 Should we be grieved by sin? Amen. Yes, sin is grieving to the Holy Spirit, grieving to God. It should be grieving to us. But in Christ, we have our hope. In God, we have our strength. And they're in Christ and in God because of His great mercy. Because of the great love with which He loved us, there is great strength and great hope. God is the source of every blessing. God is the source of our pardon for sin. Our eventual release from this body of death our eventual entrance into the glories of heaven. And that is all in Christ and for Christ and by and through Him. And we're not like these trappist monks who live in despair and live in agony and anguish over sin over difficulties in this life. This life is full of difficulty. And the Bible says we're going to look at it in this passage that it is by and through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom. We're going to be wrought with difficulty, the Bible says. We're going to face tribulation at every turn. There are moments of great peace. And if we put our hope, if we put our hope for strength, if we put our hope for blessing in men, we will be disappointed every time. There is no hope in men. There is no blessing from man. There is no strength from men. It is all through God. And God uses means, and here in Acts 14, God uses the means of Paul and Barnabas to be distributors, if you will, of his strength, of his hope, of his blessing. He's the source of our pardon for sin. God is the source of our peace. He is our strength and hope. And this hymn got the title of the text from Acts 14, but also in thinking through a hymn that I love this hymn, pardon for sin and a peace that endureth. Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. All I have needed. Thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. We have no hope in men. We have no hope in circumstances. We have no hope in anything outside of Christ. Christ is all of our hope. It's all of our strength. It's all of the blessing that we'll ever have is through Christ and through Christ alone. It's through God's provision, your strength in time of difficulty, exclusively through God. If you think that you have strength in and of yourself, it's a vain, vanishing strength at best. If you think you have hope in yourself to get through difficulty or trial, it is a vain, empty, shallow hope at best. Our strength for today and our bright hope for tomorrow flows from the faithfulness of our God and from no other source. And here in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas know this full well. It's not escaped them. Here they travel through Galatia, preaching the gospel in town after town, suffering intense persecution, intense persecution, suffering intense trial, intense difficulty. And yet here in Acts 14, their journey is not done. They haven't yet completed the work. There's more work left to be done. And so what are Paul and Barnabas to do? What are they doing here in Acts 14? They're gonna finish that work. They're gonna complete the work that God has commissioned them to do. And the completion of that work in this passage in Acts 14 is wrapped up in Paul and Barnabas now going back through town after town, strengthening the brothers, strengthening the brothers, giving them hope in Christ, hope in God. In the same way that Paul and Barnabas suffered great persecution at the hands of wicked men, in the same way that these fledgling churches, these new believers, they're facing the same persecution. And just so you know, it's not just physical persecution. Yes, Paul was stoned. They were assaulted. But this is also here. We'll see. This is false teaching. This is conflict. There are false brothers that are attacking. In Acts 15, we go right into the Jerusalem Council with the troublers, the Judaizers that we know full well from Galatians began to assault these new converts with mental issues, theological issues. So not just physical. But they needed strength. They needed strength. They needed hope. The only source of that that you can ever have is through God. It doesn't come through your own understanding, your own reasoning. On your notes, point one, strength for our souls. We need strength for our souls. Strength for our souls comes from God. Through his appointed means, which in this case here is Paul and Barnabas. I'll give verse 21 now in Acts 14. And when they, Paul and Barnabas, had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. Now, the point for verse 21 here that I want you to see is that take strength in a time of peace. Take strength in a time of peace. Why would you do that? Because you're going to need it. When there's the time of peace, when there is no persecution, when there is no difficulty, take strength from those times you're going to need it. Because there is tribulation coming and Paul and Barnabas here promise that. So you take strength. It's interesting to note here, they got no persecution in Derby. They went back to these towns and they are strengthening the disciples. They went to Lystra, the Iconium, and Antioch. They returned and got no persecution. There's no note. That's unique in these accounts, right? As we've been going through the book of Acts, we see preaching the gospel and persecution and fleeing. Preaching the gospel, persecution and fleeing. And here all of a sudden in 21, almost without note, they just preached the gospel to that city. They made many disciples. No persecution in that city. And then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. They're going to simply go through and strengthen the disciples. Now, maybe the folks in those towns thought that they had left Paul in such a battered, scarred condition that he simply wasn't a threat anymore. Maybe they took one look at him after his stoning and said, yeah, we don't have to worry about this guy anymore. Maybe they just thought he wasn't a threat. But here, it says that he engaged in the task of making disciples. And that goes beyond simply evangelizing. Certainly they evangelized. But the term disciples there just implies that it was more than just that. They were training. They were establishing these disciples in the faith. They were establishing the disciples in this town. The implication is that it was teaching also. But here, he made many disciples. And so in the process of going back through these towns, they're still preaching the gospel and many disciples are being made. This is a time of peace. He's preaching the gospel and the Lord is blessing with conversion and they're not persecuting Paul. But here now, it says simply that they returned. And there is just the simplicity of this verse. One, the simplicity of this verse, just without its mention of any persecution, and there's just a great lesson there in that silence, but also the implication here of the eloquence of this statement that he simply went back. I mean, consider the sermons that we've had on these passages before today and the great persecution and the great suffering and the great trial and running him out of town, chasing him down from city to city. And all of a sudden here, it just simply says that he went back. There's no mention there of bravery, no mention of definitely these guys were courageous. They simply just went back. And that speaks volumes from silence here, doesn't it? And when you've got a job to do in the face of great tribulation, great difficulty, you simply stick to the work. You don't listen, think about it for just a moment. Paul gets stoned in Lystra, left for dead. Now, would anybody blame him if he got up and just went home? I'm just gonna go home. This is hard. I need time to heal. I'm just gonna go home. But he didn't do that. He didn't do that. He kept going. Why didn't they go home? Why didn't he take off and just had... He was stoned, reminded of Galatians, where it says that he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. I mean, he is there, and he is scarred, bleeding, trekking through that terrain, going city to city. Why didn't he just take off? Why didn't he go home? Take time to heal, regroup, get back to the work a later time, or not get back to the work at all. He didn't because the Lord was in charge of his difficulty, and he had work to do. Look at verse 26. From there, they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. It was at this time that the work of God was finally completed, and not a minute sooner. They had work to do. And the work that was left to do for Paul and Barnabas here was to strengthen the brothers. Was to show them the hope of Christ, to strengthen them in their certain tribulation to prepare them for certain tribulation that work wasn't done. And so he couldn't just bow out. He couldn't just skip out. There was still remaining work to be done. Work that God had commissioned him to do. The moral of that is, is that God is in charge of your difficulty. I want you to understand that. You're going through difficulty, you're going through trial, you're going through tough times. The Lord is in control of that. And he's got a job for you to do. He's got a purpose to it. And the Lord, and the Lord alone, you certainly don't, the Lord alone knows when that's enough. He knows when it's enough. Was it enough for Paul that he was stoned? No. Paul got stoned left for dead and he continued the work of the Lord because the Lord says when it's enough, the Lord says when that work is done. And so you simply do the work of the Lord. It would have been far easier, far easier to just return home. But it wouldn't have been any faith in God. And there wouldn't have been any courage. There wouldn't have been any bravery. There wouldn't have been any perseverance. There wouldn't be this example in Scripture to us. Because the work hadn't been completed yet. It would have been far easier. They hadn't encouraged the brothers yet. And so that's what the purpose here is. In verse 21, they simply returned. And they returned in verse 22 for the purpose of strengthening the souls of the disciples. Now, they're strengthening the souls here again. This is in the midst of peace preparing them for tribulation. This is in the midst of no persecution at the moment. But think about it. You've got Paul, the apostle Paul standing there strengthening the souls of the brothers, exhorting them that through many tribulations they must enter the kingdom and he's standing there speaking to them scarred with open wounds still on his face and on his body. And that is powerful testimony. Verse 22, the first part of that verse there, we need strength for perseverance. And Paul, it is exhortation and example coming together in a powerful object lesson. Listen, you need strength for your souls because look at where I am, he's standing there with the scars on his body saying to them it is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God you need strength for your souls. And so he strengthened the souls of those men. They had continuing persecution from false teaching continuing persecution from false brothers. It was difficult in this time as it is today for brand new converts to survive and to flourish. Once you're saved you don't lose your salvation but those that are saved by God's appointed means they must be rooted and grounded and established in the faith because it is difficult, difficult to survive and flourish. You yourselves have been or are weak. We're all weak to one degree or another. But in the beginning you realize how difficult sometimes it is to just persevere in the faith and sometimes all of us need strength. We all need hope. We need to be reminded of the strength that comes from God reminded of the hope that comes from God the hope that is in Christ. Weakened souls are easily, easily induced to evil and to sin. They're easily given over to emotion easily led astray. They're susceptible to giving up. The throwing in the towel saying it's just too hard and I can't do it, you're right. You can't do it apart from Christ. You can't do it apart from God. You need strength. They needed strength. What they don't need is discouragement. They needed encouragement. This word in the Greek parakaleo meaning exhort does double duty. It has many different meanings in Scripture. It means to encourage, to comfort. It means to exhort. It can be used as a word for rebuke. But literally it means calling to one side. You are rooted and established in the faith and as such God gives you the responsibility to call to one side those weaker brothers and sisters around you that need strength. They need example. They need the hope of Christ. They need to be stirred up by way of reminder. They need to be exhorted today while it is called today. They need that. And you're the one to deliver it. If you're rooted and grounded in the faith. If you're not, you're the one that's seeking it and should seek it. There's hope. There's strength in God. There's hope and strength in Christ. I saw this article by J.R. Miller. I thought it was interesting and he just great way of explaining this. But the opposite of this is discouragement. The opposite of this is weakening the brothers. And he says, discourages are often good and upright people, perhaps active in many ways. But they never see the hopeful side of the church's life. If you talk to them of something that is encouraging, growing enthusiastic in your narration, they will come in with their dismal butt and dampen your ardor with questions or suppositions meant to discount your hopefulness and quench the flame of your enthusiasm. They are never known to say a word of hearty, unqualified approval of anything. There's always some fly in the ointment. The minister is a faithful man, but if he would only preach more thus than thus, he would do greater good than he is not as faithful a pastor as he might be. The church seems to be prospering. There are many additions to it from time to time. The financial reports are good, but there's something not altogether satisfactory such as their outlook on everything in the church life. Mark Miller goes on to say that they're enemies of the church. There was a story, we're talking about this yesterday, of the siege of Lady Smith in South Africa, a British colony, and the British troops, the townspeople were sequestered. They were turned into this city surrounded by the siege. The garrison was defending the city, and they were coming to a critical point in the battle. It was a critical time. They were about to be overrun, and there was a British civilian that was going through the garrison, through the city, discouraging the troops, discouraging the people. Certainly there is no hope. Certainly we're going to be overrun. Turn yourselves in. Give up. Surrender. He was discouraging. The British court-martial, the British military court, arrested this man, tried him, and convicted him of discouragement. That was right. They gave him a year in prison for being a discourager. The court viewed him as an enemy, because by his words and by his actions, he was sowing discouragement into the troops. What we need is strength from God. And in the midst of that wicked discouragement, we have our strength and our hope in Christ. And Christ is for our good. He is for our strength. He's for us. Here Paul and Barnabas said that they needed strength for their souls. This is the central aspect, the central location of faith, the heart, the soul, your inner self, your being, who you are. And you need strength for that. But that at the same time of being a sinner for faith, the faith that saves, faith in Christ, hope in God. At the same time, that soul, that heart, those affections, can be a center for confusion, for sorrow, for despair, for anxiety, for weakness, for fear, for great instability. So we often need for our souls to be strengthened. Now these words here in Acts 14 are coming from Paul. This strengthening, this exhortation is coming from Paul, who knew what it meant to go through difficulty. Oftentimes, if you think you've got it hard, remember Paul. If you think you've got it hard, remember Christ. And remember what the Bible says, that if we suffer with him, we'll enter the kingdom. There's great suffering. Paul's words from the Lord taught him how to endure difficulty, and then he goes back through this area in Acts 14 and strengthens the brothers. And he uses words like these. 2 Corinthians 4, 8 and 9. Paul said, We are hard-pressed on every side yet not crushed. We are perplexed but not in despair. We are persecuted but not forsaken. We are struck down but not destroyed. Some of us tend to think, we're persecuted going through tough times that we're forsaken. You are not forsaken. We have the Lord going through difficulty. You're not forsaken. You're not struck down. So why are you crushed and why are you perplexed? The Lord is our strength. The Lord is our hope. In 2 Corinthians 4, verses 16 and 17. Therefore, Paul said, We don't lose heart even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction. He was stoned, right? Our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Philippians 4, 11 through 13. I have learned, Paul said in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I, and this is the right application of this verse, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That is not winning a football game. That's not getting it over the goal line. That's not getting an A on that test. This is in the midst of difficulty. This is the midst of trial. This is the midst of great persecution. Great attacks by the wicked one that want to undermine and destroy your faith. And this is hope in God, hope in Christ. Charles Spurgeon said, the river of God is full of water, but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in his battles but the strength which he himself imparts. Are you mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give thee victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled and your casting down is but the making ready of your lifting up. We have hope in the Lord. Bill Moody said, whatever your burden is that caused you to search for strength, give it up to him now. Do not let another minute go by without completely surrendering your burdens to him. God wants to be your strength. Surrender to him in your weakness and let him show himself strong. Remember, if God brings you to it, he will bring you through it. That's worthy of remembering. Paul knew that God would preserve true Christians but Paul also understood that he through his prayers and through his work was the means through which God would strengthen and give hope to these new disciples. If you're here, you go through difficulty. We are. You are the means by which God strengthens and gives hope to your brothers. You are the means by which God does that. That's by God's plan. Now here, God strengthened them through Paul, through Barnabas in two different ways. One, he exhorted them for continued faith and then he prepared them for continued tribulation. Look at verse 22. He strengthened the souls of the disciples exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. Now exhorting them to continue in the faith. Now in scripture, Christianity is called the faith. That is because the faith is the content of what we believe. It's the content of our strength and hope in Christ and God. It's the content of what we're here about. It's the content of our hope. It's the content of our future inheritance. It represents the content of God's revelation to us and for that we have great reason to have faith. We have God's revelation and it's the faith that drives these new believers. It's the faith, if you're a disciple of Christ here today, that drives you. This is Christianity. It's the faith. But they're here today. They're told to remain solid, to continue in the faith, to persevere. And in 22 here, they need strength for perseverance. They need strength for perseverance. They're to remain solid. This expression is close to the word abide or the exhortations to abide in John 15. John 15, 4 through 7 says, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. Nothing. You have no strength in it of yourself. If anyone does not abide in me, cast out as a branch and is withered and they gathered them and throw them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. They have to continue to believe. They have to continue to serve, to work in the face of great hostility, in the face of suffering, in the face of difficulty. These believers, they need to keep going. They need to persevere. And it's through perseverance in the face of trial that the greatest blessing comes. That's how God grows the disciple. The example that we have in that is Christ. This paracaleo, this exhorting, this calling to one side. Encouraging, admonishing, sometimes loving rebuke. This is how exhortation and how this encouragement works. When Paul and Barnabas are going through the cities in Galatia in Acts 14, encouraging and strengthening the brothers, that's what they're doing. From the Word of God, from the text of Scripture, from their own example, they are exhorting, sometimes correcting, sometimes rebuking, they are encouraging, they're comforting, they're calling to their side, these new Christians to walk the Christian life. So in that, genuine Christian exhortation, genuine Christian encouragement, strengthening hope in Scripture is a blend of theology and exhortation. It's a blend of theology and example, theology and life. And we need to exhort from a pattern of life. We need to exhort from a pattern of hope in Christ, hope in God, otherwise you're exhorting from a position of hypocrisy. When you have hope in Christ, strengthen your brothers. When you have hope in God, when you have bright hope for our future, then call to your side those that are weak. Call to your side those that have feeble knees. Don't sow discouragement, faint-heartedness in Christ's body with your actions or your words by abandoning them to the work themselves. You join in them with the work in the same way that civilian British soldier in Lady Smith, that didn't take up a weapon and climb into the barracks with them, was considered an enemy because he sowed discouragement, sowed faint-heartedness by his actions, by his words. He abandoned them to the defense. They viewed him an enemy. We all need exhortation. We all need encouragement. We all need strength. And you have a responsibility to strengthen your brothers. Turn to 1 Thessalonians. Let's take another look at this. 1 Thessalonians. And look at chapter 4. Scripture is filled with encouragement to encourage. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and look beginning at verse 1. 1 Thessalonians 4-1. Finally then, Paul says, Brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more. Don't simply rest in a situation that you're in, the condition that you're in. Abound more and more. Press. Move forward. Win the race. Run the race. Just as you received from us, how you ought to walk and to please God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification in difficulty, in trial, in hardship. Abound more and more. Because this is the will of God, your sanctification. And so you press and you live and you hope in Christ and you work through that difficulty. Because this is the will of God, your sanctification. That you should abstain from sexual immorality. That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification in honor. Not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. That no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter because the Lord is the Avenger of all such. As we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness therefore he who rejects this does not reject man but God who has also given us his Holy Spirit. But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. In other words, that's the heart that God has given you. That's the nature that God has given you simply to love one another. And so love one another, verse 10. And indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in Macedonia, but we urge you we exhort you brethren that you increase more and more. How can you sacrifice more and more to love the brothers? How can you set aside self-will self-interest, your own needs and love more and more. Strengthen more and more. Verse 11. That you also aspire to lead a quiet life to mind your own business and to work with your own hands as we commanded you. That you may walk properly toward those who are outside and you may lack nothing. Words of exhortation. Words of exhortation to persevere in the faith to love, to obey, to follow Christ. And there are three means. Here in Acts 14, back in Acts 14, there are three means of this exhortation. Three different directions if you will, if this exhortation comes. Obviously one is through believers. It comes through the words that Paul and Barnabas spoke to these folks. And often it comes from those that love us most. They're closest or most faithful to us. And we must do this. This is a command in Scripture that we exhort our brothers. Often it comes through loving confrontation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one's community back from the path of sin. We are to exhort and strengthen, sometimes confront our brothers because we love them. And this is going to happen here from Paul and Barnabas. They're coming back through to strengthen, to exhort, to establish them in the faith because they love them. They're doing that out of love. And so they want them to have hope in God. They want them to have hope in Christ. So they're going to exhort them. They're going to encourage them. They're going to give them strength for their souls. But the other place that this exhortation comes from is through the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. With the words of Scripture, with the words of God in order to build strength, infuse strength into these disciples the Word of God comes and it's applied by the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now understand this when the Holy Spirit convicts, when the Holy Spirit works in exhortation this way it's specific. It's specific. You have a specific sin, a specific situation, a specific thing that needs to be dealt with. And the Holy Spirit brings that specific thing to mind convicts your heart of that specific thing so that you with God as your witness can do something about that. It is Satan. It is Satan that accuses in generalities You're just never going to be good enough. You just can't do it. You must not be saved. Look at your life. It's Satan that accuses in generalities. It's the Holy Spirit that convicts with specificity. Listen to the Holy Spirit in the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. Don't listen to the accuser of the brethren that says there's just nothing good about that situation. There's nothing good about you. There's nothing you can do. You might as well just give up and go to hell. That's the accuser of the brethren. The Holy Spirit is going to exhort. The Holy Spirit is going to convict through specificity. Don't listen to the enemy. But also this comes through the words of God. You have Paul and Barnabas, the instrument of God. The Holy Spirit, the divine applyer, the divine worker in the heart. But then you have God's word. Second Timothy 3 16 and 17 says that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work. But now word of God through the mouth of God's appointed means applied to the heart by the Spirit this necessitates a response of faith on your part. When you hear the word of God through God's messenger applied to the heart by the Holy Spirit in a specific way, it always requires a response. God's desire for that exhortation, God's desire for that word is the will of God, your sanctification. And so his desire is to transform us. We must be humble to receive that. There's a fine line in giving exhortation between being a loving brother and being a jerk. And we can easily cross that line. But be humble in your receipt of exhortation. Be humble in your response to the Holy Spirit. Don't get defensive and counter-attack. Don't get self-righteous and put up a defense. It's possible to reject this. It's possible to reject the work of the Holy Spirit. It's possible to reject the loving and treaty of God's messenger to you for your sanctification and to harden your heart and to sear your conscience. It's possible to reject that. And soon enough, you keep doing that, you'll be unable to receive exhortation. You'll be unable to hear and to sense the convicting work of the Spirit in your life. You can't continue to reject. Be humble. Proverbs 3, 11 and 12. This exhortation, this encouragement, this strengthening, all coming through God's work and His Word and His messengers through His Spirit. Now too, here, back in verse 22, He exhorted them to continue in the faith and saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. Strength here comes also through preparing for tribulation. As we've said, they're not in it right now. Right there at that point in time, there's peace. There's no persecution. But they need to be prepared. They need to be prepared. And again, this is amazing coming from Paul. Very powerful object lesson from God. And this should be a reminder to them in looking at Paul, hearing the words of Paul, and Paul's explanation of this, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom. This should be a great reminder to them that continuance in the faith is not going to come easy. Perseverance, it simply doesn't come easy. If you're going to persevere in the Christian life, it's going to be through difficulty. If you persevere and you have absolutely no difficulty, there's a problem. There's a problem. It is through many tribulations that we must enter the kingdom. If it's just easy, easy, light and breezy, there's something wrong. This is not going to be flowery beds of ease. There's going to be tribulation. But then too, if you think that in the midst of tribulation that there is an easy escape, you're also undermining the work of the spirit in your sanctification. There is no easy escape. When the Lord says it's done, it's done. When the Lord takes you through it, there's blessing. When the Lord takes you through it and teaches you that lesson, there's reason for hope. There's great growth. There simply is no easy escape. When it comes down to it and you understand what the Bible says about taking joy, rejoicing in your trials, we shouldn't want an easy escape because there's great strength in God. And God wants to be our strength. There's great hope in Christ. And Christ is our only hope. So we can't just skip out. It won't come easy. It's going to entail tribulation. It's going to include persecution. And that persecution comes from false teaching, false brothers. Here in Acts 15 in Galatians, it's coming from Judaizers that are assaulting these new believers and they are so close. If you read through the letter to the Galatians they're so close to giving up. So close to giving up the faith that they had been delivered to at Paul and just in great anguish over the state of their souls is exhorting them to continue in the faith. Don't give up. In Philippians 1, 29 and 30 it says for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake. Having the same conflict which you saw in me and now here is in me. If you think you've got it tough, remember Christ. You think this trial is hard think of Christ 1 Thessalonians 3 verses 1-4 Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone and sent Timothy our brother and minister of God and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith that no one should be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we were appointed to this for in fact we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation just as it happened and as you know 2 Thessalonians 1, 4 and 5 we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. This word here in verse 22 through many tribulations must, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom. That's the Greek word day. It is a divine necessity. It's saying that it is by God's plan and it must be this way. It's by God's foreordination by his decree. It must be this way that if we're to enter the kingdom we must enter through many tribulations. It is those who suffer with him that share the crown. It's those that suffer with him that win the victory. No cross, no crown. It's a normal lot for Christians. It's your normal lot. And if you're a Christian then get used to it. Really. And in times of peace you take strengthening, you take hope. In times of tribulation you take strengthening, you take hope you take joy because our Lord is faithful. Great is his faithfulness. And point two on your note, strength. There's strength here in God's care. Look at verse 23. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. That praying with fasting there means that this was no mere administrative exercise of just appointing leaders in the church. This was a spiritual endeavor. This was a spiritual need, a spiritual necessity. They did it with prayed, they prayed in fasted. When they established the elders they commended them to the Lord meaning that they're in the care of God under his strengthening, under his power, under his gifting, under his provision. It's not that they could do anything in and of themselves. They're under his protection, under his safety. They're under the gift of God. It means literally that they placed them before God for God to take them. If you remember in Antioch when Paul and Barnabas set off to the work, they said that the church there commended them to the grace of God. In other words you're in the Lord's hands and the Lord will take care of you and the Lord will direct your steps. They commended them before God. But now they appointed elders here their strength through leadership in verse 23. Their strength through disappointment. Their strength through the commending of them to God. Their strength through leadership. That's not just your elders. That's those strong men and women of God in the church. Those are strong men and women of God who call to one side those that are weak. Those that exhort and strengthen their brothers. Those are leaders in the church. And here there's strength through that leadership. There's strength through leadership in verse 24 and 25. After that they had passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. Now when they had preached the word in Perga that went down to Italia they simply went and they went with God's protection. 24 and 25 their strength through God's protection. Knowing that Paul had been stoned, knowing that there was great opposition just a continuous assault of persecution from people who simply went. And they went through here without a hitch. In other words, we've talked about this before you really are invincible until God is done with you. Doesn't mean that you just go out and live with reckless abandon tempting God. But until God is done with you he's going to protect you. Now he protected Paul and Paul was stoned. That was by the decree of God for Paul's good, for his example it is through tribulation that we will enter the kingdom. It's against you. Was God against Paul when he got stoned? No way. That's all by God's decree all by God's loving care for his church and the Bible says all things work out for our good to those who love Christ. And so that was God's gracious provision even in the stoning of Paul. But here they go through without a hitch without any persecution with no hint of that and that's God's protection too. And this time it says that they preached in Pergah. When they went through Pergah the first time they went through. But here they preached the word of God and again in Pergah there's no mention of persecution. When you have times of peace and it's just preparation for times of trouble when you're in times of tribulation you just look forward to the Lord's peace that comes. And like the sun rising and like the water just crashing onto the shore like the tides it will come. You can count on it. You can take it to the bank. When you're in tribulation man the peace and the blessing of God is just around the corner. When you're in the peace there may be tribulation just around the corner too. But that's all by God's plan for our good. But we need God's strength for that. Look at verse 26 now from there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. Now verse 26 there is strength all the way to the end. Here this is a glorious phrase the work that they had completed. This is a glorious phrase. Think about that for a second. They take off from Antioch in Syria this is hard. This is the first missionary journey of three. The last one ends with Paul's death. This is the first and this is a difficult journey. But they return to Antioch having completed the work that God gave them to do. Paul did this his entire life. The entire life of Paul is marked and exemplified by a dogged determination and resolve to simply do the work that God had given him to do and to complete that to its fullest. He just wasn't going to stop until it was done. In here it wasn't done until him bearing the marks of Jesus Christ in his body traipsed back through this Phrygian hill country and strengthened the brothers and gave them hope and strengthened Christ. This was a commitment to his cause. The commitment to the cause that God had given him and Paul was faithful to finish that. He ran hard think about it. He ran hard the entire way and then cross the finish line into glory. Would you want to go any other way? Other than to run hard, man, serve Christ and then you just step across the finish line into glory. That's what Paul did just running hard all the way. How many Christians do you know? Maybe you know this of yourself. How many Christians do you know start something and never finish? Maybe you've been guilty that I have. You start something and you don't finish. God gives you a work and he lays it on your heart but in the process of that work you come to the determination that this is too difficult for me. It's simply too great a weight to bear. I can't do it. You in lacking self-discipline and I'm preaching to the choir right now lacking in self-discipline say to yourself or maybe you don't. You just sort of drift from the commitment. You start a work and you don't finish. Paul completed his work. Barnabas completed his work. Maybe you're given a great task. Maybe you're not given a great task. Maybe you're given a task that in no way, in any way is glorious in your own estimation but nevertheless it's the task the Lord has given you. Do you complete it? Do you persevere through the tough times hack it out through strength in Christ through hope in God and finish the work that you're given or do you because of hardship because of difficulty, division persecution apathy whatever excuse you have do you finally say to yourself well I think it's it's time for me to give up. It's time for me to quit or maybe just retreat when it gets tough you're inclined to say I don't want to do this because it's tough because it's hard I don't want to do this and so you think the grass is greener somewhere else and you plot your escape or you simply retreat into leisure retreat into indifference complacency God puts a difficult task in your lap and you can persevere through the difficulty and accomplish that task or you can shove it off your lap and abandon the work the victory is not to those who start the victory is to those who finish in the Christian life the victory is not to those who start it's to those who finish. Matthew 10 22 says and you will be hated by all for my name's sake but he who endures to the end will be saved there's victory in the finish here Paul just living by his example of victorious Christian life because he simply didn't turn his back on the difficulty that God laid in his lap that was meant for his sanctification he through many tribulations entered the kingdom of heaven and he crossed the finish line into glory but here point three on your notes there's great strength in community look at verse 27 after he completed his work verse 27 now when they had come and gathered the church together they reported all that God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles and here that word in the first part of that verse the church the church there is singular this is the unified body of Christ there is strength in community and there's strength through community it was this community that sent them it was this community that prayed for them it was this community that supported them it was the community that commended them to God it was the community that received them back it was the community for which they went for building the community of God there's strength through the body there's strength in our work together there's strength in our unity there's strength in us as brothers and sisters linking arms and linking shields and going through the difficulty together When there is strength in God and hope in God, and God's appointed means to cultivate and facilitate that strength and hope, part of the means that God uses to do that is the community of God's people. That's interesting to me that this community is most often expressed in Scripture one way. There are many ways that that community is expressed. That community is expressed by the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, the temple of God. There are many ways that that community is described, but the most common way that that community is described is family. It's family, and specifically through the fraternal aspect of family, which is brothers and sisters. You are my brothers. You are my sisters. You are my family. This is the way that God chooses. He's choosing in His Word to describe the community, the church, the body. He's choosing to describe it that way. Brothers, sisters. It's the way God does it. It's the most frequent description in Scripture of our relationship to one another. Brethren, beloved brethren, beloved brother. We're family. We're family. And we have responsibilities to each other to strengthen, to encourage, to support, to push through, to help, to remind, to exhort all through that community. And it's interesting here, it's awesome to think that that body, the body of Christ, your brothers and sisters, the family there, commended them to the Lord, turned them over to God for the work. And you have that kind of support behind you. That work can be completed. Paul and Barnabas knew what they were coming back to. They came back to this church. And I can just imagine every step. They're going by foot, right? Every step of the way. How do you begin a journey of a thousand miles just with the one, you know, the first step? They're going this long journey back in everything that has happened. All the difficulty and the tribulation and the assault and the attack. And there's one step after another getting back to that family, that family they were a part of that commended them. That was sort of their home. And they were just excited to get back and report all that they had done and all that they had seen, all that they had heard. Look at verse 28, 27, I'm sorry. And when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them. And that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. All that they had done was summarized by the statement that it was an open door of faith to the Gentiles. And think about that as an awesome thing. God, as if opening a door just for someone to pass through into eternity. Just pass through into saving faith. He opened the door to the Gentiles. And that was the summarizing, the summation of their work on this first missionary journey. But he was reporting back. Verse 27 here, this reporting back is because there is strength for the body, strength for the family, strength for brothers and sisters in answered prayer. That community that commended them to the Lord didn't just say, Okay, off you go. And out of sight, out of mind, that community through their prayer, through their hope in Christ, supported them along the way. And were anxious for Paul and Barnabas to come back. And now Paul and Barnabas come back, they report all the things that happened. And so that community can rejoice together in their prayers being answered. They were praying for them, praying for souls to be saved, praying for God's kingdom to expand and for the gospel to go out. They were praying for the safety of Paul and Barnabas that they would make it back to them. They were praying like brothers and sisters pray, praying for them because they loved them. And when Paul and Barnabas come back, you just imagine the joy of seeing them back. And that probably just spread like wildfire through Antioch. Hey, Paul and Barnabas are back. And they just instantaneously, there was this fellowship in them gathering together. Tell me what happened when the guys came back from the mission trip in Bolivia. Man, I had been praying, praying for souls to be saved and for the gospel to go out for Matteo to be encouraged and supported. And when they came back and they tell you the stories, man, they're strengthened that because that's answered prayer. And let me tell you what happened. This guy heard the gospel and they're talking about the tears flowing down their faces. The soft hearts of the gospel made Matteo being strengthened and encouraged. That's a great blessing to me. It's a great blessing to you. That's our prayers being answered. That's because there's strength in God. There's strength in community. There's strengthening that goes on in God answering prayer. It's a great, great, great source of encouragement to those folks in Antioch. And so there's strength through this answered prayer here. And then lastly, verse 28, there's strength through commitment. Paul and Barnabas come back. They didn't get lost in the Frigidae and the Hill Country. They came back in verse 28. They stayed there a long time with the disciples. There's a strength in commitment. They had a work to do. They were commended to God to do the work. They go off to do the work. They accomplished the work that God gave them to do and they come back, report all that God had done, the miraculous work that God had done, and it was the full circle. They came back to Antioch and stayed there in Antioch a long time with their family, with their brothers and sisters. And I'm sure, as it was the custom of Paul, just strengthening his brothers and sisters. Look at all the Lord has done. Look at what he's doing. It's through many tribulations that we enter the kingdom. Look at my scars. But look at what God has done. God is faithful and even strengthened them in his return. He strengthened them through his commitment to finish the work, strengthened them in his commitment to come back to them, strengthened them with his resolve, his determination, his faithfulness. It's his example. Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And Paul is faithful to finish the work. Listen, if you're a disciple of Christ, then the Lord has given you a glorious work to do. Not the least of which at all is simply to do everything you can to strengthen your brothers and sisters and do nothing, if you can avoid it, to ever discourage them to build up the body of Christ, to edify your brothers, to let no unwholesome word ever come out of your mouth, but that which is necessary for proper edification, to strengthen the body which is your family, to help them keep their eyes focused on Christ, to help them through God's work by his spirit, by his word bolster their faith and their confidence in God, because great is his faithfulness. And we're to do that. If you're here and you are not a Christian, well, I can't imagine going through life without this. It is an empty, vain, hopeless, shallow existence that will one day result in your ultimate and eternal torment. But there is strength to overcome your sin in Christ. There is forgiveness in Christ. There is cleansing in Christ. There is hope for tomorrow in Christ. And that is the only place you will ever have hope. And why would you put off that and live in hopelessness one minute more? You need to turn to Christ with everything you are. There is a great work in Christ to be done and a great finish line to cross and a great glory to live in for all eternity. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, how to thank you again, Father, for your word. Thank you, Lord, for this glorious example of Paul and Barnabas here in scripture. The glory example of your great faithfulness, your great love, your great provision, your great care, your great mercy, your great grace, your great encouragement, your great strength, or the great hope that we have in you. God, thank you, Lord, for the great inheritance that awaits. We praise you and thank you, Lord, for all that you do. All, Lord, that we sometimes look at as bad even. We know, God, from promises, from your promise, your faithful promise that it is good, it is right, it is just. And we praise you and thank you, Lord. Thank you for the great and glorious promise that all things work for our good. Lord, thank you for the source of strength that we have in your word, in your spirit, and in the body of Christ, our family, our brothers and sisters, or your means, your word, your plan is just immeasurably awesome. And in our feeble minds, God, we acknowledge that we sinfully take our eyes off Christ, or we sinfully lack our hope in you, lack confidence in you. We sinfully lack trust, lack faith. We strengthen us. God, strengthen us by your word, strengthen us by your disciples, strengthen us by your spirit. Let's sanctify us, Lord. Let's conform us into the image of Christ who suffered on our behalf. Let's give us an eye to the future that if we suffer with Him, then we'll inherit with Him. And thank you for your great plan of salvation. I pray, God, if there's anyone here that just has not turned from their sin and put all their faith, hope, trust in you alone to save them, please convict them by your spirit through your word. Convince them of the truth of the gospel. God, and save their souls. We pray this for your glory in Jesus' name.