The Compelling Freedom of the God-Centered life (Acts 14:1-28)

[00:00:01] Speaker A: I get to do something today that we don't normally do, which is introduce a guest speaker. We don't do this super often here because God has blessed us with some awesome teaching elders. But I want to introduce you guys today to my brother, Evan Skelton. Evan is the associate pastor. You can clap for Evan. I've known Evan since his family moved here from Colorado, be a part of planting and replanting and revitalization work. Evan is the associate pastor at the Journey Bayless in South County, which has a really similar story to us as Emmanuel's, two churches that came together and merged and kind of started to work together. And so it's just, listen, guys, Jim's been on sabbatical for a while now, and so I was like, look, guys, I need a all craig, Jesse, we all needed a Sunday. Is that agreed? So Evan was gracious enough to come here and service today, and so you guys are going to be blessed by God speaking through Him, but I'm actually going to swap this table. Is it okay you want to use this one? I have a prep to swap you. [00:01:05] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Okay, we're going to swap the tables real quick. [00:01:07] Speaker B: Such a thanks. All right, while we're swapping these out, as Sam mentioned, actually, here's what I want to invite you to do. So if you would go ahead and reach under your seats. If you don't have a Bible, or if you did bring a Bible, please pull that out. What a great team you guys have, man. Anything for you, Evan. That's great. Bit of a diva, aren't you? I am a bit of a diva. There we go. We're going to be in a book of Acts, chapter 14. If you're new to navigating the Bible, use that table of contents just like any other book. The large numbers are the chapters, small numbers are the verses. Once you get the underneath your underneath your seat, those Bibles that are here, if you do not have a Bible or you know someone who could use one, please take them as a gift from this church. And if somebody is using one of those Bibles, can you shout out what page number Acts chapter 14 is on to help us out? 638-62-8628 Acts chapter 14, we're going to be picking up in verse eight, and I'm going to read through verse 23. I hope you will follow along with us. After all, as any of the pastors would say, what you need most this morning is God's word. Not mine, not anyone else's. His words are the most trustworthy, comforting, and healing. So let's find them in Acts chapter 14, verse eight through 23. Now, at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made. Well said in a loud voice, stand up. Right on your feet. He sprang up and began walking. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lyconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker and the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifices, sacrifice with the crowds. When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you. And we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to the living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their ways, yet he did not leave himself without a witness, for he did not give. He did not he sorry, for he did good by giving you reins from heaven and fruitful season, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. Even with these words, they scarcely estrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city. And on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby. And when they had preached the Gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed. This is God's word. I just realized I'm reading in a different translation, so if you're reading yours, I'm like, those aren't my words. Okay, that's okay. So I was reading English standard version. If you've got CSB in front of you, it's just as good. But as Sam mentioned before we get into our text, my name is Evan Skelton. I do have the privilege of serving as one of the pastors at the Journey Bayless Church, previously served as lead pastor of Bayless Baptist Church. And our church's stories are oh so similar. And I am so convinced, having walked through our own adoption merger, not only how difficult the process can be, even personally, but how much gospel beauty is found there as we gather, as we're going to see here, not around a personality, we gather around Christ, one who laid his preferences aside for us even unto death. And what could be like a church merger in which we are forced to lay our preferences aside over and over and over again for the sake of other believers and for sake of those who do not yet confess that Christ is Lord. And so I'm honored, honestly to preach today and to see your sacrifice and how it preaches the same gospel that we're going to hope in. But something else you should know is Sam is not only one of my first friends here in the city, he's one of the best pastors that I know. He didn't ask me to say this, but I know few pastors who are as large hearted in their shepherding care and wise in their counsel as Sam. I don't know how many times I have called him to walk me through very difficult and sticky pastoral situations. You have some very, very good pastors here. I'm very grateful for all of them. And Sam asked me to be here today to preach on Tithing. I'm just kidding. He did not. So we are going to I owe Sam the credit for that joke, actually. So we're going to be looking at a contrast that the Gospel produces that I think is very applicable and timely for all of us. Before I do that, before we look at Acts 14, I wonder how many of you are familiar with C. S. Lewis and the Chronicles of Narnia? How many of you are familiar with the final book, The Last Battle? So that book is less familiar to many, and it's honestly the least it's the book that feels least like a children's book. In the book, it begins with two characters shift the ape and Puzzle the donkey. And Shift happens upon, of all things, a lion carcass that is floating in a pool. And after sending his friend to go grab the carcass, he comes up with this scheme, a scheme to impersonate impersonate the great lion aslam. So this lion's skin, he looks at Puzzle and he sees an opportunity on his hands. And so much to Puzzle's own. Without Puzzle realizing it, he says, as he asks him to pull this on, tells us he tied it underneath Puzzle's body and he tied the legs to Puzzle's legs and the tail to Puzzle's tail. A good deal of Puzzle's gray nose and face could be seen through the open mouth of the lion's head. No one who had ever seen a real lion would be taken in for a moment. But if someone who had never seen a lion looked at Puzzle in his lion skin, he just might mistake him for a lion if he didn't come too close, if the light was not too good, and if Puzzle didn't let out a bray and didn't make out any noise with his hooves. You look wonderful. Wonderful, the ape said. If anyone saw you now, they think you were Aslan, the great lion himself. Oh, that would be dreadful, said Puzzle to the reader who knows anything of the might and beauty and wisdom of aslan. The whole attempt is ridiculous. Only a fool would call that creature standing in front of them a lion. Yet in Narnia he gets away with it. It doesn't take long for nearly all of Narnia to give this allegiance to a dressed up donkey justifying horrible things in his name. How could a costumed puppet not only pass as the real thing but so readily be received by others as the real thing? Because something within them and I think C. S. Lewis wants us to see something within us. Wants to. When you don't know a lion and some part of you doesn't want the lion even a donkey will do. Friends, the same goes for us. So often what we know when we look at leaders and authorities is we know God replacements. We know those who seem to offer us a path to the good life and we give them infinite allegiance without even realizing it. We latch on to them expectations. We make of them Gods. And today I want to see the impact of what that does when it happens, how fragile that kind of life is and the freedom that comes with centering not on man, but on God himself. I want us to consider this contrast really in two parts the fragility of the man centered crowd that we see in Acts 14 and the strange freedom of the God centered man. And we're going to spend some additional time looking at the practical implications of what that freedom looks like in your life. Can I ask a favor, though? Can I get some water? Possibly. Is that possible? I'm such a diva. I know. Here we go. Thank you. But I hope you will keep your look at how so many people are running to action. I want to get 16 cups of water. Here we go. So let's consider first the fragility of the man centered crowd. In Acts 14 we find ourselves, if you're unfamiliar with the Book of Acts in the middle of a journey by Paul and Barnabas, a missionary journey they are in fact the very first missionaries for the Christian Church. The faith's former persecutor, its great enemy now side by side with the man who first came to his defense. With the disciples, Paul and Barnabas, on a 1200 miles trek through foreign territory sent by a church, the church in Antioch to see what else the Gospel might do, where else the Gospel might grow if it were to be planted in places where Christ had never been named, even among Gentiles. It's interesting. From the very earliest days we see Christians are ascending people going to those who do not yet know of the one we call Savior and Lord. The very first church planters. Thank you. Oh, God's. Grace. All right. And in verse eight they arrive at a city named Lystra where a man sits with Paul and Barnabas, and he is listening to Paul's preaching. He is sitting at his feet, though, not just because he is interested, but because he can't go anywhere else. We find out this man is crippled from birth. Actually, he's not just a man who cannot walk, he has never walked. Like many, he has probably been stepped on or stepped over for most of his known life, maybe even carried here as the travelers have entered into town to hear them speak. But then, while he is staring at them, one of them stares back. Paul, who Luke tells us was looking intently at him. You ever been in a moment like that where somebody across a room looks at you and you say, like, somebody back here. What's your deal, Paul? You want to wonder if he is thinking the same? And Paul says to him, stand up on your feet. It's mad. But it's not the first time a disciple, confident in the power of the spirit, has commanded something like this. Back in Acts, chapter three, peter the Apostle himself encounters a beggar who also happened to be lame from birth and told him, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And with those words, this man too springs to his feet. It's mad. And just like Peter, the crowds come swarming to them. And just like Peter, Paul finds himself preaching, but not exactly for the same reasons. You see, something happens to Paul and Barnabas that I don't think either one of them expected. Look with me to verse eleven. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying, in Lyconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. They even named them Barnabas they call Zeus, and Paul they call Hermes. Depending on your translation, they might also be referred to as Jupiter and Mercury, the Roman equivalent of these Greek gods. The gods have come to Earth. That's a stretch, and that definitely escalated quickly. Yet it's not the only time this has happened, especially in a society like theirs. You see, according to legends that we have from this area, zeus and Hermes once visited this region before, according to their legends, disguised as mortals seeking lodging. Yet instead of being received, legends said that many of them turned the gods away and had their homes destroyed by the gods as a result. And you can imagine the people of Lystra are determined not to let that happen again. But let's think more broadly about this time. You see, in Rome, Caesar himself was considered a god. And in Acts, just two chapters earlier, a man named Herod Agrippa taking his throne in silver robes. As the Jewish historian Josephus tells us, robes that sparkled in the sun. Herod welcomed a crowd who shouted the voice of a god and not a man. This culture feels very different from our own. I mean, it's hard to imagine something like this taking place. In a culture in which our gods aren't housed necessarily in a temple, it's hard for us to imagine something like this happening. Yet I think it happens, at least in small measure and in different ways all the time. I remember my first day in pastoral theology, my first course in Bible college, where I'd already sensed from God that I wanted to be a pastor. And was excited now to have a class about what this looks like. What did it mean to be a pastor? And the very first day I will never forget. Dr. Kessler, who had been a pastor in rural Indiana for much of his life, walked up to the podium, opened up his notes. Looked as if it was possible, straight. Through us, straight into us and said something like young men, before we begin this course, it's important that we recognize every one of you wants to be a pastor for the wrong reasons. You see, everyone in this room wants to be a pastor, at least in some degree, to be a God replacement, to stand in his place before others. In fact, it's what many people will expect of you. You're the pastor. You're like God to them, and sometimes they will prefer you as his stand in. Only you will make a poor one every time. You see how those words stuck with me even years later, at least some degree, some of us in the classroom were like, I mean, come on, you don't know me. And yet, having been a pastor now for almost ten years, I think he did. I can say my experience and my heart have not only confirmed what he warned against, but I can also say it isn't just pastors, it's politicians, it's institutions, it's influencers. It's anyone who gets a small measure of power and authority. Just think about how much attention and money and emotion becomes entangled with those we watch on a little screen in our pocket or those who occupy a stage like this one. In a sense, you can even turn your parents or your spouse or your children into a God replacement. What is it about us that takes human beings and makes them into gods? I think at least two reasons. One, I think it's that there's something about that person or that figure that offers me something that I want. Why else would I give them my attention? It is if I'm ever going to have the happiness I need. We attach ourselves to the people who have what we wish we did. Just think about how many hours are spent on social media or the news cycle and how these contribute to it. Living through those who are funnier, wealthier, skinnier, more confident, those who have finally made their face seen and their voice heard the very things we want. And they often promise with a bit more work or by linking yourself to them, you can finally have what they have as well. You can have your good life. But the other reason we make people into God's is that the person in front of me, just to be honest, they seem more tangible and more accessible than God so often seems to be. Often the person in front of me seems easier to deal with, easier to impress, easier to follow, or, let's be honest, easier to manipulate and get something from than God himself. Buying the age old lie the serpent first whispered to Eve in the garden, that we can't really trust God with our happiness, that God doesn't really know me and what I need, and he can't really be trusted to give me what I most need. If I'm going to find it, I'm going to have to go around him. I'm going to have to find another God by making one, even if that God is someone else. Putting this together, we make people into gods because they offer us a better life than I have and a better path to find it. Now, it may not be a politician for you, but what kind of leaders are you drawn to? What kind of influencers? Why? What people have you buddied up to in your life hoping that something of what they have will rub off on you? Have you ever put too much pressure on a spouse or a child or a girlfriend or a pastor feeling like so long as you have them, you can finally have that that good thing, that good life? You want to know one of the tests of whether someone has become a god to you? Our passage reveals it too. Watch what you do when they slip, when they begin to crack under the pressure you've put on them when they don't offer you what you thought that they did. Think of the hurt that comes next that you can't seem to shake, or the anger that blows way out of proportion, the deep desire when someone fails those expectations to make them pay or to cut them off. How impossible it can seem to forgive them. Fuming I thought you would be different. And then how quickly we move on to someone or something else. Many pastors have seen their most committed allies turn into their most committed enemies overnight. The moment it seems the pastor isn't leading the church in a direction that we hoped that he would. In fact, I think we absolutize all of our people and institutions, don't we? Think about how much of our current political polarization and cultural polarization is bound up with it, and why so many talk of burning the whole system down as if the next one we start could be so much better? It's why we can start the day worshipping someone and at the end of it, stone them to death. We make people either gods on earth or demons of hell. But it's not just that we look for god replacements and treat them as God replacements. As my professor warned, sometimes we become them. And to be honest, sometimes we enjoy it. Friend, if you're in a position of authority or influence, whether it is at home or work, as my professor warned me, I want to warn you every one of us wants the success, wants the influence, wants the attention or position, at least in part for the wrong reasons, at least in part. Something in you wants to be a God replacement. And often the pressures and expectations that others put on you will match. Very few will even think to question what the latest advance will mean for you. And it actually may be the worst thing for you. The more you have, the more you will want, and the less it will satisfy and the more who will be affected in your wake. How do I know? Because I have been there. My heart, just like yours, wants to be seen as impressive and important, to be needed and necessary, tempted at times to sometimes buy my own press. Maybe I'm the only one. Some part of us, I think, though, knows that no one is meant to bear that kind of weight on their shoulders. And we often resent those who put too much expectations on them. And yet, let's be honest, doesn't some part of you enjoy it? How far have you gone sometimes to hold on to it, expertly convincing yourself that you deserve it, that it's for the best, that you really are the only one who could be trusted with that kind of power anyways? How many governments have it justified their power that way? That's not to say that power or influence or opportunity are necessarily bad. Please do not hear me say that you should go and quit your job today. Notice Paul sees an opportunity in front of him, and he takes it. But we often see the opportunity as an opportunity to push ourselves forward instead of God. I've seen even some people, some well meaning Christians, spiritualize it, arguing that it's for the sake of the gospel, that they need the spotlight, overlooking the sacrifices that are made in their name. And not God's. We take people and we make them stand ins for God or become them ourselves. But friends, we make poor ones every time. Again, to think back to the illustration in The Last Battle how could a costume puppet not only passes the real thing, but be so readily received? Because some part of us wants to. And when you don't know the lion, even a donkey will do, I'll keep it G rated. Friends, the same goes for us. When all you know is God's replacements, then even a donkey will do. And the life that is lived as a result is not only fragile, but comes with a lot of collateral damage. I'm sure if we asked the stories this room, we could list them. Is it possible. There's a better way. Let's consider it. Having considered the fragility of the mancentered crowd, I promise there's good news as we look at the freedom of the God centered man. Now, even as the crowds looking back at our passage begin chanting their name, chanting their praise, it seems Paul and Barnabas are a little slow on the uptake. Perhaps because of the language barrier that's going on. Perhaps when the priest stood ready to slaughter a wreathed bull in front of them, they realize, oh, something's about to go terribly wrong. Now, I mentioned Herod about in chapter twelve. When he faces a crowd like this, he welcomes it. He can imagine him almost buying it. I am something of a god, aren't I? You can imagine stirring up the crowds to chant his name. It doesn't end well for him, if you're curious. Something about being eaten by worms from the inside. But notice the reflex of Paul and Barnabas. What is it? It's the opposite. Without skipping a beat, they rip their garments and cry men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you. Notice how natural this response is to them. How not just laughable, but blasphemous. It is to them to be mistaken for God, to absorb any glory which should be reflected to him. Notice how allergic they are to any kind of attention like that. Not because they're somehow self loathing and insecure. I'm a nobody, don't give attention to me. It turns out to be actually a form of self focus. We know. No, it's because they know God. They know the living God, the maker of heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. The one who has made you, they say, endured your rejection and yet still given you blessing at least some satisfaction that you might see not just the gifts, but the giver. To see his power, to see his goodness and his mercy. That you might turn from vain things, which includes me, and turn to Him. It's as if they say, can't you see that everything else in comparison to the living God is vain, including us. It makes me think of the wizard of Oz, as many of us are pulling lever after lever behind the curtain, hoping desperately no one gets a peek at the unimpressive person behind it. These men are eager to pull it back. They want others to see their weakness. In fact, it is essential for them, in order to understand the gospel, for others to understand the gospel, they have to see the weakness. Which is perhaps why Paul spends so much time speaking about his weakness in his letters. Boasting. Not about the things that qualify him, but the things that don't. Resolving to know nothing but the greatness of God and the goodness of his Savior. To know nothing but Christ and then crucified, as he will put it what about you and me? Though, when the spotlight comes, do you shift it or look for a way to step into it? Are you eager not just for others to know your frailty, but willing for them to see it? Are you quick to laugh at yourself? You quick to repent? Are you quick to say, I am not the hero? One of my favorite quotes by John the Baptist when he is asked, who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ, like some sort of spiritual judo. In the midst of your opportunities, are you eager to shift the momentum away from yourself, to throw it to Christ? Do you want to be that freed? It comes by knowing him. The Gospel has freed these two men from what enslaves the crowds more than they know, and it has freed them in several ways, the first of which is to move aside. But it's not the only way that Paul is freed. He is also freed not just to move aside, but to move toward. After all, think what got Paul and Barnabas into this mess, seeing a man in need. Do you notice that in verse nine, it was in the context of Paul speaking? Even right now, I'm aware as I preach, it's hard to think about much other than my preaching. And here is a man who is speaking so self forgetful, so confident in the power of God and how greatly those around him need that God, that even as he is preaching, he is looking around him for those who the Spirit is awakening faith in, for those who might find healing by the Spirit's power. And it causes him to move toward them on the spot, toward the vulnerable, a man who is not even seeking Paul's help. Notice how intertwined for Paul, and you'll see Christians throughout the Bible, how intertwined for them the ministry of the Word and the ministry of deed is how intertwined they have been for Christians throughout the centuries. The ministry of the Word of the Gospel and the works that come from the Gospel asking, what is it that my neighbor in front of me needs most right now? Is it groceries? Is it teaching English? Is it forgiveness? Is it getting them to safety? Is it help to a doctor's appointment? Or is it again, to explain the hope that is in me, in fact, to drive this home? Notice that as he is moving toward his neighbor who is in need, what does this cause him to do next, to meet the greatest need by preaching? In fact, it's in the midst of a massive understanding that would throw all of us off that Paul sees an opportunity here he's not going to get again to point them to the truth. And notice when he does, he does so with such a remarkable understanding of who he's standing in front of. I was so encouraged this morning. Sam was leading. The discipleship hour. If you've not yet checked that out, I would highly encourage it. But talking about how is it that we make sense of the gospel to those in front of us who may not understand the language we're using, may not share the assumptions that we have? Do you notice how Paul does that here? In fact, we need to say what Paul does here is not so much evangelism as it is pre evangelism. After all, if you look back at his sermon, there's no mention of Christ, no mention of his death and resurrection or the forgiveness that he accomplished. No, Paul knows to get there in the midst of a people who don't believe in the authority of the Bible or understand the separation of sin. He needs to lay a foundation for any of those claims to even make sense. So he tells them first of the vanity of the things they are seeking for and the vanity of the places they have searched for. It these things as if it's as if he says, you're chasing they can't really satisfy and these so called gods can't really deliver on their promises. No, you were made for the God to whom these things point, to the one who isn't vain, who is alive. You need a different master, one who is actually living and is your maker, one who can be trusted. Turn to him. And yet, even as he calls them to turn friend, this is only the first turn. And after all, it could be that you share these assumptions already, that you believe in a God and you believe that he made you. I have students all the time who ask. We say they identify as a Christian. I say, tell me what that means for you. What does it mean for you to be a Christian? Oh, well, you usually give me two answers. I mean, I believe in God and I'm trying to do right by most people. I'll answer back to them, I'm so glad you believe in God and that you're trying to do what's right that doesn't make a Christian. You will only be able to find this living God after all, if the sins that stand between you and him can be forgiven. And these sins will only be forgiven as you transfer your trust to Jesus, for it the one who lived the life that you should have lived, who died the death on your behalf, who was raised to new life that you might share in that life with him forever. Paul's sermon is only part one, and unfortunately, he is well interrupted, we'll say, before he gets to part two. But since his goal is to persuade them with the gospel, he extends his presentation, tailoring it to the people who are in front of him. Our culture is not that different, friends. We too live in a world where the Bible is neither known nor seen as trustworthy, a world that no longer shares some of the assumptions essential to understanding the gospel. Assumptions we are used to people sharing. But instead of shutting us down and making us despair, it should, like Paul, make us creative, persistent, growing experts in people as we are growing experts in our faith, bearers of the same gospel who seek to not just inform people of it, but persuade people to it, to persuade people of the gospel's goodness and their need. And you know what? That takes time and wisdom. And so it could and likely will take many conversations to clarify the gospel and call people to respond. And only a God centered person who is not eager to get his spiritual tally marks in line by how many times he shares it. Only a God centered person is free enough to spend the time, to get, to know, to ask Lord what it is. Is it that we need next. Free enough to be courageous and flexible, freed with the boldness to say something at all in the first place and with the resolve to take whatever path would be the most effective. The God centered person is free to move aside with confidence. They are also free to move toward others with wisdom. The third, the gospel centered person, the God centered person is free to move forward. Why move forward? Because it doesn't matter where the gospel is preached, it's always going to end up picking a fight. Just notice how a hornet's nest of opposition has been stirred up by his preaching. I mean, after all, where do these opponents come from that all of a sudden are stirring up the crowds? They are a group of Jews who have heard Paul once before in previous cities and they're so angry by what he's announced, they've chosen to follow him. The worst kind of groupies, very much like Paul used to be that they drive him out of every city that they come to, following him nearly 100 miles. Because they are so angry, so oppositional, so committed to making him do one thing, and that is stop by whatever means necessary. Paul meets with these enemies yet again. And notice how quickly this crew turns the crowd against the missionaries they were just praising. Just as the first disciples experienced and just as Jesus himself experienced. It doesn't take long to turn a crowd into a mob. And sometimes that mob stones you to death. Verse 19 tells us that they were so convinced that they had succeeded in Stoning. Paul, they dragged him out of the city and tossed him out with the rest of the garbage, which is where the garbage would go. And now he is surrounded, his body beaten and broken by disciples who wonder if this is the moment they finally lost him. Paul miraculously stands up and what does he do? He gets on a boat and heads home. Actually, that's not the case. But isn't that what we would do? How many of us would take that as the sign that it's time for me to step away? I'm going to take a sabbatical, let someone else take the hits for a month. I mean, now that maybe he's questioning, maybe you and I would too, that we've misunderstood this call. Maybe I'm actually not supposed to be here. Maybe we would lick our wounds and let someone else take the charge for the change. No. Paul again moves forward with the good news of the gospel and the good of others on his mind. Paul tells us, or Luke tells us, I'm sorry that Paul moved further, actually into Asia Minor. He moved another 60 miles to Derby, where he trains up more disciples. But then something strange happens. Instead of returning the quicker way, and if you look at a map that might be in your Bible, you'll see this. Instead of going back to Antioch, where all this had begun, the shorter route, the easier route of the journey, what does he do? He reverses his course. He goes back through the same cities that he had fled from, including First Lystra, the very town that had just stoned him to death. Take it as a sign to give it a pass. Paul, I wonder, would this get a missionary fired? Today, instead of going to more towns where the gospel was not known, he retraces his steps. He shores up the churches that have already been planted. Why? Because Paul understands that his mission and ours is about making disciples, not purely converts from all nations. Disciples who need to endure and disciples who will be fragile in their faith to begin. And they must be trained, they must be strengthened, they must be protected for the tribulations to come. He bears in his body these scars and nurses his own wounds as the proof. They need to be warned of what is to come and why Jesus is worth it. But even at great risk to himself what is on his mind not his own skin, but the perseverance of his fellow believers. He takes responsibility for them following Christ for the rest of their lives. And friends, we owe each other the same. The gospel doesn't free him from enduring the fists and the anger of others, but it does empower him with joy to keep moving forward, looking to build Christ's church so long as he still has breath and friends. That is exactly what the gospel will free us to do as well. There is hardly a culture that is more fragile than ours is. I think, and sociologists have noted it, when it comes to suffering, our culture is fragile. The gospel equips though the Christian to stand out, perhaps particularly in a culture like ours. Not in avoiding suffering, not necessarily in seeking it either, but leaning into it when it comes. And friend, it will come with grace and poise to lean into the suffering, to shed your tears and to confess your hope and to move forward. Can you think of a better way for a Christian to stand out today? It's one of the ways I am convinced we would most stand out. Not ignoring our pain or pretending it does not affect us, but moving forward with the same thing on our mind that was on Paul's the good of others and the glory of God. We remain public with our faith and gracious toward others, even towards those who are dealing the blows that others might turn to the living God. Friend, let me ask you, is there anyone in your life who needs you to press forward with? Someone who you need to press forward for knowing you still have a responsibility to someone who you know, even now is in danger of drifting or perhaps already has? Someone you've already written off and given up on? Would you begin praying this morning that God might help you? Just take the next step. Paul is freed to move aside. Freed to move toward, freed to move forward. But last, Paul is freed to move on. Do you notice that after Paul makes disciples in these cities, according to verse 23, he provides for their ongoing growth and maturity, for their perseverance as a church through leaders that aren't him. He appoints elders and then he moves on, entrusting them to the God who saved them, the God who will be responsible for their growth and who is not him. We've already established that Paul doesn'tucktail and run from suffering. But sometimes the hardest thing to do is to leave. Maybe it's that we don't want to be seen as a failure, or because of the pressure we feel, believing that the results really are dependent upon us. But notice how Paul doesn't worry about either. Yes, he takes seriously the endurance of the believers he leaves behind. But let's be honest, he moves on from some cities prior to this, knowing his enemies are going to chalk it up as a win. And even now, when probably no one is asking him to leave, in fact wanting him to stay, he does leave knowing it's the very best thing for their faith. And when he finally returns home, he will tell all that God has done among the Gentiles with him, all the doors that God had opened with Him, but never takes, really, a lick of credit for it. Boldness without arrogance or publicity stunts, endurance without apathy or self pity. How could he be so freed? Because his confidence was not in himself. Because he trusts them to the one their faith should be in in the first place. The one who raises the lame and the beaten to their feet, who, as the crowds had hoped, really has come to us? God. To men, he hopes, in the one who did not just come in the likeness, but in the very form of man enduring rejection and abuse himself. Paul knows, the one who was not just beaten within an inch of his life, but far past it, drug outside of the city where he would die. The one who was raised not just now vindicates, but strengthens those who would join him in what Paul warns would be a painful way. Paul is freed because he has met Christ, and all who are stacked up against him cannot compare. The last battle ends with the same donkey who was dressed up as the lion, meeting the great lion himself. And after impersonating him for so long, you could say this was his worst fear. Lewis does not say what Aslan said to him on that day, but it's just as brilliant, only that as aslan whispered to puzzle. The long ears of puzzle went down, as ours would if they could, having seen all our attempts to replace God for the blasphemy they are. But then Lewis says Aslan said something else, at which his ears perked up again, as ours would too, hearing still of greater grace, forgiveness. That orients those who have tried to replace their God. And it orients us under the one who deserves and can be trusted with such glory. Do you know him? I want to invite the band to come up and I want to encourage some of us to actually enter into a time of prayer together, considering several things. Some of us, honestly, we're not believers. Perhaps we've considered ourselves believers, but have never taken Christ in faith. Or we know that we're not. There's something that stands in the way. Would you consider the fragility of centering on anyone else? Have you experienced the collateral damage? Do you want to rest upon one who can be trusted, who would give you the strength to endure even suffering itself? To find purpose and joy, to be made useful in his service? To find one who is King and can be trusted to be king? One who frees you to step aside? Would you turn in faith to Christ? Would you even now spend time confessing your need for Him if you're a believer? All of us just be honest. We all need reminders of the glory and goodness and greatness of God, that our story is not a story primarily about us. We don't sit at the center. He does. I wonder how he's asking you to obey. Is he asking you to move towards someone even now? Asking what is best for them to move forward? Even where you're feeling the costs and your temptation is just to give up, just to get angry, to write the whole thing off? Is it possible that God's calling you to make a courageous decision, to move on, to trust those you've invested in the work that you've so worked toward in his hands, to do what he will? Friends, I want to invite all of us to spend the next few moments in prayer, and then I will close us in prayer and we'll close in worship and the Lord's Supper. Almighty God, King of Glory, maker of heaven and earth, everything belongs to you, including us. And you have endured with such patience our not only ongoing rejection, but our apathy towards you, that we are more wooed and compelled by the promises of false heroes of ones who could never bear the pressure. And even right now, we are punishing those who have failed us all because we have put our hope in the wrong places. Some of us, we've tried to be a replacement. We've gotten too attached to the authority and power that we have. The responsibility You've entrusted to us and entrusted to us that we give you glory. Forgive us, Father. May we see Christ and see what he laid aside for our behalf so that we might know Him and we might come to Him as the Name who is above every other Name, the only One before whom every knee will bow and tongue will confess that he is Lord. And will we spend our lives with purpose that any and all, as many as possible, might know the living God and turn from vain things, including us. And we need your help. We pray all these things in light of the matchless name of the King, of glory, of Jesus himself. Amen.