A Heart for the Lost World

INTRODUCTION

What is the world’s biggest problem?

Is it climate change?

Is it Islamic extremism?

Is it the state of the global economy?

Is it world hunger?

Different people will give you different answers.

Those all might be important issues with different levels of urgency, but they tend to be focused solely on the temporal.

As believers in Christ, we know that life is more than food and the body is more than clothing.

People have souls and will give an account to God at the end of their days.

So with that in mind, I agree with what our International Mission Board says:

The greatest problem facing humankind is not a natural disaster, a humanitarian crisis, or political instability. The greatest problem in the world is lostness.

International Mission Board

CONTEXT

This morning, we see lostness on display in Acts 14.

We have Paul and Barnabas leaving the pressure of Iconium and heading 20 miles southwest to Lystra.

They continue to preach there, but as they do, they encounter a truly pagan people.

And when the Gospel collides with the paganism, it creates a dangerous situation that will see Paul left for dead.

But as we work through these verses, I want us to see:

God’s heart for the lost world (v. 8-11, 16)

The missionary’s heart for the lost world (v. 11-20)

Our heart for the lost world.

I believe God’s Word will be good to show us how we must respond to the spiritual state of the world around us if we are to reflect the heart of God and the heart of the missionaries in this passage.

Acts 14:8–20 ESV

Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had 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 crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “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 to the city, brought oxen and garlands 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 out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of 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 heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

GOD’S HEART FOR THE LOST WORLD

We start this morning with:

1. God’s heart for the lost world (v. 8-11, 16).

Paul and Barnabas come to Lystra and in the first few verses, we see God’s pity on this city.

First of all, we know this is a truly lost, pagan town from what Luke says in v. 11.

After the miraculous healing of this man who could not use his feet, the people lift up their voices in Lycaonian.

Greek had become the main language of Asia Minor since the time of Alexander the Great and his conquests a few hundred years before Christ, but there were some indigenous languages that still existed.

Here in Lystra, the local tongue is still used—showing that Paul and Barnabas are a long way from Jerusalem now.

That is where the Gospel movement began.

The Spirit falls on the disciples in Jerusalem at Pentecost and the Gospel moves outward from there.

It goes from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and then to the end of the earth.

Here in Lystra, where the people are lifting their voices in Lycaonian—not even Greek---it is definitely the end of the earth.

The Gospel is reaching the pagans.

God’s heart for this far off people is on evidenced by what He empowers Paul to do.

Paul is speaking (v. 9) and there is a man listening to him who was crippled from birth and had never walked. He had no use of his feet.

Paul looks at him intently and sees that he has the faith to be made well (v. 9)

As Paul is proclaiming a power that raised Christ from the dead, this man is thinking, “That same power could heal me. That same power could make me walk.”

So Paul looks directly at him and says with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet” (v. 10).

As he does, the man jumps up and starts walking, which gets the crowd very excited—a little too excited as we will see in a moment.

Now, we can see in verse 16 that there was a time in which God allowed the nations of the earth to walk in their own ways.

This refers to the time in which the nations lived in abject darkness.

Unless they came in contact with Israel, who had the Law and the Prophets, they had access to saving religion.

They lived in lostness.

One of the greatest evidences of their lostness was how they warred against Israel, the people of God.

In their spiritual darkness the Gentiles, with rare exceptions, did not bless or receive blessing through Abraham’s seed during the ages of promise. Rather, the benighted Gentile powers (Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, Babylonia, Medo-Persia, Hellenistic-Syria, Rome) oppressed the people of God, often violently.

Dennis Johnson

But if you look at the parallels between Acts 3 and this passage in Acts 14, we can see from the text that God is opening the way for the pagan Gentiles to know Christ.

Back in Acts 3, right after Pentecost, a miracle occurs that helps to open up the doors of the Jewish world for the Gospel to march through.

Acts 3:1–10 ESV

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Much like Acts 14, we have a man who is crippled from birth.

Much like Acts 14, we have two men doing apostolic work.

Much like Acts 14, Peter looks intently at the crippled man.

And much like Acts 14, after the lame man is healed, he leaps up and begins to walk.

In fact, the Greek words that describe the men leaping up in Acts 3:8 and Acts 14:10 respectively, are forms of the same word.

In Acts 3, the healing gives Peter and John the chance to preach the Gospel in Solomon’s Portico.

The door is open for the Gospel to be preached to the Jewish world

In Acts 14, the healing gives Paul and Barnabas the chance to teach the truth in the shadow of the temple of Zeus.

The door is open for the Gospel to be preached to the Gentile, pagan world

And what this demonstrates is that just as God had a heart for the perishing of Jews of Jerusalem, God has a heart for the perishing pagans of Lystra.

Just as He revealed Himself to the lost, Jewish world, He is revealing Himself to the lost, pagan world.

There was a time in which the nations were in darkness, but that time is no more.

Christ has died and resurrected.

This was a watershed moment in which Satan, the ancient Serpent, was thrown down and bound by the power of the victory of Christ.

Revelation 12:9 ESV

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Satan no longer has free rein to deceive the nations.

The light of the Gospel is spreading to every shore and saving a multitude.

As God saves His people, Jew and Gentile, from every people group, one by one—Satan can only vent his anger and frustration on the earth.

But while he vents, the Lord saves.

While Satan writhes in miserable defeat, the Lord builds His Kingdom and rescues pagans from the eternal punishment to come.

Would God have been just to leave the Gentile world in their sin?

Absolutely. He is not obligated to save anyone.

And yet, the very presence of these apostolic missionaries and His work through them shows that God takes pity on the pagan.

THE MISSIONARY’S HEART FOR THE LOST WORLD

So that is our first observation in the text today—God’s heart for the pagan world.

Now for our second...

2. The missionary’s heart for the lost world (v. 11-20).

Paul and Barnabas are the missionaries and you can see that they are dealing with a truly lost and spiritually ignorant context by the reaction of the Lycaonians to the healing.

They believe that the gods have come down to them in human form—in the likeness of men (v. 11).

Since Paul is doing the talking, they think he is Hermes—the messenger of Zeus

And by default, they think Barnabas is Zeus

THE LOCAL MYTH

Now, this doesn’t come from out of nowhere.

There was a local myth to the region that believed two local gods walked through the area as human beings.

No one noticed them or provided them with hospitality except for an older couple

They blessed their older couple by making them priests in the temple of Zeus and then eventually turning them into sacred trees, while inflicting judgment on all the people who ignored them

With this being a local legend, the people would have been eager to not miss it if indeed there were a couple of gods in town.

They wouldn’t want to make the same mistake as those people supposedly did years and years before.

Therefore, after seeing the healing of the man, they are ready to crown Paul and Barnabas as divine and shower them with worship.

PAUL’S MESSAGE OF NATURAL REVELATION

And yet, we see the heart that Paul has for this group of people in how he responds.

The priest of Zeus comes with oxen and garlands in order perform ritual sacrifice (v. 13)

He is ready to offer up worship to Barnabas and Paul and to lead the rest of the crowd to do the same.

The fact that the bull ox is brought in shows how serious things are. The bull was the noblest animal you could sacrifice to a Greek god.

They are pulling out all the stops here in this effort to revere the missionaries.

The garlands were for Paul and Barnabas. They would wear them on their heads in a ceremonial procession to the temple of Zeus, where the bull oxen would be sacrificed.

Afterward, there would be a large meal to commemorate the moment.

But Paul and Barnabas won’t allow this to happen. They tear their cloaks to express their grief over the moment (v. 14) and they rush into the crowd and begin to reason with the people in verses 15-17.

They tell them that they just humans like the rest of them, not worthy of worship (v. 15)

They tell them that they bring them good news of the living God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them (v. 15)

They tell them that there was a time in which the nations were indeed left in darkness (v. 16)

And yet, even in that darkness, people were without excuse because God revealed Himself through the gifts of rain, fruitful seasons, food and gladness (v. 17)

In truth, Paul’s message is one of natural revelation.

God has two books.

The book of Natural Revelation

The book of Special Revelation

Everyone has access to the first book and everyone is without excuse before God because of the first book.

Romans 1:18–20 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

This is the argument Paul is making in v. 17.

Everyone knows God exists because His eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived in the things that have been made.

The rain. The fruitful seasons. The food. The gladness that comes from it all.

It is very similar to the argument we will see Paul make in Athens in Acts 17:22-27

Acts 17:22–27 ESV

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

In Romans 1, Paul tells us that people have rejected this natural revelation and they exchange the Creator for creation in terms of their worship.

Romans 1:21–23 ESV

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

This is the great, fatal mistake of the lost world.

It is certainly the mistake of the people in Lystra.

Zeus is an image resembling mortal man and yet, they are ready to bow down and offer sacrifices and worship.

It is classic, anti-God idolatry.

Now, I want to be clear—natural revelation is good to reveal the existence of God to us, but it is not able to reveal the saving plan of God.

This is why God has revealed Himself to us in His Word and in His Son, Jesus Christ.

He does not desire that we would simply know He exists, but that we would know Him.

We can only know Him through Jesus.

Special revelation reveals the glory of Jesus.

But even though saving knowledge cannot be gleaned from natural revelation, it is still crucial as we preach the Gospel to the world.

Natural revelation walks up to the pagan or the Atheist and it kicks their shield out from under them.

They are left exposed by the truth of God’s existence.

Once they are exposed, we use the sword of special revelation to pierce their hearts and we preach Christ to them.

Going back to Acts 17, we see Paul doing that there:

Acts 17:29–31 ESV

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

He starts with natural revelation, then he begins to move to special revelation.

REACTION OF THE CROWD (v. 18-20)

Paul is on his way to doing that here in Lystra, as well. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get very far.

On one hand, he doesn’t get very far because the people still want to offer sacrifices to them.

They are obstinate and worked up into a religious frenzy and are determined to carry out this act of idolatry.

Furthermore, things get even stickier when the Jews from Antioch and Iconium show up.

We don’t know how much time passes between the incident with the healing and the attempt on Paul’s life, but what we do know is that these Jewish conspirators show up and persuade the people of the city that Paul is indeed not worthy of worship.

Instead, he is worthy of death.

So he is dragged out of the city and stoned and left for dead (v. 19).

The disciples find him and then he goes back into the city and leaves with Barnabas for Derbe the next day.

He may have been miraculously healed and that is how he is able to stand up and go back into the city, or he is simply assisted by the disciples.

HEART FOR THE LOST

Regardless, Paul’s heart for the lost world is undeniable.

He heals in their midst.

He tries to keep them from idolatrous sin.

He preaches the truth about God to them.

And then, he suffers for the sake of them hearing the Gospel.

And not only does he suffer, but he goes right along to Derbe in order to continue preaching the Gospel and making disciples in a pagan land.

We shouldn’t be surprised at the Apostle to the Gentiles love the lost, but we also shouldn’t gloss over it.

We should take note of what he says in Romans 1:14

Romans 1:14 ESV

I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

Whether it was a cultured Greek or a Barbarian who was uneducated, Paul saw himself as being under obligation to take the Gospel to the Gentile world.

Why? Because God called him to do it and because he desires to see the obedience of faith in the pagans for sake of Christ’s name.

Romans 1:1–5 ESV

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,

This was Paul’s heart for the lost world. This was the missionary heart that he and Barnabas had for Lystra.

If you had asked him, “Paul—why do you travel over land and sea to go to these cities? Paul—why do you risk life and limb? Paul—why try to reason with a crowd of Zeus worshippers?”

He would say, “I want to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations.”

OUR HEART FOR THE LOST WORLD

So we have seen God’s heart for the lost world.

He takes pity on the spiritually dead

We have seen the missionary heart for the lost world.

“Bringing about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all nations.”

But what about us?

What about our hearts?

3. Our heart for the lost world.

THE HEART WE SHOULD HAVE

Do our hearts reflect the heart of God and the heart of Paul when it comes to the lost?

If they do, then they must be marked by three things.

Compassion

Communication

Conviction

We see all three in this text.

COMPASSION

First of all, we must have compassion for the lost.

God’s compassion is on full display in this passage.

He has sent Paul and Barnabas to them to preach the Good News.

More than that, He is working signs and wonders before them to attest to the truth of that message.

He is revealing Himself to these lost, pagan polytheists.

Do they deserve this sort of grace? Not at all.

They are rebellious and idolatrous to their core.

But it pleases Him to reveal Himself to this Gentile city because God is rich in merciful and filled grace. He abounds in patient, enduring, loyal love and He is slow to anger.

Psalm 86:15 ESV

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

This is the disposition of God that lies behind His great saving purposes where He redeems people through His Son.

This salvation in Christ is a revealing light to the Gentile world from the compassionate God of all.

As Simeon says in Luke 2:

Luke 2:30–32 ESV

for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.”

We should look on the lost with the same sort of compassion and act on it.

The question is—how?

How do we muster compassion?

How do we act on compassion?

Let’s start with actually having compassion.

How do you remain compassionate toward the lost?

Not just when you are at church hearing a sermon or on a mission trip.

How do you remain compassionate toward the lost on a Monday afternoon when you are feeling very selfish and you just want to get home and not talk to anyone until Tuesday?

The answer lies in remembering your own state before God prior to knowing Christ.

You were just like the lost people that surround you in this world.

Colossians 3:5–7 ESV

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.

In these you too once walked...

1 Corinthians 6:10–11 ESV

nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

And such were some of you...

But at some point, someone pitied the state of your soul enough to tell you the truth about God.

Maybe it was your parents

Maybe it was a Sunday School teacher

Maybe it was a friend or a bald preacher

But someone told you…compassionately, they told you.

And so we must tell others.

We must look on them with the same compassion that God looked on you with—the same compassion other Christians looked on you with—and tell them of the saving power of Christ.

That is the how—in terms of keeping compassion stirred up in us.

But how do we actually show compassion?

God’s compassion is a compassion that reveals itself in servanthood.

Donald McNeill

When God sent His Son, he sent Him as a servant.

Matthew 20:27–28 ESV

and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Therefore, if we are to reflect the compassion of God in our actions toward the lost, one of the best things we can do is to serve them.

Put yourself last. Put a lost person first.

This sort of selfless love in action demonstrates the heart of God to the perishing.

COMMUNICATION

So we have compassion for the lost. Secondly, we must have communication with the lost.

We have to talk to them.

And we have to talk to them where they are at.

In this passage, we saw Paul address the people and teach them about natural revelation.

Having seen them attempt to worship him and Barnabas as Hermes and Zeus, Paul knew that this was a people who were not ready for special revelation.

He knew that before he could speak about Christ and the Cross any more, he needed to lay the groundwork of some good old-fashioned monotheism.

As he stood before this truly pagan people, he had to start with “There is one living God. He made everything,” before he could talk about how God came to us in a Person.

We have lost people all around us.

Some of us live with little lost people.

Some of us have lost people in our family.

Some of us have close friends that are lost

You work beside them, you work out beside them, you coach beside them…There are lost people all around

Some of them have a Christian background and are ready to have a philosophical conversation about God and the problem of evil

Some of them are ready for nothing but the basics of the Gospel

God created

Humans messed it up

God sent Christ

Humans must respond

Sometimes the way we communicate is dictated by age. Sometimes it is dictated by a person’s background. Sometimes it is dictated by familiarity.

But regardless, we must be ready to communicate the Gospel to whoever God calls us to and we must be ready to do it in such a way that they can understand.

CONVICTION

And then finally, we have conviction. We must have conviction regarding the lost.

And by conviction, I mean, a firmly held belief or opinion.

We must have a firm belief regarding lost people. We must have conviction.

A) That God has a purpose to save

B) That God has purposed us to tell

C) That God loves to bring these purposes together, using His feeble servants to lead people to eternal salvation in Christ.

We have to believe that our feet are truly adorned and beautiful, if we come bearing the Good News of the Gospel.

And we have to believe that God will use those beautiful feet in a powerful way.

And this conviction, which sounds incredibly optimistic, isn’t simply for optimism in and of itself.

It’s not just some positive, right thinking as we head into the evangelistic fray.

It is actually a rock solid faith that is needed to endure the suffering that often comes along with the faithful, compassionate communication.

This text ends with Paul being left for dead. Brutally stoned.

In a couple of weeks, when we pick it up again, Paul will come back through the area and tell the young believers who have been converted that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

This does not sound like “God has a wonderful plan for your life...”

And if you are going to endure this sort of suffering, you have conviction.

You must believe that God desires to save

You must believe that He desires to use people like you to spread His Gospel

And you must believe He will do it

If you are convicted about these things, any level of suffering just becomes the thing you must deal with in order for there to be the “obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all nations.”

CONCLUSION

So do you agree with the International Mission Board?

Is lostness the world’s biggest problem?

Well, when we consider what is at stake, what else could be the answer?

In light of this, we should have the sort of compassion for the lost that would cause us to tear our cloaks in grief over their idolatry.

We should communicate the Gospel to them as clearly as we can, as often as we can.

And we should approach the pagan world with unmovable conviction.

Only then will we have the proper heart toward the spiritually bankrupt.

And it is a heart we must gain, if we are to remain faithful to the task of carrying the Gospel to the world.