This tape contains the 17th of a series of teachings on the book of Acts by the Reverend John W. Howe of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The teaching is entitled, The First Missionary Journey, and covers the 14th chapter of Acts. We're in Acts chapter 14 today. And you might like to observe the fact that with this chapter, when we finish this chapter, we will have completed the first half of the book. The second half goes faster. I'm reading a book of sermons by John Calvin on the book of Job.

Preached 159 sermons on the book of Job. One a day for 159 days. So, we're enjoying moving at a relatively rapid pace through the book of Acts.

Let me put this back into context again for you. We're in the middle of the first of three missionary journeys that Paul took. They're not numbered, but they're quite clearly delineated.

It's actually on this first journey, it's early on this first journey, that Paul takes over the leadership. As they started out, Barnabas was leading and Paul was second in command, but it's early on in the first missionary journey that Paul moves clearly and decisively into the leadership and remains the leader, not only of that team, but really the central figure in the last half of the book of Acts. It's on that journey that he officially takes the name Paul, and up to this time we ought properly to be referring to him as Saul.

We are somewhere in the mid-40s, 40 AD, somewhere in the middle of the fifth decade of the Christian era. It's hard to date this exactly. It's been somewhere between 15 and 20 years since the resurrection.

There's been a deliberate policy decision. This is where we ended chapter 13, a deliberate policy decision on the part of Paul and Barnabas to turn to the Gentiles. That's the way they put it.

The Jews have received them with tremendous hostility, and they say, okay, shake the dust off our feet, we're going to turn to the Gentiles. Now bear in mind, and I made this point in closing last time, that Paul is preaching the same basic gospel that has been preached for nearly 20 years now. All right, it's not that there is a new message.

And when Paul writes his letter to the Galatians, he really makes that point very forcefully. that even though he got his gospel directly by revelation from the Lord Jesus himself when he went back and checked it out in Jerusalem it was the same thing that the early apostles had been preaching all along he's preaching the same message alright but you may have noted a distinct appeal that is right up front to the Gentiles what it took Peter and others a long time to work out namely that God is putting Gentiles and pagans on an equal standing with the Jews as far as the salvation that he's brought to us in Jesus Christ. It took Peter a very long time to work that out.

Paul makes that virtually the first principle of his preaching. We appeal to you Jews and Gentiles, Jews and God-fearers. And so it's the same message but clearly with an open appeal to the Gentiles.

and it appears that it's that that is really antagonizing the Jews. And we should by this time be anticipating that. It was that which antagonized Saul himself back in the early days.

It has been that consistently when the Jews saw the particularity, the exclusivity of Judaism suddenly under a threat that Gentiles could participate in this new thing on an equal status with the Jews that's the point at which they really took up arms and tried to stamp out the Christian movement. So the Jews are incensed and they drive them, they drive Paul and Barnabas out of Pisidian Antioch. They go further north into Lyconia and if you were going to locate that on a map it's about in the middle of Asia Minor, right about the middle of Asia Minor.

And so we pick up the story in 14. Now at Iconium, that's the first city that they move on to in the Lyconia area. At Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and so spoke that a great company believed, both of Jews and of Greeks.

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. But the people of the city were divided, some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles.

When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to molest them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lyconia, and to the surrounding country, and there they preached the gospel. So they're going from Iconium further up into Lyconia. Tremendous division here, and I want you to note that there are Jews and Gentiles on both sides.

It's not the Jews against the Gentiles. It's what is specifically called the unbelieving Jews stirring up the Gentiles. And among the believers, there's a large company of both Jews and Gentiles who believe.

Bear that in mind. They say, we turn to the Gentiles, but you'll see consistently there are Jews who come under their preaching, and it always, as a matter of fact, remains the case to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Invariably, though their major agenda seems to be a mission to the Gentiles, they start with the Jews.

They go to the synagogue or they go to the place of worship. We're going to see that in Acts 16. When they go into Philippi, they go down to the river where they suppose there was a place of prayer.

Who's praying there? Jews. or at least proselytes to Judaism.

So it's Jews and Gentiles on both sides. The word unbelieving in verse 2, the unbelieving Jews, literally means the disobedient ones. And that's a point worth noting.

It is usually translated disobedient. Their unbelief is a matter of disobeying the word of God as it comes to them. They're hardening their hearts.

They're rising up against it. They're resisting what they know to be from God. They're turning against his messengers.

And I want to suggest to you just in passing that that too is invariably the case. That unbelief expresses itself in disobedience. And you might just like to meditate for a good long while.

I wonder if it ever could be otherwise. you know the whole faith versus works controversy rests on at least a partial misunderstanding how many of you know that to have faith is to do something about it you know how can you say I have faith and then not put it into practice to be unfaithful or unbelieving is to harden your heart against God and to take action against him it's to be disobedient and so you might just enjoy meditating on that for a while. They harden their hearts.

They begin again a dramatic work of persecution. They stir up the Gentiles. It says poison their mind against the brethren and I love the next word in verse 3.

So they stayed a long while. Isn't that lovely? As you read this chapter, you might like to sort of cross compare with the early chapters as the whole thing was getting started in Acts 4 and 5.

There's a tremendous sense of deja vu, I think. When Peter was just beginning in Jerusalem and the persecution was rising up nowhere near as intense and it wasn't focusing on the Gentiles yet, but you remember the very early phase also met with resistance. And notice the parallels between what's going on as the whole thing was getting started among the Jews and now repeating itself as we're moving into a brand new era among the Gentiles.

For instance, you might just hold your finger here for a minute. Look at the prayer in Acts chapter 4. You remember they were rising up against Peter and John and the lame man who had been healed and with them the whole company of the apostles.

And there's a beautiful prayer that issues from their forbidding them to preach the gospel. And Acts chapter 4, verse 29, it says, And now, Lord, look upon their threats. They're threatening us, they're persecuting us, they're silencing us or attempting to.

Look upon their threats and grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness, while thou stretchest out thy hand to heal. And signs and wonders are performed through the name of thy holy servant Jesus. They don't flee from it.

They don't ask God to crush the persecutors. They say, give us boldness in the face of their threats. And as we preach your word with boldness, would you confirm it with signs and wonders?

That's exactly what we're reading here. They're rising up in resistance and persecution. So, they stayed a long time and preached the word with boldness, okay, to the Lord who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting what?

Signs and wonders. That's the pattern. Not, oh Lord, let us escape their resistance.

Give us boldness in the midst of it. And as we preach, as we're faithful to your word, no matter what happens out there in resistance to it, you confirm it by signs and wonders. Tremendous correlation here.

We're going to read about one of them in just a moment. City is divided. Tremendous hostility. Trouble.

Trouble. They tried finally to stone them to death, and at that point they moved on to Lystra and to Derbe. Now, we're going to read, and I'm just going to refer to the story rather than read it all the way through the next couple of paragraphs.

They move on to Lystra, and in so doing, they're crossing a language barrier. They're going from Phrygia into Galatia. They're going to the very edge of the Roman Empire's jurisdiction.

And at Lystra, there's a remarkable healing. A remarkable healing. Again, note the comparison with that man at the gate to the city.

As they go up to the temple and they come to the gate, beautiful, in Acts chapter 3. You remember? And there was a young man who asked them for alms.

And he stretched out his palms, and Peter and John did say, right? exactly the same thing verse 9 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 walked he was born crippled he has never walked a day he sprang up You get the totality, the completeness of this healing. Not just his limbs, which have never had their muscles exercised.

Never, all right? But his whole sense of balance, right? He learned in an instant how to walk, how to leap, how to dance, how to run.

His inner ear is immediately healed. And you might just pause to consider which of the gifts of the Holy Spirit are actually operating in this story. Which one would you say?

Is this a healing? Or is this a word of knowledge given to Paul? Or is it a gift of faith to the man, seeing that he had faith to receive?

Or is it all? Is it revelation? Is it prophecy?

Do you see? What are you saying? It's all of it.

It's all of it at once. Right? I'd like to give you a caution at this point.

I want to suggest to you that one of the biggest problems that we might have as God is pouring out His Spirit in our generation is to take a story like this one and to make absolute for all times in all situations the particular details of this story. Okay? In this story, you know, we see Paul looking on the guy intently, seeing that he has the faith to be healed and being moved by the Spirit to prophesy and to announce his healing and the man receiving it.

That's what happened in this story. Does that mean that the key to all healing is that we need to have faith to receive? No, that's the key to this healing.

You follow what I'm saying? Whereas we could point to any number of other instances in the book of Acts, in the ministry of Jesus itself, and right on down to the present day, where God in his sovereignty and in his benevolence heal somebody where it's in no way dependent upon the recipient's faith. So I want to, we want to look at the detail, but beware of absolutizing the specifics.

Okay? The one thing that I can absolutely guarantee you about healing is that there's no one single pattern. The moment you nail the last nail into the box in which you've trapped the Holy Spirit, is the moment the box is going to be empty.

Guarantee it. The one thing I can absolutely guarantee is that you will not be able to reduce it to a formula. Could I suggest this?

I've really meditated upon this and I think I've seen something. That when God moves in a dramatic, wonderful way to heal somebody, most of the time two things are happening at once. One is that there is the exercise of a particular gift or ministry of healing.

Two is that it is interpreted in terms of what happened in that instance as if it must always be so. So that the folks to whom God gives ministries of healing tend so often to give you formulas. Do this and you will certainly be healed.

When the truth of the matter is that that may be why God has blessed in a particular instance, but not necessarily to be made an absolute formula for all times and places. Do you follow what I'm saying? You remember the Walt Disney story of Dumbo?

You remember the flying elephant? And Jiminy Cricket gave him the magic feather? You know, and she held in his trunk and he flew?

Hey, look, he really flew. But his understanding of why he flew was completely wrong. Okay?

You can have a genuine work from God in your life and yet misunderstand the reason as to why it happened that way. Okay? Maybe I shared with you, I know I've shared it many places, the story of the two men that were both blind and Jesus healed both of them.

Do you remember the story? And they met in Jerusalem one day and they realized they'd both been healed. and they were so excited and they wanted to share each other's testimony and the one guy says to the other, well, tell me how Jesus did it for you.

And he says, well, he just came into my town and he said, be healed. And the other guy was deeply offended. He said, no, no, no, he's got a spit on the ground, make spittle, rub clay on your eyes.

It's a wonderful healing. A wonderful healing. And in this instance, we're given some details.

Paul looked upon the man and saw that he had the faith to be healed. And a tremendous number of gifts of the Holy Spirit are simultaneously operative. Okay?

Praise God. All right? Don't make it a formula.

Okay? You with me? Amen.

Amen. Okay. The people, most of them Gentiles now, saw what Paul had done.

Verse 11, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lyconian, there you're tipped off of the language difference, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, because he was the chief speaker, they called Hermes. Well, Zeus, as you probably know, was the Greek name of the king of the gods, all right, the chief deity.

In Roman, in Latin, it would be Jupiter or Jove. He's the great sky god, the one who controls the heavens and especially the weather. The greatest of all the gods, the master of Olympus.

And Hermes, which again in Latin we'd recognize as Mercury or Mercurius. Mercury was a trickster. But in addition to being a trickster, he was a god of real blessing.

He would give you good fortune. And in particular, he was the god of eloquence. And so you see how they applied this.

Barnabas, the older man, somewhat quieter in the background, sort of controlling things behind the scene as far as they can tell. And Paul, being the spokesman, they hail as Hermes or Mercury. And Paul immediately, horrified, he stops them.

He says, no, no, no, no. We're not gods come down among you. But notice what he does. He picks up on their limited understanding and begins to preach to them the true Zeus.

The true sky God who has, as a matter of fact, come down among us in the likeness of men. Do you follow that? And he says one thing I call your attention to in verse 17.

Back up to 16. In past generations, he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness. For he did good and gave you from heaven and rains in fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

So he's picking up on their limited understanding, picking up on the theme of the sky god who's controlling the weather and the seasons and so on, declaring to them a better revelation, but also is saying to them what he develops at much greater length in the book of Romans. He didn't leave himself without a witness. He has been speaking to all men everywhere at all times.

You pagans, you Gentiles, who know very little about the revelation to Israel, have nonetheless had true truth from God. Enough to begin to respond to Him. The creation bears witness to its Creator.

And that's the case. And so He proclaims the gospel to them. You could not find, I think, a more dramatic contrast than the one between verse 18 and verse 19.

With these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. That's what the Gentiles wanted to do. And the sacrifices that are mentioned in that paragraph are the ones that were typically used in worshiping Zeus.

They wanted to come and worship the apostles. But verse 19, But Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium, having persuaded the people they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing he was dead. Gentiles want to worship them the Jews want to destroy them they've chased them all the way from Antioch to Iconium now into Lystra that's considerable anger isn't it they tried to stone them in Iconium they do so here in Lystra and it says supposing that he was dead they dragged him out of the city now I'm not absolutely sure about this but I want to suggest to you that it may be that he really was dead.

Do you remember in 2 Corinthians 12? You can go back and look this up for yourself later. But in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul refers to himself in a very strange passage in which he talks about himself in the third person.

I know a man who 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven and saw God, whether in the body or out of the body, I'm not sure. And I could boast about that man, he says, but I'm not going to. And you can read the passage.

That's clearly referring to himself, to his own experience. He was caught up into the very throne room of God. He had an audience with God, which he does not fully understand himself, even 14 years later.

I'd like to suggest to you that it could be that this is the moment he was referring to. That they took up stones and stoned him and they supposed him dead. and he was.

He died and went to be with the Father. But his compatriots came and prayed for him and laid hands on him and he revived. What an experience.

It's a great deal after this, at least 12 years later, about 13 to 14 years later, as a matter of fact, that he wrote to the Philippians and he said, whether to depart and be with Christ or to stay here among you, I can't hardly judge which is better. I'd really rather go be with Christ. But for your sake, I'm willing to stay and minister here among you.

I've known a lot of Christians who came across that passage and felt real condemnation in their spirit because they couldn't say that. They say, I must not be a very good Christian. I'm really not ready to depart and go be with the Lord.

If I had my choice, I'd stay here. I'll go when he calls, but I'll stay here as long as I can. and in the honesty of the thing, if they had to admit it, they'd feel real guilt that they could not say with Paul, I'd prefer to depart and go be with the Lord.

Well, I want to suggest to you that there's no condemnation. If you haven't seen it, you can't quite value it the way Paul did. He was there in the throne room of God face to face and then he says, I'd rather have that any day.

You follow what I'm saying? So he comes back to life. He revives.

Jumps up. Goes back into Lister to finish his sermon. How about that?

And finally moves on to Derby. We're only given a one-verse account. They preached to the whole city and made many disciples.

verse 20. That's a pretty good account. And then they retraced their steps. They came back over the same route. In other words, they went as far as they could to the very edge of the Roman Empire, as I said, and then they turned around and revisited the cities that they had already been.

They went from Derbe back to Lystra, back to Iconium, back to city in Antioch, back to Pamphylia, back to Perga. They got a boat at Italia and finally went home, which now is Antioch, Syrian Antioch. Note one more thing before we quit this chapter.

As they went back to these various cities, we're given a pattern, verse 22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed. notice those five things they strengthened them taught them some more in other words built them up in the faith they exhorted them not just enough to tell the word but really to encourage them to continue in it they warned them this isn't going to be any easy deal no bed of roses here there's going to be tribulation which accompanies your obedience but hang in there it's worth it he never said it would be easy He only said it would be worth it.

They appointed elders. I don't have to stop and wonder about that. These are pretty young elders.

In some cases, brand new converts. But they took the most seemingly mature of what they had available. Appointed them into leadership position.

Can you imagine entrusting the life of a brand new baby church in the midst of a pagan atmosphere with active hostility from the Jews to a bunch of brand new converts. But the fifth part of the story is they commended them to the Lord. And either Jesus Christ is alive and able to take care of that which is committed to him or the whole thing is nonsense anyway and why fuss with it?

So they strengthened them, they exhorted them, they warned them, They appointed elders over them, and they committed them to the Lord, and they went home. And we read that when they got back to Antioch, they gathered the church together. You remember it was from Antioch that they were sent out in the first place.

They gathered the church together, verse 27, and declared all that God had done with them, and how he opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they remained no little time with the disciples. It's in the midst of this story that Paul and Barnabas are called for the first time apostles.

Notice that God raises them to that level of authority. They're not just another couple of travelers, but it's in the beginning of this chapter that they're called for the first time apostles. They come back from this first apostolic journey, gather the church together and declare what great things God has done.

that he opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. They rejoiced together, but there's real trouble brewing.