to meet so-and-so. I want you to hear about this person. People are receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ. People are getting saved. And this message, it was only to the Jews, who were originally Gentiles, by the way. And the scripture says that. Jews were Gentiles.

Abraham, Abram was a Gentile who God turned him in all the way through his lineage into the Jewish people. And then it came back to the Gentiles. It came full circle back to the Gentiles. This closed religion of a time, God had to close it to make himself known to one people that all might know him. Now, in their time, the Messiah had come. In their time, the Messiah had come and opened the gates that all the Gentiles might be saved.

Did you share the message? I encouraged you last week to share the message of the gospel. I was walking past a place this week and they do cosmetics. And the gal says, would you like some face cream? And the next thing I know, I'm in the chair. And I'm being blocked off. I'm in the chair at the cosmetic place where they do facials, right? She's like, you got creases here, here, you're there.

This is dropping. You need college in here. I'm like, uh, yeah. I'm sorry, I don't mean to offend you. I'm like, you've done a great job, I know. She starts talking. And she has a bit of an accent. She's skin's a little bit darker. And I'm trying to figure out where she is. She goes, well, I said, where'd you grow up? I said, where are you from originally?

And she says, well, I lived in the Middle East. I'm like, okay, all right. You're not going to share with me where you live in the Middle East, okay. But she goes, then I lived in Russia. I'm thinking you're Jewish. Because there's so many Jewish people that lived in Russia. There's a lot of Russian Jews. She talked about some other places she lived.

And I kind of put together, but I waited. And then in the end, we kept talking. And she said, well, you know, I'm actually, I'm Jewish. And I said, oh. I said, that's interesting. And I said, do you, you know, and she says, we start talking about religion. And I thought, this is my opportunity to share the gospel in words. And I said, well, what do you, I said, do you follow Judaism?

She goes, I just believe if somebody has a belief in something, then you'll be okay. I said, anything? She goes, just as long as you believe in something. It just has to be a something. I didn't press that any further. And I said to her, I said to her, her name was Shannon. And I said, Shannon, I said, do you know that you're God's chosen people?

And she put her head down like that. It was really interesting because it had been full on sales, you know, buy this college in for 300 bucks. And she put her head down and she put it back up. And I said, I want you to know you're God's chosen people. And she goes, well, I'm no special than anybody, than everybody else. I said, well, that's not, that's true.

But you're all, but you are chosen by God. And I said, you know, and the Messiah has come to your people. And I said, you know, Jesus died on the cross. And I said, you know, Christianity is different because we don't believe you can believe in anything and you're okay. We believe that you have to be saved by the shed blood of Jesus on the cross and through his death and resurrection.

And you will spend eternity separated from God if you do not follow Jesus and receive his goodness in that. And I thought, you know, I've been telling my congregation, dude, I got to do it. And I said, you know, I, I almost bought the $300 collagen. I almost did. You know why? And I, I'll be dead serious with you. Uh, I might go back. I thought, is it worth 300 bucks to me to share the gospel with her that she might come to church?

Maybe I'll make her a trade. I'll buy your $300. It's two for one. So you get, it's 150 each. I could use it. Dropping. I just thought to myself, is it worth three? Is it worth 300 bucks to me? Yeah, it is. I don't know. I might go back for a facial. There's 600 bucks. But I get one thrown in for free. She said, 600 facial. I better look good. I said this.

The disciples were encouraged by that word because they got a glimpse of victory. When was the last time you savored victory? In your life. When was the last time you know how to live in victory? So few believers know how to live in victory. It's something we have to practice. And with victory comes joy. When something good happens in our marriage.

When something good happens with my children. Kai and Bev are really good at this. And Zach. You're right. And Zach. Zach's their son. They're so good at knowing when they've won something and celebrating it. Celebrate victory. And give God the glory and praise. And when we do that, we get showered. You'll see that you can harvest joy from the only place you can truly get joy.

Heaven. When we step into that. And the final point is this. Victory is anchored in trusted leadership. Verse 23. Paul and Barnabas approved elders as they left those cities. This is before they got back to Antioch. In those cities where they had went and they had fruit. And they appointed elders in Iconium and in Lystra. In these different places.

For each church. And with prayer fasting committed them to the Lord. In whom they had put their trust. I want to say victory is so often anchored in trusted relationships. And trusted leadership. As we see there it says Paul and Barnabas left the work in the hands of these people. And this is so interesting about Paul. Paul had no. Felt no obligation to micromanage the kingdom of God.

He found trusted people. And he said I trust that you can follow and hear from the Lord. Now we have that exact same setup here at this church. Today we're having a congregational meeting. To vote on something that our trusted elders and staff have put together. And I want to say that it is. I am honored to sit by Kai. To sit by David Robinson. Glenda.

Don Baker. And I hope that you are as well. But the thing that is interesting for our lives. Is who are you surrounded by? Where do you get your counsel from? And do you have a group of people that you celebrate with? Do you have a group of people that are trusted in your life. That you can go to and be surrounded by in community. And I want to say that this church wants to offer that to you.

Our number one goal going forward. Is to make sure that you are equipped. And have an opportunity to be in community. That you might grow in Christ. Whether you're single. Whether you're married. Whether you're young. Whether you're older. Whatever it is. Paul took the victory. Let's finish with the conclusion of Paul's missionary journey. Verse 24 through 28.

After going through Pisidia. They came to Pamphylia. And then when they had preached the word in Perga. They went down to Italia. From Italia they sailed back to Antioch. That's where they began. Where they had been committed to the grace of God. For the work they had now completed. I love it. Completed a work. And on arriving there. On arriving there.

They gathered the church together. And reported all that God had done through them. And how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Praise God. And they stayed there a long time. With the disciples. Resting in God. And enjoying the fruits of victory. Let's have the worship team come up. And we're going to sing another song today. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. thank you. Thank you.