Turn with me in God's word this morning to the 13th chapter of the book of Acts, because we begin to read at the 42nd verse. Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue and the people invited them to speak further on the next Sabbath. When the congregation was dismissed many of the Jews and about converts to Judaism, followed Paul and Barnabas who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of God. When the Jews saw the crowds they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly. We had to speak the word of God to you first since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life. We now turn to the Gentiles for this is what the Lord has commanded us. I have made you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. When the Gentiles heard this they were glad and honored the word of the Lord and all who were appointed for eternal life be relieved. The word of the Lord spread through the whole region that the Jews incited the Godfaring women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and extolled them from their region so they shook the dust from their feet and protest against them and went to iconium and the disciples were filled with joy and with the whole spirit. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious father your word unfailingly speaks as by your spirit. Front now that he who is our master might instruct us as disciples in the way of faith in the pathway of life that we might abide in Jesus Christ and learn of him who is our Lord. We pray in his name. Feeling with blessing is much easier than dealing with discouragement and yet the reality is that the Christian life has both blessing and discouragement as a part of what the Lord brings into our experience. Here we see two who are servants of God, Paul and Barnabas, taste of the blessing of God. They have traveled on this the first mission of the journey to the place in which we are able to hear them preaching, come to decision Antioch and as Paul preaches his first message it is with such startling clarity that the people invite him back the following Sabbath to speak in the synagogue. Yet as there are those who have been moved by the spirit of God moved by the gospel so that they want to know the Lord Jesus and follow him. So there are also others who are stirred up against the gospel who hate everything they have heard who are told they were jealous when on the following Sunday a great crowd from the city gathered to hear what Paul and Barnabas would say. The Jews obviously prayed that their own influence would wane and their own message would falter began to speak against Paul arguing with him and ultimately seeking to have him expelled from the city. Paul and Barnabas knew blessing but they saw the converts, they saw those whose hearts were moved who loved Christ and to then their ministry was one of encouragement they urged them to continue in the grace of God for these had been born of God's grace and now they were to continue under the spirit in the way of the Lord and there was encouragement, encouragement to anyone who is called of God to speak his message any Christian is encouraged to see how others respond to the word and growing Christ but there's also discouragement, discouragement that comes when you see people whose ears are stopped for the gospel and as a consequence they respond not simply by rejection but with hostility, with hatred and with a vitriol poured against those who preach the gospel and everyone who was a Christian this morning has known both the joy of encouragement in Christ and seeing Christians grow they've known also the discouragement that comes when people stop their ears are death to the gospel, simply not interested when you talk about the things that are most important to you about the way in which Christ is Lord and Master and not only do they say they want nothing to do with the things of Christ they resent the fact that you'd speak to them and then they begin a campaign to undercut everything that you're saying to attack character to dismiss the message to build little both message and messenger and to try and steal the gospel that's part of the response not simply of the first century but of the 21st century those who do not want to hear are not simply apathetic but hostile to God and to his word Paul and Barnabas found both encouragement and opposition in the gospel ministry without the success of the earlier messages had encouraged but had also made angry and the threat of opposition became real we know that in theory all of us know that loving Christ and serving Christ will bring us into the hostility of the world and that we will face the envy and the war with this world but when it becomes real when that which is theoretical becomes a part of the way in which our own hearts are touched our own lives are touched when people begin to speak against us when the whispering campaign to destroy character and message enters into our experience when we're ostracized by those who are in great need and yet who reject the answer the gospel has when the offense of the gospel becomes real in our experience for many of us it freezes our response and we simply say I'm not prepared for this I'm not ready to be shunned I don't know why I am facing this sort of hostility and for many of us we turn around and say well the response that we bring is that we will stop talking to people and we will let our lives win others Paul says very simply think again you can't do that that's a defeat of the gospel the gospel is not simply lived the gospel is announced not only from pulpits but from the lives of every man and woman who Christ is alive the gospel is announced by word as well as by being for Christians who want a painless proclamation there is only a challenge for as we encounter the unbelieving ears of this world Paul reminds us that there is a response the first thing that we have to be clear about is that in the face of unbelieving stopped is the Christian is to speak boldly like the opposite of the way in which we want to respond in the face of opposition Paul and Barnabas exercise their freedom in Christ and answered the people who were attacking them and we are told they answered them boldly you see Paul and Barnabas knew that they were called of God they were called because the gospel had taken hold of them they had been commissioned because they had been brought to life by Christ to take that life to the lifeless to preach the gospel to those who lived in darkness and so they were sent to the Jews then to the Gentiles and when they faced the opposition of those who didn't want to hear they didn't retreat they said very simply you do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life what Paul is saying to those who have opposed him is an answer to those who live in this world for these had been saying to Paul we don't need your gospel we are content to trust the fact that by our goodness by our effort by our striving by the decency of our life by the code of conduct that we adopt by the regularity of our worship we will attend synagogue we will keep law and we'll take our chance before God because we believe that by our good effort by our struggle by our attempt to do well God will listen answer for give and accept all this rather than accept the gospel of grace for what Paul had preached to them was that God had come in Jesus Christ the God who was outraged by sin and by sinner a God who in love had determined to send his own son to bear the consequence of human sin and who on the cross received the punishment that was yours and mine this same God in mercy and love had born his own judgment and by the ministry of God's spirit the sinless Christ had imputed to him the sin that was yours and mine and the righteous Christ had imputed his righteousness to you and to me who will act that's the gospel the great transaction and it is all of grace and so when you say what must I do to be saved the answer is you can't do anything God's grace is free his mercy those who heard the gospel said we'd rather try harder we'd rather trust to good deeds to noble efforts to strength of character and to the purposeful life we'll trust the regularity of worship we'll trust to obedience to the law and we will be saved Paul looked at them and said you reject the gospel and you embrace the law and the law can only condemn you you know that's the same argument that most of us hear every day in one way or another people who hear the gospel would rather trust of themselves than to the mercy of God Paul saw it it was not new it is not new in our generation the war between grace and the legalism that holds captive the soul ritualism constant attention to worship legalism the attempt to please God by our own effort will always be the enemies of the gospel Paul knew that and he backled it we have to do the same Christians cannot be still with the gospel we have been born of God in order that we shall announce that good news you cannot be quiet boldly for he has accepted you freely by grace and it is the gospel of grace that you announce but not only are we called to speak boldly we are called also as Paul and Barnabas did to live confidently oh they knew what it was like to be discouraged and many of us if not all have faced the reality of discouragement they come these challenges in the Christian life and we ought not to try and deny their reality and you know the challenges that come the discouragements that touch our soul have a disproportionate influence in most of us you can have six good days and one bad day and what do you remember one bad day and the number of discouragements though they may not match the number of encouragement have this huge impact on your mind and your thinking and your soul discouragement is real it is to be faced it is a part of our life I sometimes think that it is God's gift to us because it it picks the bubble of self-confidence and reminds us that we are frail and mortal and driven back to him discouragements drive us to the mercy of God to find our encouragement of fresh from him not from what we do but discouragements can tempt us to imagine that the Lord is no longer in control they can't tempt us to become the source of sin to imagine that God is not in all things working out his good purpose in the lives of those that love him while Paul and Barnabas faced discouragements they could still live confidently and that's part of the Christian response it doesn't come easily but it is something that is real David Brainhardt perhaps the first and the greatest of pioneer missionaries American missionary man who when he was 28 had finished his ministry and died of tuberculosis as he took the gospel to North American Indians David Brainhardt had known discouragements for the whole of his ministry he came to Christ and as a young man a 21 was admitted to Yale University and there he sought to serve Christ he was enthusiastic about the gospel he wanted to preach it and tell others of the love of Christ and faculty at Yale passed faculty driven amendment for their constitution that suggested that anyone who ever criticized the faculty should be fined and when the faculty criticized the student body for loving Christ too much and being too enthusiastic about evangelism they find that Christian body so David Brainhardt complained and he said of one of his teachers he there is more grace in a chair than in him the sharp tongue never gets you anywhere they threw him out they refused to let him graduate they barred him from every pulpit he was discouraged by those who owned the name of Christ as well as those who didn't but he went to the only place left for him to go the Indians on the mission field and he preached Christ and there was a glorious revival and many found the Lord and in his short ministry deprived of everything he had imagined he was able to see the hand of God all this discouragement and you'll face it if you haven't and you'll know the reality of discouragement they come up on the soul but we can still live confidently for God is still sovereign and master he has still spoken his word and said for his own my grace is sufficient for you it is made perfect in weakness when we are weak we find the sufficiency of his grace no matter what happens we can still be confident Fall and Barnabas knew what it was to find the false accusations drive them from a city in which there had been great hope of blessing they had sacrificed a lot to preach in the city of Antioch Paul had sacrificed his very health on that journey we couldn't sick he still preached and amidst the success he found the use of undue influence those who were powerful were reached and he and Barnabas were expelled no charge no fault but influence drove him out or he had sacrificed it seemed to be so destructive to the gospel ministry but he was not lacking in confidence he and Barnabas bowed before the reality of what providence had given to them and we see them still in the midst of suffering reverse leaving for iconic and there it just got worse it seems that whenever they were at work the enemy was constantly dogging their footsteps but though they faced discouragement they were not without confidence in God all you say it's all very well you can speak about that but you have to deal with the reality of what that encouragement and discouragement tells to the soul when you're constantly facing people who are deaf and who are hostile and who are fighting you and Christ and the gospel what do you do Paul tells us says very simply you respond by leaving a testimony we're told they shook the dust from their feet now that was given as a formal protest at the way in which they were being treated it was in response to what Jesus had said if people don't welcome you shake the dust from off your feet when you leave their towns as a testimony against them it's a way of saying that here was the marker given Paul and Barnabas may have been forced out of this city but they left behind them a testimony and it was the gospel of Christ and they have preached it faithfully oh ears may have been stilt but one day who knows what that gospel will have reaped in the hearts of those in need they left a testimony and that's all you can do you can argue you can preach you can be faithful but if you're dealing with those who will have unbelieving and spot ears you simply leave the testimony you've spoken the truth you've shared the love of God in Christ you've done it do it let it be the gospel that you speak let it be Christ the drips from your mother let it be the love of God that breaks out of your heart and is sunshine of your soul leave that as the testimony that you have been faithful but more they moved on they went we are told to iconium Paul and Barnabas knew that the world was dying in needed Christ and if Antioch didn't want the message then they would move on to iconium and if iconium didn't want it they would move on to Listera and they would still keep going for there was a darkness in the world and the death that read in that darkness and they had the light of Christ and they would carry it to those who would hear and they would speak it to those who would respond and they would do it unfailingly for they had been commissioned by their master to go into all the world and they would not stop one part wouldn't listen then they would move to those whose hearts had been softened and prepared by the Lord they moved on for many of us they can speak the gospel but move on you can't simply stop when someone says well we don't want it and you linger and say well until they have responded are not going anywhere not saying anything not doing anything they move on that you're like shine wherever you go and as they did that were told they received they received the comfort of the Holy Spirit and there was a joy in their soul they were filled with joy God was there comfort it was as though Paul said that because they had been badly treated the Lord whispered in their fear and was their Lord master had said if they persecuted you no they persecuted me before you and it was the joy of the knowledge that they served yet the Savior whose sovereign love never failed whose care was never answered and they received the joy the comfort the ministry of the Holy Spirit as they walked faithfully before God and that's the gift that comes to believe us to receive the comfort of God not the comfort of this world not the success stories that abound at the whispered word of God that said faithful servant I am still your Lord oh they could probably never have raised their support with the record of successes that they had they couldn't have written those wonderful letters that often comes to us that speak seemingly of the revival throughout the whole world we don't see