Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: Lystra

  • Why worship legends, idols and false gods?

    Why worship legends, idols and false gods?

    Why worship legends or stone idols or false gods of mythology?

    Men, why are you doing these things?

    It’s a great question, isn’t it? Paul has asked adoring crowds who would worship him, WHY are you preparing a party to worship ME?

    In case you missed the parallels of first & 21st century application from our previous post from ACTS 14:
    The gods have become like men
    Statue of Hermes (who the crowds called Paul) in front of Grand Central Station NYC US

    Why are you treating men like God? Why do you worship legends of culture – idols of stone?

    Why do you believe the myths of what cannot possibly be true?

    These are great questions for the unenlightened masses, those with no thought of doing what is right in the eyes of God.

    Paul and Barnabas could have been worshiped like gods..

    (or Presidents.. or some football hero

    or a goddess-like media diva of the day

    i.e. Taylor Swift).

    The crowds wanted to party with these miracle-working men who made a lame man walk!

    Wow, our lesser gods could not have commanded a lame man to get up!

    The heavens declare the glory of God.
    The expanse shows his handiwork.
    Day after day they pour out speech,
    and night after night they display knowledge.

    Psalm 19:1-2 World English Bible

    Idols of Crowd frenzy – a contemporary context

    Paul and Barnabas stand up to the CROWD!

    NO EXCUSE for worshiping idols.

    NO EXCUSE for worshiping a mere man or mortal woman from our present or past.

    THEREFORE, PAUL PROCLAIMS:

    debate stage Trump, political idol of the extreme right and Biden, political idol of the extreme left.

    “We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways.

    Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

    Acts of the Apostles 14:15-17 WEB

    In essence, Paul and Barnabas tell the idol-worshipers of Lystra:

    Worship GOD and not idols of the sky and the earth and the sea.

    Do NOT worship the creation, but the Creator.

    Do NOT worship men claiming to save and heal, but only the Living God our Creator.

    Incited by all sides,

    Crowds Behave Badly

    u s capitol under siege Jan 6 2021

    It was a message as politically incorrect in first century culture as calling out false gods of our contentious 21st century culture.

    In fact (like today), these men having heard the Gospel hated Christ.

    So by their intentional blindness to Scripture they despised the Good News of Jesus Christ the Apostles persistently proclaimed in all the world.

    We cannot know for certain how long Paul and Barnabas remained in Lystra after these events, but because of their own agendas political leaders had outsiders ‘bused in’ to incite these idolatrous Lyconians, hoping to execute the messengers of grace through Christ.

    Is anything new under the sun? 
Evil men will continue to oppose Almighty God by their own means and to their own ends -- until the judgment.

    Acts 14:

    But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and after winning over the crowds and stoning Paul, they were dragging him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.

    Acts 14:19 Legacy Standard Bible

    What a turn of events!

    The Jews at one extreme opposing their own risen Messiah Jesus in order to cling to traditions set in place by Roman-appointed officials of the Herod’s go after Paul and Barnabas.

    And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

    Gospel of Matthew 15:14b LSB

    They convince these uneducated small-town Greek idolaters of the other extreme of religion who worship ALL of the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses to join in their Jewish custom of stoning men opposed to gods.

    PAUL SPEAKS AGAINST THEIR gods!

    So when they seize Paul, they punish him, wounding the Apostle of Christ to the gentiles before his Greek admirers of Lystra

    AND then the ignorant angry mob stones Paul to death (or so they thought victoriously at the end of this hatred outburst).

    Then they drag the tortured, battered and stone-beaten corpse of Paul out of the city gates of Lystra in victory of this justice of the Jews with the pagan worshipers of this city of Zeus.

    After the hate-feeding frenzy of the crowds is complete

    Luke then adds an amazing detail of the unexpected — yet another miracle.

    For it seems once again that the Lord has used Paul and Barnabas to convert some men and women of Lystra to become disciples of The Way of Jesus Christ.

    But while the disciples stood around him, he rose up and entered the city. 

    Luke records the Act of the Apostle Paul getting up after being stoned to death and walking back into the town of Lystra!

    A day after being stoned by the Jews and Pagans

     The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe.

    Acts 14:20b

    Paul had to have been hurting with all his abrasions and wounds from being beaten so mercilessly (possibly even whipped) and stoned to death (so it seemed to all).
    It is a journey of about sixty miles through the mountains from Lystra to Derbe.

    What next?

    The hundred kilometer journey [60 miles] of these disciples of The Way following Barnabas further into the Taurus Mountains, accompanied by a sorely-beaten Saul of Tarsus will take a little time as we continue just a bit further to Derbe on the two-year first missionary journey of Paul.

    To be continued...
  • The Lame Walk a Sign from God

    The Lame Walk a Sign from God

    A Sign of Faith in Capernaum

    ~A.D. 27 – Jesus in Galilee

    “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

    Gospel of Luke 5:43 LSB

    “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,”—He said to the paralytic—

    “I say to you, get up, and, picking up your stretcher, go home.”

    Good News of Luke 5:44

    Of course, a paralyzed man obeying Jesus’ command to ‘get up and walk’ is a miracle to the man who can now stand up and walk AND a sign of God to those who witness it!

    Who can say such a thing to one born handicapped?

    And immediately he rose up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. And astonishment seized them all and they began glorifying God; and they were filled with fear, saying,

    “We have seen remarkable things today.”

    But this was a sign to the Jews.

    Luke records [5:17]:

    And it happened that one day He was teaching; and there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing.

    After having healed others as well Jesus answered the Prophet John who had been baptizing in the wilderness of Judea with Good News sent by his messengers:

    “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. 

Blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.” - Gospel of Luke 7:22b-23, LSB

    But of course, these signs from the LORD God to the Jews were done by JESUS the Messiah.

    These signs for the Jews where witnessed in regions of Roman Syria AND that had been years ago.

    It’s about two decades later that Paul and Barnabas will enter Lystra.

    A.D. 30’s – The Apostle Peter

    We are Beggars in the House of God
    But when Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him, he said, “Look at us!” – Acts 3:4

    And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. And leaping up, he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.

    And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were recognizing him, that he was the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. – Acts of the Apostles 3:

    More recent signs from God

    Keep in mind that Luke's two-part account of these events is recorded for a Roman-Hellenist world after A.D. 60, 
+ some thirty years after Jesus' resurrection [~A.D. 30],
+ perhaps twenty-five years after Saul's encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus,
+ about seven years [~A.D. 40] after the Apostle Peter baptizes a Roman Centurion in Caesarea Syria.
    No Longer Paralyzed: Walking in Lydda
    And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Rise up and make your bed.” Immediately he rose up. – Acts 9:

    And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

    Acts of the Apostles 9:35 LSB
    The Gospel of an Angel to Cornelius
    Roman Caesarea [pictured] where Peter baptized Roman believers who received the Holy Spirit!

    And what had Peter heard from the angel of God?

    “Get up..”

    ἀνίστημι – anistēmi

    It’s a command of some significance — a command by faith also used by Peter and the Lord Jesus. And it is part of what the Apostle Paul is about to say to the lame man in Lystra.

    • to rise, stand up
      1. of persons lying down, of persons lying on the ground
      2. of persons seated
      3. of those who leave a place to go elsewhere [of those who prepare themselves for a journey]
      4. of the dead

    GOD’S signs have many witnesses among the gentiles by the time Barnabas and Saul enter Lystra.

    ~A.D. 48 –

    In Lystra The Lame Walk!

    Lystra and Derbe in the Taurus Mountains of Turkey

    Acts of Faith in Lystra 14:

    And at Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked.

    This man listened to Paul as he spoke, who, when he fixed his gaze on him and saw that he had faith to be [made well] said with a loud voice,

    “Stand upright on your feet.”

    Acts 14:10 of Paul commanding a lame man in Lystra

    And he leaped up and began to walk.

    And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language,

    “The gods have become like men and have come down to us.”

    Acts of the Apostles 14:11b – LSB

    In fact, these Lycaonian pagans were partially right.

    For the Gospel of Paul and Barnabas would reveal that the One God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ sent his only Son down to us for redemption of sins for those who have faith to believe — even pagan gentiles.

    “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins have been forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’?

    Gospel of Luke 5:43 LSB

    Acts of the Apostles in Lystra — To be continued…