EPISODE 59 ACTS CHAPTER 14 " Paul Turning The World Upside Down"

Welcome to Share the Word. Many, if not most Christians who understand the development of Christianity will agree that the Apostle Paul has had a greater impact on the world more than any other follower of Jesus. And in chapter 14, we'll see exactly why he was able to do what he did. Paul spearheaded a movement that his opponents said was turning the world upside down. Let's listen in. For a hundred imaginary points, can you name that movie theme music?

Maybe if you grew up on another planet, it doesn't sound familiar to you, but for most of us, it's obvious, isn't it? In fact, since the first film came out in 1976, titled simply Rocky, I think a half dozen sequels or maybe more have been made. They're all pretty similar, it seems to me as I look back on it, and there's a little doubt where the storyline is headed. But they all did well at the box office because we love a story that speaks to the triumph of the human spirit. If you're from Pluto and the movies in the Rocky franchise are news to you, they're about a seemingly overmatched heavyweight boxer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who manages to become the heavyweight champion of the world. The movies all lead up to a similar climax, a big championship match where Rocky is in the ring, seems to be completely overmatched by some invincible, glaring, muscle-bound opponent.

Everyone seems even more formidable each new movie. You know he's going to get his brains beat out. He's going to take a severe beating, and he does. Rocky gets manhandled for most of the fight in what seems like a total mismatch, but by the later rounds, he looks totally exhausted and like he's done. And he gets floored by a final powerful blow by one of his opponents, collapsing him to the canvas. He's lying there, dazed and bleeding.

You wonder if he's even alive. In the original, I can still remember his manager yelling from the corner, Just stay down, kid, just stay down. But somehow, Rocky gets himself up off the mat one more time and against all odds mounts the most improbable comeback imaginable as the theme music blares over. Eventually, mustering a last burst of energy and landing a big shot that catches his opponent by surprise and knocks him out. And Rocky is the champ one more time. Cheers.

I bet you are thinking, What in the world does that have to do with anything in the New Testament? Well, stay tuned. Back in chapter 9, when I was describing for you Saul's conversion, do you remember God telling the prophet Ananias at that time, Go, for this man, referring to Saul, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles, to their kings, and to the people of Israel. And I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. God was speaking to his prophet, who he wanted to welcome Saul of Tarsus to his new team, we might say. The emphatic go was because Ananias was not really interested in going.

He was hesitant to go meet up with this fellow who had come to Damascus for the purpose of hunting down Christians. Notice, though, God didn't tell Ananias, I will show Saul what awesome things he is going to accomplish for me. But he said, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. At the time, I didn't comment on this because that's a very interesting line. But in today's lesson, Acts chapter 14, we're going to start to understand just what that line meant. Last time we were discussing the outset of what is usually referred to as Paul's first missionary journey, when Barnabas and he were commissioned by their home church in Antioch, Syria, to carry the gospel westward.

Their objective was not only to share the story of Jesus in new places, but also to plant local Christian churches wherever they found people who would accept it, to try and then reproduce in more places what God had been doing for some time now in Antioch. Remember, when I say churches, just as when Luke says churches here in Acts, we're talking about groups of people, groups of believers who met together to worship God and learn what Christians should believe and think and how Christians should live. These early Christians most often met in whoever's home, and the group was the largest. In the Roman province of Galatia, Paul had targeted the cities of Pisidian Antioch and a few others, where they got a mixed response to their preaching. Some listened to it and received the message of Christ.

Others, especially Jews in those places, were not only put off by the apostles' message, but so angered that they ultimately drove Paul and Barnabas out of the city of Pisidian Antioch. By the time they left there, though, there was already a sizable number of new believers. They then turned their sights toward Iconium, a city 95 miles to the east, like five days' worth of travel. That place still exists today, by the way. It's called now Konya in Turkey. Again, there was a divided response there, but Luke says a large number of both Jews and Gentiles accepted the gospel message about Jesus.

Those in opposition, however, were so opposed that they were actually plotting against the apostles' lives, and when the Christians got word of that, Paul and Barnabas secretly slipped out of that city and headed south into the countryside. After about 30 miles of looking over their shoulders, wondering if they were going to be pursued, they came to a smaller town called Lystra. The only notable thing about this place was a beautiful temple there to Zeus, just outside the city's gates. It had been there for as long as anybody remembered and probably looked kind of out of place in this location. Lystra was not a Roman colony, just a provincial town. There was no Jewish synagogue there.

The people were less sophisticated, we'd say, country folks. Now, you have to understand some background to understand what happens next at this place. A well-known Roman author named Ovid, in his book titled Metamorphoses, records a legend about this particular town. According to the legend, some time in the distant past, the gods Zeus and Hermes had come down to this town disguised in human form. They went from house to house throughout Lystra, pretending to be poor travelers, seeing if anybody there would show them hospitality, but they were turned away time and again, until finally they were welcomed in by one older couple. According to the legend, the gods turned these older people's home into this beautiful temple that you now saw outside the gates of Lystra.

But they rained down judgment on all their selfish neighbors who had inhospitably turned them away. Every citizen of Lystra knew this local legend. Well, you'll never believe what happened at Lystra. Luke describes it for us colorfully in Acts chapter 14, beginning at verse 8, when Paul and Barnabas reached this little town, apparently at their first attempt to publicly preach there. Paul noticed a crippled man paying close attention to what he was saying, and he sensed in this man that he was believing the gospel message. He stopped speaking and fixing his eyes on his fellow, he said, You there, stand up on your feet.

Now this was a congenital cripple, a man who had been lame from birth. Everybody in this little town knew his situation. Yet at Paul's command, he stood up and he began to walk normally. When the locals saw this, they were astonished, and one of them shouted in their own dialect, which Barnabas and Paul did not understand, Who not you? I just made that up. But whatever the man shouted in their native language, Luke says meant, The gods have come back to us in human form.

Zeus and Hermes were back among them, or so they imagined. Consistent with the legend, Saul and Barnabas sure looked like two poor wanderers, and they had demonstrated the power to work wonders. It seemed to all fit the legend. The effect on these superstitious people was electrifying. This time they determined the gods would not be disappointed in their reception. The people who witnessed the healing were all excited, were all talking at once.

Hearing the commotion, the rest of the townspeople came out, pouring from their homes to see what was going on. Someone from among them ran outside the gates to the nearby temple and reported all this to the priest of Zeus, who immediately started preparing a sacrifice to Zeus and Hermes, a.k.a. Paul and Barnabas. Back in town, the people were celebrating and cheering, and Paul and Barnabas were trying to figure out what was going on. Can you see them looking at each other like, Wow, is this the best reception we've ever had or what? Soon the priests of Zeus and his attendants came through the gates, and they had oxen to sacrifice to them, Zeus and Hermes, a.k.a.

Paul and Barnabas, and had wreaths like crowns to place on their heads. The pagan priest started doing obeisance, bowing before the apostles like he was worshiping them. When it dawned on Paul and Barnabas what was happening, they were horrified. Luke writes at verse 14 and 15, When the apostles, Paul and Barnabas, heard this or understood this, they tore their clothes and they rushed out among the people, shouting, ‘Why are you doing this? We’re just men, humans like you. We’re here to bring you good news and to tell you to turn away from these worthless superstitions to the true and living God.’

Even so, they had trouble restraining these people who were swept up in euphoria. Now talk about bad timing. Just at this point, some of the enemies of the gospel Paul and Barnabas had made in Pisidian Antioch in Iconium had been, in fact, tracking them, and they arrived in Lystra, and they began telling this throng of simple people, ‘These men are not gods. They’re impostors, in fact troublemakers that we had to run out of our cities. They are deceivers.’ The citizens of Lystra felt betrayed now and belittled, and very quickly their sentiments turned sharply against the apostles.

Ready to worship them as gods moments before, they now turned into an angry mob. They seized and put Paul against the city wall, and then the rocks started flying. They were stoning him. Wow. Can you imagine what must have been flashing through Paul’s mind in that change of events? Could he have been thinking how, in another lifetime, he himself had aroused a mob to stone the martyr Stephen in Jerusalem?

He didn't have to think very long, though, because they weren't pelting him with little stones. They were hurling rocks, and they were landing. Paul went down under the hail of rocks, and the mob didn't stop until he lay crumpled, bleeding, and motionless. Taking him for dead, they dragged his body outside their city walls. As the angry mob was dispersing, a few of those who had been receptive to Paul's message, along with Barnabas, encircled his body, stunned at the rapidness with which this had all happened. Take a good look at that scene.

Christ's apostle, stoned to death, they thought, for trying to share the good news. Barnabas, I'm sure, was in shock. What's he supposed to do now, he must have been thinking as he stood over his friend's lifeless body. But then wait. He moved. He groaned.

Paul half opened one of his eyes and through wincing pain said to Barnabas, Hey, do you think you can get me up there, Zeus? At least I'd like to believe that's what he said. And Paul did get up. And do you know what? Do you know what he did next? Luke says that he and Barnabas marched right back into that little town whose citizens had just stoned him and left him for dead.

I'm willing to bet nobody there laid another hand on him either. The astonished townspeople were thinking, Wait a minute, isn't that the guy we just killed a little while ago? Such were the amazing but harsh realities that Paul and Barnabas faced on their first missionary journey. They traveled all in all about 1,600 miles on foot. Paul didn't just get back up and go into Lystra. They also circled back through Iconium and Pisidian Antioch and the other towns they had recently gone through and evangelized.

Because remember, he was determined not just to preach the gospel in these places, but to help plant churches in these places. So they backtracked through Galatia courageously, entering one town after another, places where they had been threatened, beaten, and stoned. They met with a people there who had embraced the message of Christ. They designated certain ones of them as leaders. They gave further instructions about how to form a church and likely left them with some documents about the life of Jesus that they had prepared for this expedition. They were not going to leave these people as orphans.

Luke writes at the end of this chapter, Finally, they returned by ship to Antioch, Syria, where their journey had begun. The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work that they had now completed. Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. This chapter demonstrates something so important we need to grab hold of. Tell me, what kind of people accomplish great things? Not just important things spiritually, but pretty much anything of significance.

When I think of Saul of Tarsus, now the Apostle Paul, a word comes to mind, and the word is resilience. A person who is resilient is someone you cannot keep down, a person who keeps bouncing back, a person who keeps on keeping on, as we say, no matter what. Paul's ministry started with difficulties, proceeded with hardships, included plenty of suffering along the way, but he achieved startling successes. The results of his work and his ministry are still reverberating to our day. The difficulties, the hardships, the suffering, those were just necessary obstacles he saw on his course to accomplish something that God had in mind for him, something of great significance. And that's why this particular man was chosen.

He was called the chosen instrument to whom God entrusted this great mission of opening the gospel to the Gentile world. Remember, to the incredulous prophet God had said, I will show him how much he will suffer for my name. By the time the apostles set sail for their home church in Antioch, Syria, all in all, in this expedition, the first missionary journeys we call it, it had lasted a little more than two years. Two strenuous years, a marathon of being bent, of being pressured, of being stretched. But because they were resilient, they always kept coming back to form and pressing on. They completed their mission.

Wouldn't you have loved to have been at the service at their home church in Antioch when they first told about these experiences on this trip firsthand? Slides or no slides. Sure, it had been very hard, very hard. Paul had scars in his body to show for that. But so many people had heard the gospel. A sizable number had believed the message, and now several infant churches had been planted in the Roman province of Galatia, more than 800 miles from Jerusalem.

I love Paul's words as he later writes about this expedition. This is in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He said, And so, since God in his mercy has given us this wonderful ministry of sharing the good news, we never give up. Though we are pressed on every side by troubles, we are not crushed and broken. Though we are perplexed, we don't give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us.

We get knocked down, but we get up and we keep going. Honestly, when I consider the Apostle Paul's life, I am embarrassed, frankly, to even consider any of the problems that I've had to put up with as anything. Yet, when we're going through them, our struggles certainly seem real. Mine have. Have you ever felt, to use Paul's words, pressured from every side by troubles, ever felt crushed by disappointments, as he said, perplexed over why God allows crazy things to happen to you, wondered why people are against you when you're just trying to do the right thing and help them? Have you been knocked down, and knocked down, and knocked down?

I have only one application question from Acts chapter 14. I was challenged by this as a young man when I first started entering the ministry, and someone told me, The test of your character is what it's going to take to stop you. Think about that. The test of your character is what it's going to take to stop you. So what does it take to stop you? Have you given up on a dream that you believe God at one time put in your heart?

Have you given up on a calling that you know God had on your life? Are you one who was always ready to take your ball and go home when things don't go the way you had hoped? Are you thinking about giving up on a marriage that you committed yourself to? Have you given up on a friendship where someone has for some reason hurt or disappointed you? Have you given up on sharing your faith because you didn't get the results you expected? If, while looking into the mirror of God's Word today, you realize you are not fulfilling what God has called you to do and to be, I want you to do this.

Close your eyes for a moment if you can. Try and visualize Paul lying prone in the dust outside Lystra's city wall where he'd been dragged and left for dead. He's wiping the blood from his face. He's first onto his knees. Ouch, ouch, ouch! He's onto his feet, steady me, friends.

He's dusting himself off, and then he's heading back into that town. This fellow must have frustrated the devil to no end. What resilience he exhibited. Unlike the fictional Rocky, this was a real-life champion, a champion for the cause of Christ, often knocked down, but never knocked out. Thanks, Paul. As always, another incredibly insightful episode.

You know, today I met a young man at a Christian convention, and our conversation steered to his project of highlighting pastors and material that promote the gospel. Well, divine providence is always at work, and we look to God to provide those like you to help spread the word. Please take a moment and send a link or talk to your family and friends and let them know about Share the Word. Visit sharetheword.org for more information, and of course, you can always email us at info@sharetheword.org. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.