Paul and Barnabas faced some difficult potential as they entered those Pisidian highlands. Had they said something like, "If God gives us a military escort through those mountains and we can be guaranteed safety then we’ll know He wants us to go," they probably never would have gone. Dangers from robbers? Closed door! Actually, before they came back through those mountains on the return trip, Paul would be stoned by an angry mob and left for dead! Closed door!

He failed in business in 1822. He ran for the Legislature but was defeated in 1823. He failed again in business in 1824. He was elected to the Legislature in 1825. His sweetheart died in 1826 and he had a nervous breakdown in 1827. He ran for and was defeated in a bid for Speaker in 1829. He was defeated for Elector in 1831. He was defeated in a run for Congress in 1834, elected to Congress in 1837, and defeated for Senate in 1846. He was defeated in a run for Vice President in 1847, defeated in a run for the Senate in 1849, and elected President of the United States in 1861.

The person I’m describing is Abraham Lincoln – who was, among other things, very persistent in the face of defeat.

Radio personality and commentator Paul Harvey was once asked what he considered to be the secret of his success. He responded with these simple words: "I get up when I fall down."

Persistence is the theme of my message today. It touches many areas of your life and mine. If you’re physically handicapped, you’ll have to work against the odds and fight discouragement if you want to win. If you want a good marriage you’ll need to persist during those times when it’s difficult and you feel like walking out. If you want to raise good kids you’ll need persistence to stand firm against those parts of the culture that pressure them (and you) to go in the wrong direction. If you want to advance the cause of Christ and have a positive influence on people around you you’re going to need to be persistent because the Enemy of our Souls doesn’t give up ground without a fight. If you’re going to remain faithful to Christ you’re going to need persistence because there is nearly constant pressure against all of us who wish to live for God.

Acts chapter 13 is where we’ll be in the Bible this morning in a story of persistence involving Paul and Barnabas in our continuing series called Acts of the Apostles. Persisting in the Face of Trouble is the message title. Acts 13:13-52 is the text. As we work our way through this passage, think of those areas where you need to persist.

Chapters 13 and 14 of Acts describe Paul’s first missionary journey. He and his co-worker, Barnabas, were sent out by the Holy Spirit from the church in Antioch of Syria. Don’t worry if the names of towns and places in the passage sound unfamiliar to you. I’ll be your tour guide. Just try to follow the story.

The first stop of the two missionaries was the island of Cypress where they preached in synagogues scattered across roughly 60 miles of island terrain. There they encountered a Jewish false prophet named Elymus or Bar-Jesus who had a Roman Proconsul under his influence of delusion. We looked at that last Sunday. I won’t repeat it here. After this encounter with Paul, Elymus didn’t see the sun for a time and the Roman leader, Sergius Paulus, joined the ranks of the saved.

We pick up Luke’s account now as the two evangelists say goodbye to Cypress, shove off from Paphos, and head for the Pamphilian coastal town of Perga.

Several things that Luke doesn’t tell us in these two verses are helpful to note. First, he doesn’t tell us about the trouble that they probably had traveling the 130 miles from Perga to Pisidian Antioch. Here’s why I say "trouble."

In 2 Corinthians 11:24-26, Paul speaks of the kinds of difficulties he and his companions faced while preaching in the first century world. There he wrote: "Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren…."

These words were written years after the events Luke describes in Acts 13 and they tell us some of the things that happened as Paul went about preaching. W.J. Conybeare wrote in his work, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, "No population through the midst of which Paul ever traveled abounded more in those ‘dangers from robbers’ of which he himself speaks, than the wild and lawless clans of the Pisidian highlands."

You took your life into your hands when you traveled those Pisidian Mountains! They were infested with thugs and thieves. Some travelers never made it through. Others were beaten severely and robbed. Paul and Barnabas went though anyway.

That brings us to the first occasion for which we need persistence:

Many people would have turned back rather than enter those Pisidian mountains and felt quite justified in doing so. In our day they might have even sanctified their fear with prayer to God for an "open door."

Some of you may disagree with me on what I am about to say – and that’s OK - but at least hear me out. Often Christians, seeking guidance from God in particular issues, will say something like, "If God opens the door, then I’ll know what He wants me to do." It sounds like a good approach to the uncertainty and risk of the future. But there has always been a problem I haven’t been able to resolve with that way of thinking. What is an open door? What is a closed door? How can I know the difference?

What I have observed many times in such situations is that we often interpret physical hardship as a "closed door." Likewise, the expectation of smooth circumstances is often considered an "open door."

Suppose you’re in a very difficult school district and it’s taking a negative toll on your kids. You try to transfer them to another school but are told that you must attend in the district where you live. You’re considering a move. You’d like to know what God thinks about it. So you say, "If our house sells by such-and-such a date and we conveniently find a three bedroom place where we want to move, we’ll know that it is God’s will. But are you sure? Let’s consider some other possible interpretations. Suppose the house doesn’t sell and we can’t find that new place that’s suitable. Does that really mean God wants us to leave our kids in that school to struggle?

Maybe it means He doesn’t want us to go just yet. Maybe it means He wants us to be a bit more trusting of Him and go anyway whether the house sells or not. Maybe it means He wants us to learn something about sacrifice for His cause. Maybe it means we should rent the house rather than sell it because the people who would move in could be taught the gospel.

Or maybe it means something entirely different. My point is... How can we know what it means? Every one of these interpretations of circumstances is plausible.

Paul and Barnabas faced some difficult potential as they entered those Pisidian highlands. Had they said something like, "If God gives us a military escort through those mountains and we can be guaranteed safety then we’ll know He wants us to go," they probably never would have gone. Dangers from robbers? Closed door! Actually, before they came back through those mountains on the return trip, Paul would be stoned by an angry mob and left for dead! Closed door!

My point is not that we shouldn’t try to be sensitive to God’s leading. I’m just not convinced we can know for certain God’s specific will for the future by setting up conditions for God to meet. In fact, I’m not certain we can know His specific will beyond what is written in Scripture. Persistence in the face of hardship is going to require some faith and some risk even when we’re doing what is right and counting on God for support. If we aren’t careful our "open and closed door" interpretations might cause us to unwittingly build paths right around those places God wants us to go.

When Israel was between Pharaoh’s army and the Red Sea, Moses said, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!" If ever there were a "closed door," that was it. But God told the people to move forward right into the sea. Then He opened the door for them to pass through.

When Israel was entering the Promised Land they came to the muddy Jordan River. It was flooded from bank to bank. Joshua ordered the priests to march right into the high water. Wait a minute! Closed door! But God parted the river and opened the door - just like He opened the door for Paul and Barnabas through those Pisidian highlands. God can and does open "closed doors," so perhaps you can see my point. Do we want to shy away from every "closed door" we find or should we go ahead by faith when we know what we’re doing is right by the standard of God’s word?

Hardship, in light of faith, is not necessarily a "closed door." But there is another occasion here for persistence:

Four little words in verse 13 held a big potential for heartache and discouragement, especially for Paul. Luke writes, "and John left them." That would be young John Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. For some reason he quit their mission and went home. Luke doesn’t tell us why. Maybe it was the risk of those Pisidian highlands. Some suggest it may have been the threat of Malaria. Others say he just grew homesick. Whatever it was, it was a clear case of deserting the work. I say that because later we learn it upset Paul so much he refused to take John Mark along on the second missionary journey. That issue between John Mark and Paul would later be resolved and Mark would do a good work, but at this point it was a real problem.

Sometimes we don’t realize how much we depend upon the faithfulness of others until someone we count on quits. All of us who have been in the church for awhile know those who have worked among us, sacrificed with us, laughed and cried with us. We’ve prayed for them, they’ve prayed for us... then like John Mark here - they left. They turned back. It hurts! It’s discouraging. It can cause us to ask, "What’s the use in keeping on? Nobody wants to do the Lord’s work." But that is just what our enemy wants us to ask, because his comeback answer will always be something like, "There’s no use in keeping on. Everyone else is quitting. You may as well quit, too."

Paul mentioned this kind of disappointment in his second letter to Timothy. In the fourth chapter of Second Timothy, he told the young evangelist, "Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me." Can you hear the loneliness and disappointment? No, not all of these men deserted Paul. But he does add a few verses later: "At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me…" It hurts when those we count on for companionship in Christ quit! Our faith is severely tested when sometimes we have to go on alone. Like Paul, we must turn to the Lord for strength to keep on going.

If you are disappointed because of people who have left the Lord, realize that this is something all believers must deal with if they have been in the Lord very long. Decide right now that, no matter who turns back, you will persist to the end. That is the only way you’re going to make it.

The last phrase of verse 14 says, "they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down." They made it safely.

In the next twenty-five verses, Luke gives us a synopsis of Paul’s sermon that day. Because of our time, I’m not going to read it, though it holds some wonderful truths about the gospel.

The results of the sermon are evident down in verse 40. The response was mixed. Some were interested but apparently there were some scoffers in the crowd, suggested by the final words of the sermon in verse 40:

I’m not sure if those words urging them to "continue in the grace of God" mean that some of them became Christians or if it means simply that they should continue their favorable attitude toward God so that ultimately they might be saved. But it does bring us to another occasion for persistence:

Among the hearers in the synagogue there were scoffers and there were those who wanted to hear more. It is amazing to me how the same message, under the very same circumstances, can produce such a varied response in people. I have taught people the gospel that were so glad to hear it they would hardly let me leave. Others were indifferent all the way through the studies, we parted ways, and they never responded. There have even been times when I’ve been asked or even forced to leave before I could finish. We’re talking about mixed results.

Mixes results, you might recall, was the theme of Jesus’ Parable of the Sower. In that story the very same seed fell on the hard ground, the rocky ground, the thorny ground, and the good ground. There was not a thing wrong with the seed. It was the same on all types of ground. Yet it only grew to the point of fruit bearing in one kind of soil.

It can be discouraging when people reject the words of life. That is why we must understand that not all who hear will respond to the truth of the gospel and that it isn’t necessarily our fault. Not everyone responded even to the teaching of Jesus Himself, so surely there will be those who don’t respond to us.

It’s particularly discouraging when someone we know and love, and for whom we have high hopes, does not accept the gospel. Perhaps we’ve thought, "Surely when they hear they will respond just as I have." But they don’t. Why? Jesus said it’s the soil. We sow the seed with the expectation of a good result, but also in the realization that not all of it will bear fruit.

The result of Paul and Barnabas’ teaching was mixed – but there is another part of this story.

Just as it is today, within that crowd of people there would be some hungry for the truth, some indifferent, and some who would reject. The rejecters are seen in what follows:

That brings up a fourth occasion for persistence:

The Jewish leaders in Pisidian Antioch had probably never seen a time when the synagogue was so full of interested people. They ought to have been happy. But of course the people were there to see and hear these two missionaries - not them. So they were jealous.

And what was the response of Paul and Barnabas?

This wasn’t the first, nor would it be the last time those who held to their vested interest more tightly than truth would rise up and malign the gospel. Not everyone has the same degree of love for the truth. Many "religious" people do not love truth at all when it means they must take second place. We see that here. If we are going to persist we must be ready for opposition and not let it put us off.

In this case Paul and Barnabas could see that to continue dealing with these contradicting Jews was going to jeopardize the others present who could be won, so they did what some are reluctant to do: they turned away from them, which suggests a fifth occasion for persistence:

When is it time to give up on someone and move on? Perhaps the answer is held in verse 46:

That word "repudiate" means literally, "to thrust away." These people took the truth and willingly pushed it aside.

Is there ever a time when we should give up sharing the gospel with someone and move on? Yes there is. Paul and Barnabas turned away from these who thrust the truth of the gospel aside and turned to others.

This is a hard lesson, but sometimes those who have said "no" steadfastly for years, all the while consuming the time and resources of the church, need to be left alone. I have seen Christian workers burn themselves out over people who have continued to reject or steadfastly refused or avoided the responsibilities of the gospel.

Why such a tough stance? Verses 47-48 hint at the reason:

The answer to the question of why we should sometimes move on when people reject is that there are others who will accept if we can just get to them. Look at the next verse.

Paul and Barnabas could have spent the rest of the first missionary journey arguing with the scoffers of Pisidian Antioch. But they didn’t. But the rejecters weren’t through with them.

According to 2 Timothy 3:11, the persecution Paul received here and in the surrounding region was some of the worst he received in his whole life. Was it worth it? Listen to the outcome.

It happened in Southwest Asia in the 14th Century. The army of Asian conqueror Emperor Tamerlane (a descendant of Ghengis Khan) was routed and dispersed by a powerful enemy. Tamerlane himself lay hidden in a deserted manger while enemy troops scoured the countryside in an effort to find him. As he lay there, desperate and dejected, Tamerlane watched an ant try to carry a grain of corn over a perpendicular wall. The kernel was larger than the ant itself. As the emperor counted, sixty-nine times the ant tried to carry it up the wall. Sixty- nine times he fell back. On the seventieth try he pushed the grain of corn over the top. Tamerlane leaped to his feet with a shout! He, too, would triumph in the end! And he did, reorganizing his forces and putting the enemy to flight.

If a pagan emperor, seeing the need for persistence can triumph over an enemy who has the advantage, how much more should people who serve the Living God of heaven be able to triumph with persistence and perseverance at the thing God has assigned them to do!

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

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All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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