A POISONING

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, where they continued to preach the gospel.

Acts 14:1-7

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

A person is poisoned. Their life is in danger without an antidote.

We see this play out in real life when someone might be bitten by a snake. As the toxins from the snake’s venom course through the veins of the victim, time is of the absolute essence to get them care and especially an antidote administered as soon as possible. Apply the antidote in time and the person survives. Otherwise, the bite victim perishes.

This is a physical example that plays out well in a spiritual sense as we begin to look at the opening verses of Acts 14, especially given how the scriptures so often refer to Satan as a serpent. Indeed, as we look back to Genesis and the great fall, we remember that it was a serpent who was wickedly enticing Adam and Eve to disobey God so that sin could enter into taint what was then a perfect creation. Satan’s success in the garden infected mankind for all eternity, or at least until Jesus returns and hits the reset button on heaven and earth forever.

Yes, Satan is always trying to poison every good and perfect thing that the Lord is trying to do, and after Jesus ascended, the biggest initiative God had Jesus’ disciples doing was spreading the Gospel. And right on cue, Satan was in the midst of trying to kill those efforts.

As we turn to our scriptures for today, we find Paul and Barnabas arriving in Iconium, fresh off of knocking the dust off their feet and exiting Pisidian Antioch where the Jewish religious leaders had persecuted and expelled them. Iconium sat 85 miles to the east of Pisidian Antioch and once there we read where Paul and Barnabas entered the synagogue, as was their custom, and “spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed”. The Gospel work was off to a great start but as we have seen elsewhere, and most recently in Pisidian Antioch, not everyone was willing to believe in Jesus as Messiah and Savior.

As usual, it was the Jewish religious leaders who took the lead rebuffing the apostles. The scriptures tell us they intentionally “poisoned” the minds of the Jews and Greeks in the city so that “their minds” were levied “against the brothers”, speaking of the two apostles, of course.

How did Paul and Barnabas counter this act of spiritual poisoning?

The applied the best antidote possible, “speaking boldly for the Lord” while spending “considerable time” with the Jewish and Greek believers. Note that the Lord was right in the midst of this, working to validate the “message of His grace” by “enabling them to perform signs and wonders”.

Did this correct the problem at hand and counteract Satan’s poisoning?

Somewhat but we read where not everyone received the antidote in time. For half of the people “sided with the Jews” while the others took the side of Paul and Barnabas (and in doing so, the Lord too, of course). And unfortunately, the poisoned and tainted side gathered their wicked forces and contrived a plot to mistreat the two apostles and stone them. This scheming took me back to what happened to Jesus as the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem deviously planned how they could eliminate Him.

Well, these efforts were for not because as so often happens, the Lord would not allow His will and way to be thwarted by evil. Of course, He knew the malevolent thoughts in the hearts and minds of the apostles’ opposition and therefore made the way for Paul and Barnabas to find out about the perilous intentions before they were carried out. The scriptures tell us they departed Iconium and headed south to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe where they “continued to preach the gospel there as well as in “the surrounding country”.

Friends, wherever and whenever the Gospel is being shared, you can bet that Satan is at work trying to poison the minds of those needing saved. Persecution of Christians is happening every day in the world, in some ways very direct and aggressive, in others more subtle. Thankfully, these efforts to stop the sharing of Jesus with others are futile in the end translation. For our Lord is always ready to provide an antidote to ward off the venomous work of the enemy. For that, we all should give thanks.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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