November 26 Acts 14
On the mission field, the gospel continued to do what Jesus said it would do—divide the hearers into receivers and rejecters. As the missionaries spoke and the Lord vouched for their message through miracles, many believed, but many others demonstrated their rejection through violent opposition.
When the pagans at Lystra saw a crippled man who had never walked up walking around, the deep desire to worship something greater expressed itself in an attempt to offer sacrifice to Barnabas and Paul, whom they had mistaken for Zeus and Hermes. The apostles stopped the sacrifice and told them about the real God who made everything and gave them all they had ever enjoyed. Paul’s impassioned declaration of the true God contains one of the most lyrical sentences in the Bible: “Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
The public is fickle, and popular opinion is volatile. Paul’s treatment at Lystra is a good example. The same crowd tried to worship Paul, and then stone him to death. Some Jews who followed Paul and Barnabas from cities where they’d been came and persuaded the Lystrans to take up stones against Paul. Paul and Barnabas escaped at Iconium, but this time they got Paul, and thought they had killed him. Was he unconscious? Was he dead? I don’t know, but I do know he got up and walked back into town. I might have booked my flight home after such treatment. But the next day Paul went on to Derbe, and then, incredibly, traced the journey back through Lystra where he had been stoned and back through the cities they’d already visited.
Paul and Barnabas went back to strengthen the young converts, to encourage and warn them about the adversity they would face as followers of Christ. I suspect a warning about persecution carries more weight when it comes from a bruised messenger. The apostles also appointed elders to lead the young churches, and committed the converts they left behind in each city to the Lord.
The whole church gathered to hear all God had done through the apostles (apostle means “sent one”) when Paul and Barnabas returned. They told how God opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
Have you ever thought about meeting brothers and sisters in heaven from those ancient cities where the missionaries preached? Those town names are just hard-to-pronounce words in our Bibles. But people who lived there then were saved when they heard and believed the same gospel you and I are saved by here and now, 2,000 years later on the other side of the world. Nobody gets in through the door of good works. Nobody goes through the door of self-righteousness. Through the righteousness of Jesus Christ and his redemptive work on the cross, God opened a door of faith for all who would enter.
From The Abiding Companion: A Friendly Guide for Your Journey Through the New Testament,
Copyright © 2010 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—November 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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