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In Christ, Mark

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

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.

Acts 14:11-18

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

In Lystra, the group gathered around Paul and Barnabas looked on astonished and amazed.

Why?

Because a man they knew had been crippled since birth had just jumped up to his feet and was walking in their midst after hearing a command from Paul to stand.

In yesterday’s message, we saw where the man was one of many people who had come to hear Paul share his message of salvation through Jesus. As Paul spoke about the Lord, he surely testified to the power of God that not only saves through His Son but allows for demons to be driven out of the possessed and the afflicted to be healed. Hearing the latter had to be music to the lame man’s ears and so in his heart, he began to believe that this Lord being spoken of could heal him, although he had been lame for his whole life.

Well, being the man was lame, he would have been positioned in front of the crowd and so would have been in clear view of Paul who could see the man’s faith just by looking at him. It was that that led him to command the man to stand which led to the miracle everyone was now experiencing. It had an immediate impact on all the people gathered but not in the way you might expect. For as we turn to our scripture passage today from Acts 14, we see a case of mistaken identity arise in the aftermath of the amazing act of healing. Look again at those words here:

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. Acts 14:11-18

The city of Lystra was located in the region of Lycaonia which had its own language. We know this because the people immediately started to proclaim that the gods (small “g”) had come down to earth in the form of Paul and Barnabas. This tells us four things about the religious culture of the region and its people.

First, the people were what the Jews would consider Gentile. In other words, they believed in many gods and therefore would not have entered into a covenant with the one true God. As a result, the men in Lycaonia would not have been circumcised.

Second, the Lycaonian people practiced religion polytheisticly which is just a way of saying they worshiped many gods.

Third, the gods worshiped by the Lycaonians were Greek. The gods they attach to Barnabas and Paul, Zeus and Hermes respectively, tells us that.

Finally, the Lycaonian people gathered attached the god they most closely related to what they saw in the apostle. Paul shared the message and was the one who commanded the lame man to walk and so he was labeled Hermes who was known as the messenger of the gods.

So we know the religious culture of the Lycaonians was grounded in Greek mythology and so they did what they would normally do to pay tribute to the gods they worshiped. The priest who led the Zeus temple brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates with the intention of offering sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas who we read were obviously very distressed over the response to the miraculous healing.

We know this because the scriptures tell us that the two apostles “tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd” proclaiming loudly:

“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. In the past, he let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”

Paul and Barnabas were trying to get the Lycaonian people to see the truth that was right in front of them. Neither man was a god. Rather, they were no different than the people who wanted to sacrifice to them. Paul had just delivered a message encouraging the people to turn away from the idolatry that was so prevalent in their religion and instead turn to the “living God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.”

The point was simple and clear.

Stop worshiping false gods and instead fix your life’s attention and heart’s affection on the one true God (capital “G”), the God who was responsible for giving the people rain from heavens so their crops could grow and they could have plenty of food to eat. These things weren’t coming from different sources, provided by different gods. No, it was one stop shopping with the Lord God Almighty, the only One worthy of their worship, the only One who could meet their every need.

So were the people swayed by the God-centered direction offered by the apostles?

Not all of them, for we read where Paul and Barnabas “had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them”. Some people are unwilling to see the wrongs of their ways, even when given wise counsel from someone of God.

Paul had not only told people about the Lord (singular) but then he demonstrated the Lord’s power through the healing of the lame man. And yet, the people weren’t ready to change what they believed. There was still much work to be done.

As we share the Gospel with others, here are two takeaways from this message today.

 1. Don’t allow yourself to be deified by others.

When you help non-believers spiritually or tangibly, there is always the risk that they start to worship you instead of the Lord who allowed you to do what you did for them. Satan would have us receive the credit for ourselves, to appeal to our pride and self centeredness. But the Lord commands us to give Him the honor and glory and praise, and indeed, we must because any good and perfect thing we do as believers was ordained and facilitated by the Giver of every good and perfect gift from above James 1:7).

2. Know that despite your best efforts, a person might not be willing to surrender their own beliefs.

Paul and Barnabas ripped their clothes and then deflected credit from themselves and toward God. And yet, some of the people in the Lystra audience still wanted to sacrifice to honor them as gods.

As we work hard to bring people to Christ, not everyone is going to be ready to concede and that could be very frustrating for the evangelist. But we need to remember that making disciples is often a seed planting endeavor. Not everyone is going to convert on the spot when we tell of the life of Jesus. Sometimes, this change happens well down the road of the first Gospel engagement. We share the word and then trust that the Lord has it after that. In the third chapter of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, Paul summed this up perfectly when he wrote:

^“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each His task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (Vv 5-7).

Do the work of Christ but make sure the glory belongs to the Lord and be careful you aren’t deified, falling victim to a case of mistaken identity. Plant the seeds of the Gospel while carrying out the tasks that God assigns and then let the Lord make those seeds grow while bringing a person to salvation.

Friends, this is what it means to go and make disciples as Jesus commanded. Let us follow the lead of Paul, Barnabas, and the other believers in Acts who labored so hard for God to bring the good news of Christ to others.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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