The Book of Acts 14:1-28 Paul at Iconium, Lystra and return trip
Acts 14 · Bob Eckel · Jul 27, 2014
Acts (2014), No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492643516539

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're looking today at Paul's moving to Iconium and then to Lystra and his return trip. This is with Barnum so they're still hanging out together. I thought this map was fairly obstructed and I'm going to have to get close to see it. But the numbers on the map reflect this first missionary journey. And I think that's informative.

And a couple of weeks ago, we taught that Paul left from Antioch, and then he went to Seleucia, and then over to Cyprus, and to Pathos before he went to the Galatian area of the world. and to Pamphylia, and then to Antioch, which is a different Antioch from whence he started. And now today we're going to look at the trip to Lystra, and then Iconium, and to Lystra, and to Derby, and then back, he retraces his steps back to Antioch, back to Atalia, and then ultimately, actually Perga first, then Atalia, but then takes a ship back to Antioch, We've got a couple of Antiochs here. You've got to keep them straight as to which ones we're looking at. This again is his first missionary journey and we're looking at that transition from one location to the other. Keep in mind these locations we're going to be talking about today, Iconium, Lister and Derby, are all pretty close to one another.

These are like 15 to 20 miles apart. So some of these places are in Turkey. What is now Turkey? That's right. In fact, Antalya, where we were, is not going to be too far from where all this is going on here. So Margaret and I had the privilege of two trips to Turkey. The second one we actually transitioned part of the Turkish continent and drove halfway across the country. We were staying in Smyrna. What is now Smyrna. Yes, Smyrna.

Actually, here's Ephesus here. We were in Ephesus. And Smyrna here. This is Isis now. Smyrna is Isis. We were here and then drove across here and then down to the Mediterranean. Izmir. It's Izmir. Smyrna is Izmir, not Isis. Yeah, Izmir. I'm thinking about an Isis pharmacy. Yeah, I know. It's been on my mind lately. Yeah, Izmir. So anyway, that's an area of the world we've had the privilege of seeing. But all those other places are where? Syria? Well Syria is north of Israel up in here. So I don't know. That's Syria. Oh yeah. So we're here. Syrian Antioch that's kind of in the area of Syria today. Well so all these other places. This is all Turkey up here. That is all Turkey.

Part of Macedonia, Galatia is part of that. This is not a lesson in geography here today. It's kind of cool though. I just want to put this in perspective. What these are now because this whole area is so... in the Middle Eastern conflict that's going on right now. I'm just trying to put it in perspective. Does everybody have a sense of where we're at here?

Where we're going today is Paul's transitioning from Antioch to Iconium. Jeremy, could you teach us what the Roger did? Roger taught about the time that Paul and Barbara spent in Antioch last week. That's this Antioch up here. on Iconium. So today's lesson is really the entire chapter 14 and I've partitioned this into basically three or four segments. And the first part, we're not going to read all 28 verses, is 1 through 5. Paul and Barnabas preach at Iconium. So actually, let's just read the first five, and that will set the stage for what's going to follow.

And it came to pass on Iconium that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake that a great multitude, both the Jews and Gentiles, believed. But the Jews that were disobedient stirred up the souls of the Gentiles and made them evil, affected against the brethren. Long time, therefore, they tarried there, speaking boldly in the Lord, who bare witness unto the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the multitude of the city was divided, and part held with the Jews and part with the apostles. And when there was made an onset that the Gentiles and the Jews were their rulers to treat them shamefully and to stone them, they actually, I'm going to read two more verses, they became aware of it and fled into the cities of Liconia, Lystra and Derby and the region round about and there they preached the gospel. So actually the initial segment really related to their time in Iconium.

Now notice, remember we talked a couple of weeks ago about the synagogues often the first place they go, right? That Paul entered. He went to the synagogue first. And there he spoke with power is the way he would translate the Greek term for speaking and preaching. And we're told that a great company of Jews and Greeks believed, or Gentiles believed. And my question to you is, were the Greeks in the synagogue?

That's kind of what it says. What do you think? I wonder, do they sell him stuff? Sure, outside. Yeah, like buy your lamb here. But you know, there are no windows, and so if he's speaking boldly in the synagogue, other people could hear. He didn't have to be inside the synagogue. He could be out in front.

You think so? Sure. I'm wondering whether the fact that the Jews who were saved in fact quickly left the synagogue and the Greeks that came to war were actually impacted by them and their testimony. I don't know. The text doesn't clarify that really. I can't believe that the Gentiles or Greeks would have been in the synagogue. Can you?

No, they're not allowed in the synagogue. But also these synagogues are not big. I mean if you see some of these synagogues, the ruins of them, they aren't giant structures. They're fairly small, at least the ones we've seen in this part of the world. Yeah, they're not giant. Remember the one in Cairo we went to? Yeah. Small, there must have been room for maybe a hundred people, no more than that. Yeah, they're not any of them very large. I mean there could be large ones too. All right.

We're then told that the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the bread. Now, this raises, I think, some interesting thought process about even the way the world operates today, right? So spiritual persecution by the Jews gives rise to civil unrest and more persecution. Can you see kind of what's happening here? Multiplier effect. Yeah, it really is. And so it's the unbelieving Jew that ultimately then gets the multitudes of unsaved Greeks and Gentiles all in another place, right?

So there's kind of a domino effect here, where we're seeing kind of the momentum moving towards antagonism to the truth of the word of God. And those are the Jews who don't believe. And I would contend that today, the Gentiles who don't believe sometimes take this kind of position in terms of just kind of the evolutionary thought process. It antagonizes everything that we believe about the Lord and everything from creation to in fact saving people and modifying their lives going forward.

Now my question to you is why would the Gentiles care? Well, they want the place to be peaceful and not upset. And here these people show up and start this disturbance in their minds. And so they automatically think, well, there's a ruckus going on and you're the cause of it. And think about this.

Have you ever been in a mainline church or even a prayer or a social gathering of some sort where there's a prayer of dedication or something? What is one of the requests that the world system, I'm channelizing that, but the world system always prays for?

It's peace, isn't it? Pray for peace. Does the Lord ever promise peace in his word? Only in the believer's heart and mind. Peace in this world system is just nothing that I see that's scriptural. And obviously God worked in the Old Testament to allow some victories to occur so that the land of Canaan could be occupied. But, I mean, Israel is a nation of the earth anyway, right? But the Gentile, the believer Gentile and or Jew now has a heavenly kingdom. And peace on this earth is not a reasonable prayer for the believer. I mean, pray that, but I don't think that's God's plan for the future here. If anything, things are going to get worse. And this isn't where our citizenship is anyway, is it? Everybody's kind of sitting there this morning. I presume that's some degree of agreement.

So a theme here. Macaulay, I think very, very carefully and I think beautifully articulated this. Jews claim that Christianity was an illegal religion. And so therefore, that may be a theme or a motive to get these Because you're going to believe Gentiles could be, many of them, overseen by the Roman occupation. Exciting. So let's look at this a little bit. I thought this was really pretty interesting.

So Acts 16, 19 through 21. Somebody get that. Inger, could you get that? And Tom, I'm going to ask you to look at Acts 18, 12, and 13. So these two sections of scripture really kind of identify the fact that maybe the unbelieving Jews were going to Rome to the Roman leadership and claiming that ultimately Christianity just doesn't make it. Now Rome may have been accepted with multiple faiths, but ultimately the unbelieving Jew is going to, just like the Pharisees, bringing the attention to the Romans to pilot that Christ, in fact, is not really appropriate for the Jewish tradition and this is not an acceptable religion. So, Ingrid, please, Acts 16, 19-21.

When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, these men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice. Notice, customs unlawful. And those are religious. that were unlawful with those of a religious base. Go ahead. Galileo was a deputy of Micaiah.

The Jews made insurrections with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat saying this fellow contrary to the law. Okay, so here again the accusations of Paul is that he's not really following a path of religiosity, if you will, or belief that's acceptable by the law. And the Roman law, and Macaulay outlines this extremely well, the Roman law was accepting of many faiths. But the unbelieving Jew is saying, look, this is not a faith that you've ever agreed to accept. And so they're appealing to to the government to say that these believers are outside the legal freedoms that they would have based on their beliefs.

That could have been one way these Gentiles ultimately got succumbed and ultimately put on the pathway of having their minds poisoned against the brethren. The result was that Paul and Barnabas remained for a long time, and they spoke boldly for the Lord. And that is contrary to what might seem reasonable here. These guys are being threatened, and there's increasingly a momentum against their beliefs and what they're preaching, but yet they're going to hang around here for a while. Welcome to Paul's ministry. Remember this is his first missionary journey. This is a learning curve for Paul. And the result is they bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

And this is in contrast to Antioch, where no miracles were described. Remember, Antioch was really what you looked at last week and that Roger reviewed with you. And by the way, from what's do miracles come? Let's look at Galatians 3, 1 through 5. And I think that really, I think, identifies the source of the miracles. And it's no different, really, than the source of a belief that relates to our Christian faith.

So who's got that? Jeremy, you got it? OK. Three, one, two, five. Yeah, please. Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish having begun by the spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Notice in verse 5 the miracles are by faith too. Are miracles occurring today? They can, but we're not seeing people being blamed for birth and now walking. But at the time, at the apostolic age, an act of faith was really what brought the miracles to be realized and ultimately explained. It was an act of faith. The miracles are on the same basis by faith as becoming saved was. Another difference from this ministry at Antioch is now that Paul and Barnabas needed to flee for their lives. That wasn't true in Antioch.

And now it is not only the Jews and their rulers, presumably, are those the Jewish rulers or are those the governmental rulers? I think they're the Jewish rulers. But the Gentiles that were persecuting the church. So this is just not the Jews anymore now.

There is, again, a concern among the Gentiles that these men are of false faith and need to be persecuted. So now the second section, where I read verses six and seven here, there's kind of a difficult partition here, because Paul and Barnabas move on to Lystra, and the Derbe is kind of a transition from the first section of them being in Iconia. So off of the Lystra and Derbe, cities of Iconia, and there they preach the gospel.

Any surprise? I don't think so. So the miracle, verses 8 through 10, is a man made to walk who was crippled from birth. Let's read 8 through 10. And at Lystra there sat a certain man, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked.

The same heard Paul speaking, who, fasting eyes upon him, and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, said with a loud voice, stand upright on my feet, and he leaped up and walked. The man was described as one who steadfastly beheld him and perceived that he had faith to be healed. So here's really a man responding to what Paul represented by saying this man has healing powers. Now keep in mind there have been healings before where in fact faith on the part of that person being healed was not evident. But this example relates to this man having faith that he could be healed. And on response to Paul's loud voice, he leaped and walked, as we just read. Note the resemblance to the first miracle. Let's look at Acts 3, 2 through 8. Margaret, maybe you can read that one for us. And I think I remember teaching this part.

And a certain man laying from his mother's womb was carried whom they had laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called beautiful to ask alms of them that entered into the temple. who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms and Peter fastening his eyes upon him with John said look on us and he gave heed unto them expecting to receive something of them and Peter said silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk and he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength and he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple walking and leaping and praising God.

What are the similarities? He was lame from birth. Lame from birth. Did he respond by faith? He did in a way. He was expecting to receive something. We're not told what he's expecting to receive. I would say he was expecting to receive alms. Yeah, I don't know that he's expecting.

That money? Yes. Yeah, this is. Coins. That's my suspicion. And so that's a contrast a little bit to this second example. Well, no, but in six he says silver and gold have I none. So Peter obviously thinks that's what he's looking for. So there's a difference. The first healing was Peter. This is Paul. Right.

What are some other similarities or differences? He leaped up. Yeah, I mean the response was pretty immediate, right? This was not a gradual rehabilitation of physical medicine program over the next three months, right? This guy's up and around immediately.

Other similarities or contrasts? Well, yeah, they had a look at him, saw, there's like a The eye contact thing? I wonder if that's like a Christ thing, you know, keep your eyes on Christ and all that, just kind of a more natural kind of... That's a good application. Of course we not only want to keep our eyes on Christ, we want the eyes of Christ to be pervasive through us, right? Anything else?

I mean, we don't have to spend a lot of time here, but it's just interesting you compare this healing, it's similar in many ways, but a little bit different in some ways too. The reaction of the group. I said we weren't going to read this whole chapter. We're not. When we have little short segments, we will.

And when the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the speech in Lyconia, the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter, and Paul, Mercury, because he was the chief speaker. And the priest of Jupiter, whose temple was before the city, brought oxen and garlands under the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the multitudes." Now, notice here, he talked in the speech of Lyconia, by the way which is not Greek.

This is a different language. And remember, at the time, You know, the speaking in tongues, this could be exemplary of him speaking a known language. I think that's kind of neat. I mean, I think that's a hidden kind of subliminal message here. But this wasn't Greek. So either Paul was learned in this language or this was, to some extent, a miraculous gift of tongues that he was able to speak in their language. I think that's again kind of a side bullet, but I thought it's kind of interesting.

Now Barnabas and Paul are deified here. And by the way, in some versions, we're looking at the Greek interpretation of what they're being called, and in other ones, the Roman interpretation. So the Roman slash Greek would be, as Barnabas is called, Jupiter or Zeus. And for Paul it's Mercurius or Mercury and Hermes. So keep in mind that these were the traditional mythologies of the time in terms of the quote religious experience. These Greek gods and Roman gods. And so we got an admixture here of Roman government and oversight and we are dealing with people of Greek origin.

So it's interesting the way the scriptures interpreting based on the source of the scripture, whether this should be Roman terminology, whether it should be Greek. Again, kind of unimportant, but it's kind of interesting because some versions have the Greek interpretation and some have the Roman interpretation. Paul and Barnabas then preach and Paul is stoned. This preaching has consequences, not just a rebellious atmosphere surrounding the preaching, but Paul pays the price for this preaching.

What's a garland? I've defined it for you. I had to look this up. I wasn't quite sure what a garland was. I get the feeling it's similar to what victorious athletes get in the Olympics as far as that custom goes. According to my reading, it was also a crown that the priest might wear when they actually were carrying out sacrificial offerings to the Lord. By the way, it can also be worn by the victim. What's your thought there about the victim? Who was the victim?

Are you thinking the crown of thorns? Yes. I didn't go back to look at that scripturally as to whether this is the same Greek term used for the crown of thorns. It could be. But that was a mocking crown that they put on him because he said he was the king of the Jews. And I think here the garland is interpreted more of the Jewish hierarchy and leadership. But anyway. And Christ was never really a victim. Right. Which verse says that they put a garland on him? I don't see it in mine.

I just read that didn't I, yeah verse 13 and the priesthood who's temple was before the city brought oxen and garlands under the gate so they brought a series of these crowns and would have done sacrifice for the multitudes which makes you interpret that as maybe, since it's a sacrifice and it was the priest of Jupiter, although the priest of Jupiter again would be interpreted really as of the earthly system and not of the Jewish, you know. That's a pagan god. Yeah, pagan god. But, you know, when I think about oxen as being sacrificed in New Orleans, then in terms of also the sacrifice that the Jewish leadership would have been carrying out, I don't know how.

You know, I think, too, at this time, there was such a commingling of Jewish religion and the pagan religion, because these are Romans and Greeks who already were pagans, and they kind of I think many of these communities kind of combined some of these traditions.

Bury the ashes and do both. Yeah, I really do. Because I think you see that even today. You can go into certain countries where they were one religion or another and then Christianity is brought in and there's a big mingling, co-mingling of religions. Keep in mind also their deification was to you know, theoretical gods, right? How far off could they be? You'd think after all that preaching they'd figure out something different.

I mean, if you think back, think about your schooling and some of us aren't so young and some of us are younger, but I know the schooling we had was in Greek mythology and Roman mythology. How much did you study Jesus Christ in your public school system? I mean, when we study history, the Bible is basically ignored, even back when I was a student. I mean, but Roman? History and Roman mythology and Greeks, that was taught regularly, wasn't it?

Well, we all had to read the Iliad and Odyssey. That was a required part of history. And then verse 16 in reference to God and his power, who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Kind of interesting. I mean that in a sense really says look around everybody. There's something more to this than based on your Greek or Roman mythology.

It says that they rent their clothes. This is Paul and Barnabas. Why would they rent their clothes? Not because they couldn't afford them anymore. This is from the offerings of the body, right? Well, renting clothes was done by the Jews in cases of extreme indignation or deep grief. And it's kind of interesting to see this carryover of a tradition that related to the Jewish legal system. I mean, so Paul and Barbas were so disturbed by what they were experiencing that they rent their clothes.

Wasn't it more cultural? I mean, it's more just a cultural thing, not necessarily have anything to do with the law. But there's reference to the Jewish tradition to of writing their clothes in terms of in response to indignation. So it could be cultural, too. I didn't really try to interpret whether it was more of Jewish tradition or more. You're saying they rent their clothes because. There was all this reference to the pagan gods and they were calling them by pagan names.

I see. OK, I got it. So that was. What a weird thing to do. I'll show you. I'm going to rip my clothes. We're not told that they're entirely taken off here. We're not talking about a public demonstration of nudity here. I think it's obviously the outer clothing. But I mean, even just, because clothing was a big deal then, right? rip something or whatever of your own. It'd be like, you know, I'm going to rip my skirt. It might have been picked up from the Jews custom, especially of the original high priest, that if he heard an infraction, he'd rip part of his garment part way just to say, I heard that.

I think it's just an outward demonstration of open indignation and grief. So Paul and Barnes were really concerned and upset by, in fact, what had occurred here. It's just interesting how emotive they are. Something that's contrary to what they're teaching, and they have this extremely intense reaction to it. That was dictated a lot by the culture at the time. That was an appropriate cultural response. to something that greatly upset you, but it's just interesting, I don't know, we tend to not think of these few characters in the Bible as humans, and we tend to kind of, I don't know, at least in my past, I kind of tended to, oh, they're saints and they do all this stuff, no, they're humans, they get upset, whether or not this was appropriate response. We're just told that they ripped their clothing.

They had this demonstrative response. They're humans. It's always interesting to see. This is in response to their ultimately bringing oxen and garlands under the gates and would have done sacrifice for the multitude. This is really a pagan tradition. Paul and Barnabas are responding, wow. This is unbelievable that this is still going on here. But they're also calling them by pagan names. I mean they had to be pretty upset. Deification is in the minds of the world system. Because of what had happened here in terms of this man being healed. Sorry Bob real quick. It's also interesting.

You know, kind of the modern secular narrative is that obviously Jesus existed, but he didn't rise from the dead. That all this was built on myths, and all these apostles were kind of opportunists, basically, taking advantage of the superstitions of the time. Well, look at the examples where they could have easily taken advantage of the religious fervor of the time. I mean, they could have said, yeah, we are gods. but they were so dedicated to what the modern world thinks as a lie. We of course know it's different, but it's just interesting to see how they could have easily taken advantage of the situation for their own benefit, but they're dedicated to what they understand to be the truth.

So I think it's not... I don't think it's fair, and I don't think the historic record supports the fact that they were just taking advantage of the religious superstition of the time. They could have taken advantage here, but they didn't. They stayed true to what eventually was going to lead them in the exact opposite direction. Rather than being deified, they're going to be stoned. So why would they do that? Boy, these are men of faith, aren't they?

So Paul at that point substantiates one God. This is very important, and I think this is one of the highlights of my preparation today. Paul substantiates one God through what process? Through natural revolution. So let's look at that in more detail.

Verse 17, nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us, he's relating to God, Jehovah, the first person of the Godhead, 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. By the way, if you read the Hungry Hearts series, it's kind of interesting because Miles is talking about the trials and tribulations that we have in terms of their path of growth. And his analogy was to the hard, harsh winters, cold, much snow. And he talks about the fruit that follows in the spring, a very rich harvest. after hard winters.

And I think in a sense, through nature, God had been in the process from time eternal revealing himself. And I think if we further that on, I ask the question to you, is this a manner by which we can reach an unbelieving world system today? By just pointing out the creation before us, Jeremy? biggest arguments in history against God is how can a good God allow evil to happen? Absolutely, yeah.

Well the question that Paul's almost posing here is, no the question is how can anything good happen to us? He says look at all the blessing and the happiness that you have. And to me that's a difficult, it is a difficult question for Christians to say how can bad, why do bad things happen? I think it's more challenging for atheists to say, why does anything good happen? Why is there any goodness in man? Why do we treat each other nicely? Why do we ever have happiness and stuff? And so he just kind of turns it on them. And I think that can be an effective way. answer why bad things happen, we can just have them answer why do we have any sense of good towards each other.

It boils down to something very simple I was taught many years ago when I first moved to Denver by a man of the Lord who's been in the missionary business for a long time. He said basically when you relate to the world there are kind of three basic questions and I think to some extent it relates to a very simplistic question is man basically good or bad? I would suggest the world system thinks man is mostly good and has a few bad habits here and there, right?

That's the worldview. But the question that John Davis would ask is, where do I come from? Why am I here? And where am I going? It's kind of like your neighbor, Holly. I mean those are kind of three basic questions that every one of us has to answer. So from an evolutionary world system perspective they've come from evolution. They're here to do some mostly good things and they're going to dust after they die. I mean that's the world view. So using that is kind of an example.

Let's look at Psalms 19, 1 through 6. I was just going to answer your question too about can God be revealed through natural revelation. It almost seems like there's a difference to me, like let's say an atheist is a person who doesn't believe in God. It's almost like God can be revealed through what he's given to us, but only Christ can be revealed through the gospel.

Correct. And we're saved through the gospel. We're not saved by the creation or our conscience. The three C's. Creation, conscience, and Christ. Christ is who saves. not creation, but the verses I'm going to share with you really reflect that God has made a mark on every man in every circumstance by his creation.

Psalms 19.1-6, who has that?

Romans 1.18-20, Doris do you have one of those? The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. Boy, I mean... I didn't read six. Yeah, read six. His going forth is from the end of the earth, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Alright, so this is a revolution to all of mankind throughout all of history.

Romans 1, 18-20. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Behold the truth in unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in men, for God has showed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are merely seen, being understood by things that are made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Yeah, so, I mean, by the way, multiple other examples in scripture about the creation. And in fact, all men are accountable just by looking in the skies, the stars, the heavens. The Lord has reached every man in that regard.

And that's kind of what Paul is saying here. Look, I'm appealing to you through the natural revelation of God. You're all accountable. And just look at the stars above you. So evidence that all are condemned by natural revelation is what Palm just read in Romans 1, 18-20. Natural revelation says God exists.

And then that second part that's covered in Romans 2 to a modest extent is the conscience then is in all men. The consciousness of God. Now that conscience doesn't save because conscience has cultural influences, right? I mean if cannibalism is in the culture, obviously you kill your sister because you want something to eat. I mean that's an extreme example. But the point is that the consciousness of God is in all men, in all domains and geographic locations in this world. And it's only Christ that saves.

But what Paul's appealing to these the skeptics now is that they are accountable for natural evolution. Did Paul accomplish this here do you think? How many of these skeptics who in fact were really accusing Paul of his crazy minded faith did come to the Lord by him pointing out, we don't have any evidence that anybody did or there may be evidence that some did. The scripture doesn't tell us here. But see verses 18 and 19 here. In verse 18 and 19 of chapter 14, it says, and with these sayings scarce restrained they the multitudes from doing sacrifice unto them.

But there came Jews from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. So there's the result. The result is not very encouraging, is it? So let's take a look at this. So details are not provided, but Paul was stoned and presumed dead. But then he and Barbas traveled a short distance to Derbe, about 16 miles in distance, and preached some more.

So I guess the question comes up, in 2 Corinthians 11.25, we find that this is the only time that Paul was stoned. I mean, Paul went through all kinds of trials and tribulations, really detailed in 2 Corinthians 11. But this, and by the way in 1125 it specifically says that this occurred in Lystra. So this was his only stoning and again here he was presented to be dead.

Persecution, welcome to Christianity. We will not turn to this now, 2 Timothy 3, 10 through 12, but there are so many examples in the epistles of persecution, trials and tribulations as being something that we are all really subjected to. Now the question is how many of us today are being stung, presumed dead, beaten dead outside the city?

I mean, isn't it interesting they put them outside the city too? Well, just look at the case of the young woman that was in Sudan, who just was released. I mean she had a death sentence, I don't know how they were going to kill her, but she was going to be killed. Did you all read about the story that the Sudanese woman who was jailed for six months, pregnant, delivered her child in jail, handcuffed? Anyway, there is persecution in these kinds of trials and tributes going on around the world. Are we being persecuted this way? In my persecution recently, I was just being accused of being a believer. How could my science be true?

But I mean, that didn't hurt. In fact, it was uplifting. This isn't the kind of thing Paul's going through here. So I think we just need to say we live in an age in which our day-to-day persecution is minimal, if any. But we look back and we glory in the fact that God gave us men and women who, in fact, suffered and in some places in the world are still suffering on his behalf.

Presumed dead, but he was not. Is this a miracle? What do you think? Do we have not sufficient detail to say this was a natural recovery? Was he feigning death? The Lord wasn't through with him. His ministry wasn't done yet. Is this a miracle? Do you think he was actually revived over an immediate period to ultimately go ahead and preach the next day in Derby?

You get the impression it wasn't just one or two people who threw rocks at the guy. A random hit might have knocked him barely dizzy and then the rest of them clapped in approval. just walked off. I think it was more concentrated and vociferous than that. I'm willing to give the Lord healing capabilities here over a very short interval. He was presumed dead and now he's alive. Was he dead? No, he was not dead, but he was presumed dead. So the worldly citizenship must have had some evidence that this man was dead. It's not described as American, but I think it probably was.

Notice this group included Jews from as far off as Antioch. By the way, Antioch is 100 miles away. For people to be coming in from Antioch to respond to this preaching is an amazing travel. How would you like to be, let's see, walking to where? To Cheyenne? How far is that? 120? 110? I mean, and this happened over a fairly short interval.

And the multitudes really relates to the local Listerans. I'm using that term loosely, people who lived in Listera. And they were all persuaded. So we've got a whole gathering here of angry Jews from as far away as Antioch to the local population who in fact were persuaded to get involved. So the last section, I've entitled Paul and Barnabas retrace their path from Derby to Antioch. And this is not simply Antioch in Turkey or Asia, but it's in fact the Antioch back east of the Mediterranean.

And a very important message is in verse 22, 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. How do you interpret to confirm, exhort, and continue in the faith, having been through what Paul and Barnabas have been through? What are they telling the disciples or those who are part of the body of believers. They might have given them a brief report on, here's what happened to us, and here we are still alive and still preaching, and not turning into a bragging contest because we probably still have band-aids and wounds and other things. It's kind of like saying, look, this is the same mess you're going to get into, but continue on in it. It's not in vain that you're doing this. I'm going to make a statement here.

It all relates to our citizenship, doesn't it? When we're surrounded by trials and tribulations, whether it be illness or ultimate stresses that relate to work or home, I mean, I think the pair of glasses we look through has to increasingly be, I'm not sure if I can say better or worse after my cataract operation, but anyway, it has to be through the glasses of citizenship. You've got to look at yourself as being positioned above and present there from eternity past to eternity future. When we look through earthly glasses we can only be dismayed and ultimately confused. Got to look through heavenly glasses.

And I think that's probably what this exhortation really was about. Look, we've been through a lot, but praise the Lord. This is who we are. This is what we represent in terms of spiritual truth. And get used to it, everybody. Be built by grace and truth as to who we are. Well, I think, you know, today we can look at what's going on in the world.

The world is crazy. I mean with all the things going on in Ukraine and Israel and the Sudan, you can get so depressed every time you look at the news and see if you don't have a heavenly view of who you are and where you're going. the world can be pretty depressing. It's a sex pool. It is a sex pool. It makes you want to cry every day.

We have so many Jewish friends and they're angst. I cannot tell you what they are going through because they're seeing Israel and this isn't what they have. Israel is the land and this earth is what they have. They have no eternity view and everything is about what is happening right now in Israel and they are, I'm not kidding you, our friends are over the top with emotion about what is happening there that they can do nothing about and it's just so sad. Very sad. I mean it's sad in general what's happening, but to not have another view is really very sad.

Notice on the way back that ultimately they appointed elders in every church, and this is by prayer with fasting, a mandate for level spiritual leadership, correct? Notice appointing elders in every church that they in fact touched base with on the way back. I think that really says that spiritual leadership through elders really is a very important church concept. We're fortunate to have the three elders we do in this church. I mean that spiritual leadership. is so critically important. I think it's exemplified here.

And on the way back, they passed throughout Pisidia, dot, dot, dot, to Pamphylia. And when they had preached the word at Perga, dot, dot, dot, to Talia, and there sailed to Antioch. So again, to document, this isn't the Antioch in Turkey. This is the Antioch back on the east coast of the Mediterranean. So they sailed back to Antioch. From whence they had been, they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. Notice that what had been committed to the grace of God was for the work which had been fulfilled.

My question to you, is this commitment to the grace of God or response motivated by law? Commitment. What's a commitment made by the Spirit? through the grace of God versus a commitment to say I'm going to get this done because I've got this task that I've been given by God to do. When I think of commitment I'm thinking of some intellectual decision to some task.

But we're told here that their commitment was to the grace of God to carry out the work so that it would be fulfilled. I think one is like a law and one is like a gift. Alright, so think about how the Spirit works in each of our individual lives. When we're convicted by the Spirit, how's that different than being convicted by the mind or the flesh?

I think there's a rest. Oh, okay, that's a good point. There's a rest. What else? For the Spirit, it's for our conformity to Christ. Alright, does the Spirit, does that rest make it easy? What does the missionary say when she or he is called by God? What does that mean? I think of J. Vernon McGee because I listen to him on the way to work every morning.

J. Vernon is right on much of the time and he is a little legal at times.

He said, I had no desire or calling to go into the world to preach the gospel on a foreign land. Think about the ministry through the radio that he had reaching many lands across the world in many different languages. I'm not putting him on a pedestal, but here's a man of faith that was called to preach the word of God and his life was committed to that, but yet his ministry was by radio and then translation into many languages and effectively probably much more influential than him going to the Sudan or to Nepal. I'm not saying that people aren't called to those ministries, but the rest that the Lord gives, despite the difficulty, is really spirit led.

And so I don't sense in any way Paul and Barnabas were responding to some legal task here. That they were led by the spirit to be ultimately moving throughout Galatia and the rest of Eurasia to ultimately spread the word and persecute this part of it. And that's what they're sharing when they get back. So how do we answer this inquiry?

Somebody turn to 2 Corinthians 1.12. The first one, again, it reads that you get a stallard to go to the head of the class. Who's winning? Who's going to win?

Now this is our boast. Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially in our relations with you in a holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace. Amen. Not according to worldly wisdom. That's what earthly tests are about. We all have a day to day experience here, we make good decisions hopefully, we use our mind to make those decisions, but we walk by grace according to the glory of God. You've got to have that view. If we're walking with self and ultimately looking for the world to commend us, we're walking in the wrong pair of shoes and not by grace.

I think that's what 2 Corinthians 1.12 really says.

In Antioch, the missionary report was given back home. Was this a precedent? Think about when we have missionaries return and ultimately they give us a report of what they've been doing. In a sense, Paul set that precedent here. That after his first missionary journey back in Antioch, he in fact is informing the body of Christ in Antioch about what's been accomplished. Interesting, isn't it?

To look back. So they rehearsed all things that God had done with them, and that he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles. Keep in mind, this is the first news that Gentiles are coming to the Lord. And they rehearsed all things that God had done with them, and that he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.

I guess that is the end, isn't it? So ultimately, this is the report back of what they had been praying for, what they had been supporting, and they had no clue that ultimately the Gentiles were now going to be brought into the body. And subsequent to this, we're going to see Gentile after Gentile after Gentile come to the Lord.

And the second and third missionary journeys are very much about Gentiles, and much less about the Jew. Tom, close us in prayer, will you please? And my father, thank you for what your word has said here in Romans about the very first missionary journey that Paul did. It doesn't mean the very first of all missionary journeys, but Paul used this particular servant in a particular mighty way among the Gentiles. And without him, the rest of us previous Gentiles would be nowhere to eat to. So to you be the glory, Lord, and bless this word to our body. to our life, soul, and spirit to where it would redound to your good in the week to come. In Jesus' name, amen.