Bible Guys Classics: Acts 14

Well, today we're going to find out that the apostle

Paul gets the ultimate compliment.

He gets called a Greek god.

Paul and Barnabas. I think they must have haunt a

lot in the gyms. Yes, so that's what we're talking

about today. He's Chris, I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys.

So Jeff, yes, today we're going to do this thing

where I don't know if you've ever seen Jimmy Fallon,

I have the Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show does

this thing where somebody wears headphones and they play loud

music and then the other person whispers a phrase. Okay,

so if the podcast listeners are only listening and not watching,

they'll be able to hear our responses.

Those who watch can actually they can.

See play out.

Okay.

So this is very creatively entitled the Whisper Challenge, the

Whisper Challenge. Okay, And I don't know what it is

that you're going to say, No, you do not, of course.

Right, Okay, of course, so I have to swap up

my headphones.

Yep, swapping on his headphones.

He's gonna put things on directly connected with Now I

get these tell me.

And then you're going to turn on some music or something.

Is it?

Boy?

It's too loud?

Okay?

Is that better?

You got turned up? But a little more? Okay, okay,

I can't hear anything.

I can't hear anything. Okay, here we go.

I can't hear you.

Here's the phrase.

Look at you ready?

Yeah, leave the gun, take the canoley.

It looked like you said, leave the gun beside the toilet. Close. Okay,

leave the gun, take the cannoli, leave the gun beside

the toy.

Oh, leave the gun, take the conoley.

Oh, I don't know. It looks like you've changed something

about a cold steak. I don't know.

No, no, no, no. It is the famous line from the Godfather.

Leave the gun, take the canoli.

Leave the gun. Take from the Godfather. Yes, okay, okay,

I got one for you, so go ahead. Oh yeah, yeah, great, okay, yeah.

So it's kind of loudly. I couldn't hear. That's funny.

It's so hard to see what you're saying. Okay, are

you ready?

Oh wow, that that is loud.

Okay, okay, the truth. You can't handle the truth.

What the heck? Do more motion with your lips?

The truth. You can't handle the truth.

The truth is astronomical.

No, try it again. That was your first try. Try again,

the truth. You can't handle the truth.

You can't handle the truth.

Oh there you go, get it? Yeah you got it.

Yeah.

Wow, that's I.

Said the truth. You can't handle the truth.

That's you said.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that wasn't the lie.

Yeah I know, but but it looked like you said

the truth first.

Yes, and then I picked up you said you can't

handle the truth. The actual quote is I.

Want the truth. You can't handle the truth. That's right.

That's what the that's what the line.

So I said the truth. I didn't say I want

the I said the truth. You can't handle the truth.

That's awesome.

That's good, good job.

Yeah, thanks man.

Yeah.

I was just trying to think of something that was

in your wheelhouse. And you know, I read the Bible

a lot, but you watch a lot of movies, and

so I thought maybe you would know movie references.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know.

And I can go on all day about things that

we do to consume our time. If it's not the Bible,

then it's evil right probably, or something right right right?

Or football. Those are the things that please the Lord. Okay,

please the Lord.

So we are continuing with Paul and the story in

the of Acts and the spread of the Gospel. And

so now Paul and Barnabas are traveling, and if you remember,

they had been in a town, and they had spoken

specifically first there at Antioch and Pasidia to the Jews

and in the synagogues, and some people believe, some didn't.

They kind of rejected them. And so then they took

the Gospel of the Gentiles, and then that became the

pattern from that point on. They come in, they go

to a synagogue, and then they go out in the

streets and preach to everybody else. So that's what's going

to be happening here. We're going to read kind of

a long passage, but it's very interesting. So just follow

a long We're and read Acts chapter fourteen, reading from

the New Living Translation, said the same thing happened in Iconium.

Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached

with such power that a great number of both Jews

and Greeks became believers. Some of the Jews, however, spurned

God's message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against

Paul and Barnabas, But the Apostles stayed there a long time,

preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord, and the

Lord proved their message was true by giving them power

to do miraculous signs and wonders. But the people the

town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided

with the Jews and some with the Apostles. Then a

mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders, decided

to attack and stone them. When the Apostles learned of it,

they fled to the regional Lyaconia, to the town of

Lystra and Derby and the surrounding area, and there they

preached the good news. While they were at Listra, Paul

and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. He'd

been that way from birth, so he had never walked.

He was sitting and listening as Paul preached. Looking straight

at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed,

So Paul called to him in a loud voice, stand up,

and the man jumped to his feet and started walking.

When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted

in their local dialect. These men are gods in human form,

and they decided that Barnabas was their Greek god Zeus,

and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. Now,

the temple of Zeus was located just outside the town,

so the priests of the temple and the crowd brought

bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town gates, and

they prepared to offer sacrifices the apostles.

But when the.

Apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening, they tore

their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting, friends,

why are you doing this. We are merely human beings,

just like you. We've come to bring you the good

news that you should turn from these worthless things and

turn to the living God who made heaven and earth,

the sea and everything in them. In the past, he

permitted all the nations to go their own ways, but

he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness.

For instance, he sends you rein and good crops, and

gives you food and joyful hearts. But even with these words,

Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing

to them. Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium

and won the crowds to their side, and they stoned

Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead,

But as the believers gathered around him, he got up

and went back into town. The next day he left

with Barnabas for Derby. After preaching the good news in Derby,

making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium

and Antiocho, Pasidia, where they strengthen the blue. They encouraged

them to continue in the faith, reminding them that we

must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.

Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With

prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the

care of the Lord in whom they had put their trust.

Then they traveled back through Pasidia to Pamphylia. They preached

the word in Perga, and they went down to Atalia. Finally,

they returned by ship to Antioch Assyria, where their journey

had begun. The believers there had entrusted them to the

grace of God to do the work that they had

now completed. Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church

together and reported everything God had done through them and

how he had opened the door of faith to the

gentiles too. And they stayed there with the believers for

a long time. So that's kind of cool. So just

to be clear, all of these towns that they're mentioning

our ancient towns in what would be now modern day Turkey,

the central portion of modern day Turkey.

So yeah, and there's a lot happening here. So the

first observation is is that Saul is no longer called Saul.

It's only Paul, and that.

Only Paul at this point. And it's not Barnabas and Paul,

it's it's Paul and Barnabas.

Yeah.

So it's it's very obvious that their fame has been growing. Uh,

you know, they've been gaining momentum in their ministry.

Uh.

And obviously Paul's confidence, you know, the more time that

separates him from his past, the more empowered.

And I'm sure he probably feels yeah.

And then uh, and then it says that, you know,

first of all, it says they hear of a stoning.

Now some people you know, who grew up like me.

You may hear.

Stoning and think of something else, But stoning is actually.

Paul and Barney has got stoned. But not but not

but not the way that we're that's correct, not the

way you think of it.

Well, Woodstock thinks, right, So it's it's more so they

would take rocks and they would I mean, it was

the easiest.

Way, right.

It was a form of execution.

It was a form of execution.

They would bring people out and they would take rocks

and they would just throw them and they try to

you know, I don't want to say it, but like

to hit him in the head. Yeah, And so that's

that was it.

So it would be you know, and they're not just

taking little rocks, they're taking big, big chunks of rocks.

Usually this still happens some in developing portions of the

world Afghanistan, Pakistan, some portions of India, Bangladesh. I've heard

of stoning's where people still do this kind of thing. Yes,

well you know that means of execution.

Do you remember the story I told with Pastor Samson

with a cup of tea and the sugar.

Oh yeah, yeah, that was the ston uh huh yeah.

Yeah, So they still do it. It's still a customary thing.

It's just because it turns out stones and rocks are everywhere,

so they're readily readily handy. So the basically they use

the same strategy. They come in, they preach in the synagogues.

Some of the Jewish people go, you're right, Jesus is

the Jewish Messiah, the one we've been waiting for, and

some rejected it. And then there was some murmuring and discussion.

Then they go out and they begin to murmuring, it's.

Such a good word. Murmur murmur murmur, it's such a good.

Word for exactly what's happening there, right, just this buzz

going on, people disagreeing, and then some of the gentiles believe.

But then the whole crowd turns. So it's amazing how

quickly people's opinions change. Hey, he's a good guy. No,

he's a bad guy. He's a good guy. No, he's

a bad guy.

Let's kill him.

Not only that, they went from he's a good guy too,

he's a bad guy, to let's kill him in a

very quick period of time.

Well, you know what it reminds me if it reminds

me of social media, right, I was gonna say, it

reminds me of of everybody's opinions about every political campaign ever.

Oh yeah, right, it's just like we're all sheep. And

so my buddy has this saying and he says, he says, man.

We're all sheep. He's like, he always does this all

the time.

And it is true. We form opinions based on almost

no facts.

Right on twenty five second tiktoks right, change our world views, right, Yeah, And.

So anyway, the point is is that there's a fickle crowd.

And by the way, you know, it does remind us

that not a lot of changes over the years. Yeah,

even though thousands of years later so much has changed.

So that first time they hear of the plot to

stone them and they leave. And so in this area

there were little regions, almost like counties or maybe even

little states, and they just left one region and they

go over to another region. It's only like eighteen or

twenty miles, but you know, when everybody's walking, that's a

long ways. So they get over to what town is it?

They're in Lystra and in Derby. These are kind of

like sister cities and they're fairly prosperous cities, and they're

fairly Greek in their outlook, in their worldview. And so

these guys come in and they see while they're preaching,

they see this guy who's been crippled for his whole life,

and Paul speaks with authority and heals this guy.

And I think it's interesting how it says Paul had

realized that the man had enough.

Faith to be healed. Yeah.

Yeah, And so there's a part of me, you know,

the movie part of me Cert is like wondering if

Paul sensed it like God, because it does say that

God gave them the abilities, right sure, it's at the

beginning of the chapter it said that God had given

them special abilities to do miraculous science. It says giving

them power to do miraculous science, and wonders. So there's

a part of me that wonders if Paul had this

almost supernatural sense, you know. But at the same time,

being a speaker, I know that, you know, if I

speak to a crowd, I could tell the people who

are with me, you know, and this man might have

just been completely agreeing, and you can just tell, like

this man is believing everything that I'm saying.

So it could just be that to you.

You know, the Book of Hebrews talks about faith, you know,

the whole book, so much of it's about faith, and

it talks about how you have to have faith in God,

that he first of all, that he exists, and that

he rewards those who you know, have faith in him

do good. So it may have been that he could

identify that this guy, of all the people, this guy

had dialed in and went, yes, I do believe in

the Creator, and yes, I do believe the Creator can

do anything. And so because that's consistent with the messages

they're giving.

So you're right that either way.

It was a sense or he was picking up on

this this guy's response, But how much faith does it take?

It takes enough faith to say I believe that that's it.

Because this guy didn't know all the details in the gospels,

he didn't know everything about Jesus Christ. He was identifying

with what little faith he did have, and that's how

much faith it takes to come to God.

Yeah.

Well, people actually say all the time, actually they say

I have to have more faith. I have to have

more faith. And if you look in the scriptures, Jesus

said always asked the question where is your faith?

Right now?

He did marvel twice. He marveled twice about I've never

seen such great faith in Israel.

Right.

And one, by the way, was from a Jewish or

from a Greek pagan, right and you know who you know,

remember the man who said, come and just speak the word,

and my servant be healed.

And then and then the other one was a Roman. Romans, yeah, Romans.

And so Jesus marveled twice about great faith. But he

never challenged people and said you must have more faith.

He always asked the question, where is your faith? And

so people always say.

Well that the one father said I believe, help my unbelief, right,

and Jesus healed the Mand's son with that statement.

Right right right. I believe partly, I believe mostly.

And I want to say that I think this is

one of the biggest misconceptions in Christianity. People always punish themselves.

They say, the reason why I'm not healed is I

just have to have more faith. And there are actually teachings,

there's denominations out there that that indicate that, like, well, hey,

we're doing everything right, you know, we're laying hands, we're praying.

The reason why you're not healed is because I guess

your faith is not big enough. And so I've I've

counseled people over and over and over who cry and

they say, I just have to have more faith, And

I guess it's my fault that I'm not healed. And

I think to myself, well, that's spiritual abuse, because Jesus said,

you don't have to have bigger faith, you just have

to believe in a bigger God, right, because it takes

faith of a mustard seed, which is the smallest of seeds.

And Jesus said, if you have just that much faith,

and he's talking about true faith, he's you know, just

your faith doesn't to be bigger.

You just need a bigger God.

That's right.

And God selectively does these miracles for a purpose.

And then this.

Purpose it's to be able to highlight the fact that

the message that Paul and Barnabas are bringing you have

the power of God behind him.

Right.

So I'm sure that there were other crippled people in

this region that didn't get healed that day, but this

guy did. There's different reasons why God chooses not to heal.

We still live in a sinful world. We live in

a broken world, and a part of that is we

live under the curse of Eden.

It's not a perfect place.

There are a lot of really bad things that we

struggle through, not because God hates us, but because that's

the consequence of the fact that we live under the

curse of Eden.

Yeah, and I think I think it's Roman's eighth that

tells us that we live under the bondage and they

of sin. That's right, right, and it tells us that

we live in this broken world.

So anyways, they come in, they heal this guy, and

then everybody's.

Like, oh my gosh, these guys are gods.

And there's right outside this town is the temple to Zeus,

and so the preach.

By the way. By the way, there's multiple temples of Zeus.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there's just like.

There are mosques or just like there are churches or synagogues.

So this isn't the temple that we know of that

still stands today right somewhere, you know, with archaeological Okay,

go ahead.

So but they had a temple to Zeus there. He

was their favorite god. So they decided Barnabas because he's

not talking much. He just seems to have a lot

of authority. Barnabas must be Zeus, and then Paul, he's

one making all the arguments, so he must be Hermes,

and they decided they're going to make sacrifices to him.

Yeah.

Now Hermes was also the son of Zeus, and he

was the Zeus or Zeus's son by Maria, no, by

may I whatever. I'm looking at the notes. Maya m

A I A.

Yeah, that's a weird way.

To spell it.

And it says that he's also the Hermes is the

fertility god and the god that escorts people to Hades,

right wherever Hades.

Is, yeah, yeah, yeah, the place of the dead.

Yeah, the place of the dead. Yeah.

So they're like, oh, wow, we're gonna make a sacrifice.

These guys are living, walking guys, which means they were

absolutely convinced of the miracle they saw. Convinced absolutely, So

there wasn't any question about this one. This guy had

never walked in his whole life. They've seen him forever. Typically,

those kind of people would be sitting and begging at

the city gates or out in the streets. People would

see them all the time. There was no social network,

the social network to help people that were physically disadvantaged

would always be just pure charity. So people be begging,

and so they would have known this guy his entire life, right,

and then they see this miracle and they genuinely believe

it happens. But then Paul gets up and he preaches

a different message then the messages we see him preach.

To the Jewish people.

To the Jewish people, he gives kind of a argument

that Jesus is the Messiah based on Abraham all the

way through David, all the way to Jesus, and he

gives this Jewish argument. Here he goes, look it, the

creator of the universe gives you rain, gives you crops,

and he starts with where they're at. That power comes

from that creator, right, that's what. So he started with

the limited information that they had, and then he begins

to come to Jesus or bring them to Jesus there

and so people were thrilled, many people trusted. And then

maybe some of the enemies that came from Pasidia, they

came from somewhere from Antioch or wherever they and Iconium

they come in and immediately shift the crowds to the

point that they stoned Paul, and they think they stone

him to death. So these people who saw the miracle

and thought he was a god just a little while ago.

They're like, nah, it's killing right. It's pretty hardcore.

Yeah.

And by the way, Paul later on in the epistles

mentions like I've been shipwrecked, I've been stoned, I've been

beaten with rods, and you know, you better believe he

doesn't forget this.

That's right.

Right.

In fact, when the scripture says that the people thought

they were dead, I understand that this stoning people, unfortunately,

was a common practice, which means they could tell.

You know, like is the job done or not? Right?

So if they think Paul's dead, you know what that

means that dude get messed up, right, And I can't

even begin to imagine what it's like to people hurl

stones on you until they think you're dead.

They stoned him and the drug him out of town

thinking he was dead.

Yeah, thinking he was dead.

But the believers gathered around him and they were praying

over him, and he gets up and goes back into town.

Hey I'm not very smart, but if somebody stones me

and leaves me for dead, I don't think I would

go back into that town. There's other towns, man, and

you know, but he did. He kept back up and

went right back talking about the boldness that these guys

had is disincredible.

You know.

I want to go back a little bit ago, Just

a few minutes ago, you had mentioned that he was

preaching to the Greeks right where they are.

You know.

So my brother Jim, he is lives in Texas, and

he was at home one day and he was well, actually,

whatever it was, somehow he got connected to through his

church to minister to those who have come over from

India and they get off the plane and literally they

stepped foot in the country and they needed somebody to

help them integrate in the culture. So my brother said, yeah,

I'll do that. And he did such a good job.

He just took it upon himself to do this great ministry.

He had like four or five those those people from

India living with him, like practically living with him. And

the culture is so radically different. And Jim, my brother Jim, says,

you know, you can go in my refrigerator. And they said, no,

we dare not go in your refrigerator. He said, no, no,

I'm telling you I'm trying to train you about the

culture because they were coming over to go to school. Well,

it turns out that the government stopped calling the church

and and and said let's please.

Be a part of this ministry. They ended up getting

my brother's phone number.

And now now the city officials call my brother, uh

straight straight away because everybody flies in flies into Dallas,

right and and uh and or yeah it's Dallas. And

so anyway, the bottom line is this, Now my brother

has three or four hundred Indians who he actually hangs

out with and actually has this big ministry, and he

has these photos on his you know, social media where

you know, there's a huge group of people and he's

right there in the center with his wife, you know,

and and he's developed this whole thing. My point is

this is that it is so different to try to

introduce the idea that Jesus is the way to heaven

to somebody who believes.

In multiple gods.

Because those who are you know, Hindu, they believe in

multiple gods. Well it's not too much different than than

this Greek you know, they have they have this.

Ancient pantheon of gods.

Yeah, so they're you know, they're probably theistic, which means

multiple God. And anyway, so here's here's what Jimmy said.

This is this is very interesting. He said, the conversation

has to begin here where I have to tell them

Jesus is a god and then Jesus is the God. Right,

he has to start with the fact that Jesus is

a god. And he said, so, so if you try

to just approach people with, you know, just just the truth,

he said, it's just not going to work.

You got to start where they're at.

Yeah.

Yeah, you'll see that becomes more and more of Paul's

strategy as we go through this. So then in that

last thing, as they come in to give a report,

they finish this big loop and they come back to

the Antioch and Syria, they give a report and they

admit they talk about the fact that suffering was a

big part of this. And so if you asked Paul,

would you do it again? We know he would because

he goes on two more journeys just like this and

suffers even more. So the more mature you become as

a Christian, the less you are concerned about your own comfort,

and the more you become concerned about being effective for

the forward movement of the Kingdom of God. And so

that should be kind of your attitude and your thought

as you go through the to day today and over

the next week. Is God, help me to be effective,

Give me the strength and the courage. Paul gets up

after being stone and goes right back in that same town. Tom,

give me the boldness, give me the courage, give me

the strength. But I want to be as effective as

possible for your kingdom today.

Yeah. You know what that reminds me of is just

on Sunday, both Jeff and I attend Heritage Church were

pastors there, and on Sunday this eighty year old woman

who I know came out and she just said, Chris,

I'm having a hard time. She said, because you know,

we sang like this three minute medley right where we

actually played Leonard Skinner right, and we did this a

little little bit, but we did it with intention because

we were trying to say in our culture, culture reflects

the heart and the culture. Our medley was about independence,

wanting to be independent. So she just says, she said,

IM having a hard time, and I said, I said, yeah,

but we had like twelve minutes of worship. I said,

so you just have to go ahead and make sure

that you are, you know, in your maturity, which is

what you mentioned, right, you know, getting on board with

the fact that you know, we we surrender our preferences

to those who are lost.

Sure, sure, so we sometimes use things that we capture

the attention of somebody that's far from God in order

to be able to get the Gospel to them, and

that that's what we did there. So yeah, it's good.

So anyways, that's what we talked about today. Tomorrow we're

going to pick back up and we're going to keep going.

There's a council, another council in Jerusalem and they're really

trying to work through what do we do with these gentiles.

So that's what we're talking about tomorrow on what do

we called now the Bible guys,