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:
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.
Psalm 19:1-2 World English Bible
The expanse shows his handiwork.
Day after day they pour out speech,
and night after night they display knowledge.
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:
“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
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).
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...
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