Good morning, everyone. Let us pray.
We praise you, dear God, with all our hearts. We praise you for WHO you are and for WHAT you’ve done. Thank you, Lord for your presence in our lives.
Forgive us for the times we have turned from Your ways and returned to call on you only when we are in trouble. Forgive us for forgetting about you in the good times. Thank you for not abandoning us, for your kindness and patience despite our disobedience.
We come to you, heavenly Father, out of the busyness of a hectic life, to find this moment of peace with You and to hear from You again. We thank you that in Christ you lift us up with your Word when we are down, you encourage us when we are hurting, you heal us when we are sick, and you strengthen us when we are weak.
Our hope is in you, Lord. Your grace is always there for us. Let your Word strengthens us again today. Prepare our hearts to hear from you, Lord.
This we pray in Jesus’ Name, AMEN.
We are reading Acts 14 today, the whole chapter. By the end of it, we would have come to the end of Paul and Barnabas’ first missionary journey through Asia Minor.
• Acts 14 ends with their return to the Syrian Antioch church where they first started off at the beginning of Acts 13.
• They “… reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” (14:27)
• Hence the title to the sermon today – seeing God’s grace at work.
• Paul and Barnabas moved to Iconium, Lystra and Derbe and we are going to see God’s grace at work in these 3 places in Acts 14 today.
Last week we heard how the Jews and Gentiles in Pisidian Antioch were moved by the message of Paul and they responded in different ways.
• Many believed Christ and were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit (13:52).
• There were serious enquirers who wanted to hear more about the message of Christ.
• But we also have a group that rejected the Gospel. They were against the message, and then they came against the messengers, Paul and Barnabas.
What about you? Which group will you be in? What is your response to the Gospel?
• We all fall under one of these groups – those who believe Christ, those who reject the Gospel, or those who are still seeking to understand.
If you are not a Christian now, then I hope you are one of those serious enquirers wanting to know more about Jesus.
• We hear more so that we can understand and make an informed choice. Who is Jesus Christ to you?
• Ultimately it will take a step of faith but I trust that the Lord will guide you to that point, and I hope that day will come soon for you.
• We all need to make a personal decision about Christ.
At the end of Acts 13, we see Paul and Barnabas being forced to leave Pisidian Antioch.
• The unbelieving Jews incited the influential men and women of the city and stirred up a persecution against them. They left for Iconium.
Acts 14:1-7 ICONIUM
1 At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5 There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6 But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7 where they continued to preach the good news.
Paul and Barnabas speak the truth about Christ wherever they go, despite the oppositions, and we see God’s saving works - a great number of both Jews and Gentiles believed.
• Opposition arose and they stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against them, but Paul and Barnabas stayed longer and continued to speak more boldly.
The “message of His grace” is repulsive to the traditional Jews who pride themselves in keeping the Law and doing good works.
• These Judaizers, that’s the term we call them, insisted that Gentile Christians have to adopt Jewish customs and practices and observe the Law of Moses to be saved.
• They not only rejected grace; they despised it. They refused it for themselves, and they were against it being offered to the Gentiles.
It was like how Jonah felt. The prophet Jonah was called by God to go to the city of Nineveh (the Assyrian city) and preach to his enemies about their wickedness.
• That was not something Jonah would want because the people of Nineveh might just repent and be saved from judgment, which was exactly what happened.
• As a typical Israelite, filled with self-righteousness and animosity for the Assyrians, Jonah wanted to see them punished, not pardoned.
It was the same for these Jews. The Gentiles were not worthy to be pardoned.
• Even so, if they repent and believe Christ, then they ought to abide by the Mosaic Law before they can be saved.
• They were out to distort the Gospel and slander the messengers.
• But God “confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them [Paul and Barnabas] to do miraculous signs and wonders.” (14:3)
• Miracles do not bring conviction; they affirm the truth of God’s Word.
The people of the city were divided. When Paul and Barnabas heard of the plot to harm them, they left Iconium and went to Lystra.
Acts 14:8-30 LYSTRA
8 In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked.
9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed 10 and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
11When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15"Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." 18 Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.
19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20 But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
Paul was likely preaching in the open when he saw this lame man.
• Luke highlighted his incurable and hopeless state 3 times – crippled in his feet, lame from birth, and had never walked.
• This man listened to the message of Paul. Paul saw his faith and called out for him to stand up, and this man responded immediately.
• “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Rom 10:17)
• This man’s faith was evident when he responded to Paul’s call, jumped up and began to walk! And that for a person who has never walked!
Unfortunately, the crowd did not get the message; they saw only the miracle.
• They were drawn by the spectacular and believed that the gods have come down to them, influenced likely by a local legend about the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes who once came down as mortals and visited them.
• The crowd saw Barnabas as Zeus and Paul as Hermes, being the spokesperson, and soon brought out bulls and garlands to offer as sacrifices to them.
• It took Paul and Barnabas sometime before they realised what was happening because the locals were conversing in their native language.
Paul and Barnabas had to correct them immediately. Speaking to a pagan,non-Jewish audience, Paul did not start with the Scriptures (special revelation).
• He directed them to creation - general revelation - and helped them see the one true God who created of all things.
• 14:15 “We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.”
• Creation affirms certain facts about God. Nature testifies to God's existence.
• Paul wrote in Rom 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."
• Paul tells the crowd - 14:17 "Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."
Many today see God only in the spectacular, and not in the natural; God is only present in the supernatural and not in the ordinary.
• But God provides the rain and the harvest, the good food and the joy in our hearts (borrowing the words from Paul). Are we not seeing Him?
• Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matt 6:26)
Is our God too small? If He is only the God of the miraculous, then our God is too small.
• Paul says even in nature God has left us His print; in the natural routines of life, God has not left us without His testimony.
• Can we see the hand of God in our daily life, in the sunshine and the rain, in the ordinary and the mundane?
• Or is our God only present in the supernatural and spectacular?
The enemies of the Gospel were relentless. They followed in Paul and Barnabas footsteps and came down from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium to Lystra and incited the people against the messengers of the Gospel.
• They stoned Paul (Barnabas was clearly somewhere else then) and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead or leaving him to die.
• But he revived, and went back into the city. In 2 Cor 11:25, Paul wrote that he was once stoned, so this was likely the incident.
• Paul and Barnabas left for Derbe the next day.
Acts 14:21-28 DERBE and Returning to Syrian ANTIOCH
21They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. 23Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. 24After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, 25 and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
26From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. 27On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. 28And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.
God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles yet again and many believed.
• No amount of opposition to the Gospel can thwart God’s saving work.
• When their attackers mocked Paul and Barnabas back in Pisidian Antioch, this was what they said.
• Acts 13:46-48 “46Then 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. 47For 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.'"
48When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honoured the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.
• Our confidence is in the works of God. His sovereignty in the salvation of the lost is our hope. “All who are appointed for eternal life will believe.”
• Despite the oppositions, we can preach on with confidence and hope.
Amazingly on their return trip, Paul and Barnabas revisited Lystra, Iconium and Antioch - the places where they were persecuted - to encourage the believers.
• It would mean a longer and more dangerous route but they wanted to build up the believers and entrust the care of the flock to the elders.
• Paul urged them to remain true to the faith and persevere in the midst of the many hardships.
Let me conclude. What are our takeaways from this mission trip? Our God is at work.
WE SEE GOD IN THE JOURNEY
• He is at work reaching a lost world to Himself. Many Jews and Gentiles came to faith in Christ. He opens the door of faith.
• God fulfils His purpose of bringing the Gentiles into His Kingdom, then and now. He succeeded then and will continue to succeed through the generations.
How do we know? We are here today. We the Gentiles are Christians today. We have heard and believed the Gospel and placed our trust in Jesus.
• It did not stop at AD50 in Asia Minor and it will not stop today. The Gospel of Christ will be proclaimed until the day Jesus returns.
• “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:58)
WE SEE GOD IN THE TRIBULATIONS
• In the midst of God’s great work, we see oppositions and they come in all forms, from the poisoning of the minds of the people to physical abuse.
• Whatever the forms they cannot hinder the work of God’s grace in the lives of those who are appointed to eternal life.
The Gospel cannot be stopped.
• Paul and Barnabas are simply pushed to newer grounds because of the persecutions.
• Obstacles are turned into stepping stones, hardships into launching pads for them to move into new territories and new opportunities.
• They returned only to report ALL THAT GOD HAS DONE through them (14:28). It’s God’s grace at work.
WE SEE GOD IN THE ORDINARY
• God confirms His Word with signs and wonders, but He also acts in the natural, through ordinary events.
• Paul tells the people in Lystra that God provides the rain and the crops, the food we eat and the joy in our hearts.
• God preserves His servants, sometimes miraculously but at other times, without any interventions, like allowing things to take its course with the plot to harm them in Iconium and the stoning of Paul in Lystra.
God is no less in control in the normal events of life than He is when He is acting supernaturally. He is watching over us.
• Let us keep the faith and persevere in hardships. Let us not lose trust in God. Learn to see His grace in your life.
• Let us be faithful witnesses of Christ wherever we are, at home, school or our workplaces.
• Pray that our colleagues and friends will come to understand the Gospel and know Christ sooner.
May His will be done in us and through us, to the glory of His Name.
Let’s pray.
Gracious God, you are at work today, in our lives and also through our lives. Use our lives, Lord to touch someone else, in ways that can bring them hope and love and joy. May those who are struggling, hurting and lost today, find hope and peace in Christ. Help us speak and live the Gospel. May your good purpose be fulfilled through us.
Give us the eyes of faith to see you in the daily routines of our lives, and be grateful people. We thank you for each day of this coming week, knowing that you will provide what we need and give us the strength to do your will. Help us please you and honour your Name.
And so may the grace of Jesus and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and forevermore, AMEN.
