They Continued to Preach the Gospel

INTRODUCTION

I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

Paul was quoting Isaiah 49:6 - a reminder of God’s purposes throughout Scripture to bless all the nations of the earth through his people. He said this in ch.13:47 to the Jews in Pisidian Antioch who, instead of carrying this purpose, wanted to hoard the blessing, forsake the privilege, instead persisting in their jealousy and opposition.

Today’s passage brings to conclusion what is known as Paul’s 1^st missionary journey. We see in it how Paul and Barnabas persevere through persecution by boldly proclaiming the gospel of Jesus as the light of the world. Together we will look at their travels, preaching, and opposition through parts of Asia Minor, before returning to Syrian Antioch to give a report about God’s plan for the nations to be blessed through his Son and receive light, life and salvation through him.

This is a narrative passage, which can be divided into 3 parts: the mission to Jews (Iconium); the mission to Gentiles (Lystra); the mission of the church (Elders)).

In Iconium (the mission to Jews) (1-7)

Paul and Barnabas had been driven out of Pisidian Antioch (central Turkey) at the end of ch.13. They continued their missionary journey by traveling east to Iconium to continue preaching the gospel. Since this area was primarily Jewish, Paul and Barnabas proceeded with their habit of entering the Jewish synagogues to preach Jesus there. It was reasonable to start from the place where people were acquainted with the Torah and had been awaiting the advent of the Messiah, whom Paul was proclaiming. Their ministry was successful, with both Jews and Gentiles coming to faith in Jesus. But opposition rears its head again. Once more, instead of simply walking away, opponents make it their goal to actively oppose the preaching of the gospel, poisoning people’s minds, and stirring strife. Luke tells us in V.3 the greater the opposition, the bolder the apostles became[i]. And God honored their boldness in preaching by granting them to do signs and wonders (another answer to the Apostles’ prayer in Acts 4:29-30), which could have been healings and exorcisms, all by the power of God, to affirm the message.

But as we’ve seen before (c.f. my sermon on 9:20-31), opponents don’t merely walk away. They can turn violent and try to assassinate the messenger if they cannot kill the message. That’s what we see in V.5, with plans to torture and stone. Stoning was intended to punish to the death those who blasphemed or sinned egregiously, which can tell us the type of narrative these enemies of the gospel were spreading. The Lord’s grace and his divine intervention once more led to Paul finding out about this, and he and Barnabas fled this second opposition further south by southwest to Gentile territory, not to hide, but to continue to preach the gospel.

We can learn a lot from the example of the messengers here, praying for discernment during our witness, resisting opposition at times, and fleeing it at other times. Opposition is expected if the true gospel is proclaimed, and not some lowest common denominator. God opening a door does not mean eliminating all possible dangers. Our brothers and sisters in difficult countries may have to flee more often than resist; we, here, where there is freedom to steward, should earnestly seek the Spirit’s guidance to be more bold to proclaim the name. We are much less likely to be tortured or stoned. Let us not be people who think proclaiming is too hard, and so never try to proclaim. Let us at least try to proclaim Jesus and his gospel, and if it gets hard, let us learn from it, adjust our ways, grow, trust him to lead us, and consider him worthy of us facing difficulty for the sake of his name among the nations (5:41).

In Lystra (the mission to Gentiles) (8-18)

When they arrived at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas likely spoke in a public area (agora), such as a city square or a marketplace. This contrasts with the previous passage where they entered a Jewish synagogue. It was fine for Paul to preach the gospel to Jews in the synagogue where the people already trusted the Torah, since he used it as a base for his message as we’ve seen him do already on this journey. He however did not consider it right to preach the gospel in a pagan temple where the basis of worship is idolatrous. This would be akin to us today speaking in a mosque or using the Quran as a basis for the Christian message.

While Paul was preaching, a man who had not been granted bodily functions to allow him to walk since his birth was listening and believing – believing Paul’s message that Jesus is the Savior, through him is forgiveness of sins, he has the power to heal, and by him is eternal life[ii]. In V.9, it seems Paul was given insight by the Holy Spirit into the man’s faith, and power by the Holy Spirit to heal the man’s feet. This was another evidence of God’s grace who empowered his apostle to do signs and wonders by bringing bodily and spiritual healing. The blind see; the lame walk; the captives are set free! (Isaiah 61:1-7)

The crowd saw this (V.11) and immediately remembered a Greek myth in which Zeus and Hermes had appeared once in Lystra, disguised as travelers, to test the local hospitality[iii]. Legend says they went up and down the streets begging for food; but they were only shown kindness by an old couple, to whom they granted a wish to become priests. The gods were never to be seen again, but severely punished the rest of the people[iv]. This crowd was determined not to miss such an appearance a second time! You can feel their enthusiasm in V.11-13, yet also sense the weight and cost of idolatry. Oxen were very expensive to sacrifice. The cost was not merely financial, but even more, spiritual and eternal. Idols are not kind to their followers: they are ruthless masters who will lead to one end: destruction.

Yet missionary integrity demands that preaching the gospel challenge false religious ideas that lead to such a destruction. This is often coupled with a penetrating theological analysis, not merely telling stories, but proclaiming the fullness of God’s word, which means truth about God’s triune nature, sovereignty, providence, and his plan of salvation through Christ’s life, death and resurrection. This is what Paul and Barnabas did here: they did not only protest this attempt at idolatrous worship, but they also actively tried to stop it, despite a language barrier, quickly intervened with the mob, while demonstrating great distress in tearing their clothes to reflect their grief and horror at what was happening. They took advantage of the situation to both refute idolatry, and continue to preach the gospel.

V.15-17 reveal to us the penetrating theological insight Paul presents the idolatrous Gentiles with: God is the deity who made the world and everything in it; the creator of all things; he is not a local deity, but the one who was there before the beginning; the one who is sovereign over all that is seen and that is unseen, and as such has the power to heal. This God has for some time allowed the nations to go about their ways, not because he was passive, but because he was patient. Paul will recount this later in Romans 2:4 when he says: “do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” In fact, God did not leave himself without a witness, so that people are without excuse: the very creation God has made proclaims his presence, his authority, and his glory. Here are a few examples:

• Deut 11:14: He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
• Job 5:10: He gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields.
• Psalm 19:1: The heavens declare the glory of God; the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
• Psalm 65:9-10: You visit the earth and water it; You greatly enrich it; The river of God is full of water; You provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.
• Psalm 147:8: He covers the heavens with clouds; He prepares rain for the earth; He makes grass grow on the hills.
• And much more. Once more we turn to Paul’s words in Romans 1:19-20: For what can be known about God is plain to [people], because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Brothers and sisters: This is our Father’s world. God’s providence, his common grace, reveals that God has made the world and governs it in a way that faith in the Triune God is the most reasonable thing, while faith in any other deity is idolatry and sin.

And lest we be unclear about the gospel they proclaimed, once Jesus has been revealed as the Christ, and his atoning work has been completed by his life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection, we should not and must not preach another gospel or a lesser gospel. In the very words of Paul from ch.17:30-31: The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

The revealing of Jesus the Son of God is God’s war against idolatry and false beliefs, while being at the same time his call to peace with God and with one another. Only Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, is able to end our enmity. It is in Jesus Christ alone that we can find freedom from idolatry. He is the one who ends our exile in Egypt, our slavery to sin, and unshackles us from bondage to darkness, bringing us out to the freedom of his light and life. We are prone to wander, prone to idolatry, to elevating good things to the level of a master. Good things like intimacy, work, time, money, happiness, even ministry and more. Our fallen nature tends to either distort them, making intimacy warped such as in pornography, or to elevate them to become central in our life, such as the relentless pursuit of happiness, be it through entertainment, alcohol, drugs or others. We may prioritize money or the love of money. A husband may idolize work; a wife may idolize children; children may idolize friendships. Think about your life, and consider things that irritate you, anger you, or drive you to resentment, to avoidance; think of areas where you spend too much time, or most of your time. Think of areas where you don’t regret sacrificing the oxen, or maybe time in the word, in prayer, with the people of God, in proclaiming the gospel… This might be your homework after this sermon: find areas in your life that rise to the level of idolatry. It might be very easy to see these things in other people, and criticize them there, before seeing them in our own lives. The world around us is no different: that is why I think we can become attuned to where those we care about can be living in idolatry, and we can bring to them the message of freedom which is found only in Jesus Christ who reconciles them with God, and calls them away from their bondage to their cruel masters who never satisfy nor can be satisfied. Idolatry is costly, too costly, when the price to pay is life itself – for all eternity.

The Stoning (19-22)

Beginning in V.19, Paul and Barnabas again face opposition by some of the Jews who had been so devout in their opposition that they traveled nearly 100 miles to come to Lystra to stir strife against Paul and Barnabas. And they were successful. The local crowd, having been used to idolatry, myths, and legends, may have become deflated when their hope of meeting Zeus and Hermes was thwarted by none other than the presumed deities themselves. The mob had gathered with great expectations, only to be disappointed. They did not grasp Paul’s conviction that there is only one God. They had enthusiasm that needed to be spent somewhere, and so with the proper persuasion, they now turned into a killing mob that finally achieved what opponents wanted in Iconium: mistreat and stone Paul to what they thought was his death.

What happened next (v.20) is nothing short of a divine intervention, a miracle. Paul, who apparently had not given his attackers any sign of life, around whom the disciples may have gathered to mourn or to pray, now rises by the power of the Holy Spirit and the healing of Jehovah Rapha, and reenters the city in his own strength. He was wise enough not to reengage in this place now. So he and Barnabas traveled further east to Derbe to continue to preach the gospel over the course of the next year, making many disciples. The opposition they had faced had not made them timid in regard to sharing the gospel; it made them all the more bold for Jesus.

The distance from Derbe to their sending church in Syrian Antioch would have been much shorter had they traveled further east over the Taurus mountains. Yet Luke tells us they decided to go back west, before traveling by sea back east to Syria. It was a bold move for Paul to return to the city where he nearly died by stoning. But v.22-24 tell us the importance of their purpose. Many had become disciples in these places, and churches had been planted. Both entities needed further investment. The disciples needed to be encouraged, strengthened, counseled, prayed with, and assured that their suffering and labor were not in vain. The disciples in Iconium and Lystra had likely faced trials and tribulations by some of the same people who opposed Paul and Barnabas and their message. That is why it was important for the encouragement Paul gave to remind them of the promise that all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12). This is what he told Timothy in his 2^nd letter, this Timothy being from Lystra as we will see in ch.16, possibly having witnessed the persecution here during Paul’s journey. Believers need to be encouraged by one another in the Lord, especially when there is opposition.

Appointing elders (and the mission of the church) (23)

We then turn our eyes to the 2^nd entity, the church, that needed a different sort of investment. The churches that were planted were growing yet young. They needed to be regulated. What we find here is a principle that will become very important for church life, including for us today, which is the appointment of a multitude of elders to shepherd the local church. The practice of a plurality of elders to lead a local church is a biblical practice, not a Crosstown or Reformed practice. It was of such importance here that Paul and Barnabas risked returning to the cities they nearly died in to help regulate these churches. We should not read into this that an external entity must appoint elders. The purpose of appointing elders is not the opportunity for better control of these churches by Paul and Barnabas (or by Syrian Antioch, or by Jerusalem), but the well-being of each local congregation[v].

Similarly to the choosing of deacons in ch.6, there was a process of prayer and fasting, and likely laying on of hands as the elders were commissioned to the work of ministry of the word and of undershepherding the flock in these local churches. Likewise for us today, the practice of choosing elders should include prayer and fasting as we consider qualified men the Lord has gifted to us, who can be commissioned and ordained to the work the Lord has for them as we all seek in unity to lead the church, know the church, love the church, teach the church, and protect the church, keeping the faith in the Lord in whom we have believed.

The Return to Antioch (24-28)

At last, Paul’s first missionary journey comes to an end: after nearly 2 years on the road (AD 46-48); 1600 miles of travel; several churches established; disciples made; elders appointed; stoning and opposition, Paul and his companions get ready to return to their sending church. But not without Luke telling us once more that they continued to preach the gospel in at least 3 more areas before finally making it to a Mediterranean port to take a ship back east to Syrian Antioch. It was all the more fitting and necessary to then gather the church and give glory to God by reporting on what the grace of God had done in them and through them, how the word of God went out and did not return empty, and how the glimpses we had seen have now fully matured in a door being opened for the gospel to go to the Gentiles so that they can come to faith in the God who had always intended to bless the nations through his people.

At last, this is at hand! God made all people in his image, to reflect his character and righteousness as his image bearers on earth. Idolatry defiles that. It is not by chance that presidents put their pictures or statutes in public places, to reflect their authority. A picture ascribes to a person something they reflect: this one reflects power, or wealth, or fame; that one reflects anger, or violence; this one reflects kindness, or humility, or knowledge etc… And what we and our pictures should reflect – when people look at us – is the image of God and his character. God’s endgame for creation is a world full of people who image him rightly, worship him only, and fill the world with the knowledge of his glory. Habakkuk 2:14 says: [For] the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And we are to proclaim that glory.

God’s purpose from the beginning was to bring the world back to himself. That’s why he chose Abraham so that through his offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That is why he chose Israel, to reflect his glory and proclaim him to the nations – yet they failed. That is why he chose kings to reflect his image, yet time and time again they fell short. But God’s plan did not fail. Nor did he undo his creation and start again in another world, on another planet. We, in our sin and fallen nature, may try to undo God’s plan, but his plan will succeed. OT prophets proclaimed God’s purpose for the nations. Isaiah, whom Paul quotes here, berates the people of Israel for not having been a blessing to the nations, rather becoming themselves like the nations, even saying they had become like Sodom and Gomorrah (1:9) – what an image they reflected. But then he goes on to proclaim how God’s plan and purposes for the nations is fulfilled through his own Son, the suffering servant, who is the perfect image of God, his character, and his righteousness, in his life and in his suffering. Isaiah 2:2-3 tells us the nations shall flow to the house of the Lord, and say: come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” In 19:19-25 Isaiah prophesies that the Egyptians will worship the Lord, and he will make himself known to them, listen to them and heal them; and there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and they will together worship the Lord; and hear this: Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth: God will call Egypt his people, Assyria the work of his hands, and Israel his inheritance. The coming of the Messiah is the fulfilment of these promises. Matthew’s entire gospel is written to teach the Jews that God intends to bring the nations to his inheritance. In the gospel of Mark, the only person who proclaims Jesus in the Son of God is the centurion at the cross, which fulfills the prophesy of John 12:32: [And] I, when I am lifted up [from the earth], will draw all people to myself.

Like Paul and Barnabas here, our commission is to start and continue preaching the gospel with boldness and faithfulness: Jesus rescues the nations from their idolatry by being judged for their idolatry. He rescues the nations from their sins by being judged for their sins. The door of faith has been opened to all nations. God’s plan is still to bless the world through his people, through you and me, who have been grafted into the vine, so that we may reflect his image, his character, his righteousness, and bear his call to the world to be reconciled to God.

It is not the condition of the lost that should be the primary motivation of our desire for missions. It should be the proclamation of the glory of God and that he is worthy to be worshiped by all nations that should be the driving force behind our desire for gospel proclamation. If it is only the people’s lostness, when they let us down, oppose us, or refuse us, we will lose our motivation, run away and never come back. But if it is the glory of God and his worthiness to be worshiped by all peoples, then like Paul and Barnabas here, and many of the saints who have gone before us, we will stay on mission, and continue to preach the gospel of Jesus as the power of God for salvation. Church: let’s do it!

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[i] Schnabel, Eckhard J. Acts. Edited by Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan, 2012, pp. 603.

[ii] Schnabel, Eckhard J. Acts. Edited by Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan, 2012, pp. 606.

[iii] https://www.worldviewpublications.org/outlook/archive/article.php?EDITION=003Q

[iv] Schnabel, Eckhard J. Acts. Edited by Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan, 2012, pp. 608.

[v] Schnabel, Eckhard J. Acts. Edited by Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan, 2012, pp. 614.