Acts  Sermon Series

Wheelersburg Baptist Church 8/18/02 Brad Brandt

Acts 14:21-28 "Who Needs the Local Church?"**

There’s a strange disease spreading these days. I’m not talking about the West Nile virus, either. It’s called "Morbus Sabbaticus," better known as "Sunday sickness." Morbus Sabbaticus is a disease peculiar to some church members. The symptoms vary, but these are generally observed:

1. It never lasts more than twenty-four hours.

2. It never interferes with the appetite.

3. It never affects the eyes. The Sunday newspapers can be read with no pain. Television seems to help the eyes.

4. No physician is ever called.

5. After a few "attacks," at weekly intervals, it may become chronic … even terminal.

No symptoms are usually felt on Saturday. The patient sleeps well and wakes feeling well. He eats a hearty Sunday Breakfast, then the attack comes until services are over for the morning. The patient feels better and eats a solid dinner. After dinner, he takes a nap, then watches one or two pro-football games on TV. He may take a walk before supper, and stop and chat with neighbors. If there are church services scheduled for Sunday evening, he will have another short attack. Invariably, he wakes up Monday morning and rushes off to work feeling refreshed. The symptoms may not recur until the following Sunday, unless another service is scheduled at the church during the week.

Who really needs the local church? In our study of Acts we’ve come to a text that addresses a vital yet often delicate subject. According to a USA Today study in 1994, 48% of church-goers attend an average of once a month.  Most of us would probably say the church is important, but how important? And why?

I love the church. I make no apology about it. It’s not just because I’m a pastor either. Shortly after God saved me as a child, I began to love the church. My aim in this message—and I’ll tell you right up front—is to motivate you to greater heights of love for the church, too. In Acts 14:21-28 we see a vivid illustration of who really needs the local church.

The story begins with Paul and Barnabas in the city of Derbe. They’ve passed the halfway point of what we call Paul’s "first missionary journey" (recorded in Acts 13-14). They left their sending church in Antioch about a year before this, around A.D. 46, sailed to Cyprus, then preached their way across the island, before sailing to the mainland (what today is south-central Turkey). The trek that followed took them to nine cities (as recorded by Luke), as they sought to make Christ known to people living in darkness.

This was certainly no pleasure cruise for Paul and Barnabas. Some highlights of this first missionary journey included the following. They led a Roman ruler by the name of Sergius Paulus to Christ while on Cyprus—and they had to strike a sorcerer named Bar-Jesus with blindness to keep him from interfering. Upon arrival in Perga, John Mark left the team and went home to Jerusalem—something that caused great pain for all involved. In Pisidian Antioch Paul preached to a packed house on the second Sabbath day, before being run out of town. In Iconium he likewise preached to great numbers and many believed, but he once again left town when he learned of a plot to kill him.

Next stop was Lystra where he healed a crippled man, a deed that the pagan crowd misinterpreted. Thinking they were gods, the people tried to worship Paul and Barnabas. The missionaries obviously objected. The cheering shortly turned into hatred and a mob stoned Paul and left him for dead. Paul left the next day for Derbe.

What did he do in Derbe? Rest? Take a well deserved break? Hardly. He and Barnabas did the same thing they did wherever they went. Verse 21 says, "They preached the good news in that city."

To be successful as a minister of the gospel you must persevere. Listen to the following account taken from the diary of John Wesley:

Sunday, A.M., May 5    Preached in St. Anne's. Was asked not to come back

anymore.
Sunday, P.M., May 5     Preached in St. John's. Deacons said "Get out and stay out."
Sunday, A.M., May 12    Preached in St. Jude's. Can't go back there, either.
Sunday, A.M., May 19    Preached in St. Somebody Else's. Deacons called special

meeting and said I couldn't return.
Sunday, P.M., May 19    Preached on street. Kicked off street.
Sunday, A.M., May 26    Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow as bull was

turned loose during service.
Sunday, A.M., June 2    Preached out at the edge of town. Kicked off the highway.
Sunday, P.M., June 2    Afternoon, preached in a pasture. Ten thousand people came

out to hear me.

Ability is fine, but dependability is better. One of the reasons God used John Wesley in a great way was because he kept at it. Like Paul did.

What was the result of Paul’s ministry in Derbe? Notice verse 21 again, "They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples."

There are two assignments we must fulfill if we’re going to make disciples according to the biblical pattern. Paul modeled them both in verses 21-25. In fact, wherever he went he poured his energy into both assignments.

A. To make disciples, we must lead people to Christ (21a). That was the bulls-eye in the target for Paul and Barnabas. That’s the reason they went to city after city. It wasn’t to get people interested in religion. It was to tell people about a person, Jesus Christ, and to lead people to Him.

How do you lead people to Christ? From Paul’s example it involves two activities.

1. This involves preaching. They "preached the good news" in Derbe. What’s the good news? It’s the gospel. It’s the message of what the Maker of the universe has done to reconcile sinners to Himself.

You entered this world as a sinner. So did I. We inherited our sin problem from Adam. God is offended by our sin. He is holy and cannot look upon sin. Rather He must judge it severely.

Which is what He did at the Cross. He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, into the world. Though sinless, Jesus allowed wicked men to nail Him to the Tree, according to God’s eternal plan. There on the Cross He took upon Himself the sin of rebels. There at the Cross God judged Jesus in our place. The Savior died and rose again so that whoever repents and believes in Him is forgiven and given the gift of eternal life.

That’s the good news that saves sinners. But no matter how good this good news is, it doesn’t help someone until they what? Hear it. Thus, leading people to Christ involves preaching the good news to them. But that’s not all. It also involves…

2. This involves teaching people how to follow the Lord. That’s what the term "disciple" is all about—following. A disciple is a follower. Jesus said to go and make disciples in Matthew 28:19. But what are we to do with these new disciples? Jesus answered that question in His following words. He said to baptize them and then to "teach them to obey everything I have commanded you (Matthew 28:19-20)."

People need a relationship with the Lord. There is no other way to be reconciled to God and experience life that is both abundant and eternal. Making disciples begins by leading people to Christ.

Notice I said begins. Disciple-making begins by leading people to Christ, but it doesn’t end there. It involves a second assignment, sadly one that is ignored in many so-called discipleship ministries these days.

B. To make disciples, we must link people to Christ’s Body (21b-25). That’s exactly what Paul and Barnabas did in verses 21-25. They took very specific steps to link the new disciples to the local church.

How did they do it? Verse 21 says, "Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch." Those are staggering words. They returned. Remember, they’re going back to cities that not only shunned them and told them to get lost, but where people hated them enough to try to kill them. To those cities they returned.

Dave Howard, in his book The Power of the Holy Spirit, tells about a fearless pastor he ministered with in Colombia named Lupercio Taba. One Sunday Taba was preaching from his pulpit when a man appeared at a side window of the church, aimed a pistol at him, and ordered him to stop preaching. The congregation, seeing the danger, dove to the floor and hid under the pews. Taba, however, went right on preaching the gospel. The man then fired four shots at him. Two shots went past the preacher’s head, one on one side, one on the other, and lodged in the wall behind him. Two shots went past his body, one under one arm, one under the other, and also lodged in the wall. The would-be assassin then dropped his gun and fled. Taba, still unmoved, continued his sermon.

That’s devotion. So is this. Then they returned.

But why? Why did they return to these dangerous cities? They’d already led people to Christ there, and only a few weeks or months had passed since. They’d done all that you need to do to make disciples, hadn’t they? They’d led people to Christ. What more do new Christians need than Christ? Simply put, they need the Body of Christ.

Notice carefully what it was that was so important that Paul and Barnabas risked their lives to accomplish. Starting at the end of verse 21, the text tells us what they did when they went back: "Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, ²² strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. ²³ Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust."

There’s why they went back, because new believers need some things if they’re going to make it in this hostile world. For that matter, it’s not just new believers that need them. Every believer needs the following five things. And the God-ordained place to receive these five things is the local church.

1. Believers need strength (22a). "Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, ²² strengthening the disciples." "Confirming the souls of the disciples" is how the KJV renders it. The participle is from the Greek term episterizo [related English word "steroid"] which means "to cause someone to become stronger in the sense of more firm and unchanging in attitude or belief." A wishy-washy person won’t last. He needs strength.

How do you "strengthen" someone? By teaching them God’s Word, as Paul explains in Colossians 2:6-7, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." That’s why Paul and Barnabas returned, because believers need strength.

2. Believers need encouragement (22b). "Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, ²² strengthening the disciples and encouraging them." What kind of encouragement do believers need? Paul and Barnabas delivered two kinds. First, they taught the believers how to respond to error ("they encouraged them to remain true to the faith"). Secondly, they encouraged them how to respond to trials ("We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said.).

It’s not easy to live for Christ. We face great temptation to pursue the course of least resistance—by watering down the true faith, or by leaving the fold altogether. We need encouragement. That, too, is why the missionaries returned.

3. Believers need leadership and organization (23a). Verse 23 says, "Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church." This was priority for Paul, to train leaders so that people he led to Christ would prosper after he was gone. In disciple-making our job isn’t done until the person we’ve led to Christ is a vital, contributing member of a local church where he is serving, worshipping, and accountable.

A disciple can’t survive on his own. He needs the Body, as Romans 12:4-5 explains, "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."

If I severed my hand from my body, how long would it last? How about my foot, or my eye? The individual members of my body can’t survive on their own. They are a part of a whole.

What is the church? God’s Word refers to it as a Body. What are believers? They are parts of the Body.

There’s a common thinking that says, "I’ve got the Lord. I’m okay. I don’t need to function in the church." That’s not biblical Christianity. That’s the product of our Americanized rugged individualism. Biblically speaking, to have a relationship with Christ and not have a vibrant relationship with Christ’s Body is abnormal. How can you love a person’s head and ignore the rest of the body? You can’t. It’s a package deal. To be right with Christ you need His Body. You need the church.

That’s why Paul and Barnabas returned. When they left Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch the first time, they left behind people who knew Christ as Savior, but they lacked something. They needed organization. A living organism needs structure. They returned to give it.

What kind of structure? They appointed "elders." You say, "That doesn’t sound very democratic! You mean they didn’t even let the people vote on their leaders?" Apparently not. But why would you let baby Christians make major decisions on matters they do not understand? That’s the American way, not the biblical way. In the Bible, elders lead. Members support and follow.

Left to themselves the disciples in these cities would never make it. They needed shepherds to feed them. They needed accountability to protect them. In short, they needed the local church.

4. Believers need prayer (23b). Notice that the decision to appoint elders was made "with prayer and fasting." I take it from the wording that Paul and Barnabas did the prayer and fasting, and in so doing they taught the new churches a vital lesson. Never make any important decision without prayer. We need prayer. Before the Body does anything, it needs to communicate with the Head and find out what He wants.

5. Believers need a reminder to trust in the Lord (23c). What was the last thing the missionaries did before leaving town? Verse 23 says they "committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust." If we lead people to Christ but keep the apron strings attached to us, they are in trouble. We, too, are in trouble. If they’re dependent on us for stability and growth, we’ve blown it. We must commit them to the Lord, the One they’ve trusted in for salvation. We must remind them to trust in Him for all things.

What happened next? The missionaries left town. Verses 24-25 state, "After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, ²⁵ and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia."

No, Paul didn’t leave for good. No good parent forgets his children. Paul would return again to Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch, on his second missionary journey and on his third. But he could now leave because two vital relationships were in place. They were in Christ. And they were in the local church.

Someone might say, "Well I’m a part of the invisible, universal church. I don’t need the local church." That reminds me of a story that Vance Havner told. A lady came to him once and said, "I want to sing in the choir." He replied, "If you want to sing in the choir, you need to be a member of the church." She replied, "I don’t want to be a member of this church. I’m already a member of the invisible church." To which the pastor replied, "Then sing in the invisible choir."

Where is Christ today? You say, "He is in heaven." True, but He is also here. He sent His Spirit to indwell His Body, the church. Ephesians 1:22-23 says, "And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."

Know this. The Living Head works through local churches. The emphasis in the New Testament is on the local church, not the universal church. Look at the letters in the New Testament. To whom were they written? To local churches or to individuals working in local churches. "To the church of God in Corinth," Paul began the letter we can 1 Corinthians. "To the churches in Galatia," Paul likewise began in Galatians 1:2. "To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons," we read in Philippians 1:1. "To the church of the Thessalonians," Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 1:1.

Take a look at the beginning of the book we call Philemon, "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker, ² to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier and to the church that meets in your home."

Wherever Paul went he not only led people to Christ, but he then linked those people to visible manifestations of Christ’s Body. That is, he established local churches and placed his spiritual children into them. It was there that they could obtain strength, encouragement, leadership and organization, prayer, and a continual reminder to trust in the Lord, long after he was gone.

Beloved, you can’t get these essentials from the television or radio preacher. You need the local church. Yes, people need a relationship with the Lord, but they also need a relationship with His Body. And His Body is the church.

Someone may be thinking, "Well, that may be true for new Christians, but what about those of us who’ve been saved a long time? I mean, after all, I’ve got my Bible and I can talk to God all I want right in my own home. Do I really need the local church?"

How would you answer that person? This mentality is widespread especially in our area. A lot of people are disillusioned with the local church. Perhaps they’ve been hurt in the past. Top that off with a mindset that says, "Well, I ‘did my time’ in church. I brought my share of pies to the church dinners, and even taught Sunday School for years. It’s time for somebody else to take my place. I don’t need the church any longer."

Is that true? Is the church only for the spiritually young, something we outgrow as we age? I’d like to answer that question with another question. Did Paul outgrow his need for the local church? Notice the very next thing he and Barnabas did, as recorded in verse 26, "From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch." That’s Antioch in Syria. Why did they go there? The next phrase says, "where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed."

What did Paul and Barnabas do after finishing their missionary journey? They returned to their sending church. Who needs the local church? Yes, new Christians do. But the fact is, we never outgrow our need for the church.

Let’s take a close look at the relationship Paul and Barnabas had with their "home" church in Antioch. The text mentions they did three things that underscore their high view of the local church.

A. Paul and Barnabas submitted to the authority of the church (26). Verse 26 indicates they did. "From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed."

In all Paul and Barnabas traveled more than 1,000 miles on a trip that probably took them between one and two years to complete. Why did they take that trip? Simply put…

1. The sending church gave them a job to do. Remember the scene at the beginning of Acts 13? Paul and Barnabas had a great thing going in Antioch. They were part of a fine ministry team there, but when the Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them (13:2)," they obeyed. The whole church obeyed. After a time of fasting and prayer, they placed their hands on them and sent them off (13:3). They went because the sending church at Antioch gave them a job to do. And…

2. They finished it, by the grace of God. Grace makes ministry possible. We can’t do it on our own. Paul and Barnabas knew it, and here we’re told that the Antioch church members knew it. Luke says that before the missionaries left, the church committed them to the grace of God.

Don’t miss the authority of the local church here. Though Paul was an apostle, he didn’t freewheel. He and Barnabas went out to do ministry in submission to the authority of the local church. They did something else, too.

B. Paul and Barnabas made themselves accountable to the church (27). "On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles."

We might call this the first "missionary conference" in the book of Acts. Upon returning home, the missionaries "gathered the church together." That clause indicates that the church is people, not a building. The church is wherever the people are. To have the church you must gather the people. If the people don’t come, you might have a building you call a ‘church,’ but you don’t have the church.

As the sending church, the Antioch church had a vital part in the lives that were changed from Cyprus to Derbe. The church prayed. The church had been willing to give up two of its best teachers. Now they shared in the fruit.

Why did Paul and Barnabas call the church together? Obviously they had a story to tell, but why did they tell it to the church? It’s because they saw themselves as accountable to the church. Luke says they "reported" to the church. Have you made yourself accountable to your local church?

I see a wonderful picture here of the teamwork involved in missions.

2. The church gives. But when it’s all said and done…

3. God does the work. They reported "all that God had done through them."

Chuck Swindoll offers this comment about verse 47 in his biography, Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit. "In all that Paul did, the glory went to God. Whatever else you may remember, don’t forget this…No big-time press conferences extolling a successful campaign. No self-serving interviews for some Christian radio station drawing attention to their hardships and successes. None of that. They reported everything that God had done through them. I love it."

We’re in trouble when we forget that ministry is about God, not us. If there’s fruit, it’s because God worked and the glory belongs to him.

C. Paul and Barnabas made themselves available to the church (28). Here are three key concepts associated with the local church—authority, accountability, and availability. Paul and Barnabas recognized them. So must we. They submitted to the authority of the church, made themselves accountable to the church, and thirdly, made themselves available to the church.

Luke says in verse 28, "And they stayed there a long time with the disciples." Just how long was this "long time?" Probably more than a year. Why did they stay in Antioch for this duration? Perhaps to recuperate and be refreshed—it had been a hard trip! The church is supposed to be a haven for the hurting. But it’s also a place to serve, and undoubtedly Paul and Barnabas used their gifts to edify the Body during the months that followed.

When it comes to the church, two things are always true.

1. I need the church. I can’t be a strong Christian and neglect my church, any more than I could cut off my finger and expect it to remain healthy. Just like my finger needs the body, I need the church. In addition…

2. The church needs me. Each member of the church has God-given spiritual gifts. He gave us those gifts for the good of the Body. When we fail to use them, the Body suffers. The whole Body suffers, including me.

I’ll be honest. Are there Sundays when we don’t feel like coming to church? There will be many. Why come then? Because we need the church and the church needs us. This is so important. Missing church isn’t like missing a Lion’s Club meeting. The health of the Body is at stake!

One of the church fathers put it thus, "No man can have God for his father unless he has the Church for his mother." We could argue that the language is too strong, to say we need the church as much as we need God. But the fact is, God says we need the church.

John Wesley said, "No man ever went to heaven alone; he must either find friends or make them." Barclay is right when he says, "Christianity must be lived in a fellowship."

Who needs the local church? New Christians do. Mature Christians do. We all do.

1. Take inventory of your relationship with the Head. Colossians 1:18 says, "And he is the head of the body, the church." Are you connected to the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ? Is He your Lord and Savior? How close are you to the Head?

2. Take inventory of your relationship with the Body. It’s impossible to be right with the Head and not right with His Body. What’s the condition of your relationship with the Body? Since that’s kind of hard to measure, we have a tool to help us. It’s called our church covenant. Yes, it’s a man-made document, but it’s based on biblical principles. Every member of this church has made the following promise:

Acts  Sermon Series