Dennis Tuuri

Well, that is what we desire, is it not? We read today in our sermon scripture of warfare, the kingdom prospering in times that were very difficult, much as the times in which we live. And yet, the final verse that we read today from Acts chapter 14 indeed finds the people of God at rest, secure. You’ll notice this as we said that throughout the book of Acts, you have times of struggle and you have times of rest.

And in this account, we see the struggle of the first missionary journey brought to a conclusion and we see rest again at the church at Antioch. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. We’ll be reading from Acts chapter 14. And hopefully the Holy Spirit will minister this text to us to both further equip us for warfare but also to cause us to rejoice and worship God for the rest that he has purchased for us. That rest which we enter into this day.

Acts chapter 14, I’ll be reading from verse 24 through the end of chapter 14, which is verse 28. “And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphilia. And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Italia and then sailed to Antioch from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. And there they abode long time with the disciples.”

Please be seated. We thank God for his word and we pray now that he may illuminate our understanding as well as the word of instruction that the younger children will receive in their Sabbath schools as well.

Now today we have a portion of scripture that ties off another major section of the book of Acts: the first missionary journey. This portion of scripture ties that off, brings it to a conclusion. And I thought it would be good for several reasons to review where we’re at in the text, in the book of Acts—where we’ve gone, where we have seen, the immediate context, what we’re going to talk about today, and what’s ahead for us in the future as well.

I don’t know if you need this. I sort of felt yesterday as I was waiting for the plane to depart from Chicago that, Elder Mayhar and myself took back—plane not departing for four and a half hours after it was scheduled due to mechanical difficulties. I thought I certainly need the review to remember where we’re at in this book. I felt a little discombobulated this last week.

You know, I preached last week about the pressures through much tribulation. The word tribulation—the pressure that squeezes painfully upon us. We must enter into the kingdom of God.

Richard and myself went to the Billy Graham Museum while we were in Chicago. That wasn’t the reason we were there. But the conference we were at, the confessional conference, was held in the Cliff Barrels auditorium which is attached to the Billy Graham hall where they have college offices at Wheaton, etc. But in the basement, now they have a rather well-developed museum, and you go through this museum about the history of evangelism. And by the way, I thought of Greg Skipper because in the opening sections of that museum, the history of evangelism in America, they have some very old books behind glass—of course—of various sermons from Jonathan Edwards, etc. And that is very interesting.

But as you go through this museum, you end up of course with Billy Graham, and a large part of the museum is dedicated to his ministry. And then you go through that and you go through a room where there’s this plexiglass cross with Christ inside of it. And then you go through that room and you go through a narrow gate—a very narrow entry. And at the end of that narrow entry, you have the rugged cross, a big rugged cross on a wall. And then as you turn left from there, you’re ushered into heaven.

You go up a series of stairs—not a big stair but up to a little platform in another room—and they have mirrors at the top of the ceiling and at the bottom of the floor as well. Then they have like a blue sky with clouds on the sides of the walls. So the effect is that blue sky and clouds extends upward eternally and downward eternally. So you’re kind of in heaven now. You’re floating in the middle of a beautiful sky picture.

And I thought, we were remarking about how again it’s the picture of going through the narrow gate and entering into salvation. And mentioning these flight difficulties coming back from Chicago: I also had the same difficulties going to Chicago. Not the flight itself, but I very nearly missed the flight. Traffic was backed up for miles that morning. We gave ourselves, we thought, plenty of time to get there on time, but we had to rush like crazy. But it was entering in through that narrow gate and then ushering into a wide place where we heard very good talks, which we’ll be talking probably about for the next few weeks with some of you individually. We may have a corporate meeting as well, but in any event, that’s where we’ve come from.

And I, after going through this kind of week of lots of material, felt it would be good at least for myself—and I’m sure hopefully for you too—to review where we’re at in the book of Acts.

So remember that the book of Acts starts with of course the ascension of our Savior. And they ask him, “When will the kingdom be restored?” And he says, “Well, you don’t know the times and seasons, but you’ll receive power from on high. You’ll be my witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth.”

And then in preparation for that, and very importantly, we don’t miss these little incidents that happen in the context of the bigger picture: very importantly, before that work begins, it is necessary that the church fill up the ministry of the church. The twelve are completed. The rebellious Judas is replaced. Very important—a big model in scripture, over and over again—that replacement model ultimately pointing to the replacement of Adam by the new Adam, Jesus Christ.

But after that is accomplished and the church is reorganized on the day of Pentecost, we see then the beginning of Peter and John as a twosome now taking the gospel into Jerusalem and also into Judea. And in the context of that, we have the restoration of the preaching, the true preaching of God’s word, which always points to Jesus Christ. And those who have ears to hear on the day of Pentecost are saved. Thousands of people come to the faith.

We have the restoration of the preaching of the word. We have the restoration of all things pictured. Then in the next event that happens is Peter and John bring healing to a man at the temple. We’ve talked a lot about that. We have restoration of discipline and justice in the church as well with the word of God slaying two members of the visible church, yet who had lied to the Holy Spirit: Ananias and Sapphira. So that’s part of this process where the gospel is being preached by Peter and John in the context of Jerusalem and Judea.

And then we have a restoration of mercy as well in terms of the feeding of those who were needing food in the ministration of the widows. And the extension of mercy and grace is an essential part of this element of the gospel of the kingdom as it goes forth into the day and age then—that was highly rebellious, like our day is—in terms of converting men and nations.

And then we have a shift there to Stephen and Philip. And we have those two—Stephen in his martyrdom and Philip in his resurrection power of Christ—taking the gospel into Samaria. And so we go from Jerusalem and Judea where Peter and John are the primary figures, to the gospel spreading to Samaria, the feeding of the widows from all over the world, and being a picture of this the initiation of new officers. Now we have to discuss the nature of those officers. Now, but again, filling in the ministry of the church, the gospel is extended into Samaria, and that happens.

And then we have the story of course of the imprisonment of Peter. After—well, actually before that—we had the preparation for the gospel going into the uttermost parts of the earth with the conversion of Saul, who will be the apostle to the Gentiles. And so we have this theme that our Savior laid out for us in the opening chapter of the book of Acts being played out now.

And then there’s a brief departure from Saul’s ministry as we wrap up the ministry of Peter in Jerusalem. Remember, with his final imprisonment, the last wave of persecution in Jerusalem takes intense pressure: killing of one of the apostles, the imprisonment of Peter, his pictorial resurrection from the prison—his chains fell off, he was free, and he followed the angel into the city. And then we see a shift, and that’s the end of Peter until Acts chapter 15. And that’s the last mention of Peter in the book of Acts.

But we now see a transition: from Peter and John, and then Stephen and Philip, and now we’re in that time where Paul and Barnabas are taking the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth. And that’s the context for this first missionary journey. That’s what’s going on. The church is established at Antioch. And that church that is established at Antioch becomes, as it were, the new Jerusalem, the center of the church, as missionaries are sent forth to open the door that God might open the door of faith to the Gentiles and usher in a people for himself, that the nations might be discipled.

Now, we’re at the end then. This text we just read is at the end of the first missionary journey. And after this, we will spend some time in Acts chapter 15 before we get to the second missionary journey. And Acts chapter 15 can be seen in terms of the restoration of discipline again—the extension of that—and also as establishing the orthodoxy of the church against the Judaizing element that come from those who are in the church but not really of the church. That will be the Jerusalem Council. We’ll also see—not just the division in Acts chapter 15 of false teaching—but we’ll also see the division of conflict between the two men, Paul and Barnabas, who essentially replace Peter and John and Philip and Stephen, now taking that gospel into other parts of the earth.

They’re going to have dissension at the end of Acts 15. So before we begin the second cycle of missionary activity, we’ll see this dissension, and we’ll see that being worked out in the context of Acts chapter 15.

Now I want to give us a model here and give by way of review what Paul will rehearse now—is what we have just read about, right? He will tell the church at Antioch that commissioned him and Barnabas what happened. And Luke has already told us the important elements of what has happened, and it’s important that we think through it a little bit again.

Remember how it began? Elymas the magician, right? Keep trying to keep Sergius Paulus from the faith. So Paul first does battle—the first incident that’s recorded by Luke is doing battle with magic. And then we move from there into the preaching at Antioch Pisidia. And you remember that preaching was in the context of a Sabbath sermon at the synagogue. The synagogue and Sabbath are mentioned there, and that’s where the action takes place, so to speak, Antioch Pisidia.

Then we move to Iconium, and there the synagogue is where the action takes place, but not a mention of Sabbath activity specifically. And then we move to Lystra, and at Lystra there is no mention of Sabbath or synagogue, and there we see radical paganism at work—the worship of different deities: Jupiter and Mercury.

And so we had this—as we said before—movement away from the center of Jerusalem, the preaching of God’s word. And that progression first happens in the providence of God with dealing with magic and not in the context of any of these other things. And then it shows us that as you move further away from Jerusalem, you move away from synagogue and Sabbath, and synagogue, and no synagogue or Sabbath mentioned in the final city.

Now, this is—I mentioned this because as we go to the second missionary journey, we will see this same progression work its way out. There’ll be an enchantress that Paul will cast a demon—the spirit—out of. He will deal with magic in that sense, the way he did with Elymas the magician, as he moves into the second missionary journey. And then following that, we will see the next action in the next city take place in the context again of synagogue and Sabbath specifically mentioned in the following city.

The next city will see again activity in relationship to synagogue with no Sabbath. And that will lead us up to Paul at Athens where there’s no mention of synagogue or Sabbath. And Athens is corollary then to Lystra with Jupiter and Mercury, although they have it a little different thrust on it. It’s the Epicureans and the unknown god.

Now, I mention this because what Paul is rehearsing for the church, and what Luke would have us consider, is the opening of the door of faith by God to Gentiles, but different sorts of Gentiles, okay? All this is involved first and second missionary journey, first and second witness to the opening of the door of faith by God to Gentiles, but of different stripes and varieties.

The first stripe and variety of people being brought into the kingdom—there’s this typological warfare that happens first—but the first mention in terms of synagogue and Sabbath are Gentiles who operate in the context of biblical worship, the synagogue and Sabbath. Very close, part of the institutional church, you might say, okay. And then the model, synagogue without Sabbath, are those who are affected by the teaching of the Old Testament and the faith, and yet—not at least in terms of the literary device that Luke is using—not tied into necessarily or not associated with the worship of the church.

And then finally, we get to that group of Gentiles that are completely removed from synagogue or Sabbath. And the gospel conquers men in each of those classes, in each of those divisions. And I would suggest to you by way of illustration, to us, by way of application to us: We face similar times. We face times in which we are fulfilling the great commission of our Savior to disciple the nations, to evangelize them, and to teach them and instruct them in a way of life.

And we, in the context of fulfilling that commission in our day and age, will run across people in these same three classes. The church must be preached with the full gospel. Now, what does Paul teach? Do you remember what he taught at Antioch Pisidia? He taught that salvation comes in Jesus Christ, but he gave it a political context as well. Political—not in the technical sense of the word running for office—but political in the effect of the rule of men on earth under the greater King, Jesus Christ.

And I am convinced, and we’ll see this again by the way, the emphasis on Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed prophet, priest, and king, as we go to the second missionary journey where the conversion happens first in the context of synagogue and Sabbath. Same message, okay. And when we get around to those pagans who are completely away from synagogue and Sabbath, same message: creation, the unknown god whom you worship, made the heavens and earth.

So what I’m suggesting is we have here a model: as Paul goes back to Antioch and causes them to evaluate what’s been said there, as we evaluate what we’ve read and what the rest of the book of Acts talks about in terms of missionary journeys, we can see these same three groups. And one of our mission fields is the institutional church—to reach with the full orbed gospel of Jesus Christ. And it will produce division in the institutional church as surely as it did in the institutional church of Paul’s day.

But we have a second group of Gentiles that God, I believe, is opening a door of faith to as well in our context. Richard and I, as we came back to the airport from Wheaton, we took a taxi back and forth. We got excellent travel advice from Howard L., as well as his—by the way, I hope it doesn’t embarrass him—but being the benefactor that allowed us to go. Remember last year? It’s interesting how God works. Last year, church—Christ the Sovereign Covenant Church—made it available for me to go with Doug. This year, we have another benefactor who by the gracious gift makes available to us that which is benefiting and equipping the church.

But in any event, on the way back, taking this taxi back, and the taxi cab driver is a very talkative fellow. First taxi cab driver was totally basically non-communicative. Second taxi cab driver, on the way back from Leon to the airport, very talkative—talking about, “Oh yeah, I think you know, we got talking about Billy Graham and he talked about religion and how, I think the Bible is, you know, it’s the word of God. And why do these Catholics want to change it?” And he has a girlfriend, he said, who likes birth control and abortion and stuff, and he can’t figure why that is. The Bible is the Bible. Should never change. And yet his lifestyle obviously is not character. I mean, this is his girlfriend, and they’re having breakfast together and stuff, so we don’t know what that means. But suffice it to say that he probably is a picture of that second group who are influenced by the synagogue, the church—not brought into the worship of the church.

This man watches a particular preacher on TV that he likes—maybe regenerate, I don’t know, maybe elect, I don’t know. But we’re going to find lots of people in the world who are not brought into the worship of the church—Gentiles, outside of the faith—but who are influenced by that and have some degree of allegiance to the scriptures, some degree of involvement with the synagogue, the same way that involvement happened in Iconium.

And those people easily fall into idolatry of state and the city. Remember, I told you the city was divided—the city was punctured with the gospel. And as we reach that second group of Gentiles, the idolatry of statism will be a major enemy. But that’s a second group of people—those within the church, those who have been influenced by synagogue, by church, by the word of God, and yet are outside of the church, outside of the worshipping community. And then third, we’re going to find Gentiles increasingly—by the way, this group is growing in numbers—who have no influence by synagogue or Sabbath, worship of the word of God, the community of God, who are totally full-developed, so to speak, fully-orbed in their paganism and their rejection of the theistic God of the scriptures.

And we heard a lot about that in Chicago and about the development there. And I would just suggest that this is where we’re at in the book of Acts. We’re wrapping up the first missionary journey. We’re going to look at couple of divisions that happened in Acts 15. We’re going to go to the second missionary journey and on into the third, etc.—finally ending up with Paul preaching the gospel, which is a picture of conquering the expansion of the kingdom to Rome itself—from Jerusalem to Rome, on all the way over the whole known earth, the gospel is victorious and brings out a people worshipping God.

And that’s where we’re at. And Paul is wrapping this up in terms of the first missionary journey as they return now to their commissioning source. And from there, we will go into another narrative in Acts 15 as we prepare for the second missionary journey.

So that’s the context of where we’re at today. Let me just mention that probably in the next few weeks we’ll be talking about relationships between what happens in Acts 15 and what is the faith once delivered in terms of the relationship of the believer to the law of God, and specifically to circumcision—the test of orthodoxy, a standard of orthodoxy to be raised by the council in Jerusalem.

And by way of reporting back to you what God has done with us this last week—that is essentially the mission of this confessional conference that we’ve now attended. I’ve attended two years now. There’s a couple more, or at least one more on the schedule. The purpose of that is to raise a standard of orthodoxy for the reformed churches specifically, and that will produce division.

That standard that’s being brought up in terms of the confessional conference is both in terms of creation and egalitarianism. And by way of you know a metaphor for those two areas of thought: six ordinary day creation, no women officers in the church. But getting behind that to what drives those heresies that are prevalent even in reformed churches today—many of them—in other words, a non-historic view of Genesis 1 and 2, and the egalitarianism—a leveling of all people—that’s found in terms of the ordination of women to office, ultimately, but many other expressions in terms of that.

The confessional conference is trying to do what Acts 15 did in many ways: to raise a standard of orthodoxy so that we can see and clearly delineate which churches hold to the biblical positions on these very important issues of our day and which deviate from them.

Well, okay. So that’s where we’re at in terms of this text. And I want us to now look at seven teachings from this specific text. Now, moving it now away from the general flow of this particular book—the book of Acts—to the specific instruction we received as we read Acts 14, the last few verses of it.

Let’s notice now seven particular points that I think are worth evaluating, focusing on for a couple of minutes here as we consider this text. Some of these are explicit, some of these are more implicit, and I just want to mention them briefly in terms of this text.

And the first one is kind of implicit, and really it isn’t just the result of this text. It’s what’s gone on before as well. In the account of the strengthening of the churches—remember that before this return for us in verses 24 through 28, we had Paul going from Derby, the fourth horn of the altar, a picture of completion of the whole world of salvation, a picture also of rest—no persecution—and from Derby, Paul goes back then to strengthen the churches.

Now, it’s important the first point I want to make here then in terms of this evaluation that’s also given to us here to the church at Antioch is that the church is important in the plan of God. Now, that’s a pretty obvious thing, isn’t it? But it’s important to mention.

As we go through this, the first point of application or truth that this concluding portion of Acts 14 reminds us of is the importance of the church and not individuals. Now, soon as I say that, I have to say that individuals are important and families are important and civil state is important. But the thrust in the book of Acts repeatedly is the establishment of the church and specifically the development of local churches.

Acts does not posit Christians who are in that middle group that we talked about—you know, the middle group of Gentiles who are influenced by synagogue and yet not brought into the full worship of the church, television preaching, etc. It is a shame—more than a shame, it is sin—that so much of radio and TV preaching does not continually stress to the individuals who hear it to become involved in and part of a local worshipping community of believers that is a local church.

The local church is what Paul is strengthening here. The local church is what he has moved on to establish, and the local church is what he now goes back to make his evaluation and report. And so it’s very important to recognize the importance of the local church.

Now, and that also, as I said, is seen. And if you look at the model of this movement from the three groups of Gentiles—the closest, so to speak, to biblical truth—if the pagans are at the one end of the spectrum, the other end of the spectrum are those who are involved in synagogue and Sabbath worship. And so when we talk about the importance of the institutional church, we’re talking about the importance first and foremost of the worship of God.

This is where you should be on the Lord’s day. This is where all who profess faith in Jesus Christ should be on the Lord’s day—part of a local church, worshipping together and committed to it.

Secondly, and this again is implicit from the text: Paul, I won’t go through the geography in detail, but suffice it to say that Paul in this geography comes close to an area where he had lived for a good period of time. And some commentators remark upon the fact that there’s no indications of side trip off to homeland, friends, and acquaintances or family. Paul stays focused on the mission and ministry he has.

And so secondly, and it’s kind of related to the first, the church is stressed not just as opposed to individuals now—individual Christians being brought into the strengthening of the church—but the church is stressed in relationship to or in contrast to the family and to friends specifically. Now, this can be perverted. I don’t want to, you know, I don’t want to at all be seen as trying to cause you to sin against the family that God has placed through the context of whether it’s your immediate family or your extended family, or the family, so to speak, of your friends and acquaintances.

But what I am suggesting, and suggesting strongly, is the word of God repeatedly warns us. And you’ve heard this from me before: the Lord Jesus Christ warns us that family is going to be one of the means by which Satan tries to pull us off from the centrality of the mission of the proclamation of the gospel and bringing men into visible church community—worshipping and acting as an organized body of Jesus Christ.

This is, I think, extremely important. One of the things we heard Richard and I heard this last week: six talks on egalitarianism. Egalitarianism is a big word. And you know, as I was sitting there thinking about this, I thought, “You know, I’ve been thinking about egalitarianism for a dozen years. This church, you and me particularly, and those of us who have been in it for a long time, have been greatly blessed. Judge Beers, it’s one of the first things he instructed many of us in, was the dangers and peril of egalitarianism.”

Now, what is that big word? You could call it “equalitarianism,” maybe. It’s a doing away with distinction of roles. Everybody’s supposed to be the same. But the way it works it out: we have the ordination of women as officers, for instance, okay. So we shouldn’t have just men be officers. We’re all equal in Jesus Christ, and so we all can be officers of Jesus Christ. And so that’s a heresy that’s going on in the liberal reformed churches particularly—where it’s particularly dominant. And of course, and it’s well-developed heresy that’s applied to God himself.

And so we, for instance, heard the beginning lines of the revision of the Lord’s Prayer done by the Episcopalian church in New Zealand—huge body apparently. And the opening lines talks about God as he slash she. It’s heretical to the core. And it’s heretical because it’s tried to bring into the scriptures this idea of egalitarianism, no distinction between sexes, a movement toward the obliteration of all distinctions.

What’s it got to do with the relationship of a church and family and friends? Because while homeschoolers specifically, I think, are part of the reformation that God is bringing to pass in this country, they have before them a particular temptation based upon egalitarianism: to do away with the institutional church and do away with the concept of order and hierarchy and structure in that institutional church.

And so it is important today to assert the importance of the local church. Two of the three speakers—and I’m sure the third one concurred as well—George Grant was one of the speakers. Dr. Peter Jones from Westminster West was also one of the speakers, author of The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back. And in terms of people saying what we see, the bad things that are happening in our country relative to egalitarianism. And by the way, that’s also what’s driving homosexuality, etc. What’s the answer?

And Grant and Jones said, “Well, the churches must make very clear, over and over, that the only plan, the only answer we have is not some new program, not some new gimmick. People talked about the Promise Keepers seminars where, you know, 50,000, 60,000 men go out and make a commitment to keep covenant in terms of relationship as heads of households, etc. These things are good. But they said, over and over again: There is no plan B. Plan A is the church. That’s God’s plan A. And there is no plan B to turning this mess that we’re involved in—this country—around. No plan B. No gimmicks, no sets of correct seminars or conferences that will somehow produce the change in our country. No, God’s plan is the church.

And so the extent of the importance of the confessional conference is to strengthen churches in the application of these confessional standards. And so the first two things I want us to recognize but we have implications for these texts: is the importance of the church.

Now, I also want to take this opportunity to clear up a couple of things that perhaps I misstated a couple of weeks ago. And that’s in the terms of this relationship between church and family. I mentioned in a sermon a couple of weeks ago that if you think your husband or your wife is in sin and they won’t repent, it is proper and appropriate you go to the elders for council, for encouragement, if need be, disciplinary action against the sitting member. And I think I threw in—I’m probably—I probably did in a very loose and undisciplined way of my tongue—children in terms of talking about their parents and if they’re sinning.

Now, I do think it’s true that if we have a child in this congregation who knows their father has shot somebody, they should talk to the elders about that—hopefully they talk to the mother first. But I want to be sure that we understand that, as a child comes to an authority structure other than the authority structure that they have been placed in by God in the family, it is only after the first alternatives have not worked.

In other words, if a child thinks one of their parents is in sin, what they should do is go to the other parent. Well, first they should go to the sitting parent. Of course, in terms of Matthew 18, they should go to that parent first, try to seek them, to encourage them to do what’s right. If that doesn’t work, they should go to the other parent. And finally, they may eventually—although it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which this would happen—but it is possible they would then eventually come to the elders and say, “My parents just won’t—they won’t stop doing this thing. Maybe they’re smoking marijuana, for instance. They just won’t stop doing it. Please help them. Please help them to get some kind of relief.”

But I want to make sure that you understand that, while I said that in a very quick and awkward way, in terms of relationship between church and family, the authority structure of the family is very important in terms of the composition of the local church. And I am not advocating here the elimination of the family. I’m just trying to warn against the idolatry of the family again, because the scriptures repeatedly tell us, over and over, it can be a major enemy to the biblical faith.

And so I want to make sure you understand that I did not try to advocate children coming to the elders, snitching on their parents about every little thing—as if you know the same culture is trying to get them to do relative to CPS and spanking. No, it’s not what I’m talking about. But I am talking about that we’re all under authority. We’re all under a structure of authority here. And so in terms of that, it is proper at times for children, having tried to go through the parents themselves directly, to eventually come to the elders.

Second, problem or misunderstanding I want to clear up here is I talked about admission to the table. We talked about the centrality of the church. We come together on the Lord’s day. We have communion, and who admits and who bars and debars from the table? It is the elders of the local church. Now, again here, we practice paedocommunion. There’s some question about how that works out. Are you telling me, Dennis, that if my child is in major rebellion against God, I can’t tell them that on the Lord’s day they haven’t cleared it up—they shouldn’t take communion?

No. No, I’m not telling you that. I’m saying that is a proper thing for you to do. Same with your husband or your wife, right? If you think that they’re in sin, it probably—get you to talk to them. “Gee, do you really think you should be taking communion until you’ve cleared this up?” And certainly, a parent can instruct their children that they’re not in a position to take the Lord’s table.

So I didn’t mean to imply by statements I made a couple of weeks ago that only the elders should ever get involved in terms of helping a family to determine if their children are in a position of rebellion against God and therefore not able to take the table. So you know, I want to say that it is appropriate for you, if you have a concern along that line, to advise your children, perhaps even to instruct them that they should not take communion that day.

On the other hand, it would make me very uncomfortable to think of a parent keeping their child from the table for any extended period of time without the elders’ involvement. I once—we have had people in this church, and you know who you are—come to me or come to—I don’t know if Elder Mayhar has had this or not—but I’ve had people come to me in years gone by: “My child is doing this, this, and this. I’ve told them they shouldn’t take the table today. What do you think of it? Is that okay?”

“Yeah, okay, let’s hear it and talk about it. Yeah, that’s okay. I think it’s important, even if you’re going to suspend them for a day, to begin to think about getting the elders involved in that, and certainly if you’re going to try to keep them from the table for any period of time, to involve the elders in that decision.”

Now, here again, see what I want to warn against is taking a truth of the importance of the family and the family unit that we picture to us at the communion time and not extrapolating it out to heresy. The head of the family is not the one who decides who can receive and not receive communion. Communion is not a sacrament of the family. It is a sacrament of the institutional church, and it is to be practiced in the context not of the family at the beach, okay, or not of a group of friends someplace. It’s to be practiced only in the context of the institutional church.

And while we have a device in communion at our church where we have wafer family as one cup—we give usually the bread to the head of the household and he distributes it—please understand that is not a picture that you somehow are the determiner, ultimately, of who can receive the table and not receive the table in the context of your family.

Remember the incident for this was a case in which the church had suspended someone, and they were admitted to the table by their mate. Now maybe there’s confusion involved, but I’m just trying to help clear up any confusion in your mind and to correct the errors of my loose speech a couple of weeks ago. Okay.

So, first of all, by way of noting some of these things: importance of the church versus individuals, importance of the church in relation, excuse me, importance of the church in contrast to individual Christians, importance of the church in relationship to family and friends. And here again, worship, Sunday worship, gives us the model for all of this.

By way of application to your life, if this is true, the scriptures repeatedly show this. This narrative from Paul describes this to us: the importance of the local church. I would suggest to you that where you’re going to see tension in your life relative to these truths is Sabbath worship. Sabbath worship is at the center, at the core. Remember: the delineation—you move away from the faith, you move away from synagogue and Sabbath. Correlary to that is you move toward the faith, you move to synagogue and Sabbath. You move to instruction, the word of God, and worship on the Lord’s day.

And this is the Lord’s day. And family and friends should not draw you away from the worship of God. Should not do it. And yeah, that’s going to cause you a lot of trouble in the context of some of your extended families. But I do not believe the scriptures would warrant a failure to worship God in terms of trying to work with friends or family.

And I know that vacations and stuff like this will happen. I was talking to Howard’s old pastor in Chicago. I think it was him who told me this—until Richard and I—guess that he said that they used to have a joke about how yeah, I think Dave Benson from—who was a member of that a Protestant Reformed Church—was here a few weeks ago. And Pastor Van Overloop was saying that he asked—I guess Benson brought—Mr. Benson brought back a copy of order of worship, and he said something about how they’ve talked about maybe when people go on vacation they got to bring back an order of worship from the church they worship at to show to the elders. And you know, it’s kind of a joke, but on the other hand, it shows the importance of worship. And it is true that even when you go on vacation away from your local church you’re a member of, on the Lord’s day you should be worshipping someplace—making a real strong attempt to do so. And I would encourage all of you in that way.

Well, let’s move on. I probably spent too much time on that.

Third, and this is very explicit now from the text: Paul fulfilled the ministry that God had given to him. What does he say here? He says that he came back, and when they came together, they reported, they rehearsed all that God had done with them. By the way, that word rehearsed—what God had done—that’s a continuous tense. So in other words, it wasn’t just one meeting. There probably was a series of meetings, maybe with the general congregation, maybe with those involved in the mission work of the church. We don’t know what exactly: a series of meetings in which Paul rehearsed these things.

“Oh, God would open the door of faith.” I’m sorry. But before that, verse 26 says: “they went back to where they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.” Now, that’s a small point, and yet it’s a very important point in terms of our lives and what the scripture reminds us of in terms of our commitment to fulfill the ministry we have been called to do.

The scriptures over and over again stress the importance of fulfilling ministry. Now, Paul tells us in Romans 15:18 that his ministry was this: to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed. So Paul’s ministry was to bring the Gentiles not just to a saving faith of the Lord Jesus Christ—and that’s the end of it and then they go to heaven sometime. His ministry, which he says he had now fulfilled in this first missionary journey, came to an end. And that’ll be interesting to see how the second missionary journey begins.

Then it’s not a commissioning by the church. Now this first one is a commissioning by the church. It comes to a conclusion. He has fulfilled the task. That task is to bring the Gentiles to obedience and not just in what they believe, in word and in deed.

We had read at the opening of worship today a psalm that is an entrance liturgy. Who gets to go to the holy hill of God? Who gets to worship? Not those who make a mere profession of Jesus Christ alone. That’s not what it says. Those who believe in God. Period. No. It says those whose lives are characterized by holiness, by obedience, in what you say and what you do. Those who keep their word, right? That’s one of the requirements that was read to us this morning.

We’re going to fall. We can’t keep God’s law perfectly, but we can keep it substantially. God doesn’t expect to be breaking all ten commandments every week and somehow coming here on Sunday and thinking, “Well, I got grace from God. I can worship him today.” No.

Jeremiah—we’ve used that passage from Jeremiah before about entrance liturgy there—if your hands are unclean and continue unclean in particular areas of your life, come here with fear and trembling. We would not have you stay away, but we would have you come and be challenged by those entrance liturgies to bring you to obedience, as Paul brought the Gentiles to obedience in word and in deed.

Your life can and should be characterized by general obedience to the word of God, and particularly in terms—it’s good for you to read Psalm 15, Psalm 24, the entrance liturgies. What do they say? What are the hallmarks of my life? How does my life compare to those things? Am I fulfilling this task in my own life? Bring myself to obedience to the word, to the word of God, in my words and in my deeds.

Do I swear to my own hurt? If I say something and it’s going to cost me to do it, do I do it anyway? You’ve sworn as Christians and as members of this church to come worship God. That’s the biggest thing you’ve sworn to do. There’s the beginning of your evaluation of yourself. What is it? Goes on to some other tougher things: to praise the good men and to condemn vile men.

Now egalitarianism—which we’ve spoken of, this leveling, no distinction between people—now begins to really get tested, doesn’t it, in terms of our lives? Has your week this last week been characterized by obedience in word and deed relating to God’s commandments, and then also relating to those entrance liturgies? Those are the two great sounding devices over which you should measure and evaluate your life. And have you praised the godly men? Have you condemned vile men? And have you condemned the vileness of your own sins?

Paul finished his ministry to bring those Gentiles to obedience of faith. And this is what characterized his life. Now this should characterize our life. This is a model for us as well. We should fulfill the ministry that God calls us to do.

In Colossians 4:17, Paul writes to say to Archippus: “Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it.” In order to fulfill your ministry, you must first of all know what it is, right? That seems rather obvious, but again, it is important to understand what ministry, in terms of the body of Jesus Christ, you have been called to.

Now, you all have callings at your job, in your families, to be heads of households, to be mothers, to be obedient children. That’s a ministry you should see as fulfilling as well. But now talking in the context to the institutional church: What is your ministry? Have you taken upon yourself a task in terms of the body of Christ? And have you fulfilled that task? Have you brought it to completion? Have you discerned what it is? You should have a ministry.

And secondly, have you fulfilled that ministry? Are you fulfilling it? Are you being diligent to do what God has instructed and called you to do in the context of ministry?

Paul gives us a model of that: he had fulfilled the ministry that the Spirit had commissioned him to. Now, we’re reminded in this geography itself of this truth, because you remember what happened as we go through this same geography in which they went. Remember, a critical incident early on here that’s going to show up again in Acts 15: John Mark deserted him. He didn’t fulfill his course. He had been brought into this thing—not commissioned in the same sense as Paul and Barnabas. He had put his hand to the task, and something happened. We don’t know what: discouragement, loss of heart, sloth, fear—we don’t know. Anger, maybe—upset that Barnabas, his relative, was not getting the honor that Paul was getting. We don’t know what it was. Something called John Mark could have been familial ties. Could have been totally other things. We don’t know. Something caused him not to fulfill his course.

And this will produce division between Paul and Barnabas at the end of Acts 15. Now, I say this for two reasons. One: as by way of encouragement, again, that you fulfill whatever ministry or course you have put your hand to do, in the context particularly now the importance of the local church. That’s first. Secondly, you know, some people find that easy to do just in their makeup. They find it easy to do. Other people don’t find it so easy to do. Some people are characterized in their personality as not being able to really fulfill what God—what they put their hand to do. They start lots of things, lots of projects, never really push through on any of them.

Well, John Mark may have been one of those kind of guys. And John Mark is a picture for us of a warning: to be fulfilling your course. But also, he’s a picture for us of forgiveness for those who don’t and change of character. Much later, Paul will say that John Mark is valuable for the ministry. God changed John Mark. And if you desire change—that you might move from being, not a persevering, characterized in some ways as quitting on tasks, whether it’s in the home, your workplace, ministry in terms of the church, whatever it might be—you can take heart in this very geography that reminds us of John Mark and reminds us that those who are brought to repentance for that failure can indeed be changed by the person of God.

One of the greatest temptations I have as a minister is to believe that people won’t change. You know, I look at myself, I look at others, think, “Wow, people don’t change.” Well, they don’t change apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. But that is a very important caveat. And if you find yourself failing in terms of this regard, recognize the Spirit of God can empower you to make you a perseverer who does indeed finish his course, as Paul finished his course.

So I would exhort you to faithfulness, to have Paul as a model, to finish the ministry, fulfill it, perseverance.

Fourth: so we talked about the importance of the church, individuals, church relative to family. We talked about fulfilling ministry. Fourth: Paul says very importantly that what he is reporting is not what him and Barnabas have done, or not what the Gentiles have done. What he is reporting is what God has done.

That’s what he tells us in the text here. He rehearses all that God had done with them. We’ve said over and over that this is the Acts not of the church. This is the Acts not of the apostles. These acts are the acts of Jesus Christ, of God, through his secondary means. And your life is the vehicle by which God has chosen, in his grace, to extend grace to others. And we must give him all the honor and glory for anything that our hand produces by way of benefit to the world around us and in the church of Jesus Christ and his kingdom.

Paul recognized the importance of giving God the glory. Remember the contrast here is Herod. Before all this begins, Herod dies. Prideful man is killed by God with sudden judgment, the removal of his glory—from shining silver raignments to rotting body filled with worms. Picture of man who prides himself. God debases and lowers. But as we debase ourselves and exalt God, God works through us. Then we’re brought to completion as persons in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m part of that terrible generation, you know, that hasn’t read all these great books that have been produced. But I’ve seen the movies. Seen the movies. I thought of this as I was at a confessional conference talking about a movie: A Man for All Seasons. I remember in the movie A Man for All Seasons—didn’t read the book—well, some of us a couple years ago there was a PBS production. I don’t remember what it was. There was a production of Henry V. Is it by Shakespeare? I don’t know, based upon the historical town of Henry and his victory at Agincourt. Against all odds, God gave him victory. I’m sure it’s embellished a lot by Shakespeare, etc. But it’s a very moving picture at the end of which, when he receives victory over the French—who are godless and such—and Henry prevails in the power of God, that he forbids the soldiers to sing any song of victory but instead to sing songs of praise to God for his victory.

See, that’s what Paul is doing here. The missionaries that went out are forbidden to praise themselves or somehow fade or anything, but the glory of God in what God had done through them in this first missionary journey. We have seen the door of faith open to Gentiles of every stripe and variety. Even the most pagan guys have been converted to the faith. But all that happens is a result of God’s work, not man’s work.

And so we should give God all the glory and honor. And of course, here again, worship is the model for us. We come forward not confessing our own righteousness or goodness, but confessing only the grace of God offered to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s our great hope.