Hardship for The Kingdom
Acts 14
Last week we looked at the beginning of the First missionary Journey.
Barnabas and Saul head off and during their first stop in Crete there is a name change as Saul becomes Paul and his name goes first in the telling of the story indicating leadership. They went to Pisidian (P-sid-e-an) Antioch where we can pick out Paul’s standard operating procedure.
There is the going to the Synagogue on the Sabbath, where they will normally be asked to speak. We hear a sample sermon which condenses 450 years of Jewish history into three lines of scripture and then connects the dots to Jesus Christ and the Jews rejection.
After speaking they await the response which may be delayed and while some Jews and gentiles believe most of the Jews reject and take steps to encourage Paul and his companions to leave, they are not above using force including stoning.
However, last week they left on their own accord before things go too bad. They headed off to Iconium.
Last week we really only saw the steps in the SOP and don’t recognize a pattern until we here the later experiences. By establishing the normal pattern for the missionaries Luke speeds up the story telling process.
He only has to describe the steps and we know that a message was preached and the approximate content and call for response. We also can guess what the response will be. And we know that they will move on after some period of time leaving new believers to sort things out.
This is where we pick up in today’s lesson.
The men get to Iconium and “as usual” they go to the synagogue and they speak so effectively that a Great number of Jews and Gentiles believe.
Ok, it had to feel pretty good still. In the last City they were booted out by some Jews that did not believe. But they had a good success with the Gentiles. Moving on they Get To Iconium and while it was not perfect and completely successful they have a big impact.
Except for a few Jews that “refused” to believe. They use their influence to cause distrust and doubt that what the missionaries said was true.
The scripture says they spent a “considerable” time in the city and spoke boldly. Speaking boldly was pretty good, it showed that they were passionate and willing to take the time to teach but the scripture tells us that they also had the ability to do signs and wonders.
Luke is not specific, here but it would not be to difficult to think that they healed people. Perhaps they told people about their past or gave some predictions about God’s blessings.
But, Luke does not give us a good definition of these signs and wonders so we can only guess. Generally Luke gives us detail of what he sees as important to the story and leaves out the trivia. He helps his reader to focus on the main point. So the signs and wonders themselves are not important however the fact that God gave them the ability, as evidence of His grace is.
But whatever the gifts were they did not make the apostles instantly and completely successful.
The city was split over the message they gave. Some thought the Jews must be right. These men were false teachers …even with the signs they would not be convinced.
Then others were believers in the apostles teaching and embraced the ideas and the signs were just added assurance.
After some time there is a rumor of a plot that the Gentiles and Jews against the teaching were going to mistreat (arrest – heckle – whip) and stone (execute) the missionaries.
So they left town and headed toward Lystria, about 20 miles to the South where they planned to preach the good news there and Derby and surrounding country.
So the pattern has now repeated itself. And they are on the road again.
Let me first remind you that they are along way from home. They are not able to use Hebrew in general, perhaps not even in the Synagogues so it is most likely that they are preaching in Greek.
They are not speaking the native language of the areas. They are speaking in the commercial language for doing business imposed originally by the Greek empire that conquered the area which is now under Roman occupation. Each empire stressed a common language for communication.
In Lystra we don’t hear that they have gone to the Synagogue, and it is probably because there is not one there. The town may not have enough Jews to establish one. It is likely that Paul is just taking every opportunity to preach the good news where ever he is and in the absence of a synagogue the city gate and market will have to do.
So, it seems that they are speaking in the market or other public place. And Paul notices this crippled man sitting within hearing distance. He looks directly at him and can see something in him…
First of all the crippled man is listening to the teaching. Secondly Paul can see that he has the faith to be healed.
The word translated healed in the scripture has two meanings in Greek. The first is not too far a stretch it means physical healing. However, the second common meaning is to be saved. Since Luke was an educated man we can’t just discount the idea that the word choice was completely by accident. But, we don’t know.
Paul has some kind of special sight or discernment that from a distance, he can see something special in this man.
And he decided to play it safe and find out if his discernment or vision is correct and shouts out to the man, "Stand up on your feet!"
Ok, maybe for Paul with his gifts and graces, the ability to do signs and wonders maybe it was safe.
But if he had been wrong and the man did not get up then what would the people listening think or say. It would have blown his wittiness. No on would believe this charlatan.
But, the man, which the scripture describes as being crippled from birth, jumps up and walks.
Wow, this sounds a little familiar, Jesus does this kind of thing right? Peter and John do this outside the temple. And now Paul and Barnabas have an account of miraculous healing.
The crowd sees this saying something like, “Dude that was narley! We gotta get the preps and get some righteous action. Dude!”
The scripture says that they “shouted in their native language”, something that Paul and Barnabas did not understand.
"The gods have come down to us in human form!"
The people are all excited and the look happy and non-threatening. People are running off telling other people.
They were excited because as far as they knew, the god Zeus which they related to Barnabas and the Lesser god and messenger Hermes (Paul) had come to town.
There was a temple to worship Zeus right outside of town. Wow this is great, god visiting out little town. Call the mayor and the council let’s celebrate this great event.
Notice that for the locals decide something interesting about these two men. They decide who is the most important based on who is doing the talking. We interpret the most important by learning who is doing the speaking too but in the opposite way.
In the pagan understanding of Zeus, he would speak through his messenger. He would not actually speak to them himself; he would not lower himself and talk directly. So that means the Barnabas, the quiet one, was thought to be the most powerful God and Paul, the talkative one, is the messenger, and therefore the lesser God.
The Priest from the temple, bring wreaths of honor for the god’s to wear and bulls to sacrifice.
Paul and Barnabas know something is up. They just don’t know what.
The crowd is smaller and probably keeping their distance as some rush through the city telling folks what they think has happened.
When the priest approaches the crowd is growing and Paul and Barnabas find someone that tells them what is going on. They are told what the people are thinking and they are appalled at the misunderstanding.
They tear their clothing, and start shouting to the crowd. No, No, You have this wrong, "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. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 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."
The people of the city did not understand the message that they had been teaching.
The healing of the man, excited the people’s faith in pagan gods instead or awakening the understanding of The One True God and his love for man.
Even with the obvious expression of displeasure by the missionaries it was hard to stop the people from starting a big BBQ in their honor.
So Paul and Barnabas stop the big celebration and the people of Lystra are probably a bit confused.
They thought these men were the incarnation of some of the gods they worshiped and instead they are peddling some new religion.
Something foreign and something to replace what they have known all their lives and learned it from their parents and grandparents.
It sounds like everything sort of just stopped; Paul and Barnabas are on edge about being misinterpreted because the people had no basis of understanding of the gospel and are probably not preaching to crowds but perhaps are having one on oneconversations.
They did not expect the people of the city to react like they did. They had not considered what happens when there is no common understanding of God based on the scriptures.
At least in the synagogue the scriptures gave them a common connection and knowledge to who and what God was compared to the other religions out there. They will learn from this experience how to share the good news to non-believing gentiles.
It was not too difficult for the crowd to go the opposite way. Instead of honoring them men they would attack them.
When some Jews came into town from Pisidom (P-sid-e-an) Antioch and from Iconium and worked the crowd up. They convinced them that these men were bad news.
The people of the city stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city and threw him on the trash heap thinking he was dead.
Have you ever considered why stoning was a common means of execution in the day.
Here are a few thoughts:
- First justice is dealt with quickly. Rocks are cheap and they are pretty much everywhere.
- Second, pretty much everyone can participate, just pick up a stone and give it a toss and you have joined with the community in giving justice. Throw it hard and you can make a statement of passion and anger.
- Third, the Jews used stoning because your participation in the act meant that you did not touch a dead person. Technically, you remained clean in the carrying out of a death sentence.
So Paul is stoned and disposed of. Luke is the physician and he clearly does not claim a miracle or resurrection for Paul. He says they , “…dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.” Not knowing he was dead. Not that this story does not contain a miracle. Perhaps his survival at all was a miracle.
He does not seem to be strongly emphasizing the faith of the disciples or the believers that had encouraged in town because he does not mention prayers for Paul. They are just gathered around him when he gets up and heads back into the city.
Folks, the biggest miracle to me is the idea that Paul would almost be killed and just walk back into the city. What kind of nut is he. He needed to be checking on reservations at the next hotel down the road. He needs to be shaking the dust off his feet and moving on to something better.
Can you imagine how bad he looked? Stoning might include some hits to the body. But, the general concept means aiming for the head. We know what happens when we get a head wound. We bleed and swell. Even a simple bump on the head looks like a walnut or goose egg. What if people smack you hard with rocks? It had to be ugly.
So he goes into the city and the next day he and Barnabas leave for Derbe just another 8 or 10 miles down the road. The story speaks of a great success as they preached the good news and that they created a large number of disciples.
Man, I would have wondered why God did not make every stop along the way a smooth stop. Why did they have to get ruffed up and pushed around?
When they decide to move on they don’t just go the home town of Paul about 100 miles East?
There is a big mountain range which Durbe is right next to that blocks the travelers but, there is something else. Paul may feel as if he needs to go back through the towns he preached in already. And they make the return trip through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.
They strengthen the disciples and encourage them to remain true to the faith. The missionaries retrace their steps at obvious personal risk.
Paul "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,"
We, do you think that he is talking about himself and Barnabas only or is he talking to the disciples of the day….Or is he speaking to us today as well?
Paul talks about his aches and pains and his suffering which he connects to being a servant of Christ. He talks about how he has paid for the privilege to preach the gospel. He talks about the physical afflictions whish he suffers fro the rest of his life but he fails to complain as we might. He sees the suffering as a privilege as an honor as proof of his being in the will of God.
Interestingly the people here of and see his affliction and his Can do attitude and they know his faith and his beliefs and his statement of the good news is real.
From this journey, he has a souvenir that probably disfigured his face. And yet he considered it just the cost of doing God’s business.
What do we consider as the cost of doing business for the kingdom?
-Has any one here had their life threatened because of your work in the kingdom?
-How about gone hungry or thirsty so that someone else could be satisfied for one day?
-Are we as a church afflicted and trouble and willing to work through what ever comes in such a way as to let people see God in our trouble?
Paul and Barnabas return to their home base the Antioch in Syria and tell of their work, their suffering and successes. They have been away about two years and spend a ling time back in the safety of their church family.
But they are going out again. They are not going to just sit back and remember the good and bad an ugly and stay at home in safety.
They will respond when the spirit calls them to service.
All Glory bb to God!
