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  Sermon of the Week

Look up the passage

  22/5/05  
  A Flame that won't be Quenched Acts 14:1-28

     

  If you were here two weeks ago you'll remember how, when Paul and Barnabas got to Pisidian Antioch they first went to the synagogue to speak about Jesus as the promised Messiah, but then when their message was rejected by the Jews they turned to the Gentiles. And the Gentiles gladly received this message of salvation for all people. Well, now Luke continues his history of Paul and Barnabas' missionary journey as they move on from Antioch to Iconium, to the south east. And we read that the same thing happened here. So what's this same thing?
  Clearly it's the rejection of the gospel by the Jews and its acceptance by the Gentiles. It's almost as if the events in Antioch were the trigger for an increase in opposition. From this moment on Paul and Barnabas encounter a growing opposition, including, as we discover today, physical threats to their life.
   But first, notice that as they speak, as usual in the Jewish synagogue to start with, a great number of both Jews and Greeks become believers (v.1). There's no question that their message is persuasive for those God has called.
   I think we need to be reminded of this. Paul and Barnabas proclaimed the message of the gospel and a great number of their hearers believed. It'd be easy to read the report of the opposition they encountered and think that their proclamation had failed. But it hadn't. A great many believed. Why? Well, first because of the way they presented the gospel. We saw last time the way they presented the gospel by proclaiming the word of God, accompanied by works of power. We saw how they reminded their hearers of the things God had done and how God's actions intersected with their own experience of the world. And here again, in v3, we see how the words they speak are testified to by God with signs and wonders done by the apostles. And as a result of this combined action of God's power and the persuasive speech of his servants, Paul and Barnabas, many people come to believe in Jesus as the Son of God.
   But that's only half the story. Again we see the same thing that happened in Antioch. "The unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers." The Jewish leaders, who were jealous of the attention that Paul and Barnabas were getting and worried that their message was being preached indiscriminately to the Gentiles, began to oppose them. This time, though, their opposition turned to violence. The Jews and some of the Gentiles who sided with them apparently planned to stir up a crowd to first insult them and then to stone them. But the disciples in the town heard about their plan and warned Paul and Barnabas to get out of there.
   Now you might think this is a terrible thing for God to allow to happen to his envoys. Why didn't God protect them? Well, as we've seen before God is sovereign, but he doesn't necessarily stop people from carrying out the evil plans they make. But neither does he allow those evil plans to stop his own plans for the salvation of those he's chosen.
   Think about what happened when the great persecution arose in Jerusalem following the stoning of Stephen. Many of the Christians were forced to flee, but in doing so they simply moved to fresh ground where they began to plant the seed of the gospel all over again. And so it is here. Paul and Barnabas are driven out of Antioch so they move on to Iconium. They stay there for a long time, whatever that means, but long enough for there to be a reasonable number of disciples, then they're driven out again. And this time they go on to Lystra and Derbe where they continued proclaiming the gospel.
   Now Lystra was a small regional town, about 40 or 50 years old. It was linked with the cult of Zeus and Hermes, probably because of a legend that the two gods had once visited the city.
   In fact the Roman poet Ovid told the story in Metamorphoses, a recounting of local legends. He tells how Zeus and Hermes visited the region of Phrygia disguised as mortal men. But as they sought hospitality they were rejected by all and sundry. Eventually they were offered hospitality in a tiny cottage by an elderly peasant couple named Philemon and Baucis, who entertained them despite their poverty. As a result the gods returned to reward them while sending a flood to destroy the homes of those who refused to welcome them in.
   So you can imagine that when these two strangers appear and perform this miraculous act, healing a man who'd been crippled from birth, it doesn't take long for the locals to put 2 and 2 together and work out that something supernatural is going on. And they're certainly not going to make the same mistake the people in the story made of failing to honour the gods when they arrive. And so they start calling out in their native language "The gods have come down to us in human form!" Paul and Barnabas obviously don't speak Lycaonian because it's not until the priests come out with oxen to sacrifice and garlands to put around their necks that they realise what's going on.
   Then they too get excited, though for a different reason. They're horrified that the people would treat them as anything more than ordinary human beings. Here's a classic ethical dilemma for the preacher or evangelist. This is the perfect opportunity, while they have their rapt attention, to order them to become Christians. They've just been given enormous influence over this whole township. All they have to do is to say the word and the whole town could be converted.
   In fact it's interesting to reflect on how the adulation of an audience or a congregation is dealt with by various church leaders these days. There are places where leaders are held in such high esteem by their followers that it's almost like they worship them aren't there? These sorts of leaders have enormous influence for good or evil over their followers. But that just means that they have an even greater responsibility to show integrity in the way they deal with it. Some use their power to get people to give beyond their means. Some use it to draw worshippers away from smaller congregations. Some use it to satisfy their sexual desire. Others downplay it in favour of the power of the gospel.
   Well that's what Paul and Barnabas do. They tear their clothes as a sign of their horror at the people's blasphemy. Then they rush out into the crowd to tell them the truth of the situation. They're just messengers sent to bring a message of salvation, to call them to turn away from the very thing they're about to do, from the worship of idols, of creatures, of worthless things, to serve the living God, the God who made heaven and earth, who continues to provide us with all we need to enjoy life.
   Now I want you to notice how Paul changes his approach when he preaches the gospel to these uneducated pagans. In the previous speech that Luke records, in Pisidian Antioch, he begins with the Biblical record of God's revelation of himself through Moses and the prophets. But here, where their background is the folk religion of Greek and Roman mythology he takes a different tack. What is it he concentrates on? Here it's the natural world. He points out the foolishness of worshipping things that have no inherent value, dumb idols, human creations. Instead he points to the God who lives, who created the world around them. You can almost imagine him standing at the gates of the city pointing up to the mountain range in front of them or to the sea in the distance, the blue sky above them and saying I want to tell you about the God who made all of this. And not only that, but this is the God who continues to act in his creation. It may seem like he's been silent because he's allowed people to go their own way but that's not the case.
   That's what so many people today think isn't it? God has stopped being relevant to our way of life. We're no longer a Christian country. We're now a secular society. After all we don't see God intervening in our lives to set us straight if he thinks we're going the wrong way. So they conclude, along with Nietzsche, that God is dead.
   But God isn't dead. He continues to involve himself with his world. He continues to provide rain and sunshine and fertility to our soil so we can enjoy the best of life. As James 1:17 tells us, "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights." (It's interesting when we have a long dry spell like now how people decide to pray for rain)
   And as Paul says, God may have overlooked the way the nations have gone their own way in the past but now he calls them to turn from their idolatry to worship him, the true and living God. So do you see how Paul modifies his approach to fit the context of his audience? He doesn't change the basic message. He just changes the way he presents it.
   We need to think about how we might do the same thing. Where will you start when you want to tell someone today about Jesus. It may be that you've got to start with where they are, in their secular mindset. So you might begin with the issues of being human in this stressful age we live in. What does it mean to be truly human? You might begin with people's desire for a spiritual dimension to their life, in a world that's had the transcendent stripped from it. We live in an age that claims to be secular, yet people are incredibly interested in the spiritual. You might want to begin with the desire for community in a world where dislocation is a common theme of human experience. You might want to begin with the question of security in a world where nothing seems very secure any more, where the threat of terrorism is a reality, where inflation still threatens our financial security, where people are mortgaged to the hilt and another interest rate rise is their worst fear.
   But wherever you start, make sure you finish where Paul finishes, with the living God, and with Jesus Christ who came to show us what God is really like and to call us back to him.
   But back to the story. Paul and Barnabas manage to stop them from treating them as gods, but that just provides the opening for some Jews who had followed him from Iconium to again stir up the crowd and this time manage to get them to stone him. Perhaps they played on the fact that Paul and Barnabas had duped the crowd into thinking they were gods when in fact they were mere human beings. Forget the fact that they'd done all they could to deter them from thinking of them as gods. The media can always turn the truth around if it wants to. And so the crowd turns on Paul and stones him, leaving him for dead. But Paul wasn't dead. When the disciples, those who had been converted under his ministry, gathered around him, he got up and just to show that he wasn't going to be defeated by this sort of opposition, he went back into the city.
   Luke then gives us a shorthand account of the rest of the first missionary journey. The next day they left for Derbe. He doesn't talk about how Paul managed a 100km walk after what had been done to him the day before. Di and I are hoping to do a 100 km walk in Spain next year when we take long service leave and I'm worried whether my knees and feet will manage it. But imagine if you'd just been stoned and left for dead, trying something like that! But that's what he did.
   And when they get to Derbe what do they do? They preach the gospel there as well. You or I might have decided it was time for a rest. Perhaps a couple of weeks on a Greek island for R & R mightn't hurt. (In fact that sounds like a great idea for next year as well, doesn't it?) But no, they have a job to do that can't wait for their wounds to heal. And in fact we're told they made many disciples before deciding it was time to return to Syrian Antioch to report back to the church there.
   But notice that they don't go straight home. First they return the way they've come. They realise that they've left a whole lot of disciples behind who need to be strengthened in their faith. Again here's an important lesson for us. It's not enough to just preach the gospel, even when you're getting converts left right and centre like Paul and Barnabas were. It's just as important to follow them up, to make sure that they understand what it is they've believed in. They'll almost certainly have a whole lot of questions that they need answering. And they need to be encouraged to persevere in the face of opposition from those around them. You can imagine that if Paul and Barnabas met opposition to their preaching of the gospel that their converts would have experienced the same sort of opposition, particularly those who'd been converted from Judaism. So Paul and Barnabas returned the way they came. And notice that they do two main things. They encourage the new disciples to stand firm in the face of persecution. Paul had the bruises to show that he understood what was involved in standing firm for Christ. But he also knew that the end result was that he and they would enter into the kingdom of God. And the second thing they did was to appoint elders in each town to lead the church there. Not just one either. Each church needed several elders. These were the ones who would ensure that the new converts were taught well, that they persevered in the faith, that they stood firm in the face of opposition and that they were supported when times got tough. And just as the church in Antioch had when they sent out Paul and Barnabas, after "prayer and fasting they entrusted them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe."
   Paul and Barnabas then return to Antioch where they call the whole church together so they can report on what has happened, and especially on how God has opened a door for the gospel. This is the final thing to notice from this account. It was essential for the ongoing work of the gospel that those who had first sent them out be informed of the results of their work. This wasn't just Barnabas and Paul's mission. It was the mission of the whole church. The Peters' work in Chile or the Prentice's work in Namibia isn't just their work. It's also ours, as those who have sent them out. We're their partners in the gospel. That's why it's important when they return on furlough that we invite them to come and tell us about how their work is going. That way both they and we are encouraged and are able to encourage one another.
   Well next time and the week after that, we'll be looking at how disagreements arise even when the Church appears to be doing well and how the church deals with them.
     
     
   Questions for discussion: Acts 14
  
  1. Why was it Paul and Barnabas' practice "as usual" to go into the Jewish Synagogue (v.1)?

  2. What do you think Luke means by "so effectively"?

  3. Were Paul and Barnabas too easily frightened into moving on to Lystra and Derbe (v.6)? What you have done?

  4. What was the result of the persecution of Paul and Barnabas (vs8-13)?

  5. How does Paul's explanation of the gospel in Lystra vary from the way he presented it in Pisidian Antioch (13:16-41)?

  6. Why don't Paul and Barnabas go to the nearest port and sail straight back to Antioch (v.21)?

  7. What was important about them calling the Church in Antioch together to report on what had happened to them (v.27)?

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