Paul 14

 

Acts 14:23-27

And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.

And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia:

And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.

And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles

Now, we come to the end of Paul’s first missionary journey which he undertook with the apostle, Barnabas and so we now pick up our previous text from the Acts of the Apostles (14:23):

And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.

 

We will recall that what this text really tells us that these prayers with fasting, and this ordination of elders in every church, was really, the culmination of Paul’s first missionary journey and that that first missionary journey was undertaken between the years 46-48 AD and that missionary work was centred in Galatia, in the south of that country known then as Asia Minor, and now is modern day Turkey.

Again, I remind you that Paul and Barnabas preached in those Galatian cities or towns known as Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe and finally Perga.  From Derbe they retraced their steps, visiting once again, Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. And this they did to strengthen and consolidate the fledgling churches that their work led by the Holy Spirit had created.  We really should be impressed by the scale of this achievement, we should be impressed by the power, and the clarity of Paul’s teaching that brought a leadership to those cities that could be trusted to continue with the development of those new churches that he planted.

We might pause for a while to consider again the courage and audacity of Paul and Barnabas and no doubt the courage of the followers who would have been part of their entourage. And now we see Paul and Barnabas on the homeward journey returning enroute to those cities where they had met such opposition, and where in Lystra Paul had nearly lost his life.  I used that word ‘entourage’ which of course you could say would have been the support group, perhaps just a handful of followers accompanying Paul and Barnabas, some joining, and perhaps some leaving as they traveled on their way; loyal supporters.

One such loyal supporter, it seems, was a young man named Timothy.  Timothy we will meet again as we continue our reading journey through the Acts of the Apostles.  We know that Timothy had been with Paul at this time in Galatia because Paul has mentioned it, in his Second Letter to Timothy 3: 10-11. Paul wrote:

But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

In this letter to Timothy, we have this very relevant reminder of that life-or-death struggle to establish the churches of Galatia.  It would have been easy, especially after the stoning at Lystra for Paul and Barnabas to just have slipped out of the country and then to have declared the mission a success and to have gone back to their mother church in Syria and to have rested on their laurels, so to speak, and simply to have recounted the mission thus far and simply to declared that mission a success.  We can easily see that such a report may well have been sufficient to the ears of the Syrian church in Antioch.  But what in fact Paul and Barnabas knew and understood was that that work was incomplete, that work was by no means finished.  And because that work was unfinished, they knew that despite all the previous violence and hostility in those cities, those towns and cities would have to be re-visited and the mission continued, the killers and the hostile Jewish communities were still there and we can be certain that they had not changed their minds about Paul. Still, there were now these new churches and the leaders of these churches in those cities who now needed support, they needed encouragement, they needed inspiration.

What enormous pressure these new leaders must have been under, converts, indeed they were, but to be sure they would lack experience and could still be vulnerable in the face of all that opposition, opposition from all quarters, from the Jews, from the gentiles, and from false opportunist teaching and corrupt doctrine.

It is one thing to become a Christian convert in the first flush of inspiration, in that first flush of enthusiasm, but to prevail, to continue in the faith in the face of a hostile local community, in the face of adversity is quite another matter.

I mean, we really do have to understand how important sound doctrine is. How important the essential Christian doctrine is to the survival of any church. What is the point of belonging to a church that won’t even stand up for its Christian beliefs?  What use is a church that falters and changes course according to the whims and pressures of society and will not even stand up for its own central teachings?  Again, in the second letter to Timothy, Paul made precisely that point. Paul said to Timothy “But thou hast fully known my doctrine.”

The doctrine, the preaching of the church was paramount to Paul and so he gave this warning to Timothy when he said:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they keep to themselves teachers having itching ears. (2:4:3)

In other words, Paul was saying that firm and challenging Christian doctrine will always lead others to seek an easier, softer line that will ultimately lead them astray, lead them on to that path of destruction. There are always preachers and opportunists, careerists who want an easy life, those kinds of people who are ready to take advantage of weakness, and gullibility. Therefore, there is always the need, the need to clarify the theology and strengthen those doctrines that are the very foundation of the church. And apart from this, Paul knew that other pressures would come to bear on that young leadership in his churches: intimidation, exclusion, ostracism such prevailing conditions creating a situation that demands that courage, conviction, and faith should come to the fore. The temptation to give in and weaken had to be resisted.

I think that this steeling of oneself and being prepared to tough it out is dramatically and inspirationally addressed in another of Paul’s letters; his Letter to the Ephesians where he tells the Christians to put on the armour of God. The armour of God. Paul wrote:

Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities, against Powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (6: 10 -12)

When we think now, of the gravity of that undertaking – that bringing to birth of the infant churches in that country in Galatia – surrounded by dangers and enemies on all sides, we cannot but feel that the exhortation to put on the whole armour of God would be wholly appropriate to those converts too, to those churchmen who were to be its leadership and its guardians.  And so, we are left in no doubt about that weight of responsibility that was laid upon the shoulders of that new leadership in those Galatian churches

And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. (14: 23)

Now as we get ever closer to the end of Paul’s first missionary journey, between those years of 46-48 AD, an epic adventure covering 1,400 miles, we now find Paul and Barnabas preparing to leave for home.  Again, we find in this text of Luke’s (the author of the Acts of the Apostles), that economy of words:

And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia. And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia: And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled. (24:26)

They then sailed home to Antioch, they arriving at the church from which they had been sent. There arrived they informed the elders and the congregation of the success that they had experienced in Cyprus, in Antioch Pisidia, in Iconium, in Lystra and in Derbe and lastly in Perga.

And now I refer once again to that economy of words that just seems to have skimmed over the hardships of that journey, of that missionary journey that they had just made. And so, I remind you once again; was a journey that covered 1,400 miles between those years of 46-48 AD. That hostility and the violence that almost cost Paul his life in Lystra, and notwithstanding that, that journey, that homeward journey that involved once again, that crossing of the Taurus range of mountains, before they could return to Perga where Paul and Barnabas then preached. And then continuing though Pamphylia till they came to the sea port of Attalia before embarking onboard a ship for their home church in Antioch Syria. Remember that there were two Antiochs, one in Asia Minor (now Turkey) that is Galatia and the other Antioch was in Syria.

Let’s just reconsider those mountains that just had to be crossed on the outward and return legs of that journey. William Barclay wrote that the Taurus range of mountains was ‘one of the hardest roads in Asia Minor, a road which was also notorious for robbers and brigands.’ ‘They were setting out’ wrote Barclay, ‘on one of the most dangerous of journeys.’ If that wasn’t challenging enough, let me remind you of that place name, Galatia- that was the area or region where Paul planted his churches on that mission. That is why we have that letter of Paul’s, that Letter to the Galatians and that letter can also be found in our New Testament. Why I mention this is because Paul wrote these words to his churches in Galatia:

Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. (4:13)

What Paul meant in that letter was that when he first arrived in Galatia, and preached at Antioch, preached at Iconium, and preached at Lystra, he was quite ill. He was as Paul said, ‘preaching through the infirmity of the flesh.’ We are told that the oldest tradition is that despite suffering the ravages of Malaria when Paul first met the people of Galatia, he nevertheless preached to them. All of this added to the difficulties of his missionary work not to mention that dangerous and arduous journey over the mountain ranges which would have tested the strongest and fittest men and women let alone someone trying to cope with the effects of malaria.

Now we come to the point where Paul and Barnabas crossing the sea on their homeward journey, finally arrive at their church in Antioch, Syria; they arrive in triumph. But what kind of triumph would that have been? Certainly not the vainglorious revelling of the returning Roman conquering hero, but a triumph altogether different. That triumph was to be found in the completion of the work mentioned in our text (14;26). Work commended or recommended as the texts says, recommended to the grace of God. It was the work that was entrusted to Paul and Barnabas, by the congregation so that by God’s grace it should be completed and of course it was.

But really what was the triumph at the heart of all this, what really and truly was all the joy and excitement about? Yes, it was about the spreading of the churches, but more than that, much more than that it was significant, that more and more gentiles were being won to the message that Jesus was not only the long-awaited Jewish messiah of Bible prophecy, but even more than that. Jesus had opened the door of faith and salvation to the gentiles, and that the God of Israel, that God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was no longer the preserve of one small nation, Israel, but rather now the door was flung open to anyone who would believe and repent on the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

And so, this return to that Church in Antioch, Syria, and the report of Paul and Barnabas gave witness to that movement, that working of the Holy Spirit that was alive in the world, working through Paul who had indeed proclaimed himself to be the ‘apostle to the gentiles.’ This not to say that such work had not been carried out before at the hands of other apostles. Of course, it had! Notably by the apostles Peter and Philip. But it’s also true to say that Paul’s work and his writings, and his letters would eventually come to eclipse the work of any other church leader of the first century in developing and laying down the foundations of the Christian church. Out of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament fourteen of them are written by Paul.

The Acts of the Apostles, as you know, was written by Luke. Paul, despite his achievements and his favour with God was after all just a man. We will recall that he said as much himself, he said the same thing to that somewhat bemused pagan crowd in Lystra, he said that he was no different in like respects to any one of them. What we can say though, without fear of contradiction is that the story of Pau's life remains an inspiring testimony to others today, to others who would wish to serve God. Who knows what plans the Lord God may have for any one of us, or what work we may do for him, however great or humble? God was with Paul, we know that, because God had spoken with the disciple Ananias all those years ago in Damascus and God had told Ananias that Paul was a chosen vessel and that He, that is God, had chosen Paul to bear his name to bear the name of Christ before the gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. Let us give thanks that he, Paul, did exactly that, faithfully. 

 

Paul 13

 

 

 

Acts 14:19-23          

And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.

Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,

Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

Once again, we find ourselves with the apostle Paul and with Barnabas, in the town of Lystra. Lystra was the town to which they fled after their persecution in the cities of Antioch and Iconium.  Today we would recognise these towns as being in southwest Turkey; a region known in Roman times as Galatia.

Remember that name and region, Galatia, because, as you know, Paul would later write to his church in that region he would write that letter we know today as the ‘Letter to the Galatians,’ it is the same letter that we can find and read in the New Testament.

For  it was in AD 48 or 49 that Paul wrote that somewhat incendiary letter to the Galatians, in which he said:

If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. (9;1)

However, I began by saying that once again we find ourselves in that agricultural town of Lystra, and we find ourselves there in the aftermath of the high drama, and the violence that was instigated by certain Jews who whipped up a pagan crowd against Paul and Barnabas.  A pagan crowd who thought Barnabas and Paul were the gods: Jupiter and Mercury.  This crowd, you will recall, had heard Paul preach and they had witnessed Paul’s miraculous healing of the man crippled from birth. 

The result of this Jewish agitation amongst the pagans saw Paul being stoned.  When it was thought that this stoning had killed Paul, Paul was carried out of the city and no doubt his body was dumped some distance from the city walls – to avoid the Roman authorities who would, no doubt, have taken a dim view of any unauthorised and therefore illegal execution or murder that had taken place in their jurisdiction; remembering too, that Paul was a Roman citizen.

Then we have, in Verse 20:

However as the disciples stood round him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas into Derbe.

Again, you notice, we have this extreme economy of words in the text that say so little and yet it’s laden with meaning.  There is a method that we can resort to now – it has got a grand-sounding name: exegesis. A definition of exegesis is that it is the critical examination or interpretation of a text or scripture. Quite simply, I suppose, it means what we can infer from the words that have been given to us.

So, what CAN we infer from these few words?   Well, certainly that Paul was stoned, that he was taken for dead and dragged out of the city. Also, what seems to be clear is that, these ‘certain Jews’ who turned the crowd against Paul were skilled agitators or at the very least, experienced public speakers, but there would only be a few of them relative to the crowd. This alone may explain the failure of the public stoning, that is ultimately the failure to kill Paul.  Now let’s imagine that that incident, that stoning had been taken up by a Jewish crowd, in a Jewish city or even in a predominantly Jewish area – if that had been the case it almost certainly might have been a different story.

What we are looking at here is – what? A botched job.  A botched job.  Stoning, after all, is a brutal method of execution and as we have discussed previously, that method of execution did usually involve a set procedure, culminating in dropping a huge rock onto the victim to ensure that at the end – that he or she would be undeniably dead. 

What happened in Lystra seems to have been a rushed job, without enough dedicated stone throwers or killers to finish the job.  This would certainly seem to be the case if the ‘certain Jews’ were going to rely on a pagan, gentile crowd to help them undertake this rather macabre task.  Added to this we have the sheer illegality of this action, undertaken, we can assume, in broad daylight.  Those protagonists, certainly those with any common sense, would wish to leave the scene of the crime with all due haste- and at the same time, dump the incriminating evidence as far away as practicably possible.

A stoning would be, a sickening and repulsive spectacle to witness in any case, and at the same time, we can be sure that a sizeable number of the crowd would not entirely be in favour of this course of action.

And what can we say about those disciples who, we are told, stood around him?  What do you think they might be doing?  Even if they were not strong or numerous enough to prevent the actions of the crowd, surely there would be cries of protest and other forms of intervention that may well have mitigated against, or constrained, others from being sucked into a killing frenzy.  Looking at this text we can see that Paul (and Barnabas) were not alone, because, again at verse twenty it reads

Howbeit as the disciples stood around him he [that is, Paul] rose up…’

Who were these people, these disciples that were ‘stood around Paul’?  Not only were they there, presumably in a concerned and ultimately protective way, but they had formed a ring around him, not only were they there outside the city walls with him, they very obviously had been there when the Jews were trying to kill Paul in the town of Lystra, but clearly, they had followed those killers who had supposed Paul to be dead, those killers were now trying to dump the evidence. 

And again, who were these disciples?  That’s an important question too – because here’s the victory!  These were not disciples that Paul and Barnabas had brought with them. No, they were disciples who had been won to the Christian gospel in Galatia, disciples who were to be the backbone of Paul’s churches in Antioch, in Iconium and in Lystra and Derbe.  How do we know this?  Simply by continuing our reading:

20 He [Paul] rose up and came into the city and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium and Antioch.

22 Confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.  And when they had ordained the elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.

So here we are outside of that city, Paul now protected, surrounded not by enemies now, but by his followers.  The storm had passed, those would-be lynchers those would be killers caught up in a moment of mob mentality had now drifted away.  Although we don’t know the extent of Paul’s injuries, here he is now, rising from his ordeal, no doubt battered and bruised. Battered and bruised, but regardless, once he got back on his feet he headed back into the city.

That’s right, he got up, and he walked right back into Lystra.  Now there’s courage for you; God was with Paul and the whole of his ministry does attest to that.  Two words that come to mind in terms of Paul’s spirit-led leadership two qualities in fact– audacity and decisiveness – audacity and decisiveness.  As we read the story of his life and his mission we are constantly reminded and inspired by his heroism. 

We are also assured then, that he was the greatest Christian ever. But let us be clear, no man, no leader can exist and can achieve on his own, in a vacuum.  We would have to say that such inspiring leadership acted as it did as a lightning conductor, as a pole of attraction, as a magnet to other like souls; lesser souls, yes, perhaps, but nevertheless other like souls, other men with similar attributes of courage and self-sacrifice, other souls imbued with the Holy Spirit, ready to follow Paul and ready to help him build the Church.

You know, one thing we can be certain of, is that Paul didn’t walk back into Lystra alone – No, there was that circle of men around Paul, and  they walked right back into Lystra with him,  I think it’s worth our while considering that; it’s worth our while considering what an act of courage that was also for each individual who, in spite of the violence they had experienced, plucked up their courage and walked back into town with Paul.  We could say perhaps it was a calculated risk, the Jews who had tried to bring about Paul’s death might not be hanging around in the aftermath of the storm they had kicked up, certainly considering what they had done and especially if they knew that Paul was indeed a Roman citizen. And in any case the momentary passion of the crowds, of the mob, had probably dissipated leaving them only to disperse and to head for home.

Calculated risk indeed, and it is easy to see from the comfort of one’s arm chair.  But they, Paul, and his disciples, you know, they just did not go back quietly to town to take it easy and to rest up in their lodgings; and yes, they did go back. However, they left Lystra the next day, what did they do? they, Paul and Barnabas then travelled from Lystra to Derbe, a distance of 75 miles.

We can imagine that Paul would have sustained some painful injuries in Lystra and that to walk, or even to travel by horseback after such an ordeal may well have been a quite painful experience and not an experience to be relished by any stretch of the imagination.  Paul and Barnabas, we are told, departed for Derbe.

What can be said about that visit to Derbe is that it appears to be the only town or city mentioned in the New Testament where Paul encountered no resistance to the message of the gospel. We should imagine this to be a welcome relief compared to the trials and tribulations of Antioch, Iconium and Lystra.

So, we read, perhaps with some relief ourselves, at verse 21 that they preached the gospel to that city of Derbe.  Just note that it doesn’t say they preached the gospel in that city – no, it says they preached the gospel to that city.  We can then be sure that left to Paul and Barnabas that the gospel message was widely disseminated in that area.  No Jews arriving from the former cities to tip up the apple cart, so to speak, no serious murmurings of discontent from the opposition and no opposition from the synagogue there in Derbe that Paul and Barnabas preached in.

Then we have that statement that in Derbe, that ‘they taught many’ (20). They taught many in Derbe.  Clearly Derbe, again part of Galatia, proved to be fertile ground for the sowing of the seeds of the Church.  That expression, 'taught many', tells us that there was a ready audience, and it tells us that despite the previous difficulties in the other cities that the mission into Derbe was an unmitigated success. 

Let me return to a phrase I used earlier on; I said ‘here’s the victory’ – remember those other cities that Paul and Barnabas visited – you should know them off by heart by now – Antioch, Iconium, Lystra; I have also used the phrase ‘unmitigated success’ in relation to Derbe – but at the same time, for Paul and Barnabas, Antioch, Iconium and Lystra were not unmitigated disasters.  Far from it, so here’s the victory – after that very successful foray into Derbe.  They, that is Paul and Barnabas, returned to those three cities in this order: they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.  We can say therefore that the work had been done and that despite everything the new churches had been planted and were growing.

However, how much violence, fear and intimidation had been levelled at the apostles in those cities – here was the victory – Paul and Barnabas were able to return to strengthen and encourage the new and growing Christian witness as in verse 22.

Confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith.

Exhorting them, pleading with then, urging them to continue in their new faith.  What a difference that kind of leadership can make.  Such leadership to the success of the Church in the world is not optional, it is essential. We could ask where the source of such leadership is now, how could a man like Paul keep going under such fire, when lesser men would most certainly have crumbled under the pressure.  We are led once again to be reminded of the spirit-led ministry; the hallmark of the early Church as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. 

You may ask what it means?  It means that such power comes from the hand of God, through faith, through belief and endurance.  If we believe that God created the world, then we must believe in a supernatural power, that exists outside of space and time, and yet that power which is God is the power with whom we are intimately connected.  Paul in his lifetime suffered much, and to his followers in the faith he said, he said to then that ‘we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.  Paul said we must suffer a lot to enter God’s kingdom and towards the end of his life, imprisoned in Rome, Paul reiterated this message to his spiritual son, Timothy (2:3-4). He said, to enter the Kingdom of God, to be saved, requires commitment.  So challenging is this kind of commitment that Paul likened it to being a soldier – that we should endure the hardness of this life like a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and that our minds and our lives should be fixed entirely on him; and not that we should become entangled with the affairs of this world.  That glorious message of Paul’s that if we are dead with Christ we shall also live with Christ. In other words, if we can die to our old worldly selves we can live with Christ, if we take up the cross and follow him.