This is posted as a resource for anyone wanting to learn about our Church and the Christian Faith. Please do not plagiarize.
Acts 14:1-28
Opposed
Iconium
Last week we looked at how Paul and Barnabas are sent out by the church; this week we see that at soon as they are sent out by the church, they are opposed by the world;
Just as Jesus said, that as the disciples go out to build the church, it will confront the gates of hell; but they will not prevail against the gospel; so here these missionaries go out and preach and are opposed, but despite that opposition the gospel prevails and churches are established and churches grow and the gospel spreads further into enemy territory.
as soon as they are sent out by the church, they are opposed by the world.
because the gospel is the great dividing line between the church and the world – it is that dividing line – the great divide – the greatest divide – which divides humanity into two groups – in which you are either on one side or the other;
and we see that divide right here: as a result of the gospel coming into the city, v4 “the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews (those who in v2 were leading the opposition), others with the apostles.”
The gospel is the ultimate dividing line of humanity – where one stands with Christ is the most significant part of their existence and identity;
and it transcends any other commonality or difference in the human race: more significant than anything else that tends to unite or divide
and the preaching of the gospel confronts an unbelieving world with the bold news that they are in fact on the wrong side of that dividing line: that they are on the side of opposition to God – especially these Jews here who thought that they were devout and faithful servants of God – are being told by the gospel message that their opposition towards Christ – God’s anointed – is opposition to God himself!
and the only way to respond is to be brought low to repentance; or to continue in that opposition – even be hardened in it; and sometimes, as we see here – directing that opposition towards the messenger.
And we’ve seen in the book of Acts, that if you want to be a messenger for God – bringing the message of the gospel to an unbelieving world – certainly we have confidence that that message will be received; but we can’t be naive that it won’t at times be met with bitter opposition.
And we’ve seen that the gospel is the great uniting force – and we’ve seen that in terms of those who believe the gospel – that the gospel overcomes all the barriers and unites people despite all the differences in those who believe: that those who have nothing in common apart from Christ, find everything in common in him; and those that would not be drawn together by anything else, are brought into the same family in him.
But what we get a glimpse of here – is that just as the gospel is the great uniting force on the side of faith; so it can be a great uniting force on the side of opposition to it.
Look at v2: “But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.”
and v5: “There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them.”
We’ve talked about how unnatural, and difficult, and counter-cultural it was for the jews to reach out to the Gentiles with the gospel, and to invite them who believe into the family of God with them; And how the gospel overcame that barrier;
But here, we see that just as unlikely alliances were forged in faith, so unlikely alliances are forged in opposition to Christ!
Jews would naturally have an aversion to Gentiles; but their aversion to the Gospel overcomes even that – their hatred of the gospel message eclipses their other hatreds and forges a bond that they would never have made otherwise –
Those who otherwise have nothing in common, find themselves on the same side in their opposition to the gospel.
Those who are enemies to one another, are united as common enemies to the gospel
and that shows just how much the gospel message can agitate a sinner who refuses to repent.
Because the gospel is the great divider.
And in Jesus’ own ministry he made it clear that the gospel would divide – even right down family blood lines; that even the closest of human bonds could be divided by the gospel.
And here’s the point: is that there is no more central, significant, important essential issue in this whole life than: Which side of that divide are you on?
It dwarfs all other issues – all other divisions, all other similarities, all other issues are eclipsed by this one dividing line: What is your evaluation of Jesus Christ?
This is the question you can’t ignore; this is the question that has eternal consequences; and while someone might legitimately say that they’re still seeking, or searching, or trying to figure out what they think about Christ – that’s certainly legitimate and you want to make sure you know the Christ you’re claiming to find; but you can’t perpetually search: because while you are still legitimately searching, that implies that you haven’t found yet; and some people who are searching need a little more urgency to try to find – because although some people use the idea of “searching” as an excuse to avoid coming to a conclusion – the whole reason you search is to find!
And until you find, you are on the other side of the divide; and so seek, learn, question and doubt and seek to have your doubts and questions answered; but don’t wait forever; Christ demands an evaluation.
Humble yourself; soften your heart; turn to him in humble repentance.
And how do Paul & Barnabas respond to this opposition. 2 ways:
first, they stand firm and preach boldly:
2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord,
Opposition against them is stirred up; So, they spend considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord.
They don’t crumble under the first sign of opposition; and the text says that it’s not just that they stay despite the opposition, but that they stay because of the opposition.
And probably the reason is v1 – that people have come to believe their message, and they need to stay because opposition to faith has arisen, and they need to give extra attention to these new converts who are in a hostile environment, to encourage and strengthen them.
second way they respond: they flee!
seems quite different than the first way – and the difference isn’t that here they are just giving in to the fears – but that they are reasonably defending their own lives.
They never save themselves by being unfaithful to Christ; and as Christians we should never seek to avoid the persecution of our faith through the compromising of our faithfulness to Christ.
But, it seems, from this passage, that there are times when it is ok to flee persecution – and here they are aware of attempts against their lives, and seek to preserve their lives – not for themselves, but – v7 – so that they can continue in their God-given mission to reach more people for Christ by continuing to do the very same thing that had brought the opposition upon them in the first place – by preaching the gospel.
And now, Paul and Barnabas find themselves in a very different situation than they’ve been before.
Lystra:
In Lystra, different than Iconic because they don’t begin in the Synagogue – they see to be in a very public area of the city – surrounded not by Jewish people and God-fearing Gentiles, but they are in Gentile-land, surrounded by idol-worshiping Gentiles.
And Paul does a miracle, which is very similar to Peter’s miracle back in chapter 3 – in fact much of the same language is used to be purposefully reminiscent of that – to show us that the same power of God that was with Peter in the Temple, was still present through his messengers – even way out in Gentile-land in the pagan world surrounded by idolatry and idolaters.
The same gospel was at work, because the same need of salvation was present.
And they exhibit this great power of God – that similar to peter – the crowd assumes that they are the source of that power – and they are mistaken as being the greek Gods in human form – Zeus and Hermes:
And in fact there was a local legend of these gods having visiting in human form, seeking lodging; not received by house after house after house, but finally received by an elderly couple in a small cottage; and the result was that this small cottage was transformed into a temple and they were made priests of it; but the houses of those who did not receive them were rejected.
And, we don’t know of course, but it’s possible that knowledge of this legend is motivating them to not make the same mistake!
And at first Paul and Barnabas don’t know what’s happening, but as soon as they do, they respond quickly –
they tear their clothes as a sign that something terrible – blasphemy – is about to happen –
And if you remember back from chapter 12, that their response is very different from Herod’s – whereas he was all too eager to accept and receive divine praise from others – he wants to exalt and glorify himself;
they are quick to refuse it – because they want to exalt and glorify Jesus.
And, if you remember, Herod received the immediate judgment of God: “because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.”
And it occurred to me this week, that I forgot to explain that curious statement. It sort of sounds like he’s in front of this big crowd being worshiped and all of a sudden he falls over dead and giant worms crawl and start munching on him or something;
That’s not what it means – and actually other historical sources fill out and confirm Luke’s account – that Herod fell over in sudden and intense pain – probably intestinal pain, and a few days later died probably related to some kind or internal parasite.
So, sorry, no giant worms; but thankfully Paul & Barnabas don’t share the same fate, because as soon as they discover what’s happening, they get right to setting their audience straight – v15 “We too are only human too”
they could, I guess, accept this praise and honor, but they loved Jesus too much to steal his glory; and they loved these people too much to leave them lost in their idolatry – they knew they needed the gospel of Jesus Christ – that they were no saviors and in taking any of Jesus’ glory they were only leading these people away from Jesus further into the same kind of idolatry they were already in.
Whereas previously they’ve started in a the synagogue, in an audience of Jewish and Gentile God-fearers who would all have some knowledge of the OT, now Paul is preaching before a Gentile audience.
And, his sermon reflects that different context by, while Christ is the goal, it begins with a different starting point in which he can more effectively connect with his audience.
Paul doesn’t compromise on the message, but he considers where his audience is at, and rather than expect them to move to him, he moves himself to them.
He talks to them, instead of past them or over them.
He meets them where they are – and that’s a good principle whenever you are reaching out to someone with the gospel – is that we try to connect with them, not expecting them to come to us, but us going to them.
Paul is flexible in his approach and emphasis – but never with his message.
Some call this “Contextualization”; but that makes it sounds a lot more complicated than it really is
really It’s another way of saying that he sought to love them, by communicating to them – by considering who and where they were and talking to them, instead of talking at them, over them, & past them.
Some people think wrongly that the content of the gospel needs to be adapted, changed, tweaked, in order for it to be able to attract people to it; and that is a fundamental misunderstanding of what the gospel is – it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe.
And when we think we need to tweak it, adapt it, change it, in order to make it attractive to people – we deny it it’s power and we deny it its divine origin – we empty it of its divine power by turning it into a product of human imagining.
But what Paul is doing, is holding out the gospel uncompromisingly, unapologetically, unwaveringly; not changing it / tweaking it / adding to it / subtracting from the content of it; but considering the delivery method – choosing a delivery message and a packaging system that most lends it’s unchanged untampered with contents to the recipient.
And so in his sermon here – although the sermon gets interrupted before it gets finished – but it is headed towards the same message of salvation through Jesus Christ –
14:15 – “we are bringing you good news” – same thing he says in ch 13:32 – “we tell you good news”
content of message is the same; it just starts in a different place, and is delivered in a little bit of a different way:
whereas in his sermon last week /ch13 to the Jews, he quoted a lot of the old testament and focused on how Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promises to the Jewish nation;
those things wouldn’t really connect with a non-jewish, pagan gentile audience and so he teaches the bible – the sermon is filled with biblical truth and allusions – but he teaches the bible without making explicit bible references – not because he’s afraid that the bible would be offensive to them but because they wouldn’t know what Psalm 16 is.
Whereas previously talking to a Jewish audience he began with their common Jewish faith that he shared with them, well here he doesn’t share that with them, so he builds common ground by focusing on their common humanity – because even though he’s Jewish and they’re not, he’s Christian and they’re not, even though they have a lot not in common, he can still find some common ground with them because he’s human and they are too.
and finding common ground doesn’t mean removing anything that might be offensive – because I think it’s safe to say that he still risks offending them when he calls their religion in v15 “worthless things” and tells them to turn away from it – drop it; ditch it; Your religion – the things you believe in and put faith in – throw them in the trash because they are worthless – they have no value – and worship God instead. I think it’s safe to say that if that’s part of Paul’s speech, then he isn’t just dancing around the issues to avoid offending them.
And so to the Jewish people he’s calling them to embrace the true meaning of their religion; to the Gentile people he’s calling them to turn away from the idolatry that characterizes their religion and lives.
Even though they didn’t – as did the Jews – have the Scriptures and the prophets – they were human – and lived as God’s creatures in God’s world.
They both live in a world made and sustained by God. And if they had eyes to see, they could open their eyes at look at the world around them, they could look at themselves, they could look at v17 – the provision of God through his common grace – his giving rain from heaven and crops in their season and providing with food and infusing a degree of joy into this world and this life.
And, these things ought to draw our hearts towards God in thankfulness, praise, and a realization of dependence and obligation; but idolatry – instead of worshiping God as creator, we reject God and turn to other things – things in this creation – to give our thanks and praise and devotion.
And the good news that they’re bringing – is that they can/must turn from empty idols to worship the living God.
The call to the Christian faith involves the call to turn away from every alternative object of devotion, and to turn to the one true living God who made everything; and if he made everything, then worshiping something that’s been made is foolish:
One of the primary condemnations of idolatry is it’s utter worthlessness – what Paul says here – Idolatry is utterly foolish, because it idols are utterly worthless.
They can’t give you what you look to them for; they can’t answer your prayers; they can’t deliver and save and protect you; they have no power: because they are not God!
In the OT – they were little statues – that people went out, chopped down a tree, carved it, and then worshiped that thing that they had made!
Idols are things that we make – whether out of stone or wood, or whether we make them in our hearts – making them out of anything other than God.
Idolatry is a rejection of God – and a putting of something else that is no god, in the place of God.
because it is at the same time reducing the divine to human size – it makes him small, it empties him of his glory and majesty and eternity, it puts him on the level of creation as though he is dependent, subject to human manipulation and control, as though he is mere creation;
it reduces the divine to human size; on the other hand, it exalts some part of creation as though it is divine – it deifies something as though it is source and origin and as though it is worthy of our worship, service, love, affections, as though it can save us, satisfy us, bring us joy, hope, peace – but it can give none of those things because those are things which only God can because only God possesses them in himself.
Even with all this, the crowd still wants to make sacrifices to them; but their enemies back from Antioch & Iconium come for them (v19) – they are apparently very persistent and motivated – they traveled over 100 miles in pursuit of them.
and look how quickly the crowd turns from worshiping them as gods in human form, to trying to kill them by stoning them.
We don’t know the reason, but the fact that they single out Paul, probably is because he called their traditional gods worthless; and these enemies convince them that Paul, because he challenged them, is against them; because he made them feel bad, he is bad and what he’s saying is wrong;
they forget that the truth will always challenge us; and that how something makes us feel isn’t the determiner of whether it is true.
And they try to kill Paul – they stone him, and think he is dead; but then: v20 – “he got up and went back into the city.”
No Big Deal. And even this most severe of opposition doesn’t hinder or slow Paul or push him off course, but he keeps on his mission, he keeps preaching – they go to Derbe next, and v21 – win a large humber of disciples;
And then, they retrace their route – they go back to the city where Paul was just stoned and almost killed –
And we see Paul’s incredible courage – Acts states it so nonchalantly and that we’d almost miss its significance – Paul exhibits great courage for Christ and for his mission to spread the gospel.
And this was necessary because these new young believers were in places that were kind of hostile to the Christian message – and they needed this strengthening and encouragement to stay true to the faith – and they need this warning that staying true to the faith would cost them;
v22 “we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God”
This doesn’t seem terribly like what we’d call “encouragement”; We would think of encouragement as “good job”; “everything will be fine,” “keep it up!”
Not: “yeah keep going, oh, and you’re going to suffer a lot.”
But, you see, to the one who is experiencing the hardship, that is trememdous encouraegment.
To the one who is in the heat of perception and rejection and reproach for following Jesus; wondering if they’re on the right path still; wondering if Jesus is still with them; wondering if Jesus is
Being lost (before most people had a gps in their car or on their phone): being lost and keeping driving are not things that go together well, because keeping driving might just be getting you more lost; and so you can’t drive with much confidence, and you want to stop;
but Paul gives them a sort of test by which they can check to see if they’re on the right path; and that test is this: “Am I experiencing hardship for Christ?”
And if the answer is yes, then they know they’re on the right path and moving in the right direction and don’t have to stop or give up or change course but can keep going with confidence that Christ is with them, they are in the kingdom of God and they are on the path to entering the final stage of the kingdom.
And if you’ve experienced hardship for Christ – take heart – because that means that you are on the right path; and the path is worth it.
CT Studd: “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him.”