Just say no to idols...

 “Good News” and “Earnest Counsel”

(Acts 14:8-18, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, July 8, 2012)

[8] Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. [9] He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, [10] said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking.

From Antioch on the border of southern Galatia to Iconium and now to Lystra, Paul and Barnabas bring the message of the God who saves. They go first to the Jews and then to the Greeks. But the Lord who created the heavens and the earth is more than able to open new doors.

Lystra was one of the cities of a region called Lycaonia, which had its own local language and culture. In this town of Lystra, a man who was lame from birth was among the crowd listening to the Apostle Paul about the life that comes from Jesus. What was Paul talking about? He must have been speaking about the Lord's demonstration that the age of resurrection had come. We can guess that because the man heard something in Paul's message that he found relevant to his particular infirmity. We know that Paul preached about Jesus and the resurrection wherever he went, not only about the personal resurrection of Jesus, but about what that one resurrection meant as the beginning of a new era of resurrection. Consider Revelation 21:1-4 and the culmination of what began with one Man rising from the dead. The new Jerusalem was visibly present in the person of the resurrected Jesus, and now in the preaching of the message of Jesus.

Paul was able to see something in this crippled man. He saw that “he had faith to be made well.” He was sure enough about what he saw in that man's soul, that he did an amazing thing. He told him in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” What courage! But more importantly, what resurrection power from heaven seen now among the Lycaonian people. That man sprang up on his formerly lame feet and began walking for the first time in his life. That just doesn't happen. We need to look at people that we might think of as hopeless, and start thinking about what they and we are going to be like in the new creation. We need to have faith that a day is coming when there will be no more pain and no more sin. What a gift that lame man had to believe!

[11] And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” [12] Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

The crowd was floored by what they saw. Just another historical fact that you need to consider. These people were not Christians, but they were witnesses of resurrection power in someone they knew to be lame from birth. Lycaonia needed to be healed. It started with one lame man.

They did what a pagan people would do. These were not Gentiles that had been following the religion of Judaism as observers. These were people that held to the Greek pantheon of Gods. They believed in Zeus and Hermes, and were pretty sure that they had come in person looking like people. What a concept! God coming down to us in the likeness of a man... God has done that, not only appearing as a man as seemed to happen in Old Testament times through the ministry of angels, but becoming a man forever and yet retaining the fullness of His divinity. Jesus is now fully God and fully resurrection man. The Lycaonian crowd did not understand that at this point, but many of them would, and the entire region would be changed.

[13] And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

One man who was listening to Paul's message had faith to be healed, One crowd in Lystra saw what happened and responded according to their belief system. Now one priest of Zeus did what made sense to him and to almost everyone else around him. He brought oxen to kill in ritual sacrifice to a false god.

His role was to lead the people in an abomination. But it did not seem like an abomination to him. He was doing what made sense in the idolatrous world of the Lycaonian people. This was nature religion. It was the religion of mankind in the absence of special revelation. It produced fear, fear of gods that did not clearly speak and could not clearly be know but who had to be appeased. But now the gods had appeared in the form of men.

[14] But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, [15] “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

The priest was the religious expert mediating between a willing crowd and two gods that had become men. But the two gods were not gods, and they were unwilling to receive the worship of the people. They had already given up their lives to serve the one true and living God who had become man in order to save us from sin and death through His own death and resurrection.

Messengers of Jesus cannot go along with pagan ceremonies. Paul and Barnabas were apostolic ambassadors of the only deity, the God of the Jews, the Lord. See Exodus 34:6-7. Consider what happened in Exodus 32. Christ's servants come to bring good news. It pains them to receive worship that should only be received by God. They know that they are men and not gods.

Idol worship was and is empty at best. Turning away from that bondage and turning toward the living God through Jesus our Redeemer is the only sensible way for those who find themselves stuck in the bad news of idolatry. Open the good news of the Scriptures and find life through the death and resurrection of Jesus, and turn away from every form of nature worship. Turn to the Creator of nature, and the One who makes all things new.

[16] In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. [17] 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.” [18] Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

With this good news that comes to us from the Word of God comes also the earnest counsel of new godly friends, again according to that Word. The days of God's tolerance of all the nations walking in their own ways are now over. Thankfully. The new day of God's loving correction of paganism is much better, better even than all the rain, the crops, the food that he has given to people for so many centuries.

Why does God have no more tolerance for nature worship and other forms of creation idolatry? Jesus has come. He is God's good news to all the nations, and God's earnest counsel from a loving friend to all who need to break away from the crippling fear of idols so that they can leap with the joy of heaven. Are you stuck in some mess? No hope for the future? The Lord is near. Stand up in Jesus, in His Word, and in His service, and be healed!

1. Describe the miracle that took place in Lystra.

2. What were some of the results of this great miracle?

3. Why did Paul and Barnabas not receive the adoration of the crowds?

4. How did the apostles use this moment to give some earnest counsel?

OT Passage: Proverbs 27:9