Sacrificing To Stoning

  

DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

SACRIFICING TO STONING

Acts 14:14-20

14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15 "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. 16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way. 17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." 18 Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. 19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20 But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

NIV

These people in Lystra may have never seen a miracle. We know there were Jews in Iconium because we are told Paul and Barnabas upon entering the city went to the synagogue. However, we are not told about going into the synagogue when they entered Lystra, but only about the lame man being healed instantly. Are we to assume there were no Jews in Lystra? Could it have been a city of Gentiles only? We are thinking that because they made Paul and Barnabas into gods, no Jews were part of this. The Jews would have the knowledge of the Almighty God and know the history of his mighty works in their forefather's exodus from Egypt. But because of one or two miracles in Lystra, the people saw them as gods. Even after explaining the good news about God and Jesus, they still could not see them as men. Paul made it clear to them that even though they were not the chosen people like Israel is, God did not leave them penniless or without his giving people a testimony in order to know Him. He pours rain on the just and unjust alike. He causes seeds to grow for the just and the unjust alike showing kindness to all. This testimony of his universal kindness to the whole of his creation, all mankind is comminated in sending Jesus to die for their sins. Jesus did this for the whole of mankind, but everyone must come to the truth through faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Still, they wanted to sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, seeing is believing and they saw them do mighty signs and wonders. Believing in what can be seen does not require faith. However, here comes the Jews from Antioch and Iconium with their brand of whatever religious truths they believe, stirring up trouble. We are not told exactly what they said, but they were able to turn the crowd against Paul and Barnabas so much they wanted to stone them now instead of sacrificing to them. How fickle people can be. However, on the other hand, they simply could be like the seed that fell on rocky soil, having no roots, so when the sun came it wither, or like seed by the path when the birds came, they ate it. The point is they had seen miracles, a man lame from birth jumping up and walking, but when other men came and had just words, they believed them instead. Silver-tongued men use words that can tickle the ears of people and turn them from the truth toward some perversion of truth. This could be an example of being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. This does serve as a great lesson for us to grab hold of. There are plenty of voices in this world today, many of them spewing out their own brand of Christianity, with the prosperity message being one of the forefront doctrines. However, there are also many voices that make their brand of truth sound so right, although it is wrong. Therefore, the Lord sent us the Spirit so that we would have his gift of discernment to know the difference between the truth and non-truth or pseudo truth. Because we live in Christ and the Spirit dwells within, we need to keep in step with the Spirit and test everything we hear, and the Spirit will reveal or separate the truth from fiction. There are many with marvelous sounding words, and we must be careful not to see them as a little god, in some sense. This is why God established the local shepherd who knows his congregation and they know his voice. However, we still need to be careful not to place any shepherd above the Great Shephard, Jesus. No pedestals for men, no praise, and sacrificing to men for God is the only one worthy of both. With men, it is too easy to go from sacrificing to stoning, but with God, there can only be praise and honor.