"They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples.” Acts 14:21
Last time, we looked at Paul and Barnabas’s stay in Iconium. They had been effective as instruments in God’s hand. He had given them the power to deal with the specific need at that time. Verse 3 told us that, when they were ‘bold’ in speaking up for him, the Lord had ‘confirmed’ their word, and he had also ‘enabled’ them to do what they otherwise could not have done – they performed ‘signs and wonders’.
Now, due to fierce opposition to their message about Jesus, these men have fled from Iconium to a new place- the Lycaonian city of Lystra. This is where we find them in verse 8. We already know from verse 7 that ‘they continued to preach the gospel’ in the new places that they reached and that is exactly what we find them doing. In verse 9, Paul was ‘speaking’. He was evidently speaking about Jesus because we find that a man has heard and has believed – ‘he had faith’. This man ‘was lame’ ‘from birth’ – He ‘had never walked’. Paul is once again enabled – God’s gifts are in evidence. Paul is given discernment.
Discernment is the ability to judge people and things well. Paul made a judgement and he did it well – ‘Paul looked directly at him (and) saw that he had faith to be healed’. Paul commanded the man to respond - ‘Stand up on your feet’. Paul was telling him to do something which he had never done before. But respond the man did – he ‘jumped up and began to walk’. What was this? It was certainly a wonder. It was also a sign. What is that?
Well, I have a photo of a sign. It is an utterly pointless sign. It says, ‘This sign has sharp edges – do not touch!’ The only reason for this sign’s existence is itself. If it wasn’t there, it wouldn’t be needed. This sign is stupid – we all know that it is ridiculous. Because we all know that real signs give information about something other than the sign.
So, if Paul here is performing a sign, by healing this man’s physical disability, what is it that is being pointed out? It’s a greater truth about the power of the message about Jesus. Physical healing seems to have been a gift that God gave at times, but it doesn’t seem to have been an everyday experience. I believe that God can still bring that gift into the lives of his people at times and I know there are those here that can testify to God’s goodness in that way. But the power of the message of Jesus to heal us in a non-physical – spiritual - way is constant. And this man’s physical healing points out how we can obtain spiritual healing through the Good News message.
This man was commanded to respond. He responded and so he was healed. The message about Jesus, at its most simplest is found in a couple of chapters time. In Acts 16 30-31, we have the case of the jailor in Philippi. That man had experienced a terrifying ordeal & he now realised that one of his prisoners, the apostle Paul, was in possession of God’s truth. This jailor seemed certain that he himself was outside of God’s truth, most probably forever. He was sure that in order to be made right with God he would have to go to great lengths. He cried out, ‘what must I do to be saved?’ And Paul and his companion told him – ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved’. He didn’t have to do anything - no physical action whatsoever – just belief.’ The response that the message about Jesus demands, is that we believe it. If we respond in that way – by believing that we are healed - then we are healed. We just have to believe that Jesus lived and died and rose again to heal us from our sins. Don’t take my word for it – take God’s word for it! That jailor responded to that simplest of commands, and we are told that, ‘he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God’.
But, let’s get back to Acts 14, and this event in Lystra. This man had faith. Physically he did something he had never done before ‘and began to walk’. Spiritually, he did something that he had never done before and began the Christian life.
Actually, this may be something that gets in our way. We may think, ‘I want to believe but I don’t know how I’ll be able to live the Christian life’. Of course you don’t. You’ve never done it before. Neither had anyone else before they believed. But, because they believed, God supplied them with grace – that power to live the Christian life – and so they did. And so will you.
So, what is the effect of this miraculous sign? Sadly, to the greater part, it was misunderstood, and so we have this bizarre event described in verses 11-12. Paul and Barnabas receive new names! This has already happened to Barnabas. He was originally called Joseph but Acts 4 36 tells us that he had been given a new nickname by the apostles - he was renamed Barnabas, which kind of means ‘Mr Encouragement’, because he was that kind of fella. After believing the message about Jesus and being transformed by God’s grace, he really encouraged his brothers and sisters in Christ.
But now his name is changed again. I suspect this wasn’t the career move that he had dreamt about the night before! All of a sudden he has become the chief god in Greek mythology – Zeus himself. Not, actually, but in the imagination of many in this crowd.
Paul gets similar treatment. He is renamed ‘Hermes’. Not because he had arrived on the scene in a white van and started chucking parcels about! No, not that Hermes! Rather, like with Barnabas, he is named after a Greek god. And we are given the reason – ‘Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker.’ Hermes was believed to be the herald of the Greek gods. He was the son of Zeus, and was believed to be one who brought messages from the gods to humans. So, although these people had got things oh-so-wrong, there was an element of logic to their misunderstanding. But they interpreted this miraculous sign of healing according to their own cultural and religious starting point, and this meant that rather than being led towards the truth they actually turned away from it.
Paul did have a message from God. It was a truly powerful message. But Paul was not God. Paul was just an ordinary man, much like anyone else, and these two believers realise that they must get this message across to these people. And the way they do it is really striking. Verse 15, tells us what they say – ‘Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you’. But, they don’t just speak, they also act. Verse 14 tells us that ‘they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting…’ those words. What is going on here? Well, what better way to convince a crowd that you are as human as them than to shout those words at the same time as running around taking your clothes off?! That would be pretty convincing, I reckon! But I don’t think that is actually quite what we have here. I suspect that this is probably another example of visual imagery being used by the early church believers.
Recently in the Acts series we have considered how the church ‘placed their hands on’ Barnabas and Paul before they were sent off to work in service of the Lord. What was the reason for it? Did this practice actually transfer some special magical power to these men? No, it was just a visual demonstration of the responsibility that the church took for those men as they went off to serve the Lord. We may have heard the expression, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. There is a lot of truth in that statement. What we visualise is often burnt into our memories.
Those who followed the coronation events a couple of weeks back - did you choose to listen to the description on the radio, or did you watch on TV? Which do you think would stay longest and brightest in your memory – the audio or the visual? Our baptism’s here last week – in years to come we may not remember a single word that was spoken. Will we doubt that Lois and Martha professed faith in Jesus and began new life in him? No. Because we saw the picture that baptism is. It spoke powerfully to us – more than a thousand words and every one of them was beautiful!
There is a visual demonstration at the end of Acts 13. When Paul and Barnabas were expelled from Pisidian Antioch by those who fiercely rejected the message about Jesus, verse 51 says, ‘so they shook the dust off their feet as a warning to them and went to Iconium’. In doing so they were following the instruction of Jesus himself. He said to his followers, in Mark 6 11, ‘if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.’
I think this is the opposite of the visual demonstration that the church used when they placed their hands on Paul and Barnabas at the start of that chapter. There they were demonstrating that they accepted responsibility. When the followers of Jesus, like P & B here, shook the dust off their feet when the gospel was rejected, this was like taking their hands off those people. They were saying, ‘we have fulfilled our responsibility. We are not responsible for any part of you and your actions now. We are not even going to take any part of you with us. We are even going to shake off the dust from your town’s streets and leave that behind’. If they had said that, how long would it have been remembered? Not for long, I reckon. But that demonstration? Perhaps that spoke more powerfully and for longer. That was the idea of the man who commanded it. His wisdom exceeded that of Solomon (see Matthew 12 42).
When P & B tear their clothes this is an attempt to display their raw humanity. But also, it is probably a visual reference to blasphemy. This crowd was making out that these believers had god-status. We seem this same action performed at the mock trial of Jesus before the Jewish council before his death at Calvary. There, Jesus rightly claimed to have God-status. But the unbelieving Jewish religious leader perceived this to be ‘blasphemy’. What did he do? Mark 14 63 says, ‘the high priest tore his clothes’.
This conveyed a visual meaning that was probably well understood in this wider region and P & B chose to do it. They weren’t like our brother Martyn with his wonderful PA system in the boot of his car. Their words probably wouldn’t have carried to the ears of everyone in the crowd. And so they chose to speak by painting a powerful picture. It was another sign. One which pointed away from error and towards truth. Even then it was a struggle to arrest these people and alter the direction of their mind-flow, and verse 18 expresses that ‘difficulty’. It also mentions spoken ‘words’, which refers us to verses 15-17. These words are really interesting in that they display another approach to the delivering of gospel truth by P & B.
In Acts 13, when Paul addressed the Jews at the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, he started at a place that was familiar to his audience – he detailed the history of the nation of Israel and God’s grace towards them, something that they would all agree on, before trying to move them towards the truth of Jesus’ coming and mission, and then urging ‘them to continue in the grace of God’. That approach wouldn’t work here with this new crowd whose background was very different and who believed in multiple gods. Here they are pointed towards heavenly provision for humanity, something they would agree on. But, with this, Paul also tries to move them away from their plural-god position, which he calls ‘worthless things’ and towards the one, which he calls, ‘the living God’.
Again, we see the gift of discernment. Paul always tried to start from where people were at and move them towards Jesus. He mentions this approach in 1 Corinthians 9 19-23. To the Jews he would use a Jewish approach. To non-Jews he would come at them differently. Though he was a free Roman citizen, he could identify with slaves and understood their perspective. Likewise with people suffering weakness. He handled them as they were, not with some invented idea of what they should be. Why did he do this? He says, ‘I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some’. What a lesson to the church. When we express the gospel, we need to start from where people are at now, and lead them from there to Jesus – to win some for Christ. Also, in church life, with our brothers and sisters, there is no point dealing with people from a perspective that they don’t currently have, just because we think they should have it.
Let’s say that I am on a walk with my wife and have gone ahead and climbed a hill and summited out of sight to survey the landscape. I hear her calling, ‘which way should I go?’ I point and say, ‘go that way’. But she cannot see me. Her perspective is totally different to mine. I currently have the privilege of elevation. She doesn’t. Will she go the right way? With 360° to choose from, I doubt it! I need to go closer to the valley where she is at, and point her forwards from there.
Verses 19 & 20 then tell us of a horrific event. Many in that crowd show the absolute fickleness of humanity. Paul is treated like his master, Jesus. One moment the people are singing his praises and recognising Godly power - the next, they want him dead. But in the middle of this gospel opposition we see a glimpse of successful gospel opportunity. Verse 20 mention those who gathered round Paul after his near death experience and calls them ‘disciples’. A church has begun to exist in Lystra – praise be!
And then the Lord gives these faithful labourers something that must have been immensely encouraging. Look at the harvest in the city of Derbe described in verse 21 - they preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples’.
Then we have the final summary of this first gospel mission from the church in Syrian Antioch. If I had been expelled from one place, and left for dead in another, I suspect I’d be like Doctor Foster who went to Gloucester - I’d never go there again! But P & B aren’t like me – ‘they returned to Lystra, Iconium and (Pisidian) Antioch’. Why? Because there were believing people there who needed them. Infant churches had formed that needed help and instruction. How did they do it?
Some people tell us that the best way to get people to move forward is with a combined carrot and stick approach. P & B seem to take a carrot and carrot approach in verse 22 – it’s awesome! They know from recent raw experience that Jesus spoke the truth when he said, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me’ (Matthew 16 24). They mention these ‘hardships’ that ‘must’ be part of our experience. They were such an example of God’s grace, though. How were they able to carry their heavy cross? By the power for Christian living that flows out from the cross of Jesus himself. And so they stopped in those places, ‘strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith’.
They establish local church leadership in verse 23 and they do so with commitment and seriousness, ‘with prayer and fasting (they) committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust’. How we all need this. If we aren’t the Lord’s tools then we can never serve the church. But if we are his, then we can. We might think that our deficiencies will stand in the way. They might stand in ours, but they won’t stand in God’s way. If the Lord is our Shepherd, then, like the sweet psalmist of Israel said, we will ‘lack nothing’.
That is P & B’s report when they get back to their local church in verse 27. What an amazing time that must have been for those believers there. I’ve no time left. I’m going to have to summarise their report using one three letter word – ‘God’. All that had been done – every success – every victory for Jesus – it was God what did it.
And then finally, we the concluding remarks of verse 28. What must these men have needed when they returned? Quite a bit I reckon. Probably some time to recover from injuries to body and mind. Some downtime, I’m sure, after all that activity and travelling. Some time spent in the sunshine just being – being still – and reflecting on everything. How do I know they they needed this? Because they said in verse 15 - ‘we… are only human like you’. I’d have needed that so they must have too.
But actually, in this final verse, we only have one detail recorded of what they did. Probably because it was considered to be the most important detail. I’d call it ‘fellowship’ – ‘they stayed there a long time with the disciples’. Oh Church of Christ how precious?! If you can today, then stay a little time, or perhaps ‘a long time’, that we all might be strengthened and encouraged together in our faith in Christ Jesus.
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