14:1-28

“The tale of three cities part a”

I.) Intro.

II.) Vs. 1-5 Iconium: A war of words

Intro.

We have been looking at Paul & Barnabas 1^st missionary journey. You will recall that they had been sent out by the Holy Spirit & commissioned by the Church at Antioch. From there they spent as much as a year in Barnabas’ home, Cyprus, after this God moved them to Asia Minor to an area know as Galatia. For the last two weeks we have been studying Paul’s sermon in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia. Again persecution arose & they were kicked out of that city. Now what I glean out of this section is what it takes to be a successful “soul explorer” I mean Paul & Barnabas are world travelers discovering new lands & peoples. To borrow a phrase they were “boldly going where no man has gone before”. Think of this a minute & you will find that all of mankind is full of those who venture out & explore the world around them. Paul’s journey is much nobler in that He & Barnabas were sent on a mission for another. Later he would say in 2 Cor. 5:20 “we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” What was his method, his message to these folks? How can we learn to duplicate this in our explorations to the far away lands of human hearts? Folk’s God is a missionary God His desire is to plead through us for the world to be reconciled to Him. A missionary professor spoke these words to a group of potential missionaries years ago as he had been sharing with them the passage before us, “Never has anyone done so much with so little for the kingdom of God!” He then paused & looking around the room he continued, “And never has anyone done so little with so much!” It’ is my prayer that you & I will learn much from Paul’s methods & start our own missionary journey here in Merced.

Vs. 1-5 Iconium: A war of words

Vs. 1 Now we have read that Paul & Barnabas left shaking the dust off of the rejection of Jesus in Antioch & now travel some 80 miles to the southeast to Iconium. But what is not told in the text is why they went to Iconium?

You see the Romans were great road builders, it was how they conquered the world. In fact if you travel to this area of the world you will still find traces of the roads they built linking different parts of their kingdom. Cesar Agustus had built this major road from Ephesus to the Euphrates extending all the way into Galatia in 6 B.C. Being the proud man that he was he named it after himself, (Via Agustus or Via Sebastos in Greek). Now as Paul & Barnabas came out of Antioch of Pisidia they were faced with a greater decision then shaking dust of them, for the Via Sebastos branched into two roads right at the edge of town. One went north 120 miles to the Roman colony of Comana. The other went southeast to this Greek city. The bottom line was that the direction they took would change the coarse of the outreach.

So here’s the application point that instructs in how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

BE LED BY THE SPIRIT: We are not told of the process of why they chose the road that went through the rolling hills towards the Greek city instead of the taking the mountain route to the Roman city but it is safe to say the Holy Spirit was leading them to where He wanted them. The question we need to ask ourselves is how open are we to the Holy Spirit’s ’leading us to whom he would have us to share? The Roman city would of meant more comfort & it would have been more modern. Folks, God led them to the sticks!

Iconium was a Greek city that had been resistant to Roman rule & instead of becoming a town ruled by the Romans it chose rather to continue to be ruled by an assembly of Greek citizens called a (Demos). The name comes from the Greek word for image in which we get our word icon. Further more we are told that it had quite a few Jewish people living there as they had a synagogue.

That leads me to the second point about how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

START WITH WHAT YOU KNOW: You see what Paul & Barnabas did? They went right back to a synagogue & spoke to those who were the most familiar with the message, the Jews & gentile converts. In business I learned this phrase, “Location, location, location!” I think that this is a good principal to use in sharing the gospel as well. Go to where you have the most natural contact. Maybe that is those that you work with, perhaps it’s those that you have a common hobby with, but what ever it is those that you already kind of know. Now I think we can carry this a bit further to say that when we go to those that we already have a contact with, start or at least look for an area of interest where you can begin to plug in the truths of Jesus. Look for areas where you can speak to them about Jesus. That’s what Paul did as he went to a place that was most open to the truth & then spoke to them about the subject that they knew.

Vs. 2 Now look at what happens in this synagogue as Paul bean to teach:

Vs. 1b “So spoke that a great multitude both of Jews & of Greeks believed”: Paul shared the truth, the truth that they had proclaimed many times before, & it suddenly clicked. There was an immediate response; the word of God touched hearts. They had been kicked out of the last region & yet they go back into another synagogue & proclaim the exact same message. Simple put, they did not alter the message because of the lack of the results or the persecution in the last place!
Vs. 2 “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren.”: The word “unbelieving” literally means refused to obey! In other words it was not the message that was lacking but rather the hearts of those that heard it. So because of the success of the gospel they set about to poison the minds of those that had responded or would have responded.

Now what application point can we draw from this? Well here is a third point about how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

THE MESSAGE MUST BRING OUT A RESPONSE: That is the common denominator in the two opposite reactions to the preaching of the gospel. I suggest to you that Paul could see that the message was hitting home because of both of the reactions. Paul would later say in 2 Cor. 2:16 “To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.” The point is that the character of the Word of God is that it is alive & it always stirs people up, some to life some to death. As far as knowing whether or not the message is hitting home or not opposition is as good as reception.

Vs. 3 Now look at how Paul & Barnabas handled this opposition. It say’s in verse two that those who refused to obey the Word went about to those who would receive the Word & poisoned them against it. So you would think, “Well it’s time to move on from here no open doors you know!” But instead of that we read the exact opposite, “Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord.” Paul said, “Hey these guys are poisoning the minds of those that would hear the truth so lets stay as long as it takes & keep on speaking the Word of the Lord!”

So what’s the application point? The fourth point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

BE CONSISTANT NO MATTER WHAT OTHERS SAY: There is an interesting tract written a couple of 100 years latter called “The Acts of Paul”. Most of it is legendary stories of Paul’s ministry in this region. One of the fanciful stories is called the “Acts of Paul & Theckla”. The setting of the story is Iconium & according to the story Paul falls in love with a young woman Theckla & their love affair is so wide spread that breaks up her family & turns the whole city against them. Now we know that the story is not true but what is interesting is that this is consistent with how the enemy would seek to destroy the message of the gospel by attacking the credibility of the messenger. Again we are not told how they poisoned the minds of the folks of Iconium but Paul did not allow that to stop him from speaking of the truth, not even if they made false accusation against him.

Next notice that it says, “the Lord …was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” Do you see that? The Lord was defending the truth of the message by working miracles through Paul & Barnabas. Look at the order, they were speaking boldly in the Lord, the Word of His grace & the Lord was bearing witness to the Word of grace by signs & wonders. Man that is just the opposite of what most Church’s or ministries do today. They use signs & wonders to draw people & then use the Word of the Lord to support the signs & wonders. No wonder people’s lives are not being transformed. Folks, we don’t need signs & wonders to get people into the Church we need the Word of the Lord, the signs & wonders God will do to support the Word of grace!

So what’s the application point? The fifth point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

DON’T TRY TO SENSATIONALIZE THE TRUTH: Folk’s we don’t need to worry about trying to make Jesus & His word more exciting, let God do what He wants to do in supporting His truth. All that you do when you put signs & wonders ahead of the message is cheapen or lessen the importance upon the truth. Roman’s does not say faith comes by seeing the signs & wonders it says that it comes from hearing the Word of God! It was the Word of grace that preformed the Work of grace!

Vs. 4-6 The result of all this tension was a city divided between the truth & a lie. They stayed there as long as they could until they were forced to leave. Now notice here that Luke calls both of them Paul & Barnabas “apostles” he will do so again in verse 14. So? Well perhaps you’re wondering about that? The bible says that there were 12 apostles not 13. Obviously Barnabas was not an official apostle in the since of the 12 or like Paul. But he was an apostle in the general use of the word that means messenger.

Now this leads me to yet another application point. The sixth point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR JOB: Paul & Barnabas stayed as long as there was an opportunity to proclaim the Word of grace. But when the doors closed they were not too proud to leave. You see they were just messengers it was not about them or their ego. So they stayed their teaching the Word but when the city became so divided, that an angry mob was going to take them by force & kill them it was time to move on. Now what is interesting to me is that we are told that in verses 21-22 they came back to Iconium to “strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith.” So they leave for awhile let things cool down a bit & go back. All too often we Christians share the word of grace in such a way as to win the argument but in so doing we lose the soul!

14:6-28

“The tale of three cities part b”

I.) Intro.

II.) Vs. 6-20 Lystra: Jesus rocks, Paul’s stoned

III.) Vs. 21-28 Derby: Strengthened souls

Intro.

Paul would write to the Corinthians, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” “These things”; that is the things they know, received freely from the Spirit of God, they also spoke empowered by the same Holy Spirit. Jesus commanded in Matt. 28 that we are to. “Go … and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” But just how do we do this? Well you will recall that by looking at chapter 14 we can see some important things to remember as we also speak to others:

BE LED BY THE SPIRIT
START WITH WHAT YOU KNOW
THE MESSAGE MUST BRING OUT A RESPONSE
BE CONSISTANT NO MATTER WHAT OTHERS SAY
DON’T TRY TO SENSATIONALIZE THE TRUTH
NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR JOB

Vs. 6-20 Lystra: Jesus rocks, Paul’s stoned

Vs. 6 Now they moved to the second of there three cites, Lystra, which was about 20 miles southwest from Iconium, but it was worlds apart culturally. It was backwoods place where Caesar had turned it into a Roman colony & brought in some army vets to fortify it. The population base was mainly uneducated class of people who came from a small tribe that spoke it’s own language, (verse 11). Evidently there were not enough Jews there to have a synagogue as it took only 10 males to form one.

We do know according Acts 16:1 & 2 Tim. 1:5 that there were some Jews there as this was the home of young man named Timothy. You will remember Timothy from the two letters that Paul writes him as the “son in the faith”. Apparently his father was Greek but his mother Eunice & grandmother Lois were Jewish believers.

Vs. 7, 15-17 I’m going to skip a head for a moment & look at Paul’s message. Now since they didn’t have a synagogue they had to change what they normally did. Now we can’t be sure but this probably happened at the town square. We know that Paul preached the gospel as verse 7 tells us, but what did that consist of seeing that crowd was Gentile & not Jewish? Well I think we are given a sample of what he had been preaching in verses 15-17.

Vs. 15 “the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them”. First of all he spoke to them about God as a single living creator. You see in the Greek Mythology there were many gods & they were all fighting with each other, so they made statues to them & gave them special holidays & all. So Paul says, “Hey, look at creation, look at the order & harmony in it. There’s not many god’s there is one God who created everything.”
Vs. 17 “He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” His second point is that since there is one God who did this it doesn’t make since that he should just create it & not be interested in it. God is not dead He is alive. And to show that He is alive & interested in His creation look at the good that he does:
gave us rain from heaven: God blesses us with refreshment. It does not matter who you are His rain is upon the just & the unjust, (Matt. 5:45). Simply put God is faithful no matter who you are.
and fruitful seasons: God has given people times of great blessing as individuals. The Bible say’s that it’s His goodness that leads us to repentance, (Rom. 2:4). The Prophet Ezekiel spoke to Judah by warning her not to be like Sodom who God had provided, “fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” (Ezek. 16:49) So the Lord had given them seasons of fruitfulness. Thus Paul says that God had been, “filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
Vs. 15 Thus Paul preached that they, “should turn from these useless things to the living God, … who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.”You see Paul’s point? God has cut you some slack given you free will but it’s time to make some changes.

That was Paul’s message to those who did not know the scriptures. Which leads me to the

The seventh point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

MINISTER FROM WHERE PEOPLE ARE: Paul did not start quoting the O.T. prophets about Jesus’ first coming. Why? Because it would have meant nothing to them. I’m always trying to tell Christians not to witness using big fancy theological words. Hey, if you are going to use them be ready to explain them. Paul just went with what there Greek culture was filled with, gods & then turned that around to a lesson of God’s grace towards them. But notice that Paul always gave folks an opportunity to respond. You see there was plenty of theology in his message but it was easy for them to understand.

Vs. 8-10 Luke now describes the mans condition as having three strikes against him:

Without strength in his feet: In the Greek it literally means that it was medically impossible for this man to walk. His feet did not work! NO ENERGY
A cripple from his mother’s womb: Luke says that it was a genetic defect, or if you will he was born that way! NO EXPERIENCE
Who had never walked: Lastly he had no practice in walking. In other words he did not know what walking would be like. NO EDUCATION

According to Luke’s threefold description any one of these three statements would have made him lame but all of them together made it irreversibly impossible to do so. He was hopelessly & helplessly a cripple. That’s what Luke the doctor wants us to see concerning this miracle.

Now we are told in verse 9 according to the Greek that this man had a habit of listening to Paul preach the message we just outlined above. So evidently Paul & Barnabas had came to this same section of town with the same message. And it was this day that Paul noticed him as he listened to the message of hope & help to those who had no hope or help. Folk’s, that’s what healing is all about! Healing the physical body is a way of revealing two important things:

That life as we have to live it is not the way that God intended it to be. Something foreign has entered God’s creation & it has corrupted it bringing about hopelessness & helplessness. The Bible tells us that the foreign element is sin! And there is nothing that man can do about it. Good people, as well as evil people, are born with bodies & lives that don’t work as they are designed.
Only God can change the effects of the condition of sin. That is what healing is about. Jesus can change your hopeless & helpless condition from death to life.

You see it does not matter your education, environment, or self-effort the effects of sin are all around us & will eventually be seen in our own lives as well. It is not just evil people that get cancer or only bank robbers that get killed in accidents. No, you can be the nicest person who has ever lived & have the effects of sin effect you. Further more you can not reverse the effects of sin by taking out the trash when your not told to! Folk’s our own experience has witnessed the truth of this in our own lives.

So picture now this hopeless & helpless man listening to Paul’s words about a God who is not made out of marble but is living. “Could it be true?” “Can this God change me & reverse that which apart from Him is irreversible?” Stand up strait on your feet, & he leaped & walked!

Wow, that’s my testimony too. No I was not born lame physically but I was born lame spiritually. My life did not function as God had designed it to & I had that condition since birth. The moment I responded in obedience to the word of Grace I stood up straight, leaped & began walking as God had designed.

Vs. 11-14 Now the response of the multitudes is a pit puzzling if you do not know the culture. It seems about 50 years earlier a poet named Ovid had wrote about several local legends about the Greek gods Zeus & Mercury.

Now you may not be into Greek mythology so let me fill you in. Barnabas they thought was Zeus, he was the god of the sky & his weapon was a thunderbolt. According to the myths he was the leader of all the other so-called gods & as far as mortals were concerned he looked out for travelers & punished those who broke oaths. His statue depicted him as a bearded man with bulging muscles, kind of like me only with a beard! Hermes, or Mercury was Zeus’ son, they thought was Paul. Mercury was the messenger of the gods, you will recall that he is depicted wearing a cap with little wings on it. In Greek mythology it is Mercury that escorts the souls of the dead to the underworld & he was also the patron of literature. So it is easy to see how they listened to Paul speak intelligently about life after death & equated him with their superstition. Further more as I said the poet Ovid 50 years earlier had written a story about Zeus & Mercury when they come down to Lystra disguised as mortals. They sought hospitality from the towns’ people but none was given them accept for an old couple. So they destroyed the city accept for the old couple who they made keepers of their temple until they died & then they turned them to trees to guard it. They have found stones in Lystra which speak of the worship of these two gods.

Now looking at this miracle, though greatly beneficial to the lame man, it had an adverse effect on the ministry in Lystra. Yes, it attracted attention but it produced wrong results. You see the town’s folks were steeped in superstition & see the miracle didn’t want to miss the opportunity to show the proper hospitality. These people, speaking in their own language are about ready to sacrifice to them when Paul & Barnabas figure out what they are up to & put a stop to it. Folk’s miracles don’t save souls only Jesus can do that!

Now this leads me to eighth point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

DON’T TOUCH GODS GLORY: How tempting this would have been for Paul & Barnabas to accept the sacrifice because of the approval of the people & later try to witness them.

This story reminds me of Captain James Cook the famous British explorer. On his third exploration of the Pacific ocean seeking to find a passageway between the two oceans he sailed by a group of island he named the Sandwich Islands, we know them now as the Hawaiian Islands. It is not sure whether the Islanders thought that he was a god or that they treated him as one in honor of their fertility god Lono. But at any rate they, gave him a huge celebration fit for a god or a king, which he gladly accepted. The story is a bit clouded but what is certain is that many of the 182 sailors aboard the two ships, Resolution & Discovery, slept with the native girls giving them VD which was not a appropriate thing to do in honor of a fertility god. They left the Island on way to the pacific coast only having to come back to the Island’s to avoid the winter. Cook’s return trip was to be his last, upon arriving the welcome was not as good as it was the first visit as many of the women were sick or dying. They left, but when a mast broke they had to return & this time there was argument about a long boat. Cook became enraged & was attacked, when they saw his blood they took his life!

The point is like in the case of Captain Cook where the gifts of Lono made him loony, so to when Christians act as if what God has done through them has come from our talents or resources. People’s applause is fickle at best & has brought down many good ministries. Instead of accepting the praise of men they should their disdain for it by tearing their clothes a Jewish sign of grief. Not only that they explained that the reason for their being there & the message was to turn from such “vain” things. The word vain appears 6 times in the N.T. & it means empty or useless things. Paul wanted them to know that you could not just add Jesus to the pantheon of idols they were already worshipping.

Vs. 18-19 Hear is a clear example at how fickle people can be. One minute they are ready to worship Paul as a god the next minute they are ready to kill him. I mean even after Paul rebuked them for their idolatry they still had a desire to worship them.

Here in verse 19 we see what changed their opinions were a group that came as far away as 120 miles to upset the ministry. What caused the people to turn so quickly from worship to rocks? Well it was that the multitudes were all caught in the instrument instead of listening to the music. It’s easy to do, you hear a teaching that really ministers to your heart, something someone say’s or does has an impact on you & you begin to slip into over appreciation. Think of it this way when you get a present you don’t open it, toss the gift & say, “Wow, what a box!” But that is what they did, so when they heard from other that all Paul was is an plain ordinary box they sought to crush him.

So they take Paul out of the city & attempt to execute him Jewish style, by stoning him. Now it appears that they thought that they had succeeded as they are taking his lifeless body out of town & after they leave the body of Christ gather around him & Paul rose up & went back into the city. Man, what do you do with a guy like this?

Now this leads me to ninth point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING: I love this neither success nor failure changed Paul’s message about Jesus. He proclaims Jesus & heals a lame man & they want to worship him. So he proclaims Jesus & says that they ought to turn from worthless idols to Jesus the living God, & still they want to worship. Folks travel 120 miles to change the fickle minds & they try to kill & the next day he goes back into the city. Paul was focused not on the outcome but rather on Jesus who he was proclaiming. We are so prone to get caught up in success & failure.

Vs. 21-28 Derby: Strengthened souls

Vs. 21a Luke sums up the ministry described here in Derby very briefly; “they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples.” Derby was about 60 miles southeast of Lystra & was a frontier town & in Acts 20:4 we are told that Gaius who was one of Paul’s travel companions was from this little frontier town. And Paul travels there the day after being stoned, man what a tuff old guy.

Now what we glean from this is interesting, Timothy a leader in the early church comes from the little town of Lystra. Gaius a leader in the Church comes from a little town of Derby. Yeh, well it appears to me that many times God raises up some great leaders from obscure ministries! Today people are all caught in the numeric size of the local church but time & again in the scriptures we see God using the small ministries to reach the world! Clearly God gages success differently then we often do.

Vs. 21b Twice in this verse we see the word “disciple”. Once when it refers to Paul’s preaching in Derby, & once when it refers to his “strengthening the souls” of those believers in Lystra, Iconium & Antioch.

Now this leads me to tenth point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

MAKE DISCIPLES AND NOT JUST DECISONS: Paul wanted to make strong followers after Jesus not just those that would raise their hand & repeat after him. Over & over again in Paul’s ministry you will see that Paul was concerned with the believers walk with God & not just their talk. This is what lead him back into the cities that had expelled him, to make sure that those who had made a profession of faith new how to live the new life they had just entered into.

Now along this line we can see six different things that Paul & Barnabas did with these disciples to help them with their WALK with Jesus,

Vs. 22 Strengthened: The word here has the same root word as the word epistle, which means a word sent. Here the word means to establish or to render more firm. Simply put they taught them the Word of God which caused them to become more firm in their faith.
Vs. 22 Exhorted: Here the word that is also used for the Holy Spirit’s to come along side. In other words Paul & Barnabas came alongside to disciple or demonstrate how to walk with Jesus.
Vs. 22 Continue in the faith: Clearly the emphasis was in the area of perseverance or consistency. They modeled a consistent walk in the faith. In other words they told them & showed them that a relationship with Jesus was a marathon & not a sprint.
Vs. 22 Endurance: “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” Along the above lines they told them that life in Christ was not easy & that it was a life of endurance. Paul could well show them the scars on his own body to prove this point. Paul did not want them to get disillusioned when trouble & persecutions came their way, but rather to expect it & to ride them to the glory of God.
Vs. 23 Appointed elders: That is they organized them so that they would continue to grow in their walk with Jesus long after Paul & Barnabas had left. What is interesting is that all in those Church’s would have been new believers but still there need to be a structure that would accommodate growth.
Vs. 23 Prayed fasted & commended them to the Lord: Simply put they showed them by their actions that the answer to how to continue to walk with Jesus is total dependence upon Him. Whether it was selecting leadership or just daily living they needed to continually turn to Jesus.

Vs. 24-25 Notice here that they spoke the Word in Perga before they returned home. Man I like that, they had passed this town by as they came into Galatia the timing was not right, but on the way back they make sure that they share the truth to those folks as well.

Now this leads me to eleventh point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

DON’T PASS BY THE OPORTUNITIES GOD GIVES YOU: Hey, they did not feel led to share with them at first perhaps because of Paul’s health but when given the opportunity again they preached the Word there as well.

Vs 26-28 Now we see them coming back into Antioch where they had been sent out & they gathered all of the folks together & shared all the God had done with them. Did you see that? They did not share what they had done for God but rather what God had done for them in reaching the Gentiles. So it says that they stayed there a long time with the believers there which leads me to my twelfth point on how to be effective in reaching our world for Jesus:

ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO GO AND REACH THE WORLD: Part of Paul’s & Barnabas ministry was to come back to the place where God had sent them out for the work & share all that He had done through them. Now we can’t be sure but I’m certain that their got more from the Church there involved in sharing their faith both locally as well as abroad.

So let me again go over those 12 points on how to be effective in reaching the world for Jesus as learned in Acts 14:

ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO GO AND REACH THE WORLD

BE LED BY THE SPIRIT

START WITH WHAT YOU KNOW

THE MESSAGE MUST BRING OUT A RESPONSE

BE CONSISTANT NO MATTER WHAT OTHERS SAY

DON’T TRY TO SENSATIONALIZE THE TRUTH

NEVER LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR JOB

MINISTER FROM WHERE PEOPLE ARE

DON’T TOUCH GODS GLORY

KEEP THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING

MAKE DISCIPLES AND NOT JUST DECISIONS

DON’T PASS BY THE OPORTUNITIES GOD GIVES YOU