The God of Creation Acts 14:8-18

Introduction

Last week we looked at Paul and Barnabas in Iconium, where they preached the Gospel with boldness and ended up getting threatened to be stoned so they fled the city and headed to Lystra and Derbe and continued to preach the Gospel, despite the persecution they had endured during their missionary journey.

Here they come to the city of Lystra and we are going to see a miracle take place, a strange reaction from the audience and Paul and Barnabas reaction.

The miracle vs. 8-10

Here we are introduced to a man in Lystra who was in a hopeless situation.

The Holy Spirit reiterates his condition three times

Impotent (Weak or feeble) in his feet

Being a cripple from his mother’s womb

Who had never walked

I’m sure his parents took him to many doctors to see if there was anything they could do and from the day he was born until this point he had never taken a step.

This man would have little to no hope of ever walking, he was hopeless.

He had come to hear Paul preach

Look at what Paul thought about him

He was steadfastly beholding him

Steadfastly means with constancy or steadiness of mind

And beholding means fixing the eyes upon

Then as Paul notices this he perceives or observes that he has faith to be healed.

There was something different about this impotent man, he was moping or angry about his inability to walk, but he was attentive to the Gospel that was being preached by Paul.

We shouldn’t allow our insecurities to keep us from hearing the gospel. This man came to her the message despite his insecurities.

Look what Paul does next in verse 10

He says with a loud voice “Stand upright on thy feet”

How many of us when someone asks a question even if we know the answer, we are hesitant to answer because we are scared we might look silly?

Here Paul wasn’t hesitant at all, he cries with a loud voice for the man to get up on his feet

John Phillips asked this convicting question “How many walk close enough to the Lord to be able to dare such a public demonstration of their faith and assurance of the Lord’s leading?” Paul was!

Remember Jesus had given the Apostles the power tp heal and cast out deamons in his name, but just like Jesus’ ministry the miracles weren’t the end, they were a means to the end. The point of the miracles were to validate that Jesus is messiah, and then he would share the gospel.

The strange reaction from the audience vs. 11-13

When the people saw the miracle that Paul had just performed look at their reaction

They cried out with a loud voice in their own language that the gods had come in the likeness of men

Because of this miracle they thought Paul and Barnabas were some of their gods in the form of man

Instead of seeing Paul and Barnabas as men they saw them as gods. They could’ve easily gone with it and allowed the people to put them on pedestals. We must be careful that we remember that we are just sinners saved by grace or we can end up like the pharisees, where we end up thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought too.

They called Barnabas, Jupiter and they called Paul, Mercurius, because he was the main speaker.

Jupiter was Zeus, the father of the gods and Mercury was Hermes, the messenger of the gods.

There was a legend in this area that these two gods had appeared there as men and brought blessing. Paul’s miraculous healing of this life-long impotent man encourage the Lystron pagans to hope that the gods had returned.

Here Paul and Barnabas were facing Paganism, and a crowd who thought they were gods. They had to be careful as they refute the crowd.

Notice the priest of Jupiter came before the city with Oxen and garlands and was preparing to make a sacrifice with the people

One commentary said this “All the machinery of pagan religion was set in motion, and the people were swept up in a spontaneous expression of religious zeal, all anxious to worship the gods”

All of us were made to worship the one true God, but because of sin, we become easily swayed by religion. Man must worship something, and these like millions today were chained to a false religion. They were devout, willing to sacrifice, eager to do their religious duties, but lost.

We see the same thing today, lots of religions worship gods, but we must worship the true and Living God whom Paul will introduce them later in this chapter.

Paul and Barnabas’ reaction vs. 14-18

Notice the reaction of Paul and Barnabas when they realized what was happening

They rent their clothes

The rending of ones clothes was the Jewish way of expressing horror at the sin of blasphemy.

It must've thrown the people from Lystra aback to see their “gods”refusing their worship.

Then they ran in among the people

They were trying to stop the false worship they were receiving

Look at the question they asked the group

Why are you doing these things?

Before they answer Paul puts it in perspective

We are men of like passions with you.

He is telling them we aren’t gods, we are mere men just like you

And then he tells them why he came

He didn’t come to perform miracles he came to preach the good news of the gospel

He tells them that he came to preach that they turn from these vanities

Vanities means fruitless desire.

Phillips said “Paul was not concerned with being diplomatic; he was concerned with exposing error”

Paul didn’t want them to continue in the error of their ways worshiping false gods so he turns their attention to the true God

We must remember when Paul went to the Synagogues he could begin with the premise that the hearers already believed in God, in creation of all things by God, and the authority of the Scriptures. Knowing that he could take them to Christ and the resurrection.

When He preached to the Pagan, he had to bring them to the fact that there is only one creator which we see in the last part of verse 16. Most religions like today don’t focus on One God but rather they are polytheistic meaning they hold to the belief that there are numerous Gods.

Paul had to bring them to the truth that there is only one God and he made the heaven and earth, the sea and all things therein. They worshiped everything but the God who created it all.

We might not worship creation or the things we find here, but anything that takes the place of God is not only an idol, but it steals the worship due to God

Romans 1:25 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

Then Paul tells them how God, in times past, suffered all nations to walk in their own way

Psalm 81:12 “So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: And they walked in their own counsels.”

God isn’t going to force us to do anything, we all have individual soul liberty, all throughout the old testament God was longsuffering, but there was alway a breaking point, Noah and the flood, Lot and Sodom and Gomorra and many other examples.

While God let them do what they wanted, he didn’t leave them without witness of His goodness.

Aren’t you thankful for God’s goodness in your life today?

God left the Pagan man without excuse when it comes to believing in God

Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork.”

There is no excuse to not believe in God, he shows us his goodness every morning with the sunrise and every evening with the sunset. He reminds us of His goodness through the beauty of the earth we see everyday.

We can notice that Paul’s sermon didn’t go like most of the others that he had preached, he presented them the God of creation and look at their reaction in verse 18

They could barely keep the people from still sacrificing. Here’s a lesson for all of us, sometimes when the gospel is preached people still miss it because they are so caught up in religion, here we see the Pagan people of Lystra miss it, because they were hung up on religion.

Conclusion

Religion doesn’t save us

Putting money in the offering plate doesn’t save us

being a good person doesn’t save us

there is only one person that can take away our sins and that is Jesus Christ the Son of God who died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day.

If you have never trusted Christ as your saviour come this morning and we can show you from the bible how you can be saved.

Christian are you worshipping something other than God this morning, come this morning and ask God to help you get your priorities straight.