Marks Of The Messenger Part 2
Acts 14:1-28
This week I watched an interview of a mom who's son was one of the servicemen who was killed in the tragic shooting here in our home town. She experienced what no serviceman's family wants to experience: the arrival of a death notification officer on her front door to deliver the devastating news of her son's death.
Like me, you've probably watched that scene reenacted in movies or TV shows as they portray what must be an emotionally traumatic experience. Out of curiosity I researched that process this week. As you might expect, in our US Military Manuals there is very specific protocol that must be followed when the death notification is delivered to next of kin. Everything from what kind of clothes are to be worn, what specific words are spoken, who accompanies the notifying officer to the front door step of the next of kin, who wait's in the car while the notification is given - all of it is clearly spelled out. Why are they so careful about HOW they deliver the news? Because of the gravity and weight of the news to be delivered, the WAY in which it is delivered is of great importance.
Such is the nature of the news the apostles were delivering in the passage before us today. Such is the nature of the news that we’ve been given to deliver. So it stands to reason, the WAY in which we deliver the news is of great importance.
This morning we return to Acts 14 to part 2 of a message I began last week I entitled "Marks of the Messenger." We're right in the middle of our series through the Book of Acts and here in chapter 14 we will see the conclusion of Paul's first missionary journey. This journey began back in Antioch of Syria when they set sail for the island of Cyprus. They preached from one end to the other of that 140 mile long island and then set sail across the sea to Pamphilia. From there they traveled by foot across treacherous terrain to Antioch of Pisidia. It was in Antioch of Pisidia in Chapter 13 of Acts that we have the first recorded sermon of the apostle Paul.
Preserved for us in chapter 13 is the crux of Paul’s gospel message – the "WHAT" of his message. In Chapter 14 we have the HOW, the WAY in which he proclaimed it. Chapter 14 finds them in several cities in a region known as Galatia. It’s likely that Paul’s earliest epistle, the book of Galatians – was written to these churches that were established on this first mission journey.
The first city they came to in the region of Galatia was Iconium. We considered their time in Iconium last week. And in that account we saw the first mark of the messenger. Namely, we discovered that...
I. They Were BOLD In Their PROCLAMATION
We identified this character trait of boldness last week because of the fact that chapter 13 concludes with them being driven out of Antioch of Pisidia, by the Jews from the very synagogue where they were asked to speak. The Jews there stirred up the whole city against them and drove them out.
But as soon as they arrive in Iconium it’s the same song, second verse. They go right back into a Jewish synagogue and proclaim the same message – that Jesus is the long awaited Messiah. They already knew this message would be met with a hostile response, but they boldly proclaimed it anyway. We came around 3 ideas with regard to their bold proclamation in Iconium. The first was this, as we boldly proclaim the gospel, we
A. Walk through the OPEN DOOR
they entered together into the Jewish synagogue
Paul had an open door of proclamation because of his Jewish resume, because of his Hebrew credentials. He utilized that for kingdom purposes.
Just because there may be opposition or hostility on the other side of an open door of ministry, don’t presume that the door is closed. Many times God will call us through open doors of ministry with full knowledge that there’s a likelihood of difficulty on the other side. We don’t judge a door’s openness based upon the reception we may receive on the other side.
B. Speak the word of GRACE
speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace
Their bold proclamation was a word of grace. They speak a word of grace. Yes, we teach the whole counsel of God; yes that counsel of God includes the righteousness, the holiness, the wrath and justice of God. But the fundamental aspect of what we speak is a word of grace. Fundamentally what we have to offer people is the grace of God.
We like Paul and Barnabas speak the WORD of GRACE. Here’s the third thing about their bold proclamation of the gospel, they…
C. Anticipate a mixed RESPONSE
Some who heard the gospel believed it. Others who heard it hated it with every fiber of their being. As we have gone through the book of Acts, this has been the constant pattern? Over and over we see the gospel go forth. Some receive and believe it, others don’t just dismiss it - but they hate it.
We move forward with eyes wide open knowing that we have a message that by its very nature is divisive. Jesus promised as much. Our message tells people they are sinners, separated from God, in need of forgiveness and unless they repent they will spend eternity in a devil’s hell. There’s all kinds of offensiveness in that message. But knowing the divisive nature of our message can result in two dangerous extremes.
One extreme is to think, “Well, the message we preach is divisive so the more divisive I am the more faithful to the message I must be.” There’s the danger of developing the posture of, “The world hates us, so let’s hate the world. We can forget John 3:16 "God so loved" who? The world!
Another danger on the other end of the spectrum. Because the nature of our message is divisive, we think we can help out the message by trimming off some of the abrasive corners. Let’s make the message more palatable, more sinner-friendly, more seeker-friendly. That is a very popular yet dangerous response among some churches and preachers today. Let’s just smile with a toothy grin and never mention sin, judgment or repentance. Instead let’s preach a false gospel that centers all around you, your wants, your desires, your prosperity instead of a gospel message that centers around the glory of God.
There’s a reason Paul’s message was hated by some who heard it. But yet, it was a word of grace he boldly proclaimed – as should we. So that’s the first Mark of the Messenger we considered last week – they were bold in their proclamation of the gospel. That leads to number 2 on our outline…
II. They Were HUMBLE In Their PRESENTATION
As Christians we must learn to hold together a number of diverse truths which at first may seem to be contradictory. We have to do this with the most important doctrines of the faith. For instance, the Bible clearly teaches that God is love. And at the same time without any contradiction God also displays his wrath against sin. Or you think of the two natures of Christ – fully God, fully man. Not half and half, not a mixture of the two but fully God, fully man. Or when we think about the kingdom of God. You may have heard of the expression, “Already and not yet.” The kingdom is already here, the kingdom is in your midst though it has not yet fully arrived. Or when we think of the Trinity – one of the most mysterious aspects of our faith – one God, three persons. No human analogy quite works to explain it.
The existence of these diverse truths exist not only in the doctrines of our faith, but also in the way the Bible instructs us to live out our lives. Jesus instructed us to come to him to find rest – all you who labor come unto me and I will give you rest. So we are at rest in Christ. But we are also called to fight the good fight. So we experience both rest and warfare as a Christian – both are true.
Or you think of Divine sovereignty – that God superintends all things from the beginning to the end – plainly taught in Scripture. But the Bible also teaches human responsibility for our choices and decisions.
One of the tensions that we must hold together as Christians is the confidence and absolute certainty we have in the Word of God, yet also possessing humility in the way we speak about that truth. The problem here is that our culture equates humility with uncertainty. If you’re truly humble you’re not sure of anything. If you claim to know anything with certainty, especially regarding God or sin or eternity or salvation or the world – well then, you’re not very humble. But the humble person, our culture thinks, is the one who has lots of doubts and questions and wouldn’t dare to make any claims about anything with absolute certainty.
So when we make claims of absolute certainty when it comes to the truth, people respond, “You Christians are so arrogant, so full of yourselves, you think you have a corner on truth. If you were really humble you wouldn’t be so certain."
You see, according to the world, you can boast about yourself, brag about yourself, you can write and blog about yourself and post 1,000 pictures of yourself – no problem. Just don’t claim to know anything about anything except yourself. GK Chesterton famously remarked on this phenomenon over 100 years ago: “What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition and settled upon the organ of conviction, where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.” GK Chesterton
You can’t claim to know anything with certainty today with regard to truth, but are told to always believe in yourself, never doubt yourself, look within for truth. That’s a bunch of hogwash. In verses 8-18 of this chapter I think we’ll find the balance we’re looking for.
Here’s the setup: if you’ll remember last week, Paul and Barnabas were in Iconium and they learned of a plot to have them killed by stoning, they fled Iconium & went to Lystra. Lystra was a small town 18 miles southwest of Iconium in what is today interior Turkey. Lystra was little more than a small village. It had the reputation of being something of a backwoods place with simple-minded people. Paul and Barnabas didn’t just go to the metropolitan city centers, they went to the outskirts as well. Let’s read beginning at verse 8: 8Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9He listened to Paul speaking.
Now their normal practice when arriving at a new town was to go to the local synagogue first. But Luke doesn’t record them going to a synagogue in Lystra because there was no synagogue in Lystra. So, we can gather from what Luke writes here that Paul and Barnabas were just open air preaching, speaking forth the gospel. And in that town there was a man who had been crippled from birth, listening intently to Paul’s message. Let’s keep reading And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well,10said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking.
Something about this crippled man caught Paul’s attention. The text says he saw in him that he had faith to be made well. There’s a parallel here with Peter’s first recorded miracle in Acts 3 where he also looked intently at the lame man before he was healed and he lept to his feet praising God. Paul does the same thing here. Something about his expression, his longing, his anticipation, his hope. He could see it etched on his face that he believed Paul possessed some power that could release him from that condition. So Paul tells him with a loud voice to stand up. And he gets up.
Now the reaction of the crowd is just as dramatic. Remember, this is not a Jewish crowd. Paul’s Jewish credentials don’t mean anything here; he wouldn’t get a hearing from the people because of his resume – but he speaks loudly in a foreign language and the lame man - who no doubt the entire town was familiar with - was miraculously healed. This is absolutely a clear miraculous healing. How would this pagan village respond? Let’s see:
11And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
Why would they attach the names of these gods from Greek Mythology to Paul and Barnabas? Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul they called Hermes. This strange response actually finds its roots in Greek folklore.
There was a story about Lystra recorded by the Roman poet Ovid. The story went like this: The gods Zeus and Hermes once came to earth disguised as poor men. When they arrived in the village of Lystra and asked for food and lodging, everyone refused them. Finally, an old peasant by the name of Philemon and his wife Baucis took them in. Zeus and Hermes subsequently drowned their inhospitable neighbors in a flood and turned the peasant’s humble cottage into a marvelous palace. After their deaths, the two peasants who gave them food and lodging were turned into two stately trees that served as a testament to them welcoming the gods among them.
Not wanting to make the same mistake as their forefathers had done in the fable, they assume Zeus and Hermes have come incognito again. They call Barnabas Zeus, indicating he was the more distinguished of the two, and they call Paul Hermes because Hermes was the messenger for the Greek gods, and as the text says, Paul was the chief speaker. Luke says they were speaking in Lycaonian, so the missionary duo didn't fully understand what was happening until it was too late. Let's keep reading: 13And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.
Fully believing that the gods had come down because of the legitimacy of this miracle moved these pagans to do what pagans do with their gods - they worship them, they offer sacrifice, they bring garlands. Now what would you do at this point? You're here, preaching, suddenly people are coming, they're about to sacrifice and offer worship to you. What would you do with that type of reaction?
Do you remember we've already seen a story very similar to this in Acts? Herod was giving his great speech in his silver, shimmering royal garments glittering in the sun, and the people shouted, "The voice of a god and not a man!" What did Herod do? He soaked it all in - "Yeah!" And what did God do? God struck him dead! Worms ate his body.
Now you may think, "This is not something that's likely to happen to me." No, perhaps not on this scale. But no doubt we've all been placed in a position where we had the opportunity to take the glory, take the credit, take the adulation that God deserves. What did Paul and Barnabas do? They pointed out two things to the crowd. They pointed them out in such a way that it demonstrated great confidence in truth, but honest humility regarding themselves. The first thing they pointed out to the crowd was...
A. The shared NATURE
14But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments [sign of great grief, they recognize blasphemy has been uttered. It's blasphemy to say that Paul and Barnabas are anything but men.] and rushed out into the crowd, crying out,15“Men, why are you doing these things? They are incensed, they will have none of it. And notice what they tell them: We also are men, of like nature with you,
We are men of like nature with you. We are the same type of beings. You have divine beings and human beings - we are human beings, just like you. We are of like nature, we are creatures.
This is an important principle to keep in mind whether we're sharing the gospel with our co-worker, a family member or someone in the deep, dark bush of Africa who lives in a mud hut. All humans are of like nature.
You know Donald Trump has been in the news a lot recently as he's announced his candidacy for president. He's a self-made billionaire who speaks his mind and doesn't mind calling it like he sees it. We can look at someone like that and think, "Well, he can afford to do that because of his impressive status." You can think of the most influential, impressive, powerful person you know - like a Donald Trump. Compare his power to the power of God. The distance is massive, in fact it's infinite.
Now think of the least impressive, least influential person you know. By comparison the distance between the least impressive person you know of, and the most impressive person is microscopic, it's miniscule. The distance between the most impressive person and God is infinitely bigger than the distance between the most impressive and least impressive human.
This is not only true ontologically - ontology has to do with our sense of our being - but it is also true morally. We can think of people in terms of their morality, their righteousness. To illustrate this I created this morality continuum. We think of the most depraved, evil people we know of - like terrorist shooters, like evil dictators such as Adolph Hitler or Josef Stalin. And we put them way down here on the continuum, on the morality scale.
And then further up the morality scale we put people like Billy Graham or Mother Theresa. Where do we put ourselves? And we like to think of ourselves as closer to the righteous end of the spectrum rather than the evil end of the spectrum.
Well let's put God on that continuum, and do you know what you find? The distance between the most righteous human and the righteousness of God is infinite.
That's why Isaiah 64:6 says this about our righteousness: We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. Is 64:6
Paul and Barnabas recognize this. That's why when these simple, superstitious villagers attempt to offer their worship to them, they tear their garments, rush into the crowd and start shouting, "Stop, stop! We are men like you, of like nature! By nature, we are NOT on the God-end of the spectrum, we are on the human end of the spectrum!"
It's so important to keep this in mind as we view the world, and as we view humanity. Except for the grace of God go I. You are of like nature with the worst of the worst. All of us suffer from this depraved, sinful nature. And God is an infinitely righteous, eternally good God. And we are all separated from Him. This is bad news if you think about it. But they point it out, they point out the shared nature. But not only that, they point out the...
B. The shared NEWS
Right after Paul says in verse 15, "we are of like nature with you," notice what Paul says: and we bring you good news, That phrase in English is one word in the Greek: e?a??e????µe??? We get our English word "EVANGELISM" here. We bring you the good message; we bring you the gospel; we bring you some incredibly good news that rescues us from our hopeless and helpless condition; good news that transforms our fallen, human nature; good news about a loving God that rescues us from our lostness; good news about a Savior who purchased salvation. We bring you good news!
What we have here is the first speech in Acts presented solely to a pagan/Gentile audience. And notice some things about their evangelism.
The first piece of good news may not have sounded like good news: that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, that word vain means empty, worthless, of no value. He's talking about their Greek mythology; he's talking about their idolatry; he's talking about the sacrifices they desire to make. And he says, people - they're worthless.
Now this grates on the modern sensibilities of our Western world. The thought is that we should never say that something in someone else's traditions or in their native culture is worthless.
How dare we cast judgment like that. Unless of course, being informed by God's word, we know that it is worthless. He says, turn from these vain, empty things to the living God. The idols you pour your life into, there's nothing to them, they're empty, they're worthless - there's no such thing as Zeus and Hermes.
I don't know how they heard it, but it had to be offensive on some level. You've got stone gods, they're not real; you have mythology - it's not true. Turn from those things to the living God. He's calling them to completely reorient their lives and their thinking. And this gospel is good news because it would give them truth instead of error; hope instead of despair; freedom instead of bondage. They could know they are right with the one true God.
And we can think that here in America we're so much more sophisticated than these ancient pagans in Lystra. But how many Americans are pursuing with full throttle absolutely worthless things, idols that have no life or eternal value. This is the only appropriate response to the gospel - turn from these worthless things to the living God. That's called repentance.
Here's the other thing to note about their evangelism. He starts from where they are. Again, this was not a Hebrew audience in a Jewish synagogue, so it would have been of no value to talk about God's faithfulness throughout Israel's history. So he begins at Creation - which is a GREAT place to start in our evangelism. Look around at creation? The world, the universe proclaims the existence of a Creator, of God: you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. He points to creation as evidence of a Creator.
16In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” He's talking about common grace that God has given to all mankind. Notice Luke's commentary in verse 18: 18Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.
Now we don't have the end of the message here, either because Luke left it off or more likely because they were cut off from sharing it. But we notice this balance they carried - a resolute confidence in the truth yet they told it with great humility, we are of like nature with you.
That's HOW they present the truth, that's the Mark of the Messenger - Bold in their proclamation yet Humble in their Presentation. But finally I want you to see this third mark of the messenger...
III. They Were PERSISTENT In Their PROLIFERATION
One glaring character trait of Paul and Barnabas on this their first missionary journey is their persistence. Regardless of the response of those who heard it, regardless of the insults and persecution that was hurled against them, they were persistent in proliferating the gospel message. Let's keep reading to see how things ended up in Lystra, and then on to the next town: 19But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
My goodness, how quickly the crowds turned. They go from offering worship to Paul, making sacrifices to Paul, to throwing boulders at Paul to the point they concluded, surely he's dead. And they dragged what they thought was his corpse out of the city to rot and decay there. 20But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city,
I just imagine the brand new believers, newly converted disciples gathered around Paul, looking at his bruised and bloodied body lying on the ground. Then all of a sudden he regains consciousness, his eyes open, he sits up, dusts himself off. And what does he do? He goes right back into the city. Are you kidding me! Paul, they just tried to kill you, they left you for dead, they dragged your body out here into the wilderness! That's persistence friends. Let's keep reading:
20But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,
So here's what happens - Paul and Barnabas go to Derbe, we don't know how long they stayed in that town, but long enough to see many people come to faith in Jesus, many disciples were made. The city of Derbe was the end of the line on this mission trip. They then circle back and go through the same cities they had originally come through, just in reverse order - Lystra, then Iconium, and then Antioch of Pisidia.
Verse 22 summarizes their work as they circled back through those cities: 22strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,
They were strengthening souls, encouraging. Building them up in the faith, discipling and training them. Now, as part of their discipleship, Paul desires for them to persistently proliferate the gospel as well. So in order for them to do that he lays out two very clear expectations for faithful followers of Christ. The first expectation he gives them is this, there is...
A. An expectation of ongoing OPPOSITION
22strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
We touched on this last week. We can expect that if we live godly lives, persistently, boldly yet humbly proclaiming the gospel, we will go through MANY tribulations. Paul says we MUST go through them on the way to our entering the kingdom of God. Tribulation is a mark of faithful pilgrims on their way to heaven. That's an expectation Paul lays out.
This flies right in the face of a huge religious philosophy that is being presented by the so-called prosperity gospel. A philosophy that says, "if you have enough faith, you'll never be sick, you'll have lots of money, you'll drive nice cars, everything will go well for you." That is a lie from the pit of hell and I warn you not to give one second of viewing time to that kind of garbage. Paul says faithful followers MUST enter the kingdom through MANY tribulations. He lays out an expectation of ongoing opposition.
Here's the second expectation:
B. An expectation of covenant COMMUNITY
As Paul is circling back, going from town to town that he had previously preached the gospel in, notice what the text says he does:
23And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
It is from verses like this that we have developed a biblical strategy for foreign missions. When we go into a pioneer region of the world to evangelize, we are not going there to make converts solely, we're going there to plant churches.
Paul new his work in each city was not complete by just hosting a big tent evangelistic crusade. He went back through those cities and established churches. And what was a key component of establishing churches? Appointing elders (plural) in every church (singular). There is a plurality of elders that is appointed in every local congregation in every town.
God does not intend for any Christian to live their lives as lone ranger believers out there in the world. Even the lone ranger had Tonto. But that's not enough. All of us need a church, a Christian community that we are in covenant membership with. All of us need spiritual authority, pastors and elders, that we are accountable to in our lives.
It is because of passages like this, and many other passages in the New Testament that we here at LVBC make no apologies for encouraging meaningful membership. We contend that it is vitally important to your spiritual wellbeing that you are a covenant member of a local congregation, that you are in accountable relationships to the other members, that you are in submission to spiritual authority. That is God's design for his people, and that's the expectation Paul lays out for them as he circles back through these towns.
Speaking of that, you'll notice in the bulletin there is a New Members class that will be meeting coming up that our associate pastor Wade Casey will be teaching. If you're not a member here and you'd like to explore membership, I highly recommend attending this class.
Let's see how chapter 14 and this first missionary journey conclude: 24Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28And they remained no little time with the disciples.
They conclude this missionary journey with a celebration service at the church which sent them out - the church in Antioch. They celebrate, offering praise to God for all that he had done, how he opened a door of faith to the Gentiles - an open door that on the other side had much persecution - Paul was stoned and left for dead among them. But it was an open door nonetheless.
That's the marks of the messenger - Bold in Proclamation, Humble in Presentation and Persistent in Proliferation. May those Marks be seen in us as well. As I said at the beginning of the message today, because of the gravity and weight of the news to be delivered, the WAY in which it is delivered is of great importance. And that leads to my last thought...
Last Thought: The “HOW” of our message gives validity to the “WHAT” of our message.
