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Reading Acts 14:19-22 where the Apostle Paul encourages the believers to remain steadfast in the faith, for it's through many afflictions that we enter the kingdom of God. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
The Apostle Paul encouraged the brethren, telling them, through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of God. Just because you've become a Christian does not mean life will get easier. For some Christians, life is harder, but we hold on to Christ when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text, it's committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. Visit our website at www .wutt .com.
Here once again is Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come back to chapter 14, picking up where we left off last week. The Apostle Paul and Barnabas have gone to Iconium and shared the gospel there, then on to Lystra.
And after performing miracles in Lystra, the people wanted to worship them as gods, but Paul managed to restrain the people from offering sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, saying, we're men just like you, and pointing them to the Lord Christ.
But right after, right after the people wanted to worship them as gods, things take a completely different turn. And that's where we pick up now. I'm gonna start reading in verse 19 and go through verse 23.
Hear the word of the Lord. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and after winning over the crowds and stoning Paul, they were dragging him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. But while the disciples stood around him, he rose up and entered the city.
The next day, he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. And after they had proclaimed the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, through many afflictions, we must enter the kingdom of God.
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. Now, the key phrase in this that we're studying today is that statement that Paul says to the disciples as they go back and visit the churches and encourage them in this new faith of theirs.
He says to them, through many afflictions, we must enter the kingdom of God. And that's what everybody has to learn after this, recognizing what has happened to Paul, not being discouraged by this, but understanding we will be afflicted and we will go through difficult things on this side of heaven.
And it's through many afflictions that we will enter God's perfect imperishable kingdom. And we will consider that thought as well as we go through this lesson today. There's one more section of Acts here, and I'm not going to neglect that section.
In fact, we'll get to that as well, but that's Paul and Barnabas returning to Antioch, and that's the way chapter 14 is gonna finish. So I'll leave some time at the conclusion to read those final verses here in chapter 14.
But coming back up to verse 19, Jews came from Antioch and Iconium. They are coming to Lystra. This is the same place where Paul and Barnabas had been, performing miracles, preaching the gospel, and now the people want to worship them as gods.
They had regarded Paul as being Hermes because he was the chief speaker. Barnabas was Zeus, who was like the principal God. So I don't know what it was about Barnabas and what he did, maybe something about a miracle that made the people consider him as being Zeus, but Paul is Hermes.
Hermes was the messenger God, the messenger of the gods. So that's why the people regarded Paul as being Hermes because he was the chief speaker. That's what's said to us in verse 12. But of course, Paul and Barnabas, they tore their garments before the people.
They said, don't do this, don't worship us. We are just like you. We are men of the same nature as you, proclaiming the gospel to you so that you would 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.
The gods that were worshiped by the Greeks were made by the Greeks. And Paul and Barnabas are turning the Greeks to the God who has made all things. He has not been made by human hands. Paul and Barnabas don't even come with any visual examples of their, here's what God is like.
They preach the invisible God, but proclaiming the gospel of Christ who died on the cross, rose again from the dead so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. The son of God who has come to us in the God man.
So the people, there are some that had turned to Christ, had certainly come to believe, but this is a very fickle people that Paul and Barnabas are among. And so right after they wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods, now things take a different turn.
So Jews come from Antioch and Iconium. This was where Paul and Barnabas were previously. They were driven out by the Jews. Let me go all the way back up to verse five. When an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers to mistreat and stone Paul and Barnabas, they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding region.
And there they continued to proclaim the gospel. So they're driven out by the Jews, but the Jews are following them to these other places, warning the people about them because the Jews are jealous of Gentiles who are coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We considered that at the end of chapter 13. So the Jews are jealous that there are Gentiles who are, they're becoming the people of God. They are favored by God, loved by God. Now it's being said of them that they are entering the kingdom of God because of their faith in Jesus.
So the Jews are now following Paul and Barnabas to the other cities that they will go to, attempting to warn the people that more Gentiles won't come to faith and there certainly wouldn't be any Jews won over by them as well.
So the Jews come from Antioch and Iconium and after winning over the crowds, no idea how they did this, most likely it was something incredibly hypocritical, like the Jews having to actually defend a pagan lifestyle among the Gentiles to get them to recognize, hey, listen, if Paul and Barnabas have their way, everybody's gonna become a Christian and all of your living that you make off of the gods in your area or the temples or the statues that you make, any of these things, all of your way of life goes away.
So that's probably what the Jews come into town convincing the people of, which is absurd, it's ridiculous. The Jews telling the people essentially that you need to preserve the worship of your gods, which is condemning them to hell.
This is Jesus' condemnation of those Jews, of the Pharisees, especially in Matthew 23, when he says, you are sons of hell producing more sons of hell and you shut the kingdom of God in their faces. You don't permit anyone else to go in when you are not entering either.
And this is that same sort of thing that's happening here with these Jews that are warning the Gentiles about what Paul and Barnabas are doing. So they come and win over the crowds and they stone Paul and they were dragging him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.
So Paul has been stoned in the middle of the city, they drag him outside the city walls because that's where the sick and the lame were. And if somebody was dying, that's where you would throw the body.
So they're throwing him out of the city, believing him to be dead. But verse 20, while the disciples stood around him, he rose up and entered the city. And the next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe.
Now I've heard many different interpretations of this. I remember hearing different sermons about this, even when I was growing up. One pastor, when I was a kid, had said that Paul had died, but he was risen to life.
And in fact, that's probably the most common interpretation of this that I hear, of what happened to Paul in verses 19 and 20. He did die. They supposed him to be dead, but that's almost like a figure of speech.
Instead, when they dragged him out of the city, God raised him back from the dead. So he had died, but the Lord brought him back. That's the most common interpretation that I hear of these two verses.
But the verses don't say that. There's actually nothing here that indicates that Paul had actually died, and then God brought him back again, giving him like his own resurrection. And so now this resurrection story circulates about Paul.
In fact, in Paul's own autobiographical things that he shares, he doesn't ever mention a time that he died and then came back to life again. Now, in 2 Corinthians 12, that's the most common place where somebody may talk about Paul going to heaven and coming back, but he doesn't say that he died there.
And he's very careful in the way that he talks about that because he speaks of himself in the third person. This is 2 Corinthians 12, verse two. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows.
And I know that this man was caught up in a paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. Now, Paul is talking about himself in the third person.
It's him. He is the one that was caught up into the third heaven, the heaven where God dwells and got to see things that are beyond the veil that we won't get to experience until we die and go to be with the Lord in glory, or Jesus returns, whichever of those things happens first.
But Paul never says there in chapter 12 that he died and went to heaven and experienced those things. He just says, I know a man who was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out, I don't know.
So he had this vision of God in his glory in that glorious eternal place where God dwells. But was it a vision or was he actually caught up to that place? In his body, he actually got to go up and be there.
And Paul says, I don't know. Of the experience that he had and the vision that he saw, he doesn't know whether it was in his body or just a vision in his mind that he received. Like a vision that Peter saw, for example, in Acts chapter 10.
Paul doesn't know whether it was just something in his mind or he was physically taken to that place and got to be there and experience it before coming back. But that is not to testify to him having died and gone to heaven and come back again to talk about it.
There's nothing in Paul's biography or any of the biographical accounts or any of his autobiographical accounts that talk about him dying and coming back again. So I don't believe that that's what's being communicated to us here in verses 19 and 20.
I think that he actually had been stoned to near death. He was unconscious. That was how severe this stoning was, but they didn't follow through with the stoning to stone him so much that he had rocks piled on top of him.
Like what's talked about in, where is it? Joshua chapter seven with the death of, ah, I forgot his name all of a sudden, Achan. Isn't it Achan? Anyway, they did not thoroughly stone Paul. So they stoned him to the point of unconsciousness but didn't follow through with the rest.
And they dragged him out of the city, but while the disciples stood around him, he rose up and entered the city. I don't believe that this was a miracle that was done on Paul. Now, maybe there was something miraculous tied to it, but I don't believe it was a miracle in the sense that he would have been revived and healed of being stoned to death or to near death, of course.
I don't think that that is what's taking place here. So we have two common interpretations of this. One being that Paul is stoned to death and then risen again. And then another that he was stoned to near death, but his being revived is itself a miracle.
And then he goes and reveals himself there in Lystra again. And then he and Barnabas go on to Derby and people see that he's been healed of his stoning. Again, the text doesn't tell us that either. So I don't think that there was anything miraculous about this.
I think that Paul really did go through a stoning to near death, was revived, not by any miraculous means, but he just came back to himself. And he and Barnabas went back into the city and preached, and then they go on to Derby.
And you would have seen in Paul the marks of the persecution that he was enduring as he was going about preaching the gospel. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, all the different things, I'm sorry, chapter 11.
Chapter 12 is where he talks about being caught up to the end of the third heaven. Chapter 11 is where he talks about all the different things that he went through or that he has gone through as an apostle preaching the gospel.
He says there've been great labors, imprisonments, countless beatings, often near death, okay? That's what he says in 2 Corinthians 11, 23. There were times when he was beaten so badly he was near death.
And I think that's where this account fits in Acts chapter 14. It fits in that category of where Paul had said he had been beaten so many times he was near death. Going on in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 24, five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one.
Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. And that's this account here at Lystra. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.
In toil and hardship, through many sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from all other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety, for all the churches.
But if I'm going to boast in all of these things, Paul goes on to say, I will boast to show my weakness. And then he goes on later in 2 Corinthians 12, verses nine and 10, talking about how the Lord said to him, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
And so Paul says, therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
For when I am weak, then I am strong. And that is a good lesson for all of us as well, as we consider these things, that being a Christian doesn't make us stronger, doesn't make us better than everybody else, but rather as Paul will go on to say here, through many afflictions, we must enter the kingdom of God.
And we may not be heavily persecuted because of our faith, not to the degree that Paul was, but there are still hardships we're gonna face as Christians. That may be circumstantial to our being Christians, or it just may simply be the difficulties of life that most other people go through, but becoming a Christian does not make life easier.
It doesn't mean that we won't have to go through these things ever, because we're Christians. God would never allow us to go through something like that. God would never give us more than we can handle.
You know, you've heard that statement before. Well here, according to Paul being stoned to near death, God would absolutely give us more than we are able to handle. But this is, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1 .9, to make us rely on him, not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.
And we see the work that Paul is doing here, demonstrating in his own body, the marks that he has received as an apostle of Jesus Christ and using this as a testimony to convince others of the kingdom of God, and helping them to recognize it's through many struggles and persecutions that we're going to be entering the kingdom of God.
In Galatians 6 .17, at the very end of the letter, he says, I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. So Paul, you could have looked at the guy and seen, this was a guy who has been through much for the sake of the gospel of Christ.
And his life was not any easier as an apostle, so we should not think that ours will be easier either. So Paul and Barnabas go on to Lystra and Iconium and to Antioch, verse 22, they strengthen the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying, through many afflictions, we must enter the kingdom of God.
And we will not have a utopia on this side of heaven. And I know the more post-millennial side of eschatology believes that everything is going to get increasingly better right before Jesus comes. I agree that there will be an increase in good things, even I'm on the more amillennial side, but as an amillennial, we believe good will increase, but so will the evil.
Evil will increase just as good will increase. Revelation chapter 22 tells us that. There is nothing in scripture that seems to indicate to us as what Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven, that those words would no longer be applicable at some time during our existence on earth.
In Matthew seven, Jesus said, enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the way that leads to destruction and many will find that way because that's the easy way, but narrow is the way that leads to life and few will find it.
And there's not gonna be a time on this side of heaven where that's not true. The hard way of the few is still gonna be the way of Christ to enter into glory. Many are going to find a way of destruction.
The message of the gospel, I do believe, will make it to the whole world before Jesus returns. Wholeheartedly, I believe that. That does not mean the majority of the world will believe it. And so we must keep in mind, it's through many afflictions that we must enter the kingdom of God.
We enjoy some incredible freedom of religion in the United States of America that most of the rest of the world does not enjoy. But we have a very cultural Christianity that exists here in America. If you go out on the street and you try to share the true gospel, you will find people hating you and trying to kill you.
Even in the United States of America, it even happens here. And I have friends personally who have done exactly this work. Folks, I've had my life threatened many, many times for preaching the gospel and calling out specifically that if you are aligned with any of the letters in the acrostic LGBTQ, you will go to hell if you do not repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And for saying that, people have threatened to kill me. I've had Roman Catholics threaten to kill me because I have said the worship and prayer of Mary is an abomination in the eyes of God. And you will not get into the kingdom of God if you are bowing to Jesus' mother rather than believing in the Lord Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
If you're appealing to his mom who cannot hear you anyway, then your sins, you're still dead in your sins and you will not see God. And I've had Roman Catholics threaten my life, attempt to dox me online and encouraging people, somebody go vandalize his home or do something to his kids or something like that.
And there are witnesses to that that have seen that happen to me online. And I'm not saying that I'm in league with the apostle Paul here. I've never been beaten for my faith, but I've had my life threatened.
And the point that I'm simply making is you try to share the true gospel with people, even in the United States of America, and you will find people who will hate you for that and try to kill you. Though we enjoy many good freedoms here, and I'm very, very thankful for the freedom of religion that we have here in the U .S.
There are men who gave their lives, died for me to enjoy the freedoms that I have here in the United States. But don't think that means that this nation is some sort of utopia on this side of heaven or is some kind of great example of the kind of Christian nation that we could certainly build and establish before Jesus comes.
We don't have any guarantee of that taking place. I certainly long for my nation to be a Christian nation. That will only happen if we're preaching the gospel. And as I said, there are people that will absolutely hate you because you preach the true gospel and they will try to end you.
There are many people who claim to be Christian who will try to end you in some way, shape, or form, cancel you, silence you somehow, or even try to harm you, take your life, gaslight you, scare you so that you don't speak anymore, whatever, they will try to silence you because you call out sin and point to Christ.
It's through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of God. That will not get any easier before the day of Christ. And for some people in some parts of the world, it's really, really hard. But we continue to pray as the Apostle John prayed in Revelation, Lord Jesus, come quickly, please, Lord, please, may the gospel of Christ go forth into all of our land and all the nation so that people will hear of Christ and turn from their sin and believe in him and be saved.
That is our first mission as a church. It is not to change all the laws of our land. And don't hear me saying that we shouldn't try. That's just not the first ambition of the church. It is to preach the gospel, preach Christ, because the laws may never change, but hearts need to be changed if they are going to be saved.
And so going on in verse 23, when they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed. I want to make more of a comment about that before leaving Acts 14.
So I had said at the end, I would finish off with that last paragraph, and then that would be the conclusion of Acts 14. I want to make a comment about that verse 23, and then we'll finish the rest of Acts tomorrow.
How about that? But let us remember these words again that Paul has said to the brethren. And he said these words to strengthen them and encourage them in their faith. Through many afflictions, we must enter the kingdom of God.
Do not listen to those who say to you that if you are a Christian, that God would not allow you to go through anything difficult, or that being a Christian means that you can be healed of your diseases.
There's one false teacher who I've been examining recently, who's been teaching exactly that, that we have healing in Christ, and if you're sick, well, then you're doing something wrong. Beware these people.
It's through many afflictions that we must enter the kingdom of God. The deepest affliction that you'll go through is death itself. But we understand through faith in Jesus Christ who conquered death on our behalf, we also have victory over the grave by faith in him.
Amen, amen to that. Heavenly Father, we thank you for these words that we have read here, reminded of these things once again, and we do need to keep a sober head about our shoulders in recognizing that we will go through difficult things in life.
For many Christians, life is harder because they're a Christian, but this should not cause us to despair. It causes us to cling to Christ all the more, looking forward to his kingdom, not longing for the stuff of this earth, not longing for the earth to become some greater, better place than it already is because this is not our permanent dwelling anyway.
Our permanent place is with Christ and wherever you dwell in your glory is where we should want to be. So let that desire for you, for Christ and for his kingdom, be the thing that sustains us and gives us strength and energy as we go about our time on this earth.
We thank you for the blessings that you've heaped upon us in Christ and never let us lose sight of especially those spiritual blessings that we've received because the physical blessings won't always be there, but we will always have Christ all the way into eternity.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt .com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study When We Understand the Text.