I chose this reading because it was a passage
I had to speak on recently. I won't go into all
the reasons why, but I had lunch with the new
vicar of a church and I told him that his church
was the only one I'd ever been banned from preaching
in. And he said, well, we could fix that. So
I ended up choraling a song at St Bartholomew
the Great. in the city of london with this passage
chosen and also a far less weird passage about
sort of handover from one king to another which
you could have you know made relevant for any
boardroom in the city so i chose to speak on
this one on the passage with the miracles and
the religious mania and the attempted murder
and i told them i had chosen to speak on this
passage because that was the one the author presented
to us as typical for our christian lives not
necessarily in you know all the crazy details
but in the shape that is here so first heading
this is what normal looks like Look down, look
back at it. It certainly doesn't look normal,
does it? There's a man who was lame from birth
and had never walked. Paul commands him to stand
up and he jumps up and he walks. No rehab, no
physio, no muscle and bone regrowth, which has
the impact you'd expect. A well -known local
figure, dependent on the community maybe for,
what, 30 years? Now jumping and walking. So they
go wild for Paul and Barnabas. And the obvious
conclusion in a religious Greek city is they
must be gods. Paul is Hermes because he's the
chatty one, and Barnabas is Zeus. And they want
to worship them, temples and priests and sacrificial
animals and roots. So Paul has to work out what
to say. And did they? What did they not train?
Did they train you here what to say on the occasion
of the youth group thinking you are gods? They
told me, use the summer to write your first wedding
sermon and your first funeral sermon. But if
you need it, these verses, it's there. That's
what you say when they think you're a God. And
Paul, he gets quite upset, doesn't he? This is
one more way that you can tell Jesus he really
did think he was God. Because anyone else in
monotheism would react the way that Paul does
here. Abraham, Moses, Paul, Muhammad, it's the
same. He tears his clothes, rushes out and shouts,
we're only human, there's only one God, turn
to him, stop sacrificing to us. So you'd think,
phew, crisis averted, we're all going to be okay
now, but no. Weird week is not yet over. Some
of Paul's fellow countrymen from the last city
on the tour, they show up. And the crowd that
had loved Paul so much they wanted to worship
him on Thursday is suddenly so angry with Paul
they want him dead on Friday. It's quite a rollercoaster.
They stone him to death, or they try to. They
only stop because they thought he was dead. And
he crawls away injured and bleeding to Derby.
And all of that... The author presents to us
as if it was here to teach us what normal looks
like. It's the same pattern as Peter's first
miracle and sermon in Acts 3, not first, first
miracle in Acts 3 and 4. It's the same as the
range of reactions through the whole book. And
Paul tells us in verse 22, look down at verse
22. What does Paul want to tell all the Christians
in the region? Does he want to say, look, I'm
sorry. Sorry I offended everybody. I hope it
all settled down for you. Normally, it's not
like this normally. Does he want to say that?
Verse 22. We must go through many hardships to
reach the kingdom of God. This is normal. And
I hope from two rows. I hope this is kind of
miserably encouraging for you in October. I think
if we'd said this to you in June, that would
just have been miserable. But three, four months
in now, many hardships. That is normal in the
life that you have chosen. You should expect
wild swings of approval and disapproval. And
some may even want to worship you. And then the
same people, they may want to kill you. That
is what normal looks like. Okay, but more than
that, second, this is what success looks like.
So look ahead to verse 26. Verse 26, they return
to base back to Antioch, which is the place they
were sent out from. And it says, verse 27, they
gather the whole church. For a report. What would
you have told them about in the reports? Yeah,
that people of Pisidia, they're mad, aren't they?
One week it's the bulls and the sacrifices and
the next week it's the rocks and the murdering.
We've had a horrible time. It's really dangerous.
I never want to go there again. That's what I
would have told them. Look down at verse 27.
They reported all that God had done through them.
and how he had opened a door of faith to the
Gentiles. And this is what success looks like.
He says, you committed us to the grace of God
before you sent us. Verse 26, they do that here
at Oak Hill. Pray for you before you went out
to be women's workers and children's workers
and assistant pastors. God's grace be with you.
Paul says it worked. And God worked what God
did through us. And what he had experienced with
the wild rollercoaster of positive and negative
reactions, what we saw happening really was a
wide open door for Gentile people to have faith.
In Acts, this is the first time they've deliberately
gone out to offer the Christian rescue to every
kind of people. Gentiles have been becoming Christians
for a bit, but this is missionary journey number
one. Let's see if God really meant it when he
said that anyone at all could call on the name
of Jesus and be forgiven and be rescued from
death and live forever. Just as a reminder to
family here, of why your daughter, your brother,
your dad has launched themselves on this unusual
journey of college and then service in a church.
It is because they are convinced that the door
is wide open and that Jesus, he will welcome
anyone who walks through it and that they can
give the rest of their lives, they want to, to
helping people find their way in there. And the
message here actually is no matter how miserable
they are and their service is, if you were to
say to them that you want to talk about Jesus
and find out if it's worth believing in him,
they would come back full of joy and tell us,
look what God has done. The door is open, even
for my sister, for my mum. So this is what success
looks like. That's point two. It is not whether
they like you in wherever you've been sent since
leaving here. It isn't whether things go to plan.
I wonder this morning, have there been some stories
swapped? You'll never guess what my church did
in the summer when the vicar went on holiday
and I was on my own for the first Sunday. It
was just me. No, success is people walking through
that open door, receiving forgiveness from Jesus,
and starting to walk through many hardships to
enter the kingdom of God. Okay, so this is what
normal looks like, and this is what success looks
like. And third point, this is also what ministry
looks like. And there is so much in Acts on what
ministry looks like. You should really have a
course on Acts, I feel, here at Oak Hill. What
you should do and what you should expect. I just
want to show you some possibly surprising things
from verses 21 to 25. So in your head for this,
you need to pull up in your mind the map of the
Mediterranean. So they had left big Antioch,
which is kind of in the armpit. of Turkey. So
this is Turkey. Antioch is in the armpit of Turkey.
And they went on to Cyprus, and then they went
to another town called Antioch. That's annoying
and confusing, isn't it? Little Antioch, kind
of halfway along the arm. And then they worked
their way inland. Iconium, Lystra, Derby, is
that what Greeks pun, my saying? The key thing
you need to know about Derby is that Derby means
nearly home for Paul. In fact, not just nearly
back at Antioch. There is a direct route from
Derby to Granny for Paul. Paul is from Tarsus,
so assume with me that Paul's granny still lives
in Tarsus. Certainly his old workmates and his
friends do. There's a direct route there. He
uses it often later in the book. It's no distance.
Just go and see Granny. You've had a rough few
weeks, Paul, haven't you? There's bruises all
over your body. Go and see Granny. But whatever
you do, don't go back. Don't go back to the places
that mistreated you. Look at verse 21. Preached
in that city in Derby won a large number of disciples.
The door's still open. Then they returned to
Lystra. You're going the wrong way for Iconium
and Antioch. He does the whole journey in reverse
again. Isn't that a shock? And I never knew that
until somebody pointed out, my childhood at school,
I had to draw Paul's missionary journeys, maps
of them. Nobody ever told me this. He was not
all about the sort of big fly -in evangelistic
meeting, happy to see new converts and then move
on. That is not Paul at all. He is desperate
to go back, verse 22, to strengthen and encourage
them. It's the same, isn't it, in all of his
letters. So worried about you, desperate to see
you, to strengthen your faith. Now I really live
because I've heard you are still following Jesus.
Ministry looks like going back. Did you see even
the city of Stoneham today got up and he went
back for one more day. I don't know how difficult
things have been for you since the course finished
this summer. Probably. alongside the stories
you did tell, there are ones that you don't want
to tell. And frankly, the last year for me has
been the hardest year of my ministry, perhaps
of my life. The things that happen in churches
and in normal local towns like Iconium and Lystra
and Derby. And do you know in 2 Timothy 3, when
Paul says that all who want to live a godly life
in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, and you think,
yeah, except me. when he says that. Do you remember
the chapter begins with a list of place names?
Do you remember that? You know all about what
happened to me in three named places. And I always
assumed those were the three worst places that
he ever went to. The three best examples. The
places that really hated me. Three towns. Do
you know which three he picks? Antioch, Iconium,
and Lystra. It's just the first three places.
he ever went on the first missionary journey
normal successful ministry um is that what you
signed up for normal successful ministry and
just briefly look at what he does when he goes
back maybe this will remind you um and uh you
know from this chapter you'll get another three
months or another three years or 30 years from
this chapter And they go back because ministry,
it is all about strengthening disciples. It's
about growing mature believers. Our church, where
we are in Central London, we love a good event.
Sometimes they're huge. We had 14 ,000 people
at our carol services last year. The Sun newspaper
this week began advertising our carol services
by name. We have a marketing genius on my staff
team. But for the last four and a half years
I've been there. I've spent most time trying
to get everyone to see that, you know, people
at an event is nice, but it's not the goal. Each
person through the open door with Jesus needs
to be strengthened and to grow into a mature
disciple, whether she is seven years old in your
children's group or 97 years old in your local
care home. And the strengthening, it happens
when you tell them the truth. So look at the
rest of verse 22. Would you say this is an encouraging
message? Give us some encouragement, Vicar. We
must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom
of God. Going through the open door, it is wonderful
because Jesus is wonderful. And all our guilt
is taken from us and a never -ending future with
Jesus after death is placed in front of us. But
the journey there is we must. not may, and many,
not some, hardships to enter the kingdom of God.
Paul wants them all to know that how they treated
him was normal. And he wants them strong enough
to stand up in it, convinced Jesus is worth all
of the normal hardships that come with following
him. And I do actually think you get toward this.
A colleague of mine has been in Matthew Sleeman's
course on the book of Acts and says this verse
apparently the beta course, is that right, of
every church. So just ask three months in or
nearly 30 years in, is this still what I am teaching
people? And if not, am I really helping them
to finish the journey? Do you remember when Paul
writes to Thessalonica? maybe only been with
them for three weeks, been run out of time again,
he's able to say, remember, you remember how
I kept telling you that we were destined for
persecution, maybe not even the beta course,
in the first three weeks. You'd get this again
and again from Paul. And look at verse 23, you
go back and you strengthen, you tell them about
the hardships, and you set up churches. You put
in place the people, people like those graduating
today. who, like verse 23, we pray over and fast
over and commit to the Lord, who we trust in
them as they trust in the Lord for the work they
have to do. Go and build a church in the place
of the crazy, wild worship pool and stone to
death place. Go and do that there and everywhere.
Because this model of eldership, it is the support
framework of the open door of faith for anyone
and everyone. It's the way the strengthening
happens and the church survives, what you've
given yourself to. So normal, successful ministry.
You still up for that? I want to give you two
final thoughts. They're both a bit Anglican,
I'm afraid. I know not everyone in the row in
front of me is Anglican. I hope that's okay.
The first one comes from somebody else's sermon.
It was the first time I was involved in a sort
of rebellious ordination. And the previous principal
of Oak Hill, Mike Obey, came and preached at
St Helens. And to be honest, I didn't listen
to the whole sermon because the Bishop of London
had just said he couldn't be bothered to do the
litany. So I was for the first time ever doing
the whole litany in BCP English on no notice.
So I was a little bit distracted and stressed
at the time. But I do remember he said this.
Mike said, your generation must do better than
we did. And again, I didn't listen to every word,
but he meant the Acts 14 package by that. He
meant take this seriously. Tell people about
the hardships. Go back when things are difficult.
Teach doctrine, probably, he meant, knowing Mike,
because they need to understand what it really
is like. Your generation must do better than
we did. And then the Bishop of London, the previous,
previous one, not the one who's about to be an
Archbishop, the Bishop of London, he said that
was a Victorian sermon, which meant he liked
it. The only thing better from him would have
been a Cappadocian sermon. So this is serious,
what you have begun. Thank you, and please do
better than we have done. And then the final
thought I want to give you is from Archbishop
Cramer 500 years ago from the BCP. When I was
a DDO, I used to read all this with all my ordinands.
Well, now it's long enough ago, there's no ordinand
of mine left at Oak Hill. The exhortation in
the BCP ordination service. I'm going to translate
into modern English for the sake of time. It's
talking about the job that you've now started.
And he says, it is so important and so hard that
it can only be done by prayer. and studied the
scriptures and in the life that matches. So if
it was easy, well, you could do it however you
wanted. You could leave out the beta course material
if you didn't like it. People wouldn't need strengthening
or eldership. You wouldn't need to go back. And
if it was unimportant, well, you wouldn't need
to do it at all. You wouldn't need to put yourself
through all the pain if it was not important.
Was it nice being back in college this morning?
Maybe you're thinking of staying. It's great
to hear about the MA in Christian Leadership,
and please do it, but not just because things
have been difficult in your first three months.
If the first three months have been harder than
your three years here, four years here, and it's
weird being back even because of what you've
been through, that might be because what you've
been doing is so important. and so hard at the
same time. So praise God that Paul went back
to normal successful ministry. Thank you for
giving your lives to that and pray that you and
I would keep going through the hardships until
we see Jesus in the kingdom of God.