The First Missionary Journey - Paul Preaching and Healing in Lystra

Alright, if you would take your Bible, turn back to Acts chapter 14. Tonight we'll be in verses 8-20. I say turn back because we've been here in chapter 14 for a little while. Of course, we're moving along in what we know as the first missionary journey that Paul and Barnabas were sent out on from the church at Antioch. We know they were sent out by God, but the church as a whole saw what God was doing, and the church sent them out. It's a good lesson for us there.

Anytime God calls a man out of the church, anytime God calls someone to be sent out by the church, it's God who does the calling and sending, and it's the church who does the calling and sending. It's all together. But in chapter 13, verses 4-12, we saw their first step on their journey, which was on the island of Cyprus. They had great gospel success when they saw Sergius, the Roman governor of the island, come to saving faith. Chapter 13, verses 13-52, we saw that second stop, which was to the north in Inland at Antioch, and they had great gospel success there as well.

Jews, converts to Judaism who were Gentile, proselytes, and also some other Gentiles came to saving faith. Those new believers helped impact the entire region there with the gospel. In chapter 14, verses 1-7, we saw their third stop in the journey, which was in the region of Galatia, and they were in the city of Iconium. They had great gospel success in Iconium as well. Their success in Iconium was similar to that in Antioch. Jews came to saving faith. All converts to Judaism came to saving faith, and other Gentiles came to faith. Just like in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas experienced rejection and persecution in Iconium.

Now right here, I want to make a couple of big picture observations before we get into our verses and what happened on this fourth stop in their journey. First of all, remember that at this point in their travels, Paul and Barnabas were in the region of Galatia, ministering in the cities there in Galatia. We see them before us in the scripture, Iconium, Lystra, and Derby. Some people call it Derbe, but it's Derby. All three cities were there in the region of Galatia. And again, this is where looking at your maps helps you. It does help, put it in perspective. And remember why this is important.

If we believe that Paul's letter to the Galatians was addressed to the churches in Galatia, then we see that Paul was writing to these believers and these churches that we see here at Acts 14 right in front of us. And not only did Paul write to these churches in Galatia, he traveled back to this region to minister to these believers and these churches. We'll touch on that some tonight. Simply Paul and Barnabas did not evangelize these people and just leave them. He worked very hard to write to them and to revisit these believers and these churches to help them. And this was hard work.

This was very hard work because some of these churches and these believers face some very difficult circumstances and doctrines and false teachers. Then second, as we will see, Paul and Barnabas do certain things and experience certain things almost at every stop. I mentioned four last week. I'll be shorter here tonight. First, they preached at every stop. We have seen and we will continue to see that at each stop and at each city, Paul and Barnabas preached Jesus as the promised Messiah. They preached the gospel and most of the time they started with Jews in the synagogues and then they went out to the Gentiles.

But this week we will see that Paul did some things a little different in Lystra. First of all, he did not start at a synagogue. Second, his preaching was different. Now I'll give you a hint. He was preaching to Gentiles so his approach was much different than when he preached to the Jews. We'll come to that later. And then second, they experienced divisions and factions. We've seen this and we'll continue to see this again at almost every stop.

When Paul and Barnabas preached Jesus as the Messiah and when they applied the gospel to those that were in front of him and they called them to believe in Jesus for forgiveness of their sins, people were divided, both Jew and Gentile were divided. And then they experienced third, persecution. Just like with division, we've seen this before and we will continue to see this more tonight, really in a grander way. But the Jews would move from being divided by the truth and the gospel to rejecting the truth of the gospel and then to rejecting the preaching of the truth in the gospel, those preaching then moving to persecution.

Then fourth, they saw growth in the gospel. We've seen this. We'll continue to see it. But even in the face of great and terrible division, rejection and persecution, even death, Paul and Barnabas always saw the Spirit of God bless their gospel efforts with converts to Christ, the birth of churches, and they saw more and more growth in the spread of the gospel and the spread of churches. Again, there's a lesson here. When we preach and declare and stand for the truth of God's word in the gospel, then we should expect similar if not the same treatment.

We may not be stoned and left for dead like Paul was in Lystra, but we certainly may be rejected. We certainly may be hated. I've said things like this before, we very well may ruin Christmas. We very well may change family dynamics. We very well may change relationships. And the question here, should we expect gospel success as well? You notice I use a phrase over and over. They had great gospel success. Well, should we expect great gospel success? And if we are not seeing gospel success, how should we respond? I'll come to that at the end of the message. Now here we're at the fourth stop in this first missionary journey.

Again, they're in Lystra, but notice how they got there. We see it from the verses we covered last week, verses four to seven. They tell us that while Paul and Barnabas were in Iconium preaching and enjoying great gospel success, verse five, an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and stone them. They, that would be Paul and Barnabas, learned of it and they fled to Lystra in Derby, cities of Lyconia and to the surrounding country or countryside. And there they continue to preach the gospel.

So starting here in verse eight, Luke tells us what took place when Paul and Barnabas went to Lystra, which was only about 18 miles south and west of where they had been in Iconium. And as we will see, the closeness of Lystra to Iconium has a bearing on what happened in Lystra. And this speaks to the persecution. Again, we'll get to that. Now let's read our verses and then I'll explain my approach. Verse eight. Now at Lystra, there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled or lame from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well.

He said in a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying, "In Lyconia," this would be their native language, "the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men." Barnabas, they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. "And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

But when the apostles, Barnabas and Saul, heard of it, they tore their garments or robes or outer garments and they rushed into the crowd crying out, 'Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you. And we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.' In past generations, he," that's God, "allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. But Zeus came from Antioch and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city and on the next day he went with Barnabas to Derby." Now there's quite a lot going on in these verses. I think you can see it. And just like before, I want to focus on this back and forth. We see all kinds of response and responses back and forth, back and forth.

First I want us to see the cripple man's response to Paul's preaching and ministry. That's in verse 8 and 10. Second, the crowd's response in return, that's in verse 11 to 13. Third, I want us to see the apostles' response to the crowd's response, that's in verse 14 to 18. Fourth, the response of the Jews in verse 19. Fifth, the response of the disciples in verse 20. Again, response after response after response. It's back and forth, back and forth. Now some of these observations will be shorter, so we will have an adequate amount of time to cover all this before us. So number one, the cripple man's response to Paul.

That's obvious, verse 8, 9 and 10. The cripple man's response to Paul. Now here we see what Paul and Barnabas did when they went into the city. Notice, Luke does not say they went to the Jews. Luke does not say they went to the synagogue first. Luke tells us that they started off in the streets of the city with a man who had been lame or crippled from birth. But I want us to see what Paul did. First we see Paul preaching. Now if we are not careful, we can miss it because it is almost like Luke casually mentions it. But Luke says Paul was speaking in the English Standard Version.

So what we have here is this, as Paul and Barnabas came into the city, whether they stopped at the city gate or they made their way to some kind of a marketplace setting or if they made their way to some kind of a public square type setting, they started preaching. And Luke tells us it was Paul preaching. The second we see Paul healing, here Luke tells us that this cripple man was looking intently at Paul while he was preaching. The Legacy Standard Bible says he fixed his gaze on him. Evidently he was showing a deep and serious interest in Paul and his preaching that made him stand out from the rest that were in the crowds.

And notice, Paul somehow knew that this man had the faith to be made well. But how did Paul know that? Luke does not say. But it is safe to assume that by and through a work of the Spirit of God, Paul sensed and knew that this man had the faith to believe. It is safe to assume that Paul had a sense of spiritual discernment that came from God that this man had the faith to believe. It is safe to assume that Paul even had the apostolic ability to discern and perceive these things. Well, what did Paul do? Luke tells us that in a loud voice for all to hear, he called the man to stand up and he did.

And not only did he stand, think about it, he disobeyed Paul. What I mean by that is this, he did more than Paul asked him. Paul said, "Stand," but he began walking. Now remember, he had been crippled since birth. So notice what we have here, two things. Paul's ministry in the streets of Lystra to a man who had been crippled from birth. And all of the city, all of the people in the city would have known this man. And the crippled man's response to Paul's preaching and Paul's healing. But before I move on, I want to point out something very important. Luke's emphasis is on the crippled man and Paul's healing of the crippled man.

That's obvious. But we have to see that this exciting work did not begin with the healing. This exciting work began with preaching. You see that? This exciting work didn't begin with the healing, it began with preaching. Simply Paul did what he always did in each city and at each stop. He started his ministry in that city by preaching. And the lesson here is this, yes we do many things in the life of the church. Yes, we engage in all sorts of ministry and ministries in the church, but we begin and end with preaching. We stay with the preaching of the truth of God's Word. We stay with the preaching of the gospel first.

We never move away from preaching and teaching God's Word, being at the center of all that we do. Why? Because it's for the salvation of souls and for the sanctification of the saints. So we see the crippled man's response to Paul and his ministry, to his preaching and to his healing. Number two, next, the crowd's response to these events. Verse 11 to 13. Again, this back and forth, look at the verse. And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices saying in Lyconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men. Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker.

And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. Now what happened here is quite simple. Odd, crazy, really kind of off the charts to us, but simple. Obviously, Paul and Barnabas had some kind of a crowd before them. As they came into the city, they began preaching and Paul healed the man who had been crippled from birth with the crowd before him.

And it is safe to assume that all these things happen somewhere like the city gate, somewhere like in the marketplace, somewhere like a public square, because again, it was common for lame and crippled people to be in those environments begging. So there was some kind of a crowd that heard Paul's preaching. They saw the crippled man being healed. And no doubt the crowd grew as the excitement of these events were made known. And we can see that the crowd was obviously overwhelmed and excited by this healing to the point that they wanted to exalt Paul and Barnabas as gods. They wanted to worship them.

They wanted to offer animal sacrifices to them. Some of you know this, but simply this is what was happening. The crowds and the people of Lyster believed that Paul and Barnabas were gods who had come to them in human form. They saw Barnabas as Zeus, who was the chief god in Greek mythology. Now scholars differ as to why they saw Barnabas as Zeus. Some speculate it was because of his appearance or his countenance. And they saw Paul as Hermes, who was the messenger god in Greek mythology. That's obvious. He was the main public speaker. So that's obvious.

And this reaction from the crowd reflect the very strong influence of Greek and Roman mythology in the region, where the people believed that the gods, little gee, visited the earth in human form. I ran across this this week according to local legend. Zeus and Hermes had once visited nearby and punished people for not showing hospitality. So it is possible that the people of Lystra did not want to make the same mistake. So simply the people of the city wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods who had come down among them. And they saw this miracle as proof that they were gods among them. And notice a lesson here for us.

And this comes out of the mistake the crowds made. These pagans saw and understood the miracle, even maybe the preaching, and the men of Paul and Barnabas through the lens of their pagan beliefs and pagan culture. And they wanted to adapt the things of God to their pagan beliefs and their pagan cultural ways. You see that? It's easy for us to see. And we obviously would say they were wrong. But we need to see that people can do the same thing today. Today people can take the gospel. They can take Christianity.

And they can see these things and press these things through the lens of things like politics, political movements, even social movements. Do you see that? People today can take the gospel and Christianity and they can see those things and they can grab those things and press those things through the lens of the grid of politics, political movements, and social movements. And they are just as wrong as the people of Lystra. Simply the gospel and the truth of God's Word, Christianity and the church, those things are not to be adapted to politics, to political movements, to society and societal movements no matter how noble those things are.

Paul and Barnabas did not bring the gospel, Christianity and the church to Lystra to be adopted to their culture and to their paganism. They took the gospel, Christianity and the church to Lystra to bring the lost to saving faith and to establish the church. They took the gospel and the truth of God's Word to Lystra to change men and women and to change the culture, not to be adapted to or assimilated into the culture. How does that relate to us today and do we see that today? I'm going to touch on this. I wish I had a little more time.

With the assassination of Charlie Kirk, we saw a resurgence of people I think taking Christianity, the church and the gospel and the truth of God's Word and pushing it into the lens and into the environment of politics. If people come to saving faith in that environment, great. But we do not take the gospel, the Word of God, preaching in the church and Christianity and adapt those things to culture and to politics. So the crowds and their response. Next number three, the apostles' response to these events. Again, back and forth. Verse 14.

"And when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their garments, they rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 'Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of like nature with you. And we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. And past generations, he," that's God, "allowed the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness. For he," that's God, "did good by giving you rains from heaven in fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them." Now here we see some chaotic, wild events. We see lots of chaos. And we see that in the midst of this chaos, Paul and Barnabas did three things. First, they tore their clothes in protest. Here we see that when they came to understand what the crowds were doing, they rushed out into the crowd, they were crying out. And notice Luke says that they tore their garments. The King James says they rent their clothes. The Amplified says they tore their robes. Now we may not see it, but a lot was going on here with the tearing of the garments.

This was a public expression of sorrow and protest. This was a great expression of great even hatred and protest of what the people were doing in trying to see them and worship them as gods. And in Jewish life, the people, the Jews were required to tear their robes in response to and hatred of blasphemy. So they tore their clothes in protest to what the crowds were doing. Second, they revealed themselves as men. Here we see that they cried out. The verse says that they were crying out. This literally means to cry out aloud, to speak with a loud voice. And what did they cry out?

Verse 15, the Amplified says, "Men, why are you doing these things? We too are only men of the same nature as you." So notice when Paul and Barnabas realized what was happening, they rushed out into the frenzied demonic crowd, tearing their clothes in protest and in anger at what they were doing. And they cried out saying, "We too are men. We are not gods. Look at our flesh. Look at our body. We have a nature like you." But then third, notice what they did. They preached to the crowds. Now here we have the most important part of the response by Paul and Barnabas.

In the middle of this chaos, in the middle of their protest in their chaos, they declared the truth in the gospel. But we need to see how and what they preached. I picked this up from both Warren Wearsby and James Montgomery Boyce. If we compare the preaching here to the preaching that we see back in 13 when Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch, we can see a very, very big difference in what was preached. Notice the difference. In Antioch, Paul was preaching mostly to Jews and Gentiles who were converts to Judaism. So what does he do?

He quotes the Old Testament and he goes through their history and he goes into some of the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah of God. Again, he uses Old Testament scripture to lead up to the fact that Jesus was and is the promised Messiah of God. But Paul and Barnabas did not preach that way in Lystra. In Lystra, Paul was preaching to a mostly, if not totally, Gentile people. So he does not start with the Old Testament scriptures because that would have made no sense to them. That would have had no bearing on them.

He started by presenting God as the creator God in verse 15, then moving to presenting the providence of God in verse 17 and how they had experienced and enjoyed the providence of God. And then in verse 17, he pressed them into seeing that these things about God should have been seen and understood by them. Look at the verses again and notice what he does. Again presents God as the creator God, presents the providence of God that they should have seen, that they understood, and how they should have understood all these things. Verse 15, "Men, why are you doing these things?

We also are men of like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations, he allowed the nations to walk in their own ways, yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you reigns from heaven in fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." And notice verse 18 seems to show that the sermon was cut off. Actually, Luke does not tell us if Paul cut the sermon short or if the crowd in the frenzy of these events cut the sermon short.

But it appears that the crowd, it appears the chaos of all that was going on cut Paul off. But I think we can make an assumption here. Jim Boyce does and I agree with him. He says, and I'm quoting, "Whether Paul preached the full gospel on that occasion or later, he certainly got to the gospel at some point because the people began to believe it. Then the same divisions and persecutions happened here as elsewhere." So notice the response of Paul and Barnabas. They protested how the frenzied demonic crowd of pagans wanted to exalt them as gods who had visited them and how they wanted to even sacrifice and worship them.

They presented themselves as men just like them and they preached the gospel to them and we will see that some believed but we will also see that some rejected. Now there's a lesson here. This may surprise you. Here it is. We must know our audience. We must preach and teach and witness according to our audience. No we do not alter or change the gospel. No we do not alter or water down the Word of God but our audience determines how we preach the gospel, how we teach the Word of God. Our audience determines our approach. I'll give you an example.

It's been a long time since I've witnessed two people who were thoroughly pagan, unbiblical in their understanding and worldview. A few years ago when we were in Scotland, Annie and I, we found ourselves witnessing to people who would reject the Bible, would reject a Christian worldview. So where do you start? If you open up the Bible, they scoff, they laugh, they won't listen. So where do you start? Well first of all, I would start with the fact that the law of God is written on each man's heart. The Bible says, God says in Romans, the law of God is written on their heart so I would go there.

They all know their liars, they all know their sinners because the law of God is written on their heart. They know it's wrong to commit certain sins. I would also go to Ecclesiastes that says in chapter 3 that eternity is put in the heart of a man. A man instinctively knows that they're not like a dog or a cat or an animal. They're an eternal being. So I would start there. I would start there because I knew my audience. Now here if I was witnessing to someone and what I do, I would go to the Bible. I go to scripture because most people in our culture accept the Bible. So we know our audience. But I'll add to that.

When you're teaching your children, you teach your 15 year old a little different than you do your 5 year old. And look, mom, dad, if you try to teach your 5 and 6 year old the way you teach your 15 year old, you will exasperate them. Years ago I remember going to the house of a man who was a part of our church and he was telling me how he was very frustrated that he couldn't leave family worship with his little ones. And I said, "Brother, you're killing your family." I said, "You're wanting to do some doctrinal 30 minute Bible lesson with them and they're 5 and 6 and 7 years old.

You're going to be lucky if you get 3 minutes out of them." He didn't know his audience. I think you get the point. Next number 4, the response of the Jews and Gentiles. Again, back and forth. Look at verse 19. What the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. Here Luke tells us the Jews from Antioch made it to Iconium. They had been following Paul and Barnabas and it seems that they finally caught up with them in Lystra. And they persuaded the crowds in the city to pick up stones against them.

And verse 19 says they stoned Paul, they dragged him out of the city and they left him for dead. Who were these crowds? These were the same people who had previously exalted Paul and Barnabas' gods in the flesh and wanted to worship them and make sacrifices to them. You see that? Look at verse 18 and then verse 19 together. Even with these words, that's Paul and Barnabas' words, they scarcely restrained the people, the crowds from offering sacrifice to them. Right, Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and Barnabas and dragged him out of the city.

These were the same people who had previously been exalting Paul and Barnabas as gods. Now they're dragging them out of the city. It's simple. The Jews responded by hounding Paul and Barnabas to Antioch, then to Iconium and all the way to Lystra and the Gentile crowds responded by joining in with the Jews and stoning Paul and dragging him out of the city for dead. Now there's a lesson here. This is simple but brutal. People will love you one minute and hate you the next. Well I don't know if I can really pull that out of there. Sometimes that can be the case in the church. But jokes aside, there is a lesson here on the zeal of the persecutor.

I picked this up from Albert Barnes. It really resonated with me. The zeal of the persecutor. Listen to what Barnes says. Persecutors often exhibit a great zeal and perseverance in a bad cause, which it would be well if Christians evidenced in a holy cause. Bad people will often travel further to do evil than good people will do good. And wicked people often show more zeal in opposing the gospel than professing Christians do in advancing it. And I'll add to that by saying, should we not make sure we have as much zeal as those who hate Jesus in the gospel? Think about it.

Should we not make sure that we have as much zeal for Jesus in the gospel as those who hate it? What about the zeal that the Muslims have and the Hindus have? Those pagans have. I think Barnes is onto something that helps us see that we can learn here. And then last, the response of the disciples, verse 20. But when the disciples, notice, it doesn't say Barnabas, but when the disciples gathered about him, that's Paul, he rose up and he entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby. Now a question. Who were these disciples? This is simple.

Those who had believed through Paul's preaching and the miracle of the crippled man being healed. You see that? Simply God had given Paul and Barnabas great gospel success. So there was a pocket of new believers there in Lystra. There was a group of disciples there in Lystra. And notice how they responded to these events. When Paul was stoned to death, they fled the city going east to Derby. Is that what it says? No. This small band of newly born disciples did not run. When their leader was stoned to death, they gathered around him. Just as Paul had stood by them, they stood by Paul. So we see that Paul and Barnabas did have gospel success.

There were some who had savingly believed. There was a band of disciples in the city and they showed their perseverance in the faith by not running in persecution, but by standing by Paul in the middle of the persecution. No doubt they feared that they could be stoned as well. So notice what we've been studying. This is the first missionary journey. Paul preaching and healing in Lystra. That's the title of the message. The first missionary journey, Paul preaching and healing in Lystra. Now I want to close out like I did last week. Last week I pointed out how John MacArthur breaks down all of Chapter 14.

He points out the leadership of Paul and Barnabas all throughout his breakdown. And he highlights, he points out seven qualities that make effective spiritual ministry. I love that term, that language, seven qualities that make effective spiritual ministry. And out of verse 8 to 20, John MacArthur points out how Paul and Barnabas were great in their humility. You see that? Effective spiritual ministry contains, consists of humility. And he points out that to be esteemed as a God in the Greco-Roman world was the highest honor imaginable. Yet they rejected any such notion. They rejected any exaltation of themselves.

And they pointed this crowd of pagans, this crowd of Gentile pagans to Jesus as their only hope for the forgiveness of sin. You see, MacArthur points out that spiritual quality now of effective spiritual ministry, and that is humility. MacArthur goes on to say, and I'm quoting, "They successfully handled the temptation to succumb to pride. Had Paul and Barnabas yielded to that temptation, it would have destroyed their youthfulness." Now I want to close by asking two questions. The first is reflective, observational.

How many, even some who have been seen as great Christians and leaders in the church, how many professing Christians and leaders have shipwrecked any usefulness for God in the church by becoming prideful? The second question is more personal. Do we wrestle with any pride? Do we wrestle with any pride in the church? If so, we are in danger of ruining our ability to be used by God and to be used by God in the church. You see, if we wrestle with spiritual pride and we don't deal with that, we don't crucify that, we are running the risk of ruining our ability to be used by God and to be used in the church.

So the first missionary journey, this is the fourth stop there in Lystra. Paul was preaching in healing there in the city.