The Dangers of Coddled Christianity ~ Acts 14

[Music] Acts chapter 14 Acts chapter 14 it's evident if you've been with us over the last few weeks that we're trekking now in the journey of Paul and Barnabas was first missionary travel there their first missionary exploit as they're sent out by the church in Antioch of Syria to go and proclaim the Gospel as as Paul will save himself in the book of Romans he will say I have a compulsion to preach the name of Jesus where he has not yet been known and so Paul is now launched out and his is already tricked through a a bunch of different provinces and in different areas and and he has had incredible success great fruit the Gospel as has born its fruit and change lives and save souls and now we arrive at chapter 14 and we are we are remarkably incredibly in tune with this fact that where the gospel goes it doesn't just convert and save and encourage and solidify truth and bring change to life it also brings great opposition in fact when we arrive at chapter 14 verse 1 we are here at Iconium to start because at the last verses of chapter 13 Paul and Barnabas are shaking the dust off their clothes and off their shoes in judgment against people who refuse to you the Word of God and rejected the great message of the gospel chapter 14 for those New Testament scholars here in the room and I know two-thirds of you are chapter 14 we now arrive the ministry in the province of Galatia and that matters because Paul will actually write a letter to the church at to the Galatians and that appears in the New Testament of course as well so now this is like verse a chapter 14 is kind of the intro to the book of Galatians in your New Testament we'll find out as we read this chapter what the Lord God sought to do in this province of the Roman Empire verse 1 of chapter 14 let's read it together now what i tony 'm they together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed that's one of my most favorite verses in the whole New Testament I'm supposed to read it not supposed to stop and talk about it but verse one is just so they spoke in such a way that a great number believed as a preacher that is like a highlight verse for anyone whether you're in ministry you preach the gospel or you believe God's calling you and your training and preparing and resourcing chapter 14 verse one is compelling they spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed but the unbelieving Jews stood up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers so they remain 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 mistreat them and to stoned them they learned of it and fled to lystra and derbe cities of Laconia and to the surrounding country and there they continued to preach the gospel per se now at Lystra there is a man sitting who could not use his feet it was crippled from birth and it never walked 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 began walking and when the crowd saw what Paul had done they lifted their voices saying in laconian 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 of the city were oxen and Garland's to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds but when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it they tore their garments and rushed into the crowd crying out men why are you doing these things we also are men 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 all nations to walk in their own ways yet he did not leave himself without a witness for he did good by giving you reigns from heaven and fruitful season satisfying your hearts with food and gladness even with these words scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them but Jews came from Antioch and and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned Paul dragged him out of the city supposing that he was dead when the disciples gathered about him he rose up and entered the city and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby when they had reached when they had preached the gospel through that City and had made many disciples they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch strengthening the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God when they had appointed elders for them at every Church with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed then they passed through Presidio and came to Pamphylia and when they had spoken the word in Peugeot they went down to italia and from there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled and when they arrived and gathered the church together they declared all that God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles and they remained no small time with the disciples may God bless the reading of his own precious glorious infallible word what an incredible story and this is this chapter takes us now to the end of Paul and Barnabas this first missionary journey and we have seen the fruit we've seen the miracles the churches that seem to spring up in every town and province and city that the Apostles would go and preach the great news of Christ and also in this chapter what comes to the for other great persecutions that the fierce antipathy that that Satan and his kingdom of darkness has for not only the gospel itself but more specifically and more keenly for those who proclaim without hesitation without fear without hindrance those who preach this gospel to the salvation of souls and so we see it right now in this text Paul and Barnabas arrived in these various cities of the province of Galatia and preached Christ in everywhere they go a church is planted and then on their way back through they appoint elders through prayer and fasting they establish local communities in the gospel of God's dear son and they go back to Antioch and they say you guys won't believe what we've experienced and the disciples area I would say Paul what happened to your face I was stoned no big deal let's take a look at this sequence of narratives and events through the prism and in light of Colossians chapter 1 24 to 26 let me read this for you Colossians 1 this is Paul the Apostle writing of course of the church at Colossae he said this now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I'm filling up where he's lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the Word of God fully known to make the Word of God fully known in this mystery that's been hidden for ages which is Christ in you the hope of glory this is this is Paul's entire philosophy in fact that the British preacher at the turn of the turn of the 19th century into the 20th said DS his name was John Henry Jovi he said I once saw the track of a bleeding hare across the snow he said this was indeed Paul's track across Europe a bleeding hair scampering across the white pure freshly Laden snow and the hair screams across injured and bleeding and leaves a trail of blood this is Paul and his first missionary journey he arrives back at Antioch a man who looks nothing like what he did when he left he says I rejoice in these sufferings in my in my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in the infliction of Christ now of course we we even Jellico's we conservative in and reform we we we perhaps balking at a little thing well the afflictions of Christ aren't lacking anything Paul and indeed that's true when it comes to justification and the finished work of Christ as a redemption and a ransom for our sins but as Paul specifies very clearly what the afflictions of Christ have last is their delivery to the unsaved world so that they might hear believe and be saved in fact it was to them so the church in Galatia it was in fact as a church in Galatia that Paul said this Galatians 6 verse 17 this is this entire chapter 14 is essentially in the province of Galatia where these churches are that Paul labored and spilt his blood to plant any repairs to the Church of the Galatians he said this from now on let no one cause me trouble for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus I bet I have the scars I have to have the broken bones of the dislocated joints I had the irreparable damage from a fierce lethal stoning I bear those marks in my body so let no one disturb me I have proven that for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for its proclamation among the Gentiles and unbelievers I have earned my stripes says this great and glorious work could be a possible we go back to chapter 14 and we retrace this incredible journey this incredible narrative together of course Paul is first and Iconium he preaches in the synagogue that's that's the pattern of Paul and Barnabas they they go into a new territory in your region and they find the synagogue and then as that as the Jewish Sabbath day rolls around Saturday morning the Sun begins to rise they find themselves in the synagogue and they they preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and what has been what has been compelling for us as we've traced this journey is that in synagogue the reaction is intense immediate and incredibly incredibly antithetical you've either got people who believe and who love the Apostle Paul and Barnabus saying they want to hear more they want to learn more they want to grow in the knowledge of this gospel and then you've got then you've got other Jews who are incredibly envious at the gospel and the success Paul is having a name and they are filled with rage and jealousy and hate and it's no different at Iconium many in fact it says a great number of both Jews and Greeks believe but first to the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds but the Apostles stayed there for a significant period of time and the Lord was pleased by his spirit to grant power at the gospel Proclamation such that many signs and wonders were performed and many souls were come and brought into the faith it says the people were divided and an attempt was made an attempt was made by the by the enemies of the gospel the enemies of Paul to stone him but they learned of it and they traveled to lystra and derbe the cities of Laconia and the surrounding countries and they continued to preach the gospel I love this we're going to we're going to see this it's almost like Luke is intentionally escalating the drama because you remember when we studied this last week in chapter 13 Paul and Barnabas came very close to losing their life they came very close to being torn to shreds and persecuted and beaten to to a state of to a state of non recovery and now we find that they hear of a plot to stone them and they scape to Lystra and now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use it for me and Paul's preaching and as Paul is preaching he sees this man has faith to be healed so he command this man he he speaks this man in looking intently he says in a loud voice stand upright on your feet and the man stood and he was healed and the people began to scream the gods have come down to us what a what a polar polarizing reaction we see here the gods have come and the reason why the most commentators will agree that what's happening in this particular in this particular province in this state is this there's actually a legend there's something other of a well-known prominent myth in this town in a city and the legend is that many centuries earlier no one quite knows how to date this legend but but many centuries earlier two of the of the Roman gods came down to visit in human form Jupiter and Mercury and having come down to Lystra they they walked through and they they were travelers and and they were pilgrims and no one opened up their home no one gave them food no one looked after them gave them washings and clean clothes nobody was hospitable as the legend goes and so these these two guys who are walking to the place in in human form fine to err to elderly people living in a tiny little patch two incredibly impoverished little hut on the edge of the town and they welcome the gods in and they they say come and say with us work will feed you we'll take care of it you can say as long as you you like we want to be hospitable and and we want to share with you the very little that we have and then these two men as the legend goes reveal themselves to be in faster the Roman gods of of Jupiter and Mercury and they sent and incredibly deadly flood to the whole region and the only the only house that remain standing was this little that that's the legend that's the myth well you can see that the people of Lystra are not going to let this happen again according to their think here comes Paul and comes Barnabas and and there's a lay man that everybody knows this man's lame he's never walked his whole life and he's there and he's listening to the gospel and Paul observes faith Paul observes that this man embraces the message he believes in a resurrected Savior Jesus Christ and so Paul says rise up and walk and he does and the town lifts in a fury of religious devotion that at its core is demonic they start speaking their own language Paula - don't know like Honam they using that the lingua franca they're using the common Greek or we call it Koine Greek which is just Greek for common Greek and they didn't realize that these people were starting to gather the whole town together in the middle and and the priests from the temple coming in with balls and animals to sacrifice and build an altar to these two men until they finally realize what was happening they they shredded their garments and screamed out how can you do this how can we've come to tell you to abandon these foolish idolatrous rituals it says verse 14 when apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it they tore their garments and rushed in the crowd crying up men why are you doing these things we are men like you we bring good news that you should turn from these vain things to a Living God who made heaven and earth and seeing all that is in them in past generations Paul goes on to say the Lord allowed nations to walk in their own ways but he did not leave himself without a witness he gave he gave rains he gave fruitful seasons he gave gladness and rejoicing of the heart God has given common grace and a general revelation to all humanity that he is good he is glorious he's eternal and he is Almighty every human being can deduce this from the world around them such as the core of Paul's message he starts and noticed this notice how different this sermon is from what we already experienced the book of Acts when sermons are preached in synagogues to a Jewish audience who already embraced the Bible Paul hits the rewind button and goes all the way back here are here are the people of Lystra who who see this miracle worked by paul and barnabas predominately paul is the chief speaker so he's called Hermes and embalmers is called Zeus and and now they want to celebrate and worship and Paul says we're just humans like you and and note the message of the people of Lystra know what they said they said the gods have come down to us in a form like ours that's what they say it's what the gods have come down first eleven the likeness of man and the likeness of men note this note this carefully this morning how often heresy damnable demonic idolatrous heresy always comes so very close to the truth as Paul comes in and Paul and Barnabas K&A comments and they try and restrain the crowd the text will tell us they barely were able to restrain the crowd from sacrificing to them pause messages that is that friends of Lystra here and here well the good news is better than what you've imagined the good news if only the people of Istra that day would listen to the good news the good news isn't that some some mythical some some demigod of Rome or Greece's come down in human form to perform a petit miracle that's not the good news mr. ah and I want to tell you today that's not the good news for us either that might be exciting I might be truly that might make for a good afternoon but that is not the good news of the gospel the good news of the gospel is that God has done infinitely more than that that God has in fact come down to us not in the likeness of man but as a man in our form in our nature Paul Paul restrains the crowd by by telling them we are men of light nature to you and the great news of the gospel is that though you and I everyone in this room and everyone listening to my voice although we have become corrupted by our sin and our rebellion and though our lives have have gone wayward away from the Lord and His plan for us this is the reality of the gospel that God did not come down as some demigod to perform some petit miracle he came as Jesus Christ God in flesh to take our sins upon himself and to die upon a cross so that all who believes in him will be saved but difference will start difference these messages what's compelling not only alive strung not only like own iam not only at Derby not only Pamphylia everywhere else the Paul goes in this journey what's compelling is that Paul environments had just written the wave of popularity and that is written away with momentum here I shouldn't be shouldn't be sacrificing a ball for us but it's a nice gesture we'll just sit by and we'll wait till the fervor rings true and then we'll on the top of that will will preach Jesus as as so many modern and compromised preachers and ministers might have done in that scenario Paul restrains Paul says this is the good news he could have won the whole town with one small compromise the whole city was embroiled in this wave of intense fervour that the gods have come down and Paul says do you not do for God is greater and better or powerful or present all-knowing in past generations he may have allowed people to walk this way but he left you with a witness and that witness is that God is good his love is unfailing and his faithfulness knows no end and to save rebels like you and I to save sinners like us he didn't send an angel he didn't send a prophet he didn't send a program a ministry he sent his own dear son Jesus Christ who came in our form in our flesh in our very nature like unto us in every way except sin and he died well Paul's managed to restrain the crowd they're on the brink of worshipping Him they're on the on the brink of sacrificing and performing idolatry and Jews from Antioch and Iconium having persuaded the crowds they they came down to Lystra these Jews are our tracking they're following this apostle this this preacher they're following in they come down they come down the LifeStraw this is how sickle the crowd leaves one moment they're going to carve up the best of their animals and believe them out in worship of Paul or Barnabas and the very next verse because some Jews came down from Antioch of Pisidia and came down from Iconium and started to tell the clay these guys are bad news these guys are heretics these guys are a wicked and and they're their miracles and their actions are demonic and it tells us right here very clearly a persuaded the crowd they stoned Paul dragon out of the city show you how they show you how imminent this danger was very rarely very rarely New Testament times will you find a story of someone who is executed let alone stoned inside of a city they often will drag you out of the city and then execute you therefore for various reasons political cleanliness hygiene there's a whole bunch of reasons why also because of anonymity but these guys are so embroiled in the fervor now that went from love adulation worship to hate to poison hate they grabbed Paul and just pounding with stones until they are convinced he is dead and most commentators will tell you on this text that Paul very likely is either on the brink or very close to God they dragged him out they dragged his body out just leave him out somewhere in the wilderness he's done that problem is over it's finished the text tells us that that then the brothers the disciples who absolute even know where they are probably hiding if they're smart and wise they're probably hidden away somewhere and they come out and they stand around Paul and probably by standing around Paul it seems they're praying there they're weeping there they're mourning and they're praying God give us back this apostle give us back this apostle by all by all indications he has died and the text tells us that Paul suddenly regained consciousness it says it says verse 20 but when the disciples gathered around him he rose up and into the city and the next day he went with Barnabas and derbe when we Barnabas to Derby it's so striking to me I don't know I don't know about you I can just speak for me this one I can say that if I go to a city if I preach Jesus they reject me and stone me to the point of believing I was dead and I come to I'm not welcome back in that city I can find another city I'm not going back but notice exactly what it says he he he's revived no doubt miraculously there's there's no doubt revived to such an extent he goes back in a city and the very next day he walks to Derby which is dozens of miles away it's incredibly miraculous preach the gospel made many disciples then returned verse 20 where he would then do back to the city where they try to kill him this indefatigable this zealous this passion of Paul as he says he writes the Romans that I can confirm he said by my own eyewitness I can confirm that the gospel has been preached from Jerusalem all the way around about to I lirik them and if the Lord should spare my life I will go even to Spain to preach Christ where he has not been named I fill up in my body in my sufferings what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ notice if we are pursuing comfort we are pursuing a life of luxury we are we are pursuing to be preserved on account of missing gospel opportunity missing missional opportunity if we are preferring our own padding of our own comfort in our own life over the extent of the gospel of Jesus Christ then the new testament has this for us to say that we are not living with the kingdom first in our life jesus said it so clear that we we should seek first the kingdom and everything else got to add everything else God will do everything else will be God's responsibility in your life you don't have to worry about what your we're about what kind of house you live in about your food to eat the father has promised of his own words and his own faithfulness to take care of these things your concern is to pursue the extension of the kingdom of God and this is how it looks like so Paul goes back with Barnabas through the cities through Lystra Iconium and any of all the places where he barely escapes with his life he goes back he strengthens the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying note this carefully verse 22 this is this is really our a pinnacle verse of today's message note this carefully verse 22 so what Paul says to the disciples it goes back because he loves the Brethren he goes back to the churches of Galatia and and these other churches as ministered to and he says this through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God you show me Western Christians today that live like that show me a Western judge today then I know it's unfair for me to exclude some geographically Western over Eastern or not I know but I feel like I at least have more authority to speak to the Western Church because kind of Western where where are what would it feel like if Paul walked into this morning so Craig just five minutes if you don't mind got something very important to say listen guys through much tribulation through much tribulation you must enter the kingdom of God how many of us would hear Paul say that look at our life and say I'm my life's actually pretty good what what's he talking I know he suffered but he's an apostle right he he he's an apostle Jesus the e writes he writes scripture he's he's special he's unique I don't have to live like Paul and have to be like Paul and to emulate Paul I don't have to imitate Paul how many of us would hear Paul coming and literally say that to us as a church grounded upon Scripture Christ exalting gospel preaching and Paul would come and say you need to know this above all else that's through many tribulations you will enter the kingdom of God and some of us would think you know what I had had a sore throat this week I'm struggling with headaches lately what would what would it mean for our life your life the life of this church to rise to such a degree of Great Commission engagement of missionary endeavor of Christ exalting gospel proclaiming in our neighborhood in our city in our state in our nation and to the nations of the world where Paul could come and say no there's that to enter and in entering the kingdom of God you've got to go through a lot of tribulation and all I say yeah that's that's perfectly correct yes we do we know it we bear in our body the scars the marks the stripes of our Lord Jesus Christ I think this is a challenge for us I believe this is a challenge for us in our coddled Christianity if we're honest and I don't know if we want to be honest today but if we're honest we perhaps pursue comfort over gospel conflict we're honest we we print we we pursue to be to be welcomed in the world and embraced in the world and and to our shame sometimes we even call that mission and in doing that we enter compromise Charles Spurgeon had this great quote I read it even just very recently Charles Spurgeon said there's the devil he's done with raging and roaring against the church now he's cuddling it now he's embracing it making it feel welcome in his systems his philosophy the elemental principles of the world as a favorite phrase from Paul he uses it in Colossians of course the elemental principles of the world the philosophy of a broken and a dark and a despondent in a hell bound world has nfident infiltrated in the church such that his people came in and said to you and me today that we must learn this through many tribulations we enter the kingdom of God there is very little in that that reflects our day to day life and that's the challenge it was true of this apostle was true of these believers and it was true and must be true of us today of course the story rounds out Paul and Barnabas end up sailing back to where they come from Antioch of Syria they begin to recount the great stories the great victories the gospel triumphs but there is a storm on the horizon know this but after Paul had gone through Galatia and preached the incredible message that salvation salvation is received by grace through faith alone not only count of anything we do we don't buy it we don't achieve it we don't earn it we receive it as the free gift of God on account of the work of Jesus Christ he has been killed for our sins his blood spilt as a ransom he has been buried and entombed in the sepulchre and on the third day he rose this message Paul preached everywhere he went this message he preached and following closely in his footsteps well not only that not only the despising and the hating Jews who had ill intent toward Paul Amato mistake they wanted to kill him the closely followed behind them was another group of people that we will come to learn next week in chapter 15 as the Judaizers the very people that prompt Paul in fact if we if we come here at the very last verse of this text and will close out here it says in verse 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch where they've been commended to the grace of God verse 27 they arrived and gathered the church and declared all that God had done with them and had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles and they remain no middle time for Barnabas stated Antioch for an elongated period of time and from Antioch Paul has to write a gripping compelling challenging confronting epistle back to the churches in Galatia to ask them who has bewitched you who has bewitched you I preached to you that salvation was by grace through faith in Christ alone and now someone has come so I'm going to seem like they they knew what they're talking someone who seemed like they knew what they was saying you knew their theology knew their Bible came and they they convinced you to spurn so quickly from the grace of God an embrace law and render yourself in a place of great destitution and make shipwreck of your faith we arrive at the end of chapter 14 making a very swift swift and hurried gaze hurried gate for the jerusalem council in acts 15 let's go to the Lord and ask him to bless that time together around his word father we come before you this morning well we thank you so much for this incredibly precious gospel of Jesus Christ all of us father we come as beggars we don't come as wealthy we don't come as perfect with our come as good boys and girls and and greatly obedient children father we come as rebels and the great news of the gospel father is that you sent your son Jesus Christ we came to this world to live sin free for ours and to die upon the cross for us and for our sins now in his burial and in his resurrection he obtains for us eternal life abundant life glorious life a life of no fear a life of no trepidation about punishment a life where we are made righteous in Christ on the kind of our faith but yet father we know he purchased that life for us a life of great tribulation a life of great sacrifice father I pray that in our life we would begin to rethink our categories of consecration and our bondservants our bond service to the Lord Jesus Christ I pray father swing there any here who are yet to embrace Jesus as their Savior but they would in fact today hear this great news that they can be saved no matter what they've done no matter who they've been in the past that you God will accept us all of us any of us only on account of Jesus Christ that any who come and believe in his name who believed in his resurrection who confess him as their Lord and Savior they will be saved I pray right now Lord God that hearts that came in here heavy laden and burdened with sin might now feel the lifting of grace that by their faith in Jesus they can be made whole Father in Jesus name we pray for the rest of us may we may we truly imbibe the the teaching he says we Paul himself wrote imitate me as I imitate Christ may we look at Paul as a great exemplar of a life lived on mission let us not let's not create false categories of some are missionaries and some are not other we know the New Testament has no will as no permission for this but that we all live in obedience to the Great Commission and let we suffer with grace whatever you will in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Hope Reformed Baptist Church

Views: 2,261

Rating: 4.7714286 out of 5

Keywords: HC, HRBC, Hope Church, Hope Reformed Baptist Church, Jesus, Christ, God, Preaching, Acts, Acts 14, Christianity, Gospel, Faithful, Paul, Apostle, Suffering

Id: TKIMk_igG2c

Length: 34min 52sec (2092 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 01 2017