Open your Bibles to Acts chapter 14. Our text today is Acts 14 verses 21 through 28. Let's pray. Father, would you honor your word here today and by your Holy Spirit, would you illuminate truth that it would transform us, that it would conform us to the very image of Christ? Father, do this for the glory of your name and for the glory of Christ's church in Jesus name, amen. Before I read our text today, there are two statements I want to draw your attention to that you'll hear in our text. And first is this truth. We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. And the second is this. He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. Luke records both of these statements in our text. And these are both very important things to note for our walk of faith. First it is through tribulation that we enter the kingdom of God. Those aren't my words, those are the words of the Lord. And second it is God who opens doors for us. And some doors that God ordains may only be opened and entered through tribulation. Through the word of the Lord, Acts chapter 14 verses 21 through 28. And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Listera, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying, we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. So when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. And after they had passed through Pasidia, they came to Pamphilia. And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Adelaia. And from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed. Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. So they stayed there a long time with the disciples. This is the word of the Lord. When Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel to the city of Durbey, they made this journey, if you remember, they left Antioch in Syria, they sailed to Cyprus, they worked across Cyprus, they sailed up to the southern coast of Turkey, land in Perga, and then they make their way into Asia, then they start backtracking. In verse 21, Luke records when they preached the gospel in that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. That city was Durbey. They all preached the gospel to the city of Durbey and Luke informs us that they made many disciples there. I want to note that they didn't just preach the gospel and then leave and call it good. They invested the effort to actually make disciples. This is our commission. This is what God has commissioned, Christ has commissioned us to do, to go and make disciples. Jesus did not command us to just go make converts, but to go and make disciples. There is a difference. One who follows and obeys their teacher is a disciple. Jesus instructs us to go make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the triune God and teaching them to obey, teaching them to follow all that he commands. We are called to be disciples of Christ and we are called to make disciples of Christ. After the work there, Paul and Barnabas returned to the cities of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch in that order because now they are retracing their steps. They backtracked the route that they had taken on their initial journey into the region. Now they revisited each city as they made their way back. We might think that they would avoid those cities where they suffered such opposition and even physical persecution, but they did not run from tribulation. That is something we should note, something we should pay attention to as we read the scripture. They did not run from tribulation. They returned amidst the danger to strengthen the churches and they knew God was ordaining all things, both sweet and bitter concerning them. They trusted their lives where in the Lord's hands and so must we. Verse 22 informs us that their purpose in visiting or revisiting these cities, the second time on their journey back, was to strengthen the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith. They also encouraged them in the face of persecution, saying, we must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God. This is vital truth for us today. We must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God. Tribulations come in all forms. Some subtle, some light, some not so subtle, some in your face and excruciatingly painful. We must not be caught off guard when tribulations and suffering come. We must trust God and know that it is through tribulations that we enter into the kingdom of God. Do not resist that entrance. God opens for you even when it requires tribulation and suffering. The disciples in these cities understood that Paul knew firsthand about tribulations. They witnessed him driven out of town by angry mobs and in Listera, they were witnessed to him being stoned and left for dead outside the city. They watched him rise up and go back into that very city with the disciples by his side. And Paul's words were not empty words. And his witness was born out of personal experience and personal suffering. They knew his words were not only true for him, but also true for them. Paul was returning to each of these cities facing the same opposition that had already persecuted him. Paul was willing to face that opposition again. He was willing to face those tribulations for the sake of the disciples he had made in each of those cities. More than just his words, Paul literally put his life and his safety on the line for the sake of those disciples and for the sake of his witness to Christ and the gospel. And we are called to do no less today. For us here in our communities, the cost that may be required of us is not likely our life or our safety. We are nonetheless called to lay down our life figuratively or literally for the sake of the gospel. We are not called to less. We are called with the same calling. We are called to make disciples and to give witness to Christ and his gospel, just as Paul and Barnabas and all the apostles and saints throughout the history of the church have done. We should see that for what it truly is, we should see it as a great privilege given to us by God's great grace. God did not have to call us. God did not have to save us. God did not have to send us, but he has. And we should see that for what it is, a great privilege and great grace that he has given to us. In verse 23, Luke informs us that Paul and Barnabas did something much greater than simply strengthen and exhort and encourage the disciples and all the churches. They set the churches up for continued fruitfulness and growth, and they did this by appointing elders in every church. We know from Acts 11-30 that there were elders in the Jerusalem church, and we may assume, I think correctly, there were elders in the church at Antioch. And here in Acts 14-23, we see the first record in Scripture of elders being appointed among newly established Gentile churches. The appointment of elders was vital to the generational fruitfulness and spiritual growth of these churches. History reveals this is exactly what happened. This area held a strong Christian tradition for centuries, and it contributed greatly to the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire following Paul's initial missionary journey. Luke reveals that the appointment of elders in every church was accompanied by prayer with fasting and then commending them to the Lord whom they believed. This indicates this was a very serious and solemn appointment to an office that was vital to the health and welfare of the church. It is still true today. The appointment of elders is as vital to the health of the church and the welfare of the church now as ever before. It is every bit as serious and solemn today for men who respond to this call. Much of the decay in the church and the cultural rot we see around us is because many churches have not been faithful to uphold biblical standard for the appointment of elders. The Bible tells us the standard. It sets the criteria. The ordination of women opened the gate for the ordination of elders with openly sinful lifestyles who openly support and affirm sin, calling good evil and evil good. Only gay and lesbian elders is not a shock today for much if not most of the church. The appointment of biblically qualified elders in the church is vitally important today in order for us to see true revival and true reformation come once again to the church. The words elder, shepherd and overseer are all used interchangeably to convey the function of the same office here in Acts 1423 Luke refers to these men as elders, but their function was that of shepherds and overseers of the churches. These elders were appointed in the church to provide spiritual oversight to each congregation. The elders acted as shepherds, overseeing God's flock, feeding, tending and protecting them. The elders were to safely guide and protect God's flock from the wolves that would surely come to devour his sheep, and this is still the primary role of elders today. And verses 24 through 26 Paul and Barnabas are returning in the footsteps they lay down as they began their journey, and they are retracing their steps in returning to each city and each area visiting the churches, strengthening the disciples, exhorting and encouraging them and appointing elders as they go. They retrace their steps all the way back to the coast, traveling through the regions of Pasidia and Pamphilia. They came to the port city of Perga, and there in Perga they preached the gospel. Then they traveled to Adelaia, and from there they set sail to return to Antioch in Syria having completed their mission. Verse 27 and 28, we see Paul and Barnabas back in Antioch in Syria on the Asian mainland. And there they would stay a long time, Lucrites, with the disciples. Remember Antioch in Syria had become the center of Christian missions. The church was birthed, if you will, on the day of Pentecost, the New Testament church in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, but it was not Jerusalem, it was Antioch in Syria that became the hub, the center, that is the city from which missions were sent out, missionaries were sent out across the empire to preach the gospel. Their preaching was to Jew and Gentile, but it was during this missionary journey that Paul came to understand that his primary mission would be to take the gospel to the nations. And in these verses we see Paul and Barnabas back in Antioch where they would stay with the disciples there. Once there they gathered the church together to give their report of all that God had done with them and he had done a lot. The major thing that God had done was opening the door of faith to the Gentiles. Remember the word Gentile is simply a word that means nations. So when you read the word Gentile in the Bible, whether it's in the Old Testament or the New Testament, or for example when you read in the New Testament there is neither Jew nor Greek. Understand that that word Greek in that context means Gentile. It means nations. The word Gentile means nations. And so when it says that God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles, it means he opened the door of faith to the nations. When Jesus stood and said his words recorded in John 316 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever should believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus was speaking to a exclusively Jewish audience. And when he said these words God so loved the world, the Jews didn't think about the globe we live on. The Jews thought about all the people in the world meaning all the nations in the world meaning those who were Jews and those who were not Jews who were Gentiles. The Gentiles were every people on earth who were not Jews. From the Jewish point of view there were only two types of people in the world. Jews and Gentiles. Gentiles is a label that simply means nations. And it doesn't matter whether you were Irish or German or Mexican or a Heinz 57 American. If you're not a Jew you're a Gentile. And so when Jesus said God so loved the world he was communicating that the salvation he came to bring would go to every nation and every people in the world. And this is what God has done. He opened the door of faith to the Gentiles to the nations. God had already used Peter to officially open that door. We saw that in Acts chapter 10 when Peter was sent divinely to Cornelius the Centurion who was a God-fearer. He worshiped in the Jewish manner whether he was a proselyt whether he'd actually become a Jew and circumcised or whether he was just a God-fearer. Likely he was just a God-fearer. It would have been very difficult for him to forsake his Gentile status as a Roman centurion. So God had already used Peter to open that door. Now Paul and Barnabas stepped through that initial door and God opened an even greater and more far-reaching door into the nations than had ever been opened before. Paul now had the mission to take the gospel to all nations. And as glorious as that mission may sound there was much tribulation ahead that Paul must endure to accomplish that mission. But it would bring great glory to Christ and to his church. One thing we see in this initial missionary journey of the Apostle Paul was that was recorded first was the establishment of churches among the Gentiles, the appointment of elders among the Gentiles. Now in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile, alike are counted equal heirs of salvation by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Whether Jew or Gentile, we are all exalted to continue in the grace of God. And Paul abolishes those distinction of Jew and Gentile. He does it in his letter to the Ephesians. He does it in his letter to the Galatians and he does it in his letter to the Colossians. When he says there is now neither Jew nor Greek, there is no longer Jew nor Gentile. In Ephesians 2 he says God has broken down the middle wall of separation and has made the two one creating in himself from Jew and Gentile one new man in Christ. These churches, these Gentile churches, these churches that would not just include exclusively Gentiles because remember as we've gone through Acts chapter 14 in this missionary journey of Paul, where did Paul begin his preaching in all of these communities. He began his preaching in the synagogues and he preached to the God theorists, he preached to the Jews and to the God theorists, the Gentiles who were there worshiping according to the Judea custom, he preached above Jew and God fear, Jew and Gentile in the synagogue but he didn't remain in the synagogue. He went out of the synagogue and he preached to all people. He preached to Gentiles who had never been in the synagogue. He preached to Gentiles who were straight up pagans, not God fears, but pagans in the gospel, the power of God, the salvation began to change hearts. So these churches were many temples where the worshippers of God now worshiped the Father in Spirit and in truth through faith in the Messiah Jesus Christ. Remember in John 4 when Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman and they begin to have this conversation about worship and she says, you Jews say that you should worship in the temple but we Samaritans, we worship on this mountain, Mount Gareson where there was a replica of the temple. This goes back into Israel's history when the kingdom split and the northern kingdom wouldn't come to Jerusalem in worship so they set up their own center of worship in Samaria, their capital city, on this mountain. And now the woman says to Jesus, you Jews worship in the temple, we Samaritans worship in the mountain and she's basically asking him the question, what's right? And Jesus says the day is coming and now is when the Father is seeking such to worship him, those who worship him aren't going to worship on this in the temple, they're not going to worship on the mountain because the temple is going to get destroyed and this mountain was never the place that you were supposed to worship but now the Father seeks such to worship him, those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And now we are, what does the Bible say that we are now? Paul writes it in his letter to the Corinthians, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You are the dwelling place of God. So where you are, where the church is, there is the temple, there is the place of worship and this has been a theme throughout the book of Acts, the transition from the temple in Jerusalem to the temple that has now been raised up, who is Christ, and his body that is filling the earth. And so these churches were many temples where the worshipers of God now worshiped the Father in spirit and in truth because the Holy Spirit dwelt in them, Christ dwelt in us by the Holy Spirit. They were assemblies of believers who had come to salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus and these churches would spread and with them would spread this gospel of grace. The door of faith got open to the Gentiles through Paul and Barnabas on this first missionary journey would set the stage for subsequent journeys and the spread of Christianity across the empire and eventually the known world to every nation. The obedience of the church to the great commission would eventually transform the empire that would in time try and vain to destroy the church and all that was named Christian. Instead though, this Ragtag people called Christians without a military, without any means of worldly power or wealth, would transform the greatest empire on the face of the earth. In less than 1,000 years and about 900 years, the church would spiritually and radically conquer the known world in the name of Christ, turning it from overwhelmingly and overtly pagan to explicitly Christian. All of this through the door of faith that God opened. The same gospel that accomplished what was thought impossible at one time is the same gospel we proclaim today. Many Christians today look around and see only the impossibility concerning all that is happening around us and there is a lot happening. Yet for the believer, we are to be reminded that with God nothing is impossible. He has proven it time and time and time again across history. Nothing is impossible with God. For even death must bow before Him. He is the God of resurrection. There is nothing more powerful than Christ, nothing more powerful than His gospel. That brings me to the mystery of tribulations, doors and the kingdom of God. God's grace is irresistible and His gospel, powerful. Hear me, Christian. No heart, appointed to salvation can resist the power of His grace to save. This is why we must never lose hope in any situation for there is ever always hope in Christ. This is true even when our situations do not work out the way we want. For in Christ no matter what we have already been given the victory now and for eternity, the uncompromising battle cry of the Christian faith and the church from its inception across empires, across time and against all odds has been and will continue to be this very simple yet eternally powerful truth that has literally transformed our world. Jesus is Lord. So simple, so powerful and so true. Jesus is Lord. Believe it and live it because it is true and it overcomes all things. The forces of darkness at work in this world have already been defeated by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that's happening is within the providential plan and providential purpose of God. The Lord has made all things for Himself. Yes, even the wicked for the day of trouble, Proverbs 16 verse 4. We quote that every week. Do you catch it every week? Do you believe it every week? Do you believe that God truly has made all things for Himself? Even the wicked for the day of trouble will He has? Well, do you believe it or not? It doesn't matter. He has. We often are unable to make sense of things. You ever been there? Especially things that are beyond our control. We find it difficult to trust God when things do not make sense or when we are unable to control the things around us because we like being in control. That's when we find ourselves filled with frustration and worry and fear and even anger. And those times His word calls us to be still and know that He is God. Yes, we are called to diligently work. We are called to diligently wage spiritual warfare but always, always, in the quiet knowledge of who our God is and who has been crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Always with the knowledge that we are all ready more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. The truth does not change even when we do not understand things and even when situations are out of control. Even then, the truth remains that Jesus is Lord. Therefore, trust Him, surrender to His will, surrender to His way and His peace, way on Him. He will renew your strength for He knows exactly what you need and He knows exactly when you need it. Very often, these are the tribulations we find ourselves in. These are the very tribulations we must go through to enter the kingdom of God. There is no other way as much as we may wish there was. It has been ordained. We must, through many tribulations, enter the kingdom of God. And the entrance into the kingdom is not a one and done scenario. There are many entrances we will find that lead into the kingdom. And each one will lead to the place we need for the moment or the season we may find ourselves in. Each entrance is unique based on God's divine plan and purpose at any given time. And this is how God has worked in and through His people since the beginning. You and I are just as impatient as our Father Adam was. And all who have come since, God works through us even with our fallen and impatient ways. He is ever working by His Spirit, conforming us to the image of His Son, leading us through the tribulations that will bring us to the necessary doors into the kingdom. Those tribulations reveal to us the things that only God could see. God sees it in us. You don't see it in us. You don't see it in yourself. You can see it in others. But we very often cannot see it in ourselves. But God takes us through tribulations that reveal to us the things that God could only see. Those tribulations then in turn allow us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. That may be hard and it is very often, if not most often. But that is also very good news. He is a good Father. He teaches us and transforms us using every means that He has ordained for us. He works through both bitter and sweet providence to mold us and to shape us and to fill our lives with grace and glory. And He does this because He loves us. He brings us through the valley of shadow to lead us to higher ground and greater light. Do not despair in the valley. He will lead you through and you will find entry into His kingdom and into His light. He has proven His love for us and sending His Son for our salvation. He did not withhold even His Son from us, even while we were His enemies. We must remember His love, His perfect love for us that cast away all fear. Why should you fear even what you cannot understand or what you cannot control when you see Jesus crowned with glory and with honor who by grace did taste death for you and for me? This is the good news that the world needs to hear so go tell it loud and clear for all to hear in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Let us prepare our hearts to come to the Lord's table. Here is your church church. Do not buy the lie that would have you believe God does not ordain tribulation or suffering. The false teachers will tell you that is your lack of faith, not God's will. Yet scripture is clear. Jesus did not have a lack of faith. Paul did not have a lack of faith. His tribulation came as result of faithful obedience, not disobedience. In fact, the Bible celebrates the faith of those who suffered and endured tribulation. This is a kingdom truth and a kingdom principle. We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God and you are part of that collective we. God has ordained that through tribulations we find entry. We find doors into the kingdom of God. Do not fear or resist the tribulation or the doors that lead to his kingdom. The way can be difficult but there is joy in the journey. Even when those tribulations have bitter endings and sometimes they do. Yet we are to remember the most bitter of tribulations in this life are only temporary even if they last a lifetime. But we serve the God of resurrection. And the resurrection means that one day and that is a day every child of God will experience. The resurrection means that one day all that is sad in this life will become untrue and all that was broken will be made better for having been broken. This is why the Apostle exhorts us to rejoice always and this is why thankfulness is to be as much a part of our life as breath. Trust God. Embrace all he has purpose for you in his divine providence both to sweet and the bitter, especially the bitter. For we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. There is no other way. Do not despair but rejoice in the Lord always and be thankful even in tribulation for Jesus is Lord. Amen. Let us sing our thanks to God. Amen. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. And be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. The Lord be with you.