SUNDAY - OCTOBER 26, 2025 "Point to Jesus" Acts 14:8-21

Welcome to DeSoto Hills Baptist Church.

Our Sunday morning services are weekly at 9 and 10 30 a.m.

You're listening to an audio recast of this past week's service.

We hope you enjoy.

God bless.

We're going to start reading in verse 8 this morning, read down through verse 21.

You know, as I was playing football in high school, I there was one day I remember I was struggling with how to do that.

I was struggling with how do you play football when the goal of football is to hit people and show a lot of aggression and things like that.

How do you do that and still live for God?

And how do you play for God when you do that?

And I was just kind of in a in a dilemma on how to do that because the biggest part of it is I love to do it.

I love playing football.

And so so how would I do that?

And I remember going to uh one of my coaches whom I really respected and asking him, I was like, Coach Aldridge, how do we how do we do this?

Like, how do you, because he had he had played and and all of those things, how do we do this?

So he quickly pointed me to scripture in Colossians chapter 3, verse 17, it says, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17

And so as I as I dealt with that, I said, okay, great, I understand that.

So so whatever we're doing, we bring glory to God.

But again, the question comes, how do we, how do I do that?

Especially in that situation, how do I play football and bring glory to God?

And so he so he came and he said, Grant, look, this is this is my suggestion.

This is how I think you do that.

He said, when you go and you're you're playing, don't play, you're not playing for anybody else.

You're not playing for your mama up in the stands who doesn't know anything about the game but your number.

You're not playing for her.

You're not playing for coaches, you're not playing for cheerleaders, you're not playing for fans, you're not playing, you're not the the re imagine that the only person in the stands watching you play is God.

Now, how are you gonna play?

Is it gonna affect the way that you play?

You're gonna, everything that you do in the in the way that you use the skills that he's given you, you're you're gonna you're gonna play like he's watching you, the one who gave you these skills.

You're gonna, in the way you react to situations, you're gonna react in a way that he's watching you, the one who gave you these skills, the one who gave you these abilities.

You're gonna play like he's the only one watching.

I thought, that's great.

I can do that.

Here's the thing: what I realized is that can quickly translate into every aspect of our lives.

When I was in high school, it didn't just affect the way that I played football, but it affected the way I went to class.

It affected the way I did my homework.

It affected the way I interacted with my friends.

Even as I've gotten older, it affects the way if I'm if I'm living my life as God is the only one watching, it affects the way I interact with my children.

It affects the way I interact with my wife.

It affects the way that I go about my daily life.

It affects the way that I act when I go to a restaurant.

It affects that, it affects everything when we do that.

And so by nature, when we're doing that, what we are doing then is pointing people to Jesus.

And as we come to our passage today, we're gonna find Paul and Barnabas, and they, while it is not the same situation by any stretch of the imagination, what they are doing in our passage today, and what they have been doing, what they are going to continue to do, what they are going to challenge us to do, is to point people to Jesus.

You see, in the in the passage today, Paul and Barnabas are gonna receive some praise, and they are gonna be persecuted.

And facing both praise and persecution, what we're gonna see Paul and Barnabas doing is pointing people to Jesus.

We've talked about this over the past several weeks.

I also understand that the persecution that Paul and Barnabas faced is not, we don't face persecution like that today.

At least not here.

There are people in this world that are facing persecution just like Paul and Barnabas faced.

We don't so much necessarily face that.

So what do we do with this?

When while we may not face the same kind of persecution, we still face opposition.

So in the face of opposition, in the face of both good times and in the face of challenging times, what we need to do is point people to Jesus.

The challenge for us is pretty simple.

Point to Jesus in everything that we do.

So as we approach this passage, the question that we want to look to then is how did Paul and Barnabas point to Jesus?

How did they do this?

So if you have your Bible, I invite you to stand with me as we give honor to the reading of God's word today from Acts chapter 14.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

I'm gonna begin reading in verse 8.

Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet.

He was crimped, crippled from birth, and had never walked.

He listened to Paul speaking, and Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, Stand upright on your feet.

And he sprang up and began walking.

And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted their voices, saying, In Lake Aonian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.

Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

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

But when the apostle apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed into the crowd, crying out, 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.

In past generations he allowed all nations to walk in their own ways, 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.

Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul, dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby.

When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, to Iconium, and to Antioch.

Let's pray.

God, we do come lifting up to you and how a hallelujah this morning.

Praising you because you have been so good to us.

Thanking you because you have been so good to us.

So, God, now as we come and open your word, God, we pray that you will change our lives for all eternity through your word.

Jesus, it's in your wonderful name that we pray.

Amen.

So again, we we come to the question: how did Paul and Barnabas, how did they point people to Jesus?

Well, well, first thing that we see here is we see that upon seeing faith, they pointed to Jesus' power.

Look at what's happening.

Paul begins in verse 8, he begins to preach, and and as he he he heals this crippled man.

Now we don't know the story.

Luke gives us the story in brevity.

We don't know a lot that's going on, but but there's some things that he does tell us that maybe Paul, he, Paul didn't know.

One is that this man had been crippled from birth and had never, never walked.

So Paul, he begins to stand up and he begins to preach.

And it says, this man listened.

Now listen, maybe I'm making too big of a deal about this.

But standing up and preaching every week, and even before I was preaching every week, Brother James is here.

Thanks for being here, Brother James.

And Brother James was here preaching every week.

I sat where you sat.

And if we're honest with ourselves, there are some mornings that we listen.

There are some mornings that something grabs a hold of us and we we're on the edge of our seats, and it's just pulling us to it, and we're taking in every moment and taking in every word, and we hear it, but then there's some mornings you're just trying to make it through.

I understand.

I get it.

So see where this man is in this moment.

He is listening, he is taking it in, he is a grabbing a hold to the words that are moving in him.

And here's what it says.

And then Paul looking intently at him.

Now, see what he's saying.

Paul is staring at him.

Now, how uncomfortable would it make?

I like to put my glasses on when I'm not reading so I can see you on the back row, by the way.

And I like to see you, I like to look at you.

But how would it make you feel if while I was preaching, I never moved away from you?

I just looked right at you and stared at you.

And Paul says, here's what Paul is doing as he is preaching.

He sees this man listening and grabbing hold, and it says, looking intently at him, staring at him.

And then here's what Paul sees.

It says, it says, looking intently at him and seeing he had faith to be made well.

See what Paul saw in this man.

He didn't just see a guy who was listening.

Paul saw faith that made him well.

How did he see it?

I don't know.

I wish I could say, Yeah, I see your faith.

Come on up here.

I see it.

Come on.

I I don't know how Paul did it.

But he says, looking intently, seeing in faith that had him made well, and then in the middle of the sermon, in the middle of his preaching, he looks at this man and he says, Hey, get up and walk.

And this man who had never walked before, jumped up.

He didn't just, oh, like me getting out of the bed in the morning.

He jumped up and began to walk.

This is amazing.

And what Paul is doing, what we see here, see here happening, is Paul seeing faith in this man, seeing faith that he seeing the faith that that would make him well, Jesus, through Paul.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, healed this man.

That is an amazing thing.

And what Paul does is he doesn't point, he doesn't point this man to himself.

He really doesn't even point out his faith.

He points him to the one who gave him faith and had the power to heal him.

He points him to Jesus.

Now listen, we've we've talked about how the necessity of miracles is we don't have to have those anymore because God has given us his word.

We have the word of God here.

But we still need to understand the power of God is necessary.

It is necessary in our salvation.

We need the power of God to save us.

The power of God is necessary in our sanctification, in our becoming like Jesus.

We need the power of God to become like Jesus.

So what do we do with this?

Well, we we we point to God.

We point to the power of God in 1 Peter.

In 1 Peter chapter 4, verses 10 and 11, Peter writes this.

1 Peter 4:10

He says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

Whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God.

Whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.

To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen.

Listen, what Peter is telling the people here is very much very similar to what Coach Aldridge told me.

Listen, if we are going to speak, we need to speak pointing people to Jesus.

If we're going to serve, we need to serve pointing people to Jesus.

And we need to do whatever we're doing, whether we're speaking, whether we're serving, whether we're do using another gift that God has given us.

Whatever we're doing, we need to do it completely reliant upon God because here's the deal.

We don't want to point people to us.

We don't want to point people to say, hey, look how good we're serving.

Look how good this is.

Look, no, we want people to see us and look to Jesus.

We want to point people to Him.

We want to point people to the power of Jesus.

Listen, I want people to look at the Soda Hills and not say, What a great church.

I want people to look at the Soda Hills and say, what a great God that that church serves.

We need to point people to the power of God Almighty through his word and through his power and strength and not ours.

Paul, he saw faith and he pointed to Jesus' power.

But then next, Paul and Barnabas are gonna see praise.

They're gonna see people praising them, but they are gonna point to Jesus' greatness.

See what happens, they heal this man, and then all of a sudden the people see this miraculous healing and make some wrong assumptions.

See what we can kind of figure out about uh Lystra here is that it probably did not, if any Jewish population, if they had any, it was very small.

So insignificant was the population that they didn't have a synagogue.

And you say, how do you know they didn't have a synagogue?

You didn't live there.

Well, true.

But Paul and Barnabas in every other town, if there was a synagogue, where do they start?

In the synagogue.

They didn't start there here.

They just go among the people.

And so what they're dealing with is people who don't know about God.

And they see Paul and Barnabas and they say, hey, the the liter gods have come down and they're among us.

And they said, well, Barnabas must be Zeus and Paul must be Hermes because he speaks, he talks a lot.

And so they begin to try to worship them, offer sacrifices to them.

Even the priests, they come out and they they they hear about this, and the priests that the temple to Zeus was just on the outside, and they they come in with a cow to offers a sacrifice and with garlands to put on their head.

But Paul and Barnabas, they they see what is happening, and when they realize what is happening, they run out into the streets, and it says they they tore their garments.

Well, in scripture, there's really three ways, three, three reasons people would tear their garments.

One is they would tear their garments when there was a dramatic mourning.

If somebody had died and they were going to mourn very dramatically, they would go and they would tear their garments.

They would also tear their garments if there was extreme distress.

Something was going on, something was happening, and it was just this extreme.

They were in extreme distress, they would tear their garments.

They didn't have fall fests, and they would just go and they would just tear their garments in extreme distress.

The third reason that they might tear their garments is probably what is happening here when there was a great blasphemy.

These people were coming and they were trying to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, and Paul and Barnabas run into the streets and tear their garments and say, What are you doing?

We are men just like you.

And instead of pointing to what they had done, they began to point to the greatness of Jesus.

Paul begins to preach.

The first thing that he does is he points them to a living God.

Look in verse 15, he says, 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.

See, Paul is pointing out to them that all of these little gods that they worship, they are not true or living gods.

He says, I want you to worship a living God.

That's who we're worshiping.

We are worshiping a living God.

See him, know that he is living.

And in that pointing out that he is a living God, he tells them some things about God.

Now, now understand, this is a little bit different sermon that we've seen Paul preach in Acts.

In every other sermon that we've seen in Acts, Paul has started from a place that the people at least acknowledge God.

But that's not where he's starting here because these people have no idea of the living God.

He is having to start at the very beginning, pointing them to the living God.

And so he goes and he points to this living God, and then he tells them some things about this living God.

He tells them that he is the creator of all things.

He goes on in verse 15.

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.

See, in Greek culture, they had all these gods that did different.

This God did this, and this God did this, and this God did this.

And what Paul is telling them is, no, listen, there is one true living God, and he created it all.

He did it all.

In a few weeks, we'll get to Acts chapter 17.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And we're gonna go there in a minute, but in Acts chapter 17, he's going to go to the Arapagos.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

I always say that wrong, by the way, David.

I listened to things to say it rightly, and I said it incorrectly for all these years that now I can't say it correctly.

But he goes and he they they have this statue to an unknown God.

And he says, I can tell you who that is.

He's actually the God.

And he starts at a different place and he tells them about this one true living God who created all things.

But not only does he create all things, he gives mercy to all people.

Listen to what he says in verse 17.

Verse 16.

In the past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.

But here's where the grace comes in in verse 17.

Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

There's the grace that God gives.

It's grace that he gives to all people, that he sent them rain.

He sent them fruitful seasons, that they should be able to recognize and know that there is a God.

Paul says something very similar in Romans chapter 1, when he's writing to the church at Rome in verse 18, he says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

For what can be known about God is plain to them 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.

Paul tells the church at Rome, he says, Listen, mankind is without excuse.

You should be able to look around and see God's eternal attribute, his divine power.

You should be able to look around and see these things about God and know that there is God.

But no, the reason people don't is because they suppress this truth.

They have pushed it down and pushed it down and pushed it down so much that they begin to believe the lie.

But he's made himself so clear that we are without excuse if we don't trust him.

This is the same thing that Paul is telling the church at Lystra in Acts chapter 14, is that they should be able to look around.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

God has given you enough grace to look around and know that there is a God, so you are without excuse.

But then what happens is they can't restrain themselves and restrain the people from offering sacrifices.

Really, what happens is they cut Paul short.

But if they hadn't, I know what Paul would have said.

Again, he preaches basically the same sermon.

Preachers do that, by the way.

Because you don't hear it the first two times.

He preaches the same sermon in Acts chapter 17, and they let him finish.

Acts 17 · chapter mention

And you know what he does?

He points to Jesus.

In Acts chapter 17, verses 30 and 31, Paul says this, the times of ignorance God overlooked.

Acts 17:30

But now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed the day on which he will judge the world and righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

See, God is, as he, as he, as Paul said in Lystra, God is in in the past, he's kind of allowed people to do what they want, just giving them enough grace that they know he's there.

But now, he said, now the day is coming that he is calling people to repentance because now we have more than just those things.

God has revealed himself more in these days, he says, because he he and he's going to judge if you don't repent.

And guess who's going to judge?

The very one whom he raised from the dead, and we know that is Jesus.

Paul is not pointing to what he has done.

When these people try to praise him, he points them to Jesus' greatness.

That he was crucified.

And on the third day, God raised him from the dead.

And he is going to return.

And he is going to judge.

And we need to worship him and him alone.

We see them point people to Jesus' power.

Seeing praise, they pointed to Jesus' greatness.

But then what we see also here is seeing persecution.

They pointed to Jesus' faithfulness.

In verse 19, the story takes an interesting turn because it says Jews from Antioch and Iconium came to Lystra.

Now we don't know why they came.

They could have just followed Paul and Barnabas there.

I mean, because they were pretty mad at Paul and Barnabas when they left both of those cities.

They could have just followed them there.

They could have just been traveling.

We're not real sure why they they wound up in Lystra, but we know they're there.

And when they get there, what they do is they stir the crowd up against Paul and Barnabas.

They stir them up against Paul and Barnabas to the point that they stone Paul.

Presume he's dead.

And they drag him out of the city.

Now, some will argue, was he actually dead?

Did God raise him from the dead?

Maybe, but I don't think the language says that because it says Luke intentionally says, supposing him to be dead.

So I don't think he actually died and God raised him, but if nothing else, he was knocked out pretty good.

They drove him outside of the city.

Verse 20.

But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up, entered the city, and on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derby.

On the next day.

Do you understand what stoning is?

I mean, they're not throwing pebbles at him.

And if it takes more than one, they're throwing these huge rocks at Paul.

To the point that he they thought he was dead.

Got up and he went back to the city.

And the next day he traveled to Derby.

And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples listen to what they did.

They went back to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch.

Where they had been persecuted over and over again.

How?

Why was he able to do something like this?

How could Paul find it within him?

Listen, I have to make a decision about whether to cancel Fall Fest or not, and I feel depressed.

Oh my stars.

I think the thing that carries Paul through this is he recognizes the faithfulness of Jesus.

And what he's doing is he's pointing people to Jesus' faithfulness.

Jesus never left him.

Jesus is, as we sang earlier, he is good all the time.

And all the time he is good.

When Paul was being stoned, he recognized Jesus is good and he is faithful.

And the next morning, when he could barely roll out of bed because he had been stoned the day before, he got up recognizing Jesus is good and Jesus is faithful and he.

He carried it on.

And he pointed people to Jesus.

Not himself.

We don't see Paul getting up.

Really, the only time we see Paul complain in the book of Acts is when he's praying to God and he's just asking God to remove this thorn from his flesh.

He doesn't.

He points to Jesus' faithfulness.

So listen, what does that mean for us?

Well, a couple of things.

One, I need you to hear this.

There may be some in here who have never trusted Christ.

And I need you to hear the message that Paul, I need you to see the Savior that Paul was pointing to.

His name is Jesus.

Listen, and it is only Jesus who has the power to save us.

You may say, Grant, I don't need to be saved.

Well, yes, you do.

If you don't think you have, what you have done is what they did in Romans.

You have suppressed the truth so much that you're believing a lie.

So listen to me.

Because you have sinned, you need salvation.

You can never walk with Jesus.

But Jesus came.

And he will save us by our his power when we call upon him.

Maybe this morning, if you have never trusted in Jesus, you need to do that today.

If you have, let me ask you a question.

Are you pointing people to Jesus?

Or are you are you pointing people to him?

Listen, I'm not saying it's going to be easy.

I'm not saying you're not going to be persecuted.

I'm also not saying that all times are going to be bad.

There were some good times too for Paul and Barnabas.

What I'm telling us is in every situation, what we need to do is recognize the goodness of Jesus, the faithfulness of Jesus, and we need to point people to him because it is only Jesus that can save us.

It is only Jesus that can sanctify us.

It is only Jesus who has the power to do either one.

And we need to trust in him.

We need to rely on him.

Because what we want to do is point people to him.

We're about to enter into a time of invitation.

If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, we invite you to come.

We'll pray with you.

There will be counselors who can take you out and share with you how you can trust Christ and become a follower of Him.

If you have, but maybe this morning you have not been pointing people to Jesus.

Maybe this invitation needs to be a time of repentance for you.

Maybe we need to recognize who we are and fall upon Him and rely upon Him and stop making excuses of why we don't and trust Him.

So we invite you during the invitation to make that decision.

You can do it right from your seat.

You can come down and we will pray with you.

Or you can come and kneel at these steps and make them an altar and cry out to God in repentance.

I challenge you this morning.

Even in the decision that you make today, to point people to Jesus.

Let's pray.

God, you are good.

We love you.

Thank you for today, and I thank you for this opportunity that we have this morning.

God, we have a special moment where we can, for those who have never trusted in you, they can place their faith in you.

God, work mightily in their lives.

But for those of us who have, Father God, we pray that this morning will, if we need a time of repentance, it will be that.

But God, as you gave that man in Lystra the faith to know he could be healed.

God, we pray this morning you will give us the faith to trust you in everything we do.

We love you.

Jesus, it's in your wonderful name that we pray.

Amen.

Stand with us this morning.

If you have a decision to make, now is the time.

Come on, my soul.

Don't you get shy on me, lift up your song.

Cause you've got a lie on inside of the song.

Get up and praise the Lord.

Come on.

You've got a lion in the start of the song.

Get up and praise the Lord.

So I throw my hands.

I want to pray for us.

God, we thank you again for this moment that we have to give back from you, give back to you from the blessings that you have poured out on us.

God, we pray that even here you are honored.

Jesus, it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to this week's sermon.

If you have any questions for our pastor, feel free to reach out at DeSotoHills.com.