Through The Bible - Acts 14 - Part 3

Guest (Male): And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador reflects on our call to steadfastness with Paul and Barnabas.
Brett Meador: If you're one to share the gospel with people, don't be surprised if you go through trials and troubles. That's just part of the job description. But let's remember Paul and Barnabas. They got up, dusted themselves off, and went in and just kept preaching.
Guest (Male): As they continued their first missionary journey in Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas encountered extraordinary opportunities, but also fierce opposition. But despite the violent uprisings and even near-death experience for Paul, Pastor Brett Meador notes in today's word, they continued performing miracles, preaching the gospel, and strengthening the faith of new believers.
Brett Meador: We left off on our first missionary journey of Paul. Thus far we saw him bounce to Cyprus and the two main cities there, Salamis and Paphos, and then Perga, and then Antioch. And then Iconium was where we left off, and things start to heat up there in chapter 14. Let's read verse 1. It says, "And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also the Greeks believed." Good news. This is people believing. They're hearing the word and believing. But there's always the "but" there. Verse 2, "But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren." Paul and Barnabas are preaching the truth, and what do these people do? They come and dilute the truth with poison, falsities, and sadly, it's going to cause quite the stir here. So let's take a look. It goes on in verse 3. It says, "Long time therefore abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord." In other words, Paul and Barnabas didn't give up when the poison was being put out. Paul and Barnabas said, "We're going to hunker down and keep preaching." They kept going long time, boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of His grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Notice how they handled the poison. This is something in a culture of poisonous words. How did they handle it? We can learn from this. Number one, they started speaking about the grace of God. That's what it says here. While they were bashing the truth, the Jews, Paul and Barnabas just focused, as it says in verse 3, they gave testimony unto the word of His grace. How can the people of Iconium, the pagans there, turn toward Jesus? His kindness. Remember Romans 2:4, it says it's the Lord's goodness that leads men or kindness that leads men to repentance. That's the right thing to do. God has a deep love for each person in Iconium, and Paul and Barnabas are trying to reach them with His grace. That's pretty important. The second thing that they do here is they keep preaching the grace of God to the people, but then they also start doing miracles, signs, and wonders. These guys went and preached the word first. The word was the priority, and it seems to me that the miracles came after. And that's the perfect order. I believe that's the order that Jesus talks about. In Mark chapter 16, if you recall, when Jesus is signing off in the Gospel of Mark, He says, "And these things shall follow them that believe: In My name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." This is what Jesus said. But one of the things that I love about this to remind, what does it say at the beginning? "These signs shall follow them that believe." One of the things we've done wrong, it's not following after signs and wonders, it's the signs and wonders that follow after the believers. I think some churches have got that backwards. First the followers of Jesus, they're saved by the word of God and discipled, and then the signs and wonders follow them that believe, not believers following after signs and wonders. That's a real problem. Well, all that to say, I do believe in miracles. Don't diminish that, but let's keep our priorities straight is the idea. Well, verse 4 says, "But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles." This is the first time, by the way, Paul and Barnabas are called apostles. Apostle means sent, sent out, sent ones. Verse 5, "And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them." Things are heating up in Iconium. It was just them preaching, and now they're actually talking of stoning people to death. And there's a war starting, a riot almost, between the Gentiles and the Jews. They were wanting to kill them because of sharing the gospel message. Can you imagine that? Well, verse 6 says they were aware of it, of the division, the possible violence. And so they fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about. And there they preached the gospel. Wherever they go, now they're running for their lives and they're fleeing Iconium. It says in verse 8, "And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who had never walked. The same heard Paul speak: who steadfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, 'Stand upright on thy feet.' And he leaped and walked." I love that. This guy's walking and leaping. He's been crippled from his birth. What a testimony to the people of Lystra. But there's something that's specific here. You notice that there was this whole thing where in verse 9, Paul is steadfastly beholding this guy. What does that mean? It means he looked at him intently. And it's a funny thing. He was looking for faith. He was looking for faith. Do you remember the Lord when He healed the man sick of the palsy, when the guys lowered their buddy down through the roof? And it says, "And when Jesus saw whose faith? The man on the bed?" No, the four buddies. When He saw the faith of the four dudes that lowered him, then He turned and said, "Your sins are forgiven you." And then the whole thing, "So you know that I have power to forgive sins, take up your bed and walk." And the guy was healed. But it's interesting Jesus was, "Oh, these four guys have faith." If you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you could move mountains, the Bible says. Don't forget that. And that's what's required. So this guy believed, and Paul saw it in his eyes somehow. This guy has faith. So he walked over and lifted him up and said, "Take up your bed," and he went walking and leaping and praising God. You can assume that. Then the trouble begins in verse 11. "And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, 'The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.' And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people." It's amazing how people can think other people are like gods and we worship them as gods. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." One of the big ten. But we value things greater than God if we want to be honest, perfectly honest. Sometimes we think, "Oh, I would never think that," but are there times where you've valued stuff or been more thankful for something other than God? We have to be careful about that. When you really see the way we exalt humanity and we worship our celebrities and our athletes and the way we throw our accolades to them, it really is embarrassing. I think we do more homage to some of our celebrities and even our politicians. Watch out for this idea of exalting people. Could this be perhaps one of the most dangerous times in Paul's life? Was it when he was shipwrecked or bitten by a viper or maybe in this chapter when he's going to get stoned to death? That was dangerous. I think you might be right, but could it be that really this was dangerous for Paul? Because suddenly they're gods. Was it at all tempting? We don't know. We don't know that, but I've seen where ministry and ministers can start believing their press. "I'm pretty amazing. I'm kind of a big deal." And they start believing, they forget that they're wretched, miserable sinners just like everyone else in their congregations. And that's something celebrity pastors or celebrities, we should really guard against that. This might just be one of the most dangerous times for Paul, but Paul and Barnabas come through with a glory record of they ripped their clothes as we keep reading here in verse 14. "Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, 'Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein.'" So ripping the clothes, that's a show of real disapproval, to say the least, of their worshipping Paul and Barnabas. But notice Paul is not preaching to this city the same way he preached to the Jews. To the Jews he was preaching the history of Israel like Stephen. Here he's preaching more about the extra-biblical proof of God because they're not Bible believers. So we're seeing how Paul does more what we call apologetics, that is to talk about and prove the validity of the Bible or of God without using the Bible because there's a lot of people that say, "I don't believe the Bible." So what does Paul do? He goes to creation. Verse 15, "The living God, which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and the things that are therein." Paul's preaching that there's a God that's true and their god Mercury and Jupiter, Zeus and Hermes are fake. And so he goes to creation. We looked at that. And then he talked about free will is what made the world messed up. Verse 16, "Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways." Verse 17, "Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them. By the way, this kindness that's mentioned here from God in verse 17 to all men giving rain and fruitful crops, this should be seen as a witness of God's power and His love for people. It's something theologians sometimes call this common grace. We talked about how there's no excuse. Romans 1 says that. Because creation, but even the rain that we get, it's just God showing kindness and people want to attribute that to hydrocycles of the earth and biology and the world and what's going on with the way water circulates. No. It comes from God, it's a gift from God, and this is what Paul argues with them. Now, it says in verse 19, "There came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him..." Now I wonder what the disciples are thinking. There's Paul laying there, blood coming out because he's been stoned. Have you ever seen stoning of a person? It's like a horrible, horrible thing. It's not a pleasant way to die and it's pretty grotesque. And they thought he was dead. They dragged his body out and there he was laying there and the disciples just, "What are we going to do now? Paul's dead." At least they think he's dead. It says they stood round about him and then he rose up and came into the city. And the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. He's back. This is an interesting part of the Bible, even the way it was just brought up. He got stoned to death, dragged out of the city, left for dead, anyway, he got back up, went back in the city, and then the happy little story goes on. This is one of those things like, what, huh, what's going on? Well, it seems very clear they stoned him and thought he was dead. The question scholars actually ask is did Paul really die? Did he actually die? And there are some that say yes and that God raised him up. Now, would I die on that battlefield? No. But there's a tiny bit of thought on this about why he may have died and the Lord just revived him. That's not an unusual thing where people, we have people in our congregation who were tagged as dead, only minutes later or 10 minutes later to be suddenly revived. We have several people in our congregation were declared dead by experienced doctors and hospitals, only to be revived. And you kind of wonder about that. I remember one of our men in my Bible study I used to do years ago, he and his buddies before they were Christians, he was partying down and on drugs and they were all messing around. Well, somebody took a gun while they're all high and messed up and they turned to him and shot him right between the eyes. Literally the bullet went right in his eye socket and bounced in his cranium three times and went out the back of his head. That's what the bullet did. He survived this and was in a coma for like 30 days. All signs were he was dead, but it was enough to keep... they tried to keep him alive for these 30 days. Well, the story is this is a true story, suddenly the nurses hear him yelling, "Who just said that? Who just said that?" And he's sitting up in his bed and all the nurses come running. They're like, "This guy in a coma just came out." He'd been shot between the eyes, bullet bounced around, and he's sitting here saying, "Who talked to me just now?" And what he had seen, if you ask him, is it was God saying, "I'm going to give you another chance at life." That's what he heard from God. No more of the drugs, no more, you need to walk with Me and follow Me. And from that day forward, he walked firmly with God. And to this day, he's walking with the Lord, which is really cool. Now, you think that's crazy. Well, God still does this kind of stuff. We just sometimes don't hear about it or talk about it, but Paul, he's left for dead. Did he actually die and does it matter? Well, Paul would later write this, kind of interesting verse 17 of Galatians 6. He said, "From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Most scholars believe he's talking about the scars that were left on his body from this particular stoning. Another curious thing, it's been suggested that when Paul had his heavenly vision, do you guys remember that? If you know your Bible. It's actually 2 Corinthians 12. Let me read. It's some kind of mysterious, he talks about it like in a third person kind of thing. He says, "It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." In other words, "I want to talk about this. I knew a man," myself, he would say, "in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such a one caught up into the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for me to utter." Paul's saying, "I was caught up into the heavens and I saw things that were unlawful for me to speak about, but I saw a vision or I was there, I don't know which one it was." Some theologians, and you might say only conjecture, would suggest this is possibly Paul when he was stoned, maybe he went to heaven for a little bit. And then the Lord said, "You're not done. Get back to Lystra and what have you or Derbe." Well, some suggest that but we don't know for sure. Now, this is what happens. Once he's stoned there with rocks, he then goes... the next thing we see is Derbe, there in verse 20, which is just another little hop, skip, and a jump away from Lystra. And we pick it up in verse 21. And there it says, "And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." So they go from Derbe and then they go back to Lystra and back to Iconium and back to Antioch. Now, one of the things, he'd been driven out of Antioch and Iconium by this traveling mob of Jews, but I find it interesting that Paul determined to leave Lystra on his own terms. Did you guys kind of get that? They stone him to death, leave him outside the city, and he goes back into the city. I think that's just who Paul is. He walked right back into the city where they just stoned him to death. I wonder if any of those guys saw him. Would that be a little weird? Didn't we just stone him? And now he's back. And then a few days later, he's back preaching in the very same town according to verses 21 and 22. So Paul's just like the guy that just keeps ticking, even though they try to knock him off. And so this is really cool. This is a good example of a guy who's considering tribulation is part of the deal. Suffering is part of the deal. One of the things we Christians don't do very well or a forgotten message today is we consider some kind of tribulation completely counterproductive to Christian living. "If I'm going through troubles, Lord, what's going on? Why? I thought I was serving You." And the Lord would say, "Because you're serving Me, you're going to go through trials and troubles." You're failing to note the significant place suffering has in God's plan. The Bible promises those who live godly will suffer persecution. Paul lives that and we shouldn't be surprised when we go through difficult times. I think we're surprised, "Lord, why? Why am I going through difficult times?" If you're going to serve, don't be surprised. And I would just say that if you're one to share the gospel with people, don't be surprised if you go through trials and troubles and people messing with you and trying to hurt, that's just part of the job description. But let's remember Paul and Barnabas. They got up, dusted themselves off, and threw the rocks aside and went in and just kept preaching. Paul would later say, "I don't count my life dear to myself. I'm not worried about myself. I'd rather preach the gospel even if it means suffering." And Paul's going to go through serious suffering. Quickly, verse 23. "And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed." Okay, so they're back at this particular Antioch. But I like what happens in verse 23, something we all should be doing where it says the ordained elders in every church and had prayed with fasting. If you claim to be a church but you don't have elders covering the church, I remember the trend of home church was to say, "We don't believe in organized religion, we're just having home church and we don't have pastors or elders." I always kind of laugh at that, and I'll tell you why. Because it's not the church according to the Bible. There needs to be a covering, a pastoral covering, an elder pastor covering. And then also, if that group doesn't have a pastor, inevitably somebody surfaces as the pastor. Whether they like it or not. "We don't have anybody leading." Somebody tends to lead and it's hilarious because they're trying not to do that, but it's impossible. The ordained vision of God's church by God in His word is to have elders, deacons in the church. So they would ordain these guys, elders, and by the way, there are three types of elders that are named in the Bible: pastor, bishop, elder. Kind of a synonymous guy. Some churches, like a small church, might have one guy doing all three of those. But in a larger church, you might have some that are elders only. And they're the guys Acts chapter 5 and 6 talks about how they were given to the ministry of prayer and the word. And the deacons were to make sure they stuck to that. Elders supposed to stick to the prayer and the word, and the deacons were practical ministry, serving the tables and helping the widows and taking care of people. But the word "bishop," the Greek word is *episkopos*. We like to call it an administrative or governing elder. It's an elder, but he also has a role of administrative role. That's the word *episkopos*. So we have all those. Now, if there's a good church nearby, you should plug into that church. If you have a great church nearby, plug in there, be known, volunteer. Even if it's not the perfect church, because there is no such thing. But going to the church building with church people, we still think that is in a lot of cases better than not going to church at all. But it's amazing how many people around the country don't actually have a good church nearby. That's sad, but it's just the truth. Well, verse 24. We're going to do some more traveling. In fact, we're going to end Paul's missionary journey. Check this out. Verse 24, "And after they had passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia," or Italia. "And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. And there they abode long time with the disciples." I love this. So their journey continues: Perga and then they came to the coastal region there at Attalia, and then made their way back to Antioch where they began their journey. That's a summary of Paul's first missionary journey. But don't you love, what did they do? They went back to the place where all the apostles were. They told them all the good things God had done, and then they abode there a long time with the disciples. Why? I believe it was for the nourishment, for the refreshing after being stoned to death and all the things they experienced. They took some time and just got recharged. And I think that's kind of cool. You go out there and you work and all the weird stuff you gotta deal with at work and hushing you as a Christian and making you say the right pronouns and all that stuff. I know you guys are getting beat up all week long. But we want you to just get recharged. I see that's what these guys are doing here. Get recharged, built up in faith, and then get back out there and do what the Lord's called you to do.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Meador here with a good word of encouragement for steadfastness in faith at the conclusion of his verse-by-verse look at the first missionary journey of Paul from Today's Word. And we hope you can stay with us as Pastor Brett will be back to close us in prayer in just a moment. But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador. He's the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church, just south of Portland, Oregon. Brett's been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. If you've missed any portion of our study, you can find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that in addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have other locations in the Portland area. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link "Locations." Again, todayswordradio.com and click the link "Locations." Well, now Pastor Brett Meador caps off our study today with a brief word of prayer.
Brett Meador: Lord, we do ask that the church would be a refreshment center for those who are busy doing the work of ministry and missionary work all around the globe. Lord, may You just give our brothers and sisters strength. May they be nourished up in faith as we read through the Bible together. I pray that we would be able to cover and love on people as a church through the elders and deacons and all the volunteers that we have. Lord, I pray that this would be a place where people are cared for and loved on more than ever. So use us, Lord. Bless these people who have carved up this time in Your word. May it bring forth good fruit in their lives. In Jesus' name, amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will show us a striking parallel between Joseph and Jesus. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.