Sunday, April 28, 2024 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. Thank you for your mercies and your protections. Lord, we pray for the people of Sulphur and Holdenville. We pray for our brothers and sisters there and the neighbors there.

And Lord, we pray that you would supply their every need, that you would comfort the grieving, and that you would supply what is needful for those who have lost their livelihoods and their homes. And we pray, Father, that you would turn what is a very difficult moment in a destructive moment, Lord, that you would take it and do what you can do to bring great good out of it.

And so Lord, we pray that you would be at work in this way. And pray that you would help us this morning as we consider the truth of your word, that we would be well-grounded in your word, this scepter of Christ's Lordship that governs our lives.

I pray that there would be a ready acceptance and rejoicing in your truth today in our hearts. Pray that you would grant us these mercies for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, for whose sake we pray these things, amen.

Acts 14 and the Healing in Lystra

I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts. And we will be reading from Acts chapter 14, and we'll be reading verses eight through 18. So Acts chapter 14, and we'll be reading verses eight through 18.

And I wanna make two little changes in our sermon notes today. The first is the title. Just gonna add a couple of words. Men make diabolical gods. Men make diabolical gods. The second change I want to deal with is in the first point on beware, hero worship.

I would like to begin with the second sub-point, the misunderstanding. I wanna start with that this morning, and then we're gonna come back and think about the miracles meaning. I think that will serve us better as I've been reflecting on the sermon today.

Our place in the book of Acts at this point, we have seen the spread of the gospel of the kingdom, and the preaching of this gospel has been attended by signs and wonders, testimonies of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

How is it that all of these powerful things are happening? The answer comes time and again that Christ is not dead, He is alive, and He is ascended to the right hand of God, and so these are the acts of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.

These signs and wonders, these miracles, are testifying to the authenticity of the new covenant preaching of the apostles as they take up what Jesus was preaching and teaching in His ministry and continue it past His resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

And they begin to say things about the Old Testament and the promises and the pictures of the Old Testament, and they begin to preach Christ from all those places, and who's right? Because the leaders of the synagogue and the leaders of the temple are saying, no, they're wrong.

And the apostles are saying, no, Jesus was right. This is the true meaning of the Scriptures. Well, who's right? Upon whom is God's favor clearly bestowed? Well, upon Jesus Christ and those who are in Him, and thus the signs and wonders are testifying to the truth of the gospel.

And we see that very same situation happen again in our passage this morning, though things go sideways awful fast, especially in a context where there's far more Gentiles than Jews. So if you would stand with me, we'll begin reading in verse eight.

This is the word of the Lord. And in Lystra, a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting a cripple from his mother's womb who had never walked. This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed,.

Said with a loud voice,.

Stand up straight on your feet. And he leaped and walked. Now, when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices saying in the Lycaonian language, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.

And Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.

Nevertheless, he did not leave himself without witness and that he did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And with these sayings, they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. You know, folks will spend a great deal of money and commit a lot of time, effort in rearranging schedules just to go see an artist or an athlete live and in person.

Why is that?

Just to see it with my own eyes, hear it with my own ears, nothing in between, to get close, to be in close proximity, to get an autograph, a signature, something. I met this person myself. People will go to extraordinary lengths to pull that off.

Sometimes it's not a person people want to see. Sometimes it's a place. And a great deal of money and time and energy is put into going to find some place and walk in that area and see it for themselves.

Perhaps a tour to the Holy Land or perhaps a pilgrimage to the main sites of the Reformation. I want to go see it, be there personally. I wonder how aware we are and how appreciative we are of the genuine, real communion that we have with our King, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I was reflecting on this this morning in Sunday school. We're not orphans. Let's not live like them. We are guaranteed, we are promised, we are encouraged about our communion with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

We have this real living union with Jesus by the presence of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. And Jesus in the very same moment where He's telling His disciples that He's going to go away from them and prepare a place and that He will come again and take them to be where He is also at the very same time He's teaching this, He's also saying, if you abide in me, in my words, abide in you, you will bear much fruit.

How is it that Jesus is going to be far away and yet abiding with us? Are we aware? Are we appreciative of this communion? A communion that we are mindful of today as we come to the Lord's table. Our communion is with the living God by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

That's how we have our communion with God. One of the most important things about us being made in the image of God is that we would have communion with God, our Creator. This was of utmost focus and interest in the early chapters of Genesis.

It was the one thing that really stands out about death entering into the world that we were exiled, cut off, sent away. Our communion is with the living God in Christ by the Spirit, not by lesser mediators.

Not by lesser mediators. The passage that we have before us this morning calls us to beware hero worship and to behold heaven's witness. It is tempting to us to either render or receive attentions that God alone deserves, veneration that God alone deserves.

But it is in communing with Christ that we are properly humbled and see each other appropriately. Now we see that there is a misunderstanding that occurs in our passage. And it reminds me a little bit of the US soldiers who must have felt an immense amount of relief to land on an island in the Pacific Ocean during the Second World War and not get shot at.

What a relief to land on an island and this time we don't get shot at. And yet, as you set up shop, the natives treat you like gods. After all, you have mighty powers and birds that soar above and drop things out the backside of them.

And these things are like canned food and magic radio boxes and magazines. And thus, what had begun earlier than World War II was only accelerated by the war, something called cargo cults. Cargo cults in which islanders would begin to worship the arrival of soldiers.

And they built chapels in the shapes of planes. And they would worship these gods that brought them all these goods. And they figured the more that they worship these gods, the more goods they would get.

A cargo cult. And something very similar happens to Paul and Barnabas as they show up and help and preach the gospel and a man is healed and what happens? The natives reach for the most common sense thing they can think of, the closest explanation.

It must be that the gods have come down in human form and are walking among us. We'll call Barnabas Zeus and we'll call Paul Hermes because he talks so much. Why would they think this? Because in Roman mythology, in Greek mythology, Zeus was seen as superior and Hermes was his messenger, the voice.

But the two of them were seen together in mythological stories. In fact, they had a story of two of them walking through all the houses of a valley seeking shelter and they were turned away from all of them except for one house.

And afterwards they flooded the valley and killed everybody but except for this one family. And so this story taught them that they should be ready to treat the gods well whenever they arrived. But the zealous folks of Lystra were far too easily impressed.

Far too easily impressed with Paul and with Barnabas to think that they would be gods in human form. These zealous folks of Lystra want to secure more benefits, more healings, more stuff, more cargo. And so let us treat these two men who are the gods among us and let's get some more stuff out of them.

This is the situation, this is the misunderstanding and we see how ardently Paul and Barnabas rush among the people and try to put a stop to this. Can you imagine the monstrosity that would come out of this situation had they not put on the brakes?

But put on the brakes they did. They could scarcely restrain them from sacrificing to them. What consternation would follow the relief when Paul and Barnabas show up into town and no one's trying to kill them except this time, now they're trying to worship them.

So idolatrous veneration is as volatile as violent persecution. Either one has to be responded to and dealt with in a Christian fashion. What is the whole point of the miracle? When we think about the miracle itself, we see that a crippled man who was lame from birth encounters two apostles who approach him and one of them addresses the crippled directly concerning his condition.

And we're told in the text that the man's healing is brought about by faith and the result of the healing is a great commotion in the religious community and also that the crowds misunderstood what was going on and fixated on the apostles rather than on the message that they were proclaiming.

If that sounds familiar, it's Acts 3. It's exactly what happened in Acts chapter 3. When Peter and John go to the temple and there's a man who's lame from birth and they speak with him and he is healed and there's commotion going on in the temple and the people look at Peter and John and they think they're amazing and then Peter and John say, no, it's not us.

We come preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Be amazed at him, be impressed with him. Now, in Jerusalem, the man was walking and leaping and praising the Lord. Here in Lystra, the man is walking and leaping and the people begin to praise Paul and Barnabas.

Uh-oh.

The situation has gone sideways. This is not what is supposed to happen. What is the meaning of the miracle? Was it to elevate Paul and Barnabas in the estimation of the natives of Lystra so that they would see these men as their portal to truth, their connection to God, that these men would be seen as not as pagan Greek mediators or avatars, but they would be the connection that these people needed to God?

Is that why Paul and Barnabas did this miracle? Was that the reason why they were empowered by the Holy Spirit so that they would be raised up in the estimation and veneration of the people? Is the problem in the text not that they were elevated and venerated, just simply that the Lystrans didn't get the story right?

It wasn't Zeus and Hermes. These are the apostles of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the king of kings, and they are here and elevated among us that we might be brought closer to God.

Not at all.

Not at all.

These are apostles. The miracle is done by apostles. Apostle simply means one sent out with a message. This is how Jesus talked about it with his disciples. This was the point when they replaced Judas Iscariot with Matthias in Acts chapter one.

This is the idea behind the commissioning of Paul and Barnabas in Acts chapter 13. And we're told time and again in Acts 14 that Barnabas is counted as an apostle. So all the debates begin. Well, are there 12 apostles or 11?

Or is Matthias the right apostle or was it Paul? And how do we count to 12 appropriately? And what about Barnabas? Because if we count all of them, including Matthias and Paul and Barnabas, we have 14 and everybody knows that 14 is not the right number we're supposed to come up with.

Do you think perhaps we're focusing on the men a little too much? Why did Jesus Christ make apostles? We are told why Jesus Christ made apostles. We're told in Ephesians chapters two, three, and four that they are for the foundation of the church, the foundation of the church.

Now, if you've ever built anything, you know that the foundation comes at what stage of the project? The very beginning, the very beginning. And you spend a lot of time making sure you get the foundation right.

The foundation is vitally important. But do you know what you do after the foundation is laid? Do you build another foundation on top of the foundation? Do you build a stack of foundations, one after the other until it goes all the way to the top?

Is that how a building is formed? The scriptures tell us, Revelation 21, Ephesians two, three, and four, the apostles were the foundation. And once the foundation is laid, the church is continued to be built.

Does that make sense? In the biblical metaphor, I think it makes sense. Why just in the foundation? Why just at this time? It is clearly for the sake of the message, done to affirm the message. Jesus is active in his risen ascended glory.

He's building his church upon the rock of the gospel's confession. That he is the Christ, the son of the living God. This message is declared by the apostles and the prophets through whom he does signs and wonders, attesting to the new covenant message until such time as the New Testament is completed and confirmed.

And then what happens? Jesus continues to build his church. I bring this up because the term apostle is one which some people latch onto as an apostle is this really elevated person, really elevated man that everyone should look to and revere and venerate, and he's your connection to God.

And maybe we use other terms to replace them. Maybe describing them as a priest or a bishop or a cardinal or a pope. These men are elevated and there's signs given to them so that we can see that they're closer to God than we are, but since we know them and are close to them, we get elevated too.

And by venerating and elevating this man, oh, this man is so spiritual and so close to God and I know this person, so therefore I get elevated too. Rising tide floats all the boats. But where did Jesus ever exalt men?

Where did he ever exalt the apostles and elevate them and put them up on pedestals for all the people to revere? In fact, he did the opposite, didn't he? Didn't he do the opposite? And teach them, say, let no one call you rabbi, let no one call you father, don't let anyone call you teachers.

Do you know what the Latin term for teachers is? Magisterium. You know anything about Roman Catholic theology? Jesus particularly said to his apostles, don't let anyone call you that. Don't let anyone call you father.

So Jesus was not exalting men. The signs and wonders that were given to the apostles to do were about affirming the message, the message of Jesus Christ being King of kings and Lord of lords, that there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

It wasn't about elevating men. But men make diabolical gods. Elevating men so as to eclipse the glory of God is diabolical, it's of the devil.

It's of the devil.

That happened in Genesis chapter three, didn't it? It was the elevation of man to so eclipse the glory of God, the authority of God, the name of God. So we live in a time when if you want to be apostle, there's a course online you can get for $29 .95.

It used to be $19 .95, but prices have gone up. And you can be a certified apostle when it's all said and done. And you can begin to anoint people and start your own movement. When we think about the apostles in this story, what were they absolutely against?

Being exalted, being venerated, being lifted up, being made the point, being made the focus. Because if they became the focus, if they became venerated and elevated, then what would happen to the message?

They were sent out with the message. So let us be cautioned, let us be cautioned lest we elevate men, lest we venerate men. Church leaders are to have a standard. And they are to serve as examples. And they are to be able to lead in that way.

But they're not to be venerated and elevated. We're not to think of people in spiritual leadership more highly than we ought, to ascribe to them things that are simply not true and only belong to Jesus Christ.

If you are blessed, if you are blessed through one of Jesus' servants in your spiritual walk, don't elevate the man, praise Christ for the blessing that came, okay? Otherwise, we might find ourselves venerating men.

We might end up with biblical conference fatigue. We might end up with online battling tribes of theological fandom. We might end up with some very bad symptoms from rockstar evangelicalism or rockstar fundamentalism.

We are not to venerate and elevate men. We are to praise and honor Christ. What helps us with that is that when we all come to the table of Jesus, when we come to commune with him, it's really clear that we're brothers and sisters.

We're brothers and sisters. We sit at the same table with the one whom we know is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the one who deserves all the glory and all the praise. This is a humbling moment, humbling for us personally.

And also, it's a clarifying moment where we can turn our attention away from men we may elevate and venerate to Christ who alone deserves the glory. So I'm thankful for this opportunity with all of you.

The Danger of Hero Worship and the Foundation of the Apostles

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the time you've given us.

In your word.

I pray that you would help us to truly humble ourselves before you as we partake of this meal, this supper. Lord, please help us not to misunderstand the way in which you work, that we would not venerate and elevate men where you are simply blessing through your servants.

Lord, I pray that you would maintain in our hearts a very clear desire to worship you alone, to exalt Christ appropriately. And as we feast today together in Jesus, that we would know and be satisfied in his authority and in his power and in his glory.

We pray these things in his name, amen.