Paul shows awesome resilience at a tough time in his life.

Powerpoint presentation to accompany this message is available here.

Handout with small group notes to accompany message

My main message for you today is that when life gets tough we need resilience that God gives – and Paul showed it here.
The book of Acts.

reads like the best adventure novels
today we’ll see heroism of the first order!

Today I want you to know that being conspicuous for Christ may cause life to get tough -and when it does God gives us resilience <ppt>

One of the necessary character traits of believers in times of opposition is resilience.

Paul and Barnabas ministering in three places, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe

Look at each in turn and derive God’s message from them

1. Iconium

Acts 14

1. At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.

Clearly there was a great movement of God’s spirit through Paul and Barnabas

But again it was the committed religious people who mouned a dirty tricks campaign

2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

Two things are significant here

(a) they refused to believe – not disbelief, but a deliberate refusal. I’ will not.

(b) they ‘poisoned the minds’ – a phrase used to describe falshood or misinformation being passed off as the truth.

This was a battle of the mind >>>

Here is the first example of Paul and Barnabas’ resilience in the face of opposition

3 So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.

Lesser men would have walked away >>>

Notice how they communicated their love for Jesus Christ <ppt>

effectively (v1) – so that a great number believed
consistently (v3) – spent considerable time there. Results don’t come in an instant.
boldly (v3) – in spite of the opposition from people whose minds have been ‘poisoned’ (v2)
how tempting it is to temper the message so people will not be offended by it!

Just look at what God did: he confirmed the message of his grace (v3) <ppt>

not a message of judgement (there is a place for that)
not a message of challenge – that could leave some people feeling guilty
but a message of grace!

Grace – God’s over-the-top generosity!

He’s given and given and given to you

And God confirmed it with signs and wonders (v3) –

things that just had to be of God
the supernatural explanation was the only one that would fit the facts
Not only men speaking here, but God! – by His actions

This is bound to provoke a reaction

4 The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles.

5 There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to ill-treat them and stone them.

Notice – not the usual sectarian divide.

if it had been Jews against gentiles we would have been able to explain it in other terms
but no! this is opposition to God’s work, not mere sectarian rivalry

6 But they found out about it and fled

But now ‘they fled!’

why?

It sometimes takes more courage to run.
Jesus ran away from death – on at least 4 or 5 occasions. Was this lack of courage?

Principle: If death is imminent and your work is not finished you must move on.

I hope this will never come to any of us, but the spiritual climate is such that I fear it may.
and when Jesus knew his time had come he did not flinch from death but “set his face to go to Jerusalem”
and when Paul went for his execution he went with his head held high I’m sure!

Do you face a difficult office, factory, board room?

should I stay or go?
the question is: Is your mission completed

Document discovered in Iconium

now a railway junction at Konya, in the middle of turkey – describes Paul
writer had a relative in Iconium when Paul came – description of Paul

‘a man small in size with meeting eyebrows a rather large nose, bald-headed, bow-legged, strongly built full of grace for at times he looked like a man and at times he looked like an angel.’

God’s glory was seen – the face of a messenger of God

2. Lystra

Utterly different town

no synagogue – very pagan
but spiritually hungry people were there too

I’m sure the contrast between these two towns is put here by the Holy Spirit deliberately for us to learn from

Satan will use any means at his disposal to harden the hearts and minds of people against a true encounter with God
in Iconium the Jews wouldn’t receive
Their tradition was a barrier – they thought they knew it all – how subtle
in Lystra their paganism was a barrier – they knew nothing! – so Paul had to start from scratch
that’s more like UK in the 2010’s

How do we reach a society that is disconnected from Christianity? <ppt>

Paul and Barnabas couldn’t go to synagogue

pagan temple not available to them & inappropriate
so they just preached on the streets
started with a small group

Christians will preach anywhere – they just can’t keep it in!

E.g. Charles Wesley

ordained by Archbishop of Canterbury
ejected from church for his powerful message
went to streets
preached to miners of Cornwall & Bristol while the tears in their eyes made little white streaks down their coal-blackened faces.

Billy Bray

threatened that he would be put in a barrel and sent over a waterfall
said “I’d push out the bung and I’d shout hallelujah as I went over”

Be alert to faith…

V9 Paul looked at him and saw that he had faith to be healed.

This cripple heard them

Paul saw something – faith.

What we sometimes call faith may not be the real thing

This was the real thing
Not auto-suggestion – convinced himself that something would happen
hetero-suggestion – whipped up by the emotion of a big crowd

It was Faith – and Paul spotted it!

from the look in his eyes Paul knew that God was going to do something
you see this again and again in Jesus ministry
‘when he saw his faith’ …
‘your faith has made you whole’
that’s why Jesus could do so little in Nazareth. Faith was missing

What would Jesus say of VBC today

if he looked into your heart would he see syncicism, scepticism
or would he see faith – simple uncomplicated trust
the kind of faith that made this man whole
the faith that changes situations at work, at home
the kind of faith that says ‘Lord I want more of you – hungry for you’
“those who hunger and thirst after God will be filled”
<wait?>

Be brave

V10 Paul called out “stand up on your feet”

Press Pause button there! >>>

What happened?

The cripple leapt to his feet!

never forget – this man had been lame from birth
characteristic of many NT healings – they were chronic cases

Act with humility

Then danger struck in the most unexpected way

you need to know a little background …

Legend – explains what happened what Paul got there

2 great trees outside pagan temple
centuries ago Zeus and Hermes visited the town in human disguise
no-one would give them a bed for the night except 2 poor peasants
as a result, years later the entire town was destroyed (that probably did happen in an earthquake)
the only two who survived were these two peasants who became the guardians of the temple for there was no-one else left.
when they died they were turned into two trees – (end of legend)

Now if that is the story they had swallowed,

when the gods came again in human form the people weren’t going to make the same mistake
let the same thing happen a second time!

So when two men came to Lystra and demonstrated supernatural power – you can understand what they thought

they tried to make them gods
tried to worship them

This was their most dangerous moment

the adulation of the crowd
there is a seductive quality to the praise given by men that can so easily pull the christian – especially christian speakers – away from their utter reliance on the Lord!

Here is another moment of supreme courage

Tore their clothes – a Jewish way of showing supreme anguish
ran into the crowd
“We’re just men, not gods”

Paul’s method (we’ve seen) to start where men are and tell them what God had already done for them.

not to tell them ‘you’re far away from God and I’ve come to tell you in no uncertain terms
‘let me tell you what God has already done for you – there are gaps in your understanding of God – now I can fill them in and you can come to know him personally.
e.g. took Jew through their own scriptures
when with gentiles he didn’t quote Bible and history – started where they were
what did they know about? – creation and conscience?
have you got any happiness in your family? between you as people – GOD gave you that happiness! – He already cares for
God has up to now he has let you go your own way and has gone on being good to you. >>>

Paul – now I’ve come to invite you to turn away from this superstition

But the crowd went wild (v18) –

Be resilient

Nothing is more fickle than mob hysteria

the very crowd that were going to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas are now going to make a sacrifice of them.
stoned them

I don’t know whether any of us have ever seen a man stoned.

I hope you never have to
can you imagine a ring of angry men approaching Paul with boulders ready to stone him
they throw them with all their force while Paul struggles to escape the ring
finally one man hits him with a paving slab on the back of the neck and he falls unconscious to the ground
meanwhile the other men continue to hurl boulders on his helpless body until he lies lifeless in a pool of his own blood

That was what they did to Paul

then they dragged his body, probably feet first with his battered head catching every bump in the cobbled road
Why outside the city?
Because that’s where the rubbish dump was! (c.f. Westhampnett tip!)

All Paul says later an a letter is ‘once I was stoned’

very few people ever live through that.

Barnabas already thinking of what to say at funeral

disciples gathered prayed – don’t know whether they expected anything to happen
suddenly saw flicker of life
he ‘got up!’

Did he run away – seek a new location – somewhere to hide – no!

he went back into the city
What a man! – of God!

‘Hey wait a minute Paul! I know a good convalescent home in Cyprus’

for ever after his body could never be the same again!
Galatians “I bear in my body the scars of the Lord Jesus”

‘They preached the good news in that city!’

21 They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples.

3. Derbe and back

They could have now almost done a circle

could go through cilician gates (see map)
but what did Paul say?
ABOUT TURN!

Acts 14:20-22

20But after the disciples had gathered round him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

21They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch,

22strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

(NIV)

What is our mission?

winning men and women for JC – yes – but that’s only half the story
the other half is to go back and strengthen them and grow them up

Wesley

A charge to keep have I

A God to glorify

a never dying soul to save

and fit it for the sky

Our mission is to see that people grow up into Christ!

Back he went – even to the places where he’d been brutalised

That is true resilience!

Went back and strengthened the churches

message of building ‘there will be hardships’
end of honeymoon stage – and brings them down to earth
look at me! –
‘but be of good cheer! – I have overcome the world‘
e.g. Churchill “nothing to offer you…”
you will have trouble – but you are on the way to receiving all your heavenly Father has in store for you.
“blessed are you when men will revile you …”

He appointed elders

a vital ingredient of NT Christianity.
spiritually motivated oversight
don’t get strung up on the name
what are you looking to for spiritual leadership.
appointed and recognised for the task.

To those who are members of the fellowship

pray that God will raise up elders
Gods pattern is that the mature should guide the immature
pattern of human families and God’s church

To those who aren’t members

who are your elders?
whose spiritual umbrella are you under
in the NT there is no such thing as an isolated

see v26 – ‘completed’!

Came back to home church at Antioch

to tell them not what Paul had done, what Barnabas had done, not what John Mark hadn’t done
but what GOD had done! – v27
If people report on what God has done, the He gets the credit, the glory, the thanks

To bodies, to souls

One other thing – ‘He’s opened the door to the gentiles’

hitherto every church had been more Jewish that gentile
Significance? Christianity had become a world religion!
Now they saw Jesus final words coming true – “to the uttermost parts of the earth”
They may have wondered about the meaning of it when Jesus said it – could God possibly work in Gentile hearts who have nothing of God’s heritage to the Jews?
Now here is the evidence!
There are no barriers to God!

Just think – who is the toughest nut you can think of?

there are no barriers to God!

Just think – where is the toughest situation you can think of?

there are no barriers to God!

It’s a world faith

>2000 languages
Mission completed!

True Grit