Lessons From Acts – Lesson 23
Paul and Barnabas had just been run out of town and so they shake the dust off of their feet and kept going. They left and went to Lystra.
Acts 14:8 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked:
Acts 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
It is implied here that the perceiving came from the leading of the Holy Spirit. That is the source here. The Holy Spirit.
Paul himself did not have extra sensory perception. Paul could not read minds. Paul could not see or measure the quality or quantity of the man’s faith. Man has no tool to do this and he has no yard stick with which to measure the faith.
And no goal post to know if the faith crosses the goal line. So to me it is clear. The perceiving had to come from the Holy Spirit.
The determining factor was the Holy Spirit speaking to Paul in that still small voice about it. This healing was something that God wanted done to this particular person at this moment in time as a sign to a specific group nearby that would see it.
The song and dance con artist healers will take this wrong. They will say the man was healed because he had the faith to be healed. So therefore and here is where they make their mistake. Therefore if you can’t be healed, then it is because your faith is either lacking or it is defective.
Physical healings were done back then to validate the message of the men who preached.
They were also done as an illustration of the healing that only God can give spiritually. The physical healing that you could see with your eyes was a picture, an illustration, of the healing of the sickness of sin that you cannot see.
For example Leposy in the Bible is a type, a picture of sin. So when Jesus healed physical leprosy that you can see, it was an illustration of how Jesus has the power to heal the leprosy of sin in the soul.
When Jesus healed the blind physically it was a picture of how a man who lives in spiritual darkness can have his eyes opened by Jesus so that he can see and see clearly God’s truth.
And getting spiritually healed is by faith and faith alone. For by grace are you saved thru faith and not of works lest any man should boast.
So for the picture to be appropriate of what it symbolized then faith needed to be present. You cannot get saved without faith.
You see this when Jesus healed the blind, they called out to him in faith to heal them. When Jesus healed the 10 lepers they had to go start walking in faith and were healed as they walked.
And here in Acts.
Acts 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
Having faith involved in healing helped show forth the picture correctly.
So yes the man had faith to be healed. But the man’s faith was in no way the driving force here. It is not the quality of his faith or the quantity of his faith. It only takes faith as small as a mustard seed to move mountains.
And once the Bible was completed these kinds of healings stopped. I know there are times when God still heals someone. But that is a miracle that God does. He does not use preachers to heal someone to validate their message or to show forth a picture of how God can save you and heal you from sin.
That picture has been shown many times and recorded permanently for us in His Word. So there is no need to show it now anyone can now just read about it.
It is a mistake for many reasons to take this verse and then say if you have enough faith you can be healed and if you can’t be healed then the problem is with you because you have a lack of faith or defective faith.
It is a sad thing but there are some people who had their spouse die or their children die because of this. Instead of taking them to the doctor, they quote this verse and say we have faith and say see here God says it and we have faith and so they just watch their loved one die.
They missed the point. The driving source was not this man’s faith. It was the Holy Spirit who let Paul know that it was God’s will to heal this particular man. Sometimes it is God’s will to heal with antibiotics given by a doctor.
I can imagine someone crying after to God why did you not heal my loved one, and God says. I did all I had to do to heal them. I created antibiotics. The principals that make them work was all designed by me.
And I worked in circumstances of life so that man discovered them. And I had a doctor a few minutes away from you. So why didn’t you simply use what I had provided for the healing of your loved one.
It is actually not God’s fault. It is their fault for not accepting what God had provided to heal thier loved one.
It really is a form of arrogance to demand that God work in a specific way according only to the way that you want Him to work.
It is a huge mistake to demand of God a miracle supernatural healing when a simple healing has already been provided for by God.
Let’s read verses 8 and 9 again.
Acts 14:8 And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked:
Acts 14:9 The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
So Paul was already preaching. The lame man was listening. Paul was watching the man and listening to the Holy Spirit and so Paul told the man to stand up.
There are no theatrics, nothing like what the show that the modern charlatans do. Paul did not even touch the man.
Acts 14:10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.
We have seen this reaction before. He leaped and walked. There is joy and excitement from the one who was healed.
And this man is similar to others like the one that John and Peter healed before Peter preached and thousands got saved. This man was a cripple from his mother’s womb and had never taken one step in his entire life.
And everyone in that area would have known it. So in both cases who to heal was a great choice to make a huge impact upon those who seen it.
In John and Peter’s case those who saw it considered it and gave credit properly where credit was due and that is to our God. And then many listened to Peter’s message and considered that also was from God and 5,000 got saved.
But in this case in Acts we see something different. They do not give credit to the one and only creator God. Instead they give credit to their man made false gods.
Acts 14:11 And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.
Acts 14:12 And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.
As a quick side note. Have you been noticing all thru this first missionary journey and even before that it is always Paul and Barnabas. Both together.
Barnabas was a man of God that walked with God. God says Barnabas was full of the Holy Spirit. And Barnabas taught the word of God in Antioch for years and Barnabas is still laboring for the Lord and I have no doubt still teaching during this trip.
The verse says Paul was the chief speaker. Not the only speaker. There are only two of them on this trip so that means that Barnabas also spoke for God. He also preached.
But because Paul was the chief speaker these heathen gave Paul a superior title. It is interesting to me how even though the Bible over and over mentions Barnabas and Paul together you don’t hear Barnabas’ name mentioned much.
I have sat thru verse by verse studies of Acts I think 3 times maybe 4. And outside of the reading of the verses I never heard those teaching and preaching scarcely even mention Barnabas.
I for one am glad that our Lord notices Barnabas and He made sure to mention him over and over with Paul. And here we have evidence that Barnabas was also a speaker, Paul was just the chief speaker.
This also tells us that since these heathen know that Paul is the chief speaker that after the healing Paul preached and Barnabas also preached. Otherwise they would not have known that Paul was chief speaker but Barnabas also spoke.
God does use men in different ways. God used Paul to be the chief speaker and God used Barnabas also in great ways he just had a different role.
So they heard what Paul and Barnabas had to say, but in this case they absolutely refuse to listen. We all know there is a difference between hearing and listening.
They are so brainwashed into their religion that they refuse to accept the truth even when it is plainly explained and even with the evidence of the healing that they just saw that was done to validate that their preaching was from God.
Acts 14:13 Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates, and would have done sacrifice with the people.
The fact that they are in effect saying Paul and Barnabas you are not with the God you say you are. We know better you are with our god’s plural. This greatly upset Paul and Barnabas.
Acts 14:14 Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out,
So they preach to them again and try to reason with them.
Acts 14:15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:
Preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God. Right there is a Biblical definition of repentance. It is a turning from sin. Here called vanities and referring to their false beliefs and sin.
They are calling for them to turn from that and turn to the true God. That is repentance. Repentance is not penance. Repentance is not doing a bunch of good works. It is simply a changing of your mind.
You realize you have been wrong and have been doing wrong and you turn from that and turn to the truth. Turn from sin and turn to the living God. That is repentance.
And Paul is specific here. The true living God who created everything.
Acts 14:15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:
Acts 14:16 Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
Acts 14:17 Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
Acts 14:18 And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.
They are still not understanding all of Paul’s words and Barnabas’ words. It says they both ran out crying this truth to the people. But the only effect was that is scare restrained the people from sacrificing to them.
Just barely stopped them.
Now consider this. John and Peter healed a man and preached the Gospel and thousands got saved. Paul and Barnabas are out preaching and a man gets healed and the people’s response is to worship their false gods.
Was Peter a better preacher? No. Did Peter preach a different truth? No. We have Peter’s message recorded for us, we also have the message Paul preached in the last town he was in and we have what he preached when they wanted to sacrifice to false gods.
They are both preaching the same Jesus. They are preaching the same truths.
Was it then that the healing that John and Peter did was more of a miracle? No both men had not walked previously. You would have to put both healings on the same level of amazement.
So you have a miraculous healing and Peter preaches and 5,000 get saved. And you have a miraculous healing and Paul preaches and the result is the people want to sacrifice to false gods.
You cannot find anything in the two events themselves to explain this.
So what is going on? The Bible is showing us something once again that explains things that you see in this world.
The Bible really does have in it everything that you need to know to understand and get along in this world. Why are things the way they are and why do things with people work the way they do. It is all in the Bible.
Here we have two completely different reactions to equivalent events. Very similar healings and message. Why does one group look at it one way and another group see it vastly differently.
It has to do with what many call their world view. It is almost like people have different glasses that they put on. A filter if you will to what they see.
If a man puts on sunglasses that have a heavy blue tint he is going to say things look blue. And if another man has on sunglasses that have a heavy red tint he is going to say things look red.
But instead of literal sunglasses as a filter for what they see people have a filter of their world view. A filter of how you look at the world. And what makes up that filter. It is all the things than they have learned. The experiences they have had.
It is the summary of the knowledge that they have acquired. And notice I did not say the summary of the truth they have. Some knowledge is wrong. It is not truth.
The first group with John and Peter were going to the temple. They were lost but they had the background and knowledge about scripture. They did believe in the existence of the one true creator God. They did already believe that all other gods were false.
They had a world view that was a least based in part in the Old Testament.
The second group had a world view that was void of the Bible. Instead they looked at things thru the filter of the knowledge they had about their false gods.
So the two groups could look at the same truth and come away with completely different views of it. The same basic truth but two completely different analysis of it and a completely different reaction to it.
The bible is showing us here that this is the way things work. And if we look out in society we see this same thing happening in abundance.
Take the Grand Canyon for example. As believers in our Great All Powerful God we look at the Grand Canyon and see God’s handy work. We can see the evidence of the different rock layers and we can see how they were laid down.
And we can see how the layers bend. And to us that is evidence that those layers must have been laid down quickly. It is crazy to think that if that layer took 500 thousand years to lay down and that for 500 thousand years it got laid down in the same bended shape.
We also look at that and say for those layers to bend and not break they must have been laid down quickly and were made to bend while the entire layer was still wet.
That is looking at the plain to see evidence thru our filter of there is a creator God who flooded the entire planet in water.
We look at the evidence of sea shells in Colorado as evidence of the flood.
Evolutionists look at the same evidence and say there was an ocean in Colorado millions of years ago. They look at the evidence thru the filter of their world view which says there is no God.
Which view is the truth. Of course ours is. And I have a good reason to believe that. I hold God’s Amazing word in my hand. We have an eye witness account of what happened. The correct filter to use to look at things is God’s truth.
We see this principal all the time from evolution to gender craziness to politics.
Trump haters look at him only thru the filter of the liberal news outlets and the filter of the Democrat leaders and so they see him completely different. You watch what some of them say and go how can they think that. It is not what trump is about at all.
I don’t see what they see. They have a filter and refuse to look at anything without that filter.
This principal is very real and it is very hard to get thru to someone who refuses to look without their wrong colored filter.
Paul and Barnabas ran and cried out among the people and could not really get thru to them.
Acts 14:14 Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out,
All their words could do in this case was get them to stop the sacrifice. But their words did have some effect. It did get them to stop. They did not get saved. They did not repent here.
But the truth that Paul and Barnabas preached did make a little difference. They might have only barely scratched the surface, but they did scratch it.
This is an important lesson. Put the truth out and keep putting it out. It will put a scratch in false beliefs here and there. Over time it can add up and make a difference.
Charlie Kirk is an example. Years ago he started going to college campuses to expose students to truth and challenge their messed up views. For a long time he was faced with violent protests. And was totally hated by college students.
Slowly that has changed some. This last week he went to a college and was warmly received by many students. This upset the college so they make him take down his table. He did but then he just walked out a ways and hundreds of college students went out to talk to him and listen to him.
Not every student likes him. He still gets verbally attacked by those who will not challenge their filter. But more and more of them are saying wait a min. He is actually making sense. The way I have been looking at things is wrong.
Just like those in Paul’s day. It is a hard thing for many to reevaluate the filter thru which they look at things. And just like Paul’s day for many people one exposure to God’s truth is not enough.
What we are doing is important. We put out good material with a lot of God’s truth and it does challenge people’s world view. We might only plant a few seeds of doubt but God can send his truth to them again and in different ways and over time it can and does make a difference to some.
Now some will get upset when God’s truth is put out. Remember Paul has been ran out of town twice now.
The first time the people just said good riddance and ran Paul and Barnabas off and just let them go.
The second time it appeared the same, but no. Some got really angry. Some people are no I don’t agree and take the live and let live approach. Others as we have seen get angry and will not only have none of it for themselves but they will not have it for anyone where they live.
And still others don’t want it for themselves and don’t want it where they live, but they also don’t want it for anyone anywhere period. And that is what we see now.
Acts 14:19 And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.
These are people from the last towns that Paul and Barnabas had been ran out of. They follow them to this town and get the people to stone Paul and leave him for dead outside the city.
Yes there are people who hate our Jesus that bad today. So bad that they want every preacher and believer killed. We see this today in Nigeria, and North Korea where Christians are killed and maimed by the tens of thousands.
We see a slightly less aggressive instances here in the U.S.A. with the lady in charge of the department of education and we see it in thousands of grade school teachers and librarians all across this country.
Not only do they not want to have anything to do with God but they don’t want anyone else to also and they will take aggressive action to see that happen.
This is why we see hate speech laws in places like Norway. A person in the equivalent to our senate posted a Bible verse on social media and she has been to trial twice for it. Got off both times and they still want her to go to prison.
They have hate speech laws in Britain. And even here in the U.S.A. some grandma is going to jail because she prayed in an abortion clinic.
With some people there is no live and let live when it comes to Jesus and God is showing us that right here in Acts in His precious word.
As you know Paul survives the stoning. Of course God was involved in that. But you have to know it still was painful. God did not keep Paul from the trial and hurt. God gave help and strength and grace to get thru it.
That is a huge lesson for us as well. And yes those that stoned Paul meant it for evil, but God took that and used it as an example and as instruction for others.
Acts 14:20 Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
I love that. Paul got up and walked right back into the same town. And then left the next day.
Acts 14:21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
Even after such a tragic event they both keep teaching. Notice they preached. Both Paul and Barnabas. And then they go back to the towns that kicked them out previously.
Acts 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
And part of their message to those new believers was we must go through. Not maybe or it could be, but through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
And this message from a man who had just been stoned and left for dead. It has only been a little while, maybe a week. They could most likely still see the bruises. And he is still going on preaching for God. Even in towns where he had been thrown out of.
It was a powerful message. No hypocrisy here. His life is lining up with this message.
That we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
God used that stoning to be a visible illustration to this truth. And they lived in towns that were openly hostile to the gospel. So it was a very needed message. So God allowed the stoning of Paul so these people could get this very needed message and in a way that it could not be denied.
This is another import lesson for us. Our loving Lord will do things in the circumstances of life so that we can get the messages that we need. Of course I believe that our hearts need to be open to hearing from Him and open to learning.
Acts 14:23 And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
They knew that the believers could continue without them. It was not their job to stay. So they gave them some much needed messages and instructions and went on their way.
Acts 14:24 And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.
Acts 14:25 And when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down into Attalia:
Acts 14:26 And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.
Acts 14:27 And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.
Acts 14:28 And there they abode long time with the disciples.
This is the end of the 1st missionary journey.