WWUTT 1087 Paul and Barnabas at Lystra?

When Paul and Barnabas performed miracles at Lystra, the people said the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Well, no, but Paul and Barnabas spoke of God who came in the likeness of men when we understand the text.

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Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Paul and Barnabas at Lystra and the Crippled Man Healed

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of Acts chapter 14, and we're gonna pick up where we left off yesterday with Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. I'm starting in verse eight and reading through verse 18.

Now at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, "'Stand upright on your feet.'.

And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowd 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.'. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker and 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.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out, "'Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you and we bring you good news that 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.

In past generations, he allowed the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet 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.

Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.". So we already know that Paul and Barnabas had performed miraculous signs and wonders. We read about that in verse three.

They remained at Iconium for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord who bore witness to the word of his grace by granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. So the words that Paul and Barnabas spoke as they spread the gospel were being affirmed by the miraculous signs that they did.

So people saw these things and knew that what they were saying was not the words of men, but it was indeed the word of God that was coming through these men whom God had appointed, whom he sent out. Now, they had to leave Iconium when a group of both Jews and Gentiles sought to mistreat them and to stone them.

And Paul will actually be stoned while he's there at Lystra. We see that a little bit later on, and we'll talk about that tomorrow. So Paul and Barnabas fled and went to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, and there they continued to preach the gospel.

That was how we concluded yesterday, and that's where they are when we come to the story today in verse eight. You know, for an apostle, for a missionary of any kind, to flee from persecution, that's not cowardly.

There's nothing in the Bible that says that when we are being persecuted, when we're being persecuted, we should just stand there and take it. If you can avoid it, you should. That's following the apostles' example.

When they were martyred, they could no longer get away from it. Remember that we had Peter imprisoned by Herod, and Peter probably thought this was his hour. This was his time, that he was gonna give up his life for the sake of preaching the gospel, but the Lord had other plans and freed Peter from prison.

The apostle Paul is later gonna be imprisoned also. He'll be thrown in prison while we, of course, we have the story in Philippi, but he's gonna be imprisoned in Rome twice. The first time he is imprisoned, he is eventually set free, but the second time, he's going to be martyred, and at that occasion, when Paul was gonna be martyred, he accepted that this was what the Lord had ordained for him and made provision for how the gospel would continue to be spread, even in his final imprisonment.

We read about that in 2 Timothy, which was his last letter, at least the last letter that we have in canon. Even when Paul was being arrested to be taken to Rome, his life was being threatened by the Jews, and a plot was heard about.

They learned of this plot that they were gonna try to kill Paul, so Paul used his rights as a Roman citizen to get some Roman soldiers around him and protect him from this plot that was coming against him, so we shouldn't have this impression of missionaries that anytime somebody's gonna threaten them, they should just stand up and go, okay, well, kill me.

If you can get away from it, if it is God's will for you to flee that persecution so that you might continue to preach the gospel to a people who are willing to listen to it, then you should, but when we are in a situation where we can't escape from the imprisonment, from the persecution, from the threat of death or otherwise, then we need to put our faith and trust in the Lord and know that our lives are in his hands and no matter what man tries to do to us, we will never be snatched from the hand of the Lord, our God, nothing will separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, as we read about at the end of Romans 8, so our trust is fully in the Lord in any and all of these situations, but even in the midst of persecution, man, we should try to avoid that and if somebody is levying false accusations at you, you shouldn't just stand there and take it, but offer a defense for yourself and especially for the word of God that it would not be reviled because when somebody who is godly is being falsely accused, then it tarnishes the message that that godly person is attempting to preach for the sake of cherishing the gospel and presenting it in purity, we as Christians need to defend those who are being falsely accused, we need to live godly lives so that we will not bring the gospel message into disrepute because otherwise if we preach righteousness, but we live unrighteously, then what sort of weight does that message have that we are declaring when we are telling a people to repent, but they see that in our lives, we are not being repentant, so pursue godliness and pursue righteousness, Jesus' words in Matthew 6, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things that we need will be added to us as well, the apostle Paul mounted a defense of himself, of his godly character in the book of 2 Corinthians, because the Corinthians were believing false accusations that had been made of men who Paul sarcastically refers to as these super apostles, so they were claiming to be better than the apostle Paul, Paul says that he had to indulge in a little bit of madness to try to lay out his resume, his qualifications and his credibility as an apostle, which he considered to be absurd that he had to do this, but he did it out of the affection of the Corinthians so that they would not be misled by these guys who claim to be better than Paul, so if we can defend ourselves in the midst of false accusations, we should, but doing this charitably and doing so with gentleness for Paul instructed Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, starting in verse 23, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil and correcting opponents with gentleness, and I've quoted to you even recently 1 Peter 3 .15, in your heart, set apart Christ as holy, always being ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within you, but do this with gentleness and respect, it is right and good that we defend our godly brothers and sisters in Christ, let us not have to mount a defense alone, for there is strength in many counselors and a cord of three strands is not easily broken, as we read about in the wisdom books, so here in this particular case, Paul and Barnabas are attempting to flee the persecution that was mounting against them, they're gonna go to a people who are gonna be more willing to listen to the gospel, now a church was still planted there, again, this was in the region of Galatia, and we know that Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia, because of the letter that we have to the Galatians, so churches were planted there, but when threat came against them, it's kind of like they're the guys that are upfront, so when persecution arises against the spreading of the gospel, they're gonna go after the guys who are the most visible, right?

So in my church, because I'm the pastor, usually the attacks that come against our church come at me first, because I'm the guy that's standing at the pulpit, there are other people in our church that believe the same thing that I do, and are even working hard behind the scenes, but they don't get the attacks, the guy that's standing up front gets the attacks, that's the way it's gonna be in most any church that is sound on the gospel, and confronts sin and preaches repentance, the guy that is the preacher is probably gonna be the guy that's gonna be attacked, so you have many Christians that came about, many believers there in Iconium, but Paul and Barnabas are the guys that get all the focus, because the Jews and the Gentiles that were mounting this effort against them, they were like, well, if we can shut these guys up, then maybe all these other Christians go away, but by the will of the Holy Spirit, what was needing to be accomplished there in Galatia was accomplished, churches were planted, so they were sustaining, they were solid, later on, they get misled, and Paul has to write a letter to the churches in Galatia, rebuking them for turning away to a different gospel, but in the meantime, there's enough there that churches are being sustained, so Paul and Barnabas go on to another case, go on to another place to flee persecution, and preach the gospel to a people who are willing to listen to it, so they go to Lystra, and there was a man sitting who could not use his feet, he was crippled from birth, and he had never walked, this is a very common pattern that we see over the course of the book of Acts, where the gospel is being preached, a miracle is being performed, many people come to believe because of that miracle, and then there's persecution that is gonna come up in response to the preaching of the gospel, and we're gonna get to the persecution part of it tomorrow with Paul being stoned at Lystra, that's starting in verse 19, but in the meantime, he performs this miracle with this crippled lame man, this crippled man listened to Paul speaking, and Paul looking intently at him, and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, stand upright on your feet, this is very similar to when Peter healed the man in Solomon's portico, they made eye contact with one another, the man asked for alms, but Peter says, look at me, I've got nothing to give you, but what I do give you is this, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, stand up and walk, and Paul does the same thing with this crippled man, and the man sprang up and began walking, just like the lame man that Peter healed, he jumped up and is running around in Solomon's portico during prayer time, attracting all kinds of attention to himself, so this guy, this man that everyone knew was lame, he's always sitting there asking for help, and he's not merely a guy who can't walk, he's got crippled feet, so it's not just that he doesn't get up and walk, you can tell why he's not walking, he's got these lame feet, and Paul completely heals him, brand new feet, he springs up and he begins walking, and when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying, in Lycaonian, I don't know what language that would have been, but anyway, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men, now that's an interesting statement for them to say that, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men, they think that Paul and Barnabas are gods, the Greek gods that these people at Lycaonium worshipped, of course, Paul and Barnabas were just men, but the interesting thing is they preached about Jesus Christ who is God who came down in the likeness of men, he is God incarnate, but these men missed the message, they missed the gospel that Paul and Barnabas were preaching, all the way to the end, because it says in verse 18, even with the words that Paul and Barnabas preached, the people scarcely restrained from offering sacrifice to them, so they did not even listen to the message that Paul and Barnabas were preaching, instead they exalted them and praised them for the miracles that they performed, they gave worship and honor to the created, rather than to the creator, and we see this in a lot of charismatic circles, where there are these people who claim to be these healers, and they receive all of the honor and the glory and the worship, so people honor these men who are really charlatans, they're not doing anything to heal people at all, they're just doing these sleight of hand tricks and making people believe that they've been healed of their blood pressure or their cramps or headaches or whatever it is, my night terrors, they make people believe that they've done some sort of healing here, but no healing has actually occurred, in the back of the auditorium are the people who really need healing, those who have cancer, those who are in wheelchairs, those who are in crutches, those who are crippled and lame, they're all the way in the back, you never see them on the camera, you never see them come up to the stage, and one of these faith healers making a guy who's lame and in a wheelchair stand up and walk, or making crippled feet be restored brand new and dance around on the stage, you never see that, so it's always these tricks, and people believe them because they want to, they gather for themselves, teachers to suit their itching ears, so they'll worship and honor them, they'll give them all their money, they'll talk to people about how great they are, and they will put praise in man rather than praise to God, and that's even more absurd than what's going on here in Lystra, because Paul and Barnabas actually did heal somebody, whereas these faith healers today aren't healing anyone, but as with these charismatic meetings, the people are missing the message, they're missing the gospel, they think that God's a vending machine and he's just gonna give you whatever you want as long as you give enough money, they miss the gospel message, and that's what's going on here at Lystra as well, they miss the gospel that Paul and Barnabas were preaching, and instead of praising God who came in the likeness of men, Jesus Christ, they praise Paul and Barnabas as being Greek gods who have come down to us in the likeness of men, verse 12, Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker, Zeus was of course the God of gods, he was supposed to be the chief God over all of the Greek gods, but Paul they call Hermes because he was the chief speaker, Hermes was the God of language, so that's why since Paul was the one who was primarily speaking to this crowd, that's why he got called this particular name, that's not really important because of course they're idol worshipers, they're not really extolling the one true God, the priest of Zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city, he even brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds, but look at the way that Barnabas and Paul responded to this, they tore their garments and rushed into the crowd, crying out, men why are you doing these things, we also are men of like nature with you, and we bring you good news that 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, so they're giving praise and glory and honor to the true God and trying to direct the people's attention to him, that's who they serve, that's who they come preaching in the name of, but the people instead turn and offer sacrifices to them, now this is somewhat similar to Peter when he went to the house of Cornelius, Cornelius bowed down to Peter and Peter said, no, no, no, don't do that, I'm just a man, I'm a man like you, and Paul and Barnabas do the same, we're men like you, don't worship us and honor us or bow down to us and offer sacrifices, but instead you need to turn to the living God, you need to be living sacrifices unto the Lord, it's your spiritual act of worship, this is the message that they came preaching, the message of the gospel, God has come to us in the likeness of men, Jesus Christ, he died on the cross for our sins, he rose again from the grave, all who believe in him will be forgiven and have everlasting life, that was the message that they were preaching, there in Lystra, Paul goes on in verse 16, in past generations, God allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet 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, Paul makes an appeal to general revelation, see, you know of this one true God, your false gods, you made those gods, you made them, but the one true God made you, and he gave you the things that you have enjoyed in this life and has given you comfort and satisfaction, this all came from the Lord, so you need to worship the one who made these things, not the gods whom you made, and of course, in verse 18, even with these words, they scarcely restrain the people from offering sacrifices to them, their hearts were so hard, that all they're looking for is the handout, the wonderful thing that you did for this man, we want you to perform miracles among us now, and when Paul and Barnabas point out that what they're there to do is point people to Christ, that they would turn from their sin, their idolatry, their sexual depravity, the passions of their flesh, all the things that they chase after as Greeks, when Paul told them to turn from their sin and turn to the living God, well, then they got angry and wanted to come against them and stone them, the same critics opponents that Paul had mounted before in Iconium come back, and there's more of them even there in Lystra, and they wanna put Paul and Barnabas to death for preaching the gospel, that's what we're gonna get to tomorrow as we finish up our study of Acts chapter 14 this week, let us conclude with prayer, our heavenly father, we thank you for the gospel that has come to us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we ask that daily, we put our trust and faith in you, no matter what comes our way, we do not despair, man can do all kinds of things to us, but they cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ, they can harm the body, but then be able to do nothing to the soul, which belongs to the living God who died for our sins and rose again from the grave, so that all who believe in him will have fellowship with God forever, everlasting life with you in your glorious kingdom, help it be your kingdom that we seek first in all things, in Jesus name we pray, amen.

Closing Exhortation and Church Sign-Off

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