In the above focus, we see Paul and Barnabas in Lystra, a day’s walk from Iconium. The disciples journey to Lystra because of the persecution they faced in Iconium. In Lystra the Holy Spirit revealed to Paul that a lame man had faith to be healed. There sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” This man’s condition was very serious for it was from birth. The Lystra community knew well of the lame man's condition. When they saw the man healed by the prayer of Paul, the Lycaonians became very excited, understanding this healing was a supernatural act. Being very religiously oriented the Greeks in Lystra thought Paul and Barnabas were gods. When Paul looked at the shrines and idols in Athens, he said of the Greeks that they were very religious. I see that in every way you are very religious. (Acts 22:17) The Greeks in Lystra assigned Paul and Barnabas the names of Zeus, and Hermes. They commenced to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods who came down to earth to visit their community. The priest of the temple of Zeus brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. This worshipping of the disciples, believing them to be mythical gods, stresses Paul and Barnabas greatly: they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: “Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. Even so, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. This clamor of devotion to the disciples went on for some time until some Jews from Iconium arrived with a different version of Paul and Barnabas’ ministry. They had walked twenty miles to Lystra, to bring this message of dissention to Lystra. Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. Their hatred of Paul and Barnabas caused these Jews to follow the disciples from city to city. The Jews from Antioch had walked over a 100 miles to bring this discord to Lystra. These contrary Jews to the message of the Good News illustrate well what Jesus said about these Abraham’s descendants. I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. (Matthew 23:34) The Jews of Antioch and Iconium’s intense hatred of Paul and Barnabas caused them to pursue the disciples from town to town. In Lystra, they thought their mission of stamping out the Good News from the lips of Paul was finally over. The people in Lystra stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. Paul was so thoroughly beaten that he lay seemingly dead, probably bringing much satisfaction to those Jews who were chasing him from city to city. But Paul was not dead. God protected him, allowing him to survive this wicked act of stoning. He got up and went back into the city.
In Rome, we hear Paul’s frustration about the Jews; their unwillingness to accept the Good News that the Messiah has come to them in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:“‘Go to this people and say,“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. ”For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!” (Acts 28:25-28) Paul’s intense love for his own people to hear the Good News is revealed clearly in that he willingly ministered in the synagogues, exposing himself to much criticism and many threats. Paul understood well that his ministry in the synagogues would rouse up opposition to him and Barnabas. Paul’s anguish over his people not willing to open their hearts up to the message of salvation is best expressed by him in Romans. I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race. (Romans 9:1-3) Paul, as Moses and Jesus before him, was willing to give up his life for his enemies. Paul's willingness to be away from God forever for the cause of his beloved Jews could not happen, for he had already died with Christ and possesses eternal life. Moses’ led a rebellious people out of Egypt, thwarting God’s wishes for them, following other gods rather than THE ETERNAL CREATOR. Moses also as Paul would give up his place with God for the salvation of his people. We see In Paul’s time many Jews in these Greek communities, shying away from the light of God, unwilling to take the Good News into their hearts. Many in Israel followed Jesus while He was on earth. They were astonished by the depth of Jesus’ words and the miracles He performed. However, Jesus assesses many of them as following him for the bread and fish He provides for them at times. For many of them, their temporal needs were primary in their lives. However, Jesus came not to feed them but to restore them to his Father by giving himself as the living bread on the cross. To have eternal life, they would have to drink of his blood and eat of his flesh. They would have to forsake their way of living and turn to Jesus as their Messiah with their whole mind, spirit and soul. They needed to know Jesus as their Messiah. For Jesus is the complete message of God to the world. “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) Turning to Jesus and repenting of their rebellion to God would expose them to the brilliant Light that Paul met on the road to Damascus. Paul knew this Light would lead them out of their blindness into eternal life with God. Through and IN JESUS, they would shed their hatred, lust, and Godlessness. Their destructive nature, their violence would turn to peace and love. God would be in their lives through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, known as being born-again.
The Jews of these Greek cities knew their God that they served as a God of love and mercy, yet they wanted to kill Barnabas and Paul, the messengers of Good News: God’s grace for all people. Jesus in the scene of a woman who was caught in the act of adultery portrays God’s mercy and love for all people. These men wanted to know what Jesus would do to her for the sentence of adultery is stoning. Jesus, knowing the law, should have pronounced the judgement of stoning on her. However, Jesus knew of himself that He was the completeness of all the law. He alone satisfies every requirement of the law. He also knew He would lay his life down for the sins of this woman. Knowing the sins of these men who also need forgiveness of their sins, he merely says, Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. (John 8:7) In the focus for this morning, we know these men who were chasing Barnabas and Paul from city to city also needed their sins to be forgiven. But their hearts were hardened against God’s mercy; they knew only the harness of the law. Therefore, they were harassing the disciples, not out of caring for the essence of the law, but out of their own discernment of the law. But the fulfillment of the law says something different. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40) Jesus is the fulfillment of the law; for as God is love, so is Jesus the Christ: He is love. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (John 4:16-18) The men pursuing Paul and Barnabas were very zealous. They feared that the disciples' teaching would distort Judaism and lead the people away from God. But the fulfillment of the rigidness of the law without God’s nature of love and mercy would destroy men, not bring them to God. Jesus could have said, go ahead and stone this sinful woman, destroy her for that is God’s desire for her. Instead, He avoids the sentence of death upon her sin and says to the men, if you have not a blot of sin on your life, stone her. Jesus did not come to destroy life, to condemn people of their sins and carry out the subsequent penalty of death. He came to deliver all humans out of the grasp of the devil. He came to bring freedom to all people from the darkness of Egypt. The truth of eternal life is in the hands of Jesus. By hearing his words and by being obedient to the words of Jesus, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32) The slavery in Egypt is gone; a new life is to be lived, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36) This is the message Paul preached from city to city. His love was so great for the people, he was willing to endure stoning so that some would be saved from the judgment of God. Darkness hates this message of freedom, so darkness chased after them from city to city. But the message to us today is still the same, no matter whether darkness is pressing upon us. God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12) We who are around this breakfast table rejoice in that Good News, let us be emblematic of that wonderful news of grace to the world. We need never walk in darkness, for the Light has come!
