Acts 14:11-20

Welcome to all of you, especially all the guests that are worshiping with us. We welcome you to our church, so grateful for this wonderful time of singing praises to our God, declaring our great salvation the Lord has given to us, coming together in one community to experience God’s divine presence in a very special way. What a beautiful thing it is to come together to worship with God’s people. So grateful for God’s favor upon all of our lives this past week, so thankful for His divine presence that has sustained us, answered a lot of our prayers even this past week, and we come together to sing praises to our God and to declare His holy name.

As we continue with our serious church on the move, we are be focusing this morning from Acts 14:11-20. Acts 14:11-20. We ended last week at the dramatic healing that happened to the man who was lame from birth, just like in Acts chapter three, who was able to be restored back to health by the power of God through the ministry of the apostle Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:19-20. That’s where we entered last week. God’s word was being preached and now miraculously, God was proving these messengers to be God’s men by proving and causing this miracle to happen in this man who was lame from birth and immediately him rising up and leaping. And as we talked about last week, jumping up and down, running around and became a sort of great amazement to the people at Lystra. But the response that came back to this great miracle of the Lord was not what Paul and Barnabas wanted to see happen as we will see in this section of verses 11 through 20.

Verse 11 tells us this, when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, the gods have come down to us in human form. Luke gives us a beautiful description of here of even the language that is spoken by the people. Lycaonia, as I had mentioned to you last week, always was an independent colony that had his own language. Paul was one who was well-versed in at least four different languages. He probably knew Hebrew, he knew Hebrew really well. Aramaic, Latin and Greek was probably well-known to him. But one language he probably did not have any idea what it meant was the language of the Lycaonians, the Lycaonian language that Luke writes about in verse 11. Because they said this in their own words, they’re probably wondering after this miracle happened, these men are speaking and they say, the gods have come down to us in human form. Paul and Barnabas have absolutely no idea what these people are saying all around them.

But I also wanted to pay attention to the statement that is made about them and how Satan has always been in the business of imitating the work of God. Look what it says over here, the gods have come down to us in human form. What is the main central message of the Christian faith? A God came down to us in human form to save us. But you see how immediately we see how Satan is the master of counterfeit. The truth that he often proclaims in the world is only minutely deviated from the real truth. And that’s why people are so easily deceived into forming cults and false religions and all these things, because he often is able to present his message in such a way that it is so close to the truth, but yet so far away. The humans have come down to us in human form. And they even had names for the humans that came down. And there’s a reason for that. Verse 12 tells us Barnabas, they call Zeus, and Paul, they called Hermes, and because he was the chief speaker. They immediately gave name to them and they identified them as the primary gods that they have. And two names are given to us, Zeus and Hermes. Hermes was the chief communicator, speaker. Paul was the one that was doing the speaking and Barnabas was given the title of Zeus.

Much about the physical description of the apostles, especially Paul and Barnabas are in the apostles, are not given in God’s word. Extra biblical writings tell us that Paul was small in stature and he was actually very, very short, but he was a powerful speaker of God’s word. It is thought that Barnabas was much taller, had a most distinguished presence, and it makes sense as to why they gave the name Zeus to Barnabas and Hermes to Paul. What do these names of gods mean? What do they represent? If you look up what this means in Greek mythology, Zeus is the god of gods. He is the primary god. He is the god of sky and thunder in ancient Greek religion. He rules over the king of the gods in the Mount Olympus, which is the abode of all the gods. Zeus is the primary god. Zeus has a son, a youngest son, and the second youngest from one, he is known by the name of Hermes. Hermes is the god of trade, merchants, commerce, roads, thieves, trickery, they even have a god for thieves, trickery, sports, travelers, athletes. All these are represented by Hermes. But not only Hermes, he was also the one who would communicate the message of God to the people. So here you have a probably a very distinguished presence in Barnabas standing in front of them. Then you have somebody who is small in stature, but man, he has a good tongue and he’s speaking really well. They look at this man and says what they have just done, causing a man that we have known all of his life, who has never taken a single step in his life. In fact, he has better than all of his life, is jumping around and leaping. What has happened is the work of God. And rather than believing in the message or believing in what they were about to preach to them, they literally made them to be gods and they’re about to worship them.

And there’s a reason why they’re doing this as well. There was a legend in Licornia that was very, very famous. That many, many years ago, these exact two gods, Zeus and Hermes, had visited Licornia. And these gods came in human forms. And they started going through the village of Licornia. It is said that in their legend, they knocked on a thousand different homes on that day, but none of the homes opened up to them until they came to the home of a poor peasant, a farmer and his wife. His name is Philemon. His wife’s name is Bacchus. They opened the door to Zeus and Hermes. They welcomed them in and they gave them food and they gave them a place to live. And guess what the gods did? The gods blessed this poor couple. This poor cottage, the home that they lived in, suddenly became a temple of the gods. And all their life, they enjoyed a great deal of prosperity because they were the only ones who opened their doors and welcomed the gods when they visited a long time ago. And guess what the gods did to the other homes in the village? They destroyed every single one of them. Now, years later, here comes two strange men they have never seen before. And that’s a miracle among them, like they have never seen before. And suddenly, what is that thinking? We don’t want to make the same mistake that our Appachan made. We want to make sure that we welcome them. What if these are the gods? We don’t want the same thing happen to them that happened to us, what happened to them. So you understand why they responded the way they did.

Not only that, when you go back to verse 13, the Bible says the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, something that Paul and Barnabas would have seen as they made their way into the city, brought bulls and reeds to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. You see the innate need in the heart of every human being to worship something. People are always looking for meaning in their life. That’s why Augustine of Hippo so famously said, you have made us to be restless. We only find our rest until we find our rest in thee. Every human being in the world is born with a restless heart. And we all try to fill the wants of that restless heart with different things. Some people look for pleasure, some look for money, some look for fame, some look for other gods to fulfill them, but there’s a restlessness in the heart of every human being. Some people find their rest in their philosophy, in their ways of thinking and their great knowledge of the world. But all of this why we see the great need of the people to worship something. They actually come to worship Paul and Barnabas. Even though they were speaking in liconium language until that moment, the moment the wreath and the animals comes out, Paul and Barnabas knows that this is not a good business to be in. The moment the animals are brought forth and the wreath is brought forth, there are some things that speak louder than words, right? Exactly what happened over here.

Look at verse 14. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd shouting. Tearing of clothes is a sign in God’s word of someone who is extremely grieved, upset over something. Here the apostles are showing the response of a people of God should be any time or any place where someone tries to exalt you in the place of God. And here the Bible says literally, they leaped out into the crowd. Look what the miracle was. The leaping of a lame man. Literally now, Paul and Barnabas are jumping into the crowd and shouting. What about many of the preachers and teachers and leaders of today? What about me? What about all of us? When the world wants to give us glory that is not ours, when the world wants to give us worship that does not belong to us, when the world wants to attribute accolades to us that we should not be taking credit for, what is your response and my response to what God has done in our lives? Here shows the heart of a true servant of God. These were not people that were immediately thinking, oh, wow, they’re worshiping us. Now they will listen to us. Many people could have justified this by saying, they’re already worshiping us. Now they will listen to us. After they worship us, we will tell them the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That would have been a logical way of thinking, but that is not the way God wants us to be.

Look at 1 Corinthians 10:14, the apostle Paul himself would write, therefore, my dear friends, look what? Look what? Stay away from idolatry. No, flee from idolatry. The word that is used over that is absolutely strong in God’s word, flee, which means absolutely be repulsive and revolted against anything that takes the place of God. In our churches, in our communities, in our lives, in our families, there is only one God. God and God alone needs to always be on the throne. Do not allow any human being to ever come even remotely close to taking the place of God and God almighty. He is a God who does not give His glory to another. Do not give God’s glory to anyone else. I mentioned this to our adult English class this morning. One message that you and I need to preach to our hearts every single day is the message of humility. The message of humility, the church needs to preach to itself all the time. Every single day that you go to work and you have a job, preach to you humility. Every single time you are privileged to live in a beautiful home, preach humility towards you. Every single time you do something for the Lord, preach humility towards you. Every single time you sing well, preach humility towards yourself. Every single time you preach well, preach humility towards you. We are what we are, only by the grace of God. Preach humility to your soul. Do not lift up your spirit above what it should be. We are a breath. We are here today, gone tomorrow. Anything that we have in our life is because of Him and Him alone. Always remember that every single moment of our lives. The apostle John, towards the end of his life, would write to the church and would remind them, dear children, keep yourselves from idols, idolatry, exalting ourselves for what God wants us to be. This is not any business of ours. We are called to be people who always give honor and glory to God that is due unto Him. He alone is God. We are mere human beings. He alone is to be worshiped and lifted up in every circumstances of our life.

And they answered them in verse 15. Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human. Remember that. Remember that. We too are only human like you. We are bringing you good news. What are we? Just messengers. All we are are people who have some good news that we want to communicate to you, telling you to turn away from all these worthless sacrifices and things to the living God who did what? Who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Look at the wisdom of the apostle Paul. He’s not speaking to a Jewish crowd. He’s not speaking in the synagogue. Unlike his previous proclamation of the gospel, he does not go back to Abraham or the Old Testament sacrifices, but he tells them something that they themselves should clearly understand in their heart. And he mentions three things, heaven, the earth and the sea. That is also not by accident. These three things compose in ancient Greek mythology, the cosmos. And here Paul is telling them, everything that you think of as the cosmos, God is the one who made all these things. And guess what? He is a one God and He is a living God compared to all these worthless idols you’re worshiping. He starts by telling them about the creation of the world and God is at the center of it.

If you heard me preach for any time period, you know how passionately I feel about the creation account in Genesis and how vehemently I always defended in any chance or opportunity that I get. Here’s the reason why. You take away the creation of the world by a God who spoke everything into being, the foundations of your belief are completely taken away. Satan is a master of lies and he has now permeated the world with this idea in the name of science known as the theory of evolution. Because it is taught in your biology classes and your science classes, we have generations of people, billions and billions of the people in the world that think, oh, evolution is right and the Bible is also right. I’m here to tell you, if evolution as taught today, macro evolution is right, then the word of God is not true. If you believe in evolution as it is taught by the people of this world, your salvation is not secure. You do not need to be saved from anything. You have no reason to believe in a redeemer. You have no reason to believe there’s a God who loves you. You have no reason to believe that there is something more important inside of you than the animals of the field. There is nothing worth redeeming in you than in the gorilla. There is no reason for Jesus to come into this world if evolution is true. You cannot put your foot in both boards at the same time. Choose this day whom you would choose. You either save the devil or you serve the living God. If you serve the living God, you believe His word from Genesis to Revelation. You do not change your theology to fit science. You change science to fit the immutable, unchangeable, eternal word of God.

Open up your science textbook. Look at the first page, 17th edition, 20th edition. Why? One wasn’t only needed, right? Why does it have to be edited? Because there was something new that was found out that made the old knowledge obsolete. Here’s my Bible. I’m opening it up. I’m not seeing an edition. Why? It is the same word that was written thousands of years ago. Never had to be altered, never had to be changed. Believe in it. Your God created everything by the power of His word. Do I understand everything? I do not. I’m not supposed to. Word of God tells me the secret things belong to the God Himself. But everything around me screams to me. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth forth His handiwork. Every single mythology in the world teaches there are gods for everything. There’s a god for a sun. There are gods for a moon. There’s a god for the river. There’s a god for the ocean. There’s a god for the trees. Bible says there is one God who is God over everything. Now think about this for a second. If the god of the sun does not agree with the god of the moon, the world will fall apart. If they have a disagreement one morning and the god of the sun gets up in the morning and says, you know what? I don’t like you anymore. I’m not going to give you light anymore. The world will fall apart. But the Bible says there is one God who created everything, who controlled everything, who aligned everything. That is why there is such uniformity in the world because it all came from the mind of one God who created everything. These are not old wives fables. Only the fool will say in his heart that there is no God.

Paul would tell you there’s a God who created the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them. Then he continues, evidence. What is the evidence? Verse 16 and 17. In the past, He let all nations go their own way. Free will, God gave. Evil entered into the world. All the nations. Law was only given to the people of Israel. Conscience was given to the whole world. General revelation, not much more than that. Why did God do that? In a sovereign world, He did that. Yet, He did not, even those people who are allowed to go their own way, He did not leave them without a testimony. What is the testimony? He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. To even the people that did not get the old covenant, to the people that did not have Old Testament sacrifices, Paul is telling you, but God has even given you a reason to believe in Him. Every time it rains, every time the crop comes up in the field, every time there’s food in your pantry and food on your table and food in your field and your hearts are filled with joy. What is that? Is a testament that there is a God in heaven.

Look at Jeremiah 14:22. Jeremiah would tell you, do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain? They do not. Liconia was a desert place, often famine stricken place. They could clearly identify with what Paul is saying. The rain come because God sent the rain. Do the skies themselves send down showers? No. Then Jeremiah would tell you, it is you Lord our God, therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all these things. In your life and my life, the greatest comfort is in knowing that He is our creator and He is the provider of everything around us. This morning we read that. My eyes look up to the mountains, where does my help come from? Next verse, my help comes from the Lord who is the maker of heaven and earth. Every time you are troubled in your heart over tomorrow, filled with anxiety over who is gonna provide for you, look out into the field and look at the skies. Look at the birds, look at the plants, look at what God has created. Look at the sun in the sky. Everything is a testament that your God is a faithful God, that your God is the ultimate provider. If He gives such grace, such provisions to the wicked, to the people who do not even know Him, who revile against Him, how much more will He care for the ones who are His own children and provide for them?

Have you ever stopped and thought about how much all of this cost? In 2015, they did a study, kind of trying to estimate how much things in the world are worth. Fresh water in the world valued at $74 trillion. Did man have anything to do with it? No. Trees. Value of trees to us without you paying a penny, $16.2 trillion. Coral reefs, 9.9 trillion. Wild fish in the sea, 224 billion. And you did not even grow a single one of them. Plankton, 222 billion. Bee and other pollinators, very small animals, 170 billion. Vultures of the air, valued at $2.6 billion. One beaver, one beaver, valued at $120,000 to the world. All of this, a God who provided everything for free. In the late 80s, 1990s in Arizona, a man tried to do something. He spent $200 million in this experiment. It was called Biosphere 2, where he created almost three plus acres of an artificially controlled environment where they tried to see if without any outside intervention, life could be sustained. Just a few months into it, they ran out of oxygen. Water became contaminated. 19 out of the 25 species of animals growing in it died within a matter of few months. Man could not sustain life even in a 3.1 acre without the help of God, even with all of his technology and all of his money. Life on earth is only because He is in control and He provides for us so freely.

Let him who have ears hear. Let him who has eyes see. Let him who has given a heart understand the ways of God. But a lot of times we use this phrase, atheists believe that there is no God. I love what one writer says, God believes there are no atheists. God does not believe in any atheist. You know why? Look at Romans 1:18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who do what? Who suppress the truth by their wickedness. So in the perspective of God, not a single atheist walks around in the world. We only have dishonest people who are suppressed the truth of the eternal God because they’re wicked in their heart. Anyone who says, oh, if only I had more evidence, I would believe in you, is a liar. I’m not the one who said that. God’s word said that. They suppress the truth by their wickedness. Next verse, God’s word says this. Since what may be known about God is what? Hidden to them, plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. It’s not a pastor who made it plain to them. It is not a preacher who made it plain to them. A God made it clear and plain to them. Why? How? Since the creation of the world, God’s incredible qualities, His eternal power, divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. One day when all of humanity will stand before Him, not a single soul will be able to say, you did not give me any enough evidence to believe in you.

The famous agnostic George Bernard Shaw, that’s exactly what he said. He said, what would you say to God when you stand before Him one day? He said, I will tell Him, you did not give me enough evidence to believe in you. Ha, you’re right. But even after all these words, verse 18, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. They tried, but they could not do it. And look what happens in verse 19. Now we don’t know how much time lapsed between verse 18 and 19. I’m thinking that they tried to honor them and they kept on rejecting it for a time period, but in verse 19, the same people would turn against them. Look at verse 19. Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. The distance from Antioch to Iconium is 88 miles. From Iconium to Lystra is another 32 miles or so. So these people, the Jews, who had once tried to capture Paul and Barnabas, look at their zeal, are traveling by foot 120 plus miles to capture them again. How many people have ever walked 120 miles for the gospel? The zeal of the enemy and the zeal of the world are infinitely greater than the zeal of God’s people. Look at the work of enemy. He makes them travel 120 miles, probably a journey of several weeks to finally reach Paul and Barnabas where they are. And the same people who tried to worship them, now he was able to turn the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city. This is also an interesting detail in God’s word. Stoning was not a method used by the Lycaonians. Stoning was used by Jewish people. Now they come to Lycaonia, a Greek city, and they’re able to convince the people so much that they not only believe in what they are saying, that these are troublemakers, they also adapt their way of killing people. That’s how persuasive they were in Lycaonium. I think probably the first people ever to be stoned in Lycaonium was probably Paul and Barnabas because that was not a method they ever used. And look what happened. They dragged him outside the city thinking he was dead.

Some people think that Paul actually died and came back to life. I don’t think that’s true. Because Luke tells us they thought he was dead. But there is an interesting detail here. Remember in Corinthians, Paul would write, 14 years ago I know a man who without body or with body was taken to the third heaven. And I saw things I cannot explain to you. Some theologians make the argument that Paul had that vision or he was taken in a near-death experience to the third heaven at Lystra when he was almost stoned to death. Even what man tried to do and cause evil, God is again turning it to good to reveal to us something we would not have learned if this had not happened to him. But look at the, there are some doctors here. You can tell me if this would happen. Somebody is stoned and dragged out of the city. They thought he was dead. I don’t know if they checked their pulse or they were not doctor, physician. They thought he was dead. And look what happened. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and guess what he did? He’s crazy. Crazy for the Lord, crazy for the gospel. Went back into the same city that had just stoned him. And you would think there would be many months of bedridden, rehab, physical therapy. No, the next day he and Barnabas take the 47-mile journey for Derby. As one person has so beautifully said, not a single day did he waste at the expense to spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He would have been fully justified to take some time off, to take some months off. You just had a near-death experience. Obviously what happened to them is miraculous healing. Otherwise he would not be able to make that journey.

He will write later on in Galatians 6:17, I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. Can you imagine being stoned to a point where you’re almost dead? Those stones will leave a mark and he will write later on, I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

Let me leave you with three things as I end today. One is this, remember constantly to be the deflectors of glory to the one Lord who alone is worthy. We cannot stop people from giving glory to us. But do you know what we’re supposed to do? Not only in our words, but in our hearts, deflect that glory to the Lord who alone is worthy. Secondly, in our witnesses, pray for wisdom that only comes from the Lord. And Paul, God in front of them, he knew exactly how to speak to them. He started with a reference point that they can understand. What is that? The creation of the world, the world around them. Thus he shared the gospel with them. Thirdly, in moments of praise, remember that persecution might be just around the corner, often from the same people. This is something pastors have to always remind themselves of in ministry. In moments of praise, remember that the same people might turn against you just around the corner. So don’t get too high when you’re praised and don’t get too low when you’re put down. Man is fickle. Man’s nature cannot be counted on. Those who are with you today may not be with you tomorrow. The only thing you can count on is the Lord who will never leave you nor forsake you. In moments of praise, keep yourself grounded in the Lord. Always remember this. That’s why God’s word reminds us always, do not trust in princes. Do not trust in chariots. Do not trust in the things of this world, but put your trust in God who is ever faithful to sustain you and give you all the things that you need in your life.

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your word. Oh, that reminds us that You alone are worthy, oh God. Oh, help us to have the same response in our hearts as these men did, revolting against any attribution of glory that only belongs to You when given to them. Help us to be people in our witnesses, to have the wisdom of Paul and Barnabas and their courage. Thirdly, oh God, in moments of praise, remind us persecution might be just around the corner, but whether we go through the ups and downs of life, hills and valleys, we thank You that You are always with us at our constant presence. Be with us as we enter into time of celebrating Your death on the cross for us. In the name of the Lord Jesus that we pray, amen.