In the previous blog, I began to highlight the significance of Paul and Barnabas choosing the more difficult route by which to conclude their first missionary journey.
In exploring why they did so, I pointed out:
- The Route They Elected
- The Reassurance They Expressed
Here, I’d like to point out the rest of what they said and did as they returned to their home base via Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch.
- The Reality They Explained
In each city, Paul and Barnabas explained to the new believers that “ … we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
People sometimes get a little tripped up on verses like these, and begin to wonder, “Does this mean I have to overcome tribulation, or persevere, before I’m saved, or before I can enter into the kingdom of God?”
I’m aware there are differing viewpoints on the matter, but the kingdom of God, as best I can understand it from careful study, is a future kingdom and will take place after the Lord has raptured the saints and returned after that time of tribulation to inaugurate that kingdom.
It is that time Scripture speaks of when Jesus will sit on the throne of David and will reign over the earth for 1,000 years, and all believers will reign with Him.
Though it’s a future kingdom, however, there is a sense in which all believers are already part of that kingdom.
Paul told the Colossian believers that God has “… delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated [us] into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13).
Many may ask, “How is that possible? How can I now be a part of something that is yet future?”
In our finite minds, such truths are difficult to understand, but in the Lord’s economy, it’s no trouble at all.
A number of times in Scripture Paul speaks of things that are future realities, yet he speaks of them in the present tense as though we possess them now.
For example, he told the believers at Philippi that “… our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven …” (Philippians 3:20).
I certainly enjoy this life and this world that the Lord has given us, but as we look around and observe the chaos and moral degradation, how many of us would say we are in heaven now?
None of us, of course. That’s because for believers that citizenship is a guaranteed reality that will be realized at a future time.
Paul spoke of our future glorified bodies in the same way: “Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:30).
As believers, we know that we will one day possess glorified bodies (1 Corinthians 15:52-54; Philippians 3:21), yet to the Romans, Paul spoke of our glorified bodies in the present tense.
Now I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a little older and my body doesn’t feel too glorified. My hair is getting thinner, I’m moving slower, my joints are getting achier, and so forth.
That’s because I’m not glorified yet, and neither are you. That’s a guarantee for the future, yet Paul spoke of it as though it was a present reality.
That’s because in God’s economy, it is.
The kingdom of God, our home in heaven, our glorified bodies – these things are so certain that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul and others could speak of them as present realities though they won’t be realized until sometime in the future.
So when Paul said that “… we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,” he is simply explaining the reality that until Christ returns to set up His kingdom, the Body of Christ will endure much tribulation.
Paul was not one to mince words or hide the truth. He didn’t want these young believers thinking the road ahead was going to be easy.
He wanted them to know, and I believe the Holy Spirit wants us to be reminded, that all who belong to the Lord’s church will be subject to tribulation and difficulty, until the day that He returns to establish His kingdom, when all such tribulation will cease.
And haven’t Paul’s words been proven true?
If you don’t think the church has faced “much tribulation” since she was born, I would just remind you that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of faithful believers down through the ages have given their lives for the preservation and propagation of the Gospel.
The Lord never said it would be easy, and Paul didn’t want these believers to be misinformed; but he wanted them to know it would be worth it, because on the other side of the tribulations the church would experience, there would be entry into that coming Kingdom.
A sobering reminder indeed, but also a great encouragement.
- The Roles They Assigned
Not only did Paul and Barnabas instruct, encourage, and speak realistically about the future for these converts, but further, they “… ordained them elders in every church …” (Acts 14:23).
These new believers would need to be reassured and strengthened, they would need to know the realities they were up against, and they would also need leaders to guide them.
The fact that the entire first missionary journey was only around a year in length informs us that not a great deal of time could have passed from the time Paul and Barnabas first passed through these cities until their return there.
Though the time had been brief, no doubt the individual giftings of these converts would have begun to surface.
Some would be growing and maturing quickly and would be fit for positions of leadership.
We are not told what the qualifications were for selecting these elders, but it’s likely Paul guided them in their selection based on qualifications that would later be fleshed out in places like Titus and 1 Timothy.
Whether Paul and Barnabas chose the elders or allowed the congregation to choose them, as they would know them best, Paul and Barnabas ultimately gave the approval.
They spent time in prayer and fasting seeking the Holy Spirit to make sure they made the right decision, and then before they left, they commended them to the Lord.
At the end of the day, they knew ultimately that each church was in the Lord’s hands, and they were entrusting these individual congregations to Him.
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So what was the underlying reason Paul and Barnabas chose to brave the longer route home, the threats of further persecution, and the extension of their travels by many, many days?
It really comes down to this – discipleship.
While at Derbe, knowing their trip was essentially over, and knowing they could have returned to home base in short order, I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine that Paul thought, “We’ve got multiple cities now full of infant believers and infant churches. These are converts who now need to be discipled.”
As John Phillips noted, “Paul was not one of those traveling evangelists who breeze into town, hold a few meetings, make some impassioned altar calls, collect a handsome offering, and move on to fresh fields with never a thought for those who have professed faith in Christ.”
Make no mistake, Paul was an evangelist – there are no two ways about it.
But as Phillips went on to highlight, “… he was also a pastor and a teacher. He was a true shepherd. He not only knew how to multiply the flock of God, he knew how to mind the flock.”
He was concerned, not only with conversion, but with spiritual development and teaching the converts how to walk righteously before the Lord.
In fact, that was the point of most of his New Testament letters – “Now that you’ve been saved, this is how you should live,” was the gist.
This reminds me of the importance of discipleship today.
In recent decades, many Christians have seemed to focus all their efforts on evangelism, and in so many cases, discipleship was a mere afterthought.
Evangelism is wonderful, and we are all called to evangelize, and some are even given a special gifting in that area (Ephesians 4:11).
But the work doesn’t stop there. We are called to make more than just converts. We are called to make disciples.
After all, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you …” (Matthew 28:20) is still included in The Great Commission.
I don’t want anyone to misunderstand me. I praise God for evangelistic efforts, and I am thankful for every soul who turns to Jesus.
I simply want to offer the reminder that Paul didn’t abandon new believers who came to Christ under his ministry, and we shouldn’t either.
