Text: Acts 14:8-20, Title: Not Without Three Witnesses, Date/Place: NRBC, 5/25/08, AM
A. Opening illustration: talk about 1 John 5:7
B. Background to passage: The story is getting a little repetitious. Paul comes to a city, preaches Christ in that city’s synagogue, the Jews get angry, the gentiles want more, some believe, some don’t, and they get run out of the city just before they get stoned, beaten, or jailed. First it was Paphos, although they didn’t get run out of town there, then it was Antioch, then Iconium, and now similar things happen in Lystra. Although in Lystra there was no synagogue mentioned.
C. Main thought: Paul tells them that God has not left Himself without a witness, and from the text we will see that there are three witnesses in Lystra
A. A Public Healing (v. 8-10)
1. This healing is very reminiscent of Peter’s healing the lame man at the Beautiful Gate. In both instances the people are convinced that something divine is going on; thus the Gr. word for “sign” means something that points to something else. Also both Peter and Paul are very quick to point the people in the direction of the sign, because in this case, their intuition was right (God is working), but their interpretation (the gods have come to visit us is wrong. Tell about the Roman writer Ovid, and his story about Lystra, the gods coming down, and the town refusing them, all except one elderly couple. Paul and Barnabas’s reaction is much more severe than Peter and John’s because of the level of reaction from the people. Make a few comments about Paul’s gift to be able to discern faith to be healed. Also comment about the possibility of Paul not praying for everyone to be healed.
2. John 2:11, Acts 28:6, Rom 15:19, 1 Cor 2:4-5, 4:20, 1 Thess 1:5,
3. Illustration: Her remark, as she hands a thick manila folder to him, “My doctor copied my chart, complete with medicines and prognosis…just copy it into the prayer list, please.” “God certainly can, and sometimes does, heal people in a miraculous way today. But the Bible does not teach that He will always heal those who come to Him in faith. He sovereignly reserves the right to heal or not to heal as He sees fit.” One clear purpose of miracles was to authenticate the character of Jesus and his relationship with his heavenly Father. In this regard, miracles demonstrate the following: God is with Jesus (John 3:2); Jesus is from God (John 3:2; 9:342-33); God has sent Jesus (John 5:36); Jesus has authority on earth to forgive sins (Mark 2:10-11; Matt. 9:6-7; Luke 5:24-25); Jesus is approved by God (Acts 2:22). A second purpose of miracles was to authenticate the message about Jesus. This was the major function of the miracles as far as the ministry of the apostles was concerned. Mark says that the Lord "confirmed his word [that the apostles preached] by the signs that accompanied it? (Mark 16:20). When Luke was describing the ministry of Paul and Barnabas at Iconium, he said that the Lord "confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders? (Acts 14:3). Notice that in both of these texts the Lord does not confirm the apostles themselves but rather "his word? or ’the message? that the apostles were preaching. Signs and wonders do not testify to the apostles but to the message of salvation preached by the apostles. So the two principal things that are authenticated by miracles are the Lord Jesus and the message about the Lord Jesus.
4. One conclusion that we must draw is that the power of God manifested in very visible ways is a powerful way to spread the gospel, because this was a clear sign to unbelievers. But sometimes I wonder, as Ronnie and I talked this week, are we content to do church/religion without the manifest power and presence of God? Do we long for God to display His power, worth, value, etc., in ways to glorify Himself? What if that means making you sick first? Typically when God is viewed clearest is when no one else can work, but Him. Or when there are serious issues related to intense suffering? God does still heal, but should we pray for that every time? Would you be offended if I didn’t pray for healing as I didn’t the other day when someone called a prayer request in? Do you have the faith to be healed? Do you have the faith to see God moving in other visible expressions of power? If God did heal or save or deliver would you tell others? If you don’t tell them now, why would you then? Do you ever wonder why God doesn’t do miraculous or extraordinary things in our midst? Could it be that we are not living/walking close enough to him for the power of the Spirit of God to rest upon us? Could it be that God knows that people would either condemn it, gossip about those that were moved upon, ignore it, anything but look heavenward and fall prostrate on our faces in worship and deeper faith.
B. A Public Provision (v. 14-17)
1. Paul and Barnabas began to speak after they tore their clothes, and clearly rebuff the acclaim that was being given to them. They said that they were men of like passions, not any sort of divine being. But they said, “let me tell you about the One who did this.” They mention two attributes of God that would have been obvious to this unversed group of gentiles that was now hanging on every word. Remember these people were theologically not were most of the Jews that Paul was ministering to were. First they speak of God as the one Creator of heaven, earth, and everything in it. Then they speak of the benevolence and provision of God. Even the propensity to experience human joy and happiness, albeit miniscule compared to joy in Christ, is a gift from God upon all mankind.
2. Ps 145:9, Matt 5:45, Rom 1:18-23, 2:4, Acts 17:30,
3. Illustration: Wikipedia defines the four areas of common grace as God’s providential care through creation, His providential restraint of sin, God’s imprint upon the consciences of all men, His blessings toward all men through human advancements, Donald Grey Barnhouse writes correctly, "You are not a believer in Christ and yet you are still out of hell. That is the grace of God. You are not in hell, but you are on earth in good health and prosperity. That is the common grace of God. The vast majority of those who read these words are living in comfortable homes or apartments. That is common grace. You are not fleeing as refugees along the highways of a country desolated by war. That is common grace. You come home from your job and your child runs to meet you in good health and spirits. That is common grace. You are able to put your hand in your pocket and give the child a quarter or a half dollar for an allowance. It is common grace that you have such abundance. You go into your house and sit down to a good meal. That is common grace. On the day that you read these words there are more than a billion and a half members of the human race who will go to sleep without enough to satisfy their hunger, The fact that you have enough is common grace. You do not deserve it. And if you think that you do deserve anything at all from God beyond the wrath which you have so richly earned, you merely show your ignorance of spiritual principles."
4. In our day, it is often necessary to do a little pre-evangelism before one can begin to evangelize. God’s common grace and creatorship are good places to begin. For every person in this room is a recipient of this grace, believer or unbeliever. A thousand days of wrath has been withheld from you! Every person in this room, even evolutionists can look upon creation and know that God exists. Every person in this room is made in the image of God. Every person in this room, because of that fact, knows down deep in their heart, or at least at some point before they suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, knows that God exists. And every person in this room is charged with the responsibility of continually turning from useless things to faith in the resurrected Christ who died in your place. Camp out on the message of repentance. For now, He calls all men everywhere to repent. Beg and plead for people to repent and believe, lest they leave, and be deceived, and never feel drawn to Christ again.
C. A Public Execution (v. 19-20)
1. The time frame is not exactly clear. But it seems that some time may have elapsed. But even if it didn’t, the mob mentality that allowed a group of people to shout “Hosanna in the highest,” then a few days later, “crucify Him,” prevailed against Paul as it did against Jesus with a little help from an already unfavorably disposed group of helpers—the Jews from Antioch and Iconium. They had traveled about 100 miles to track Paul down. (Kind of ironic when you think about Paul on the way to Damascus to bind and imprison believers.) So Paul was stoned. Then the disciples came and gathered around him, carried him to safety, and he moved on.
2. Rev 6:11, Acts 7:59-60, Matt 27:54,
3. Illustration: tell about the missionary with bloody feet who had been rejected over and over and was about to be killed, until they saw his feet while asleep under a tree, In 1851, at the age of 57, he died of disease and starvation while serving on Picton Island at the southern tip of South America. When his body was found, his diary lay nearby. It bore the record of hunger, thirst, wounds, and loneliness. The last entry in his little book showed the struggle of his shaking hand as he tried to write legibly. It read, “I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God.” “Often I have heard people say, ‘How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!’ Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp. I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. ‘No, Corrie,’ said Betsie, ‘He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.” ” Corrie concludes, “There is an ocean of God’s love available—there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love—whatever the circumstances.”
4. We must be careful that the mob mentality doesn’t prevail in Christendom. You must think for yourself, seek God’s face and will, and stand up for that to which God has led you. Think about what must have been going through Paul’s mind as he was beaten unconscious. Do you think he was angry? Do you think he struggled? Do you think that he prayed for those watching? Do you think that the way that he acted under extreme persecution affected people, even the people stoning him? Of course! People saw that this man was willing to sacrifice money, clothes, houses, family, even his own life also for the cause of his Christ. They saw a real disciple, a Jesus freak. And of course, this testifies to the true value and worth of Christ. He IS worth dying for, losing everything for, being humiliated for. And along with the other witnesses, it screams His worth to the world and to the church. Could you take a publicly humiliating experience that would bring about your death well? How about just private persecution? Are people’s lives transformed by watching yours? Is there a line in the sand of suffering that would make you give up on Jesus? How much pain disproves him for you? How much suffering would cause you to go your own way to make it easier? What would make you quit?
A. Closing illustration: Tell about Timothy coming on board in Lystra on mission trip two, possibly after having committed his life to Christ because of these three witnesses
B. Invitation to commitment
