How Do You Respond
Lessons from the 1st Century Church | A Study through the Book of Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 6 viewsPaul and Barnabas continue on their missionary journey and once again find lives changed and the opposition of the enemy.
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Introduction |
My Favorite Illustrations (Don’t Play for the Crowd)
Ben Chapman and Herschel Hobbs were fellow students in Phillips High School, Birmingham, Alabama. Ben became a professional baseball player and played as an outfielder for the New York Yankees along with Babe Ruth. Later he managed a big league club.
After his first season with the Yankees, Ben visited with Herschel and was asked, “Ben, how do you like being a big league ballplayer?” He answered, “I like it fine. The salary is good. The only thing I don’t like is that with the crowd you are a hero today and a bum tomorrow.”
However, as a true athlete Ben was not playing to the crowd, but doing his best for the manager.
In the Christian game of life we are to be willing to pay the price for standing by our convictions. We are not to play to the crowd. Instead we are to be “looking unto Jesus the author (pioneer) and finisher (goal) of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). His “well done” drowns out the raucous jeers of the fickle crowd.
Ben Chapman could have taken a lesson from the pages of Paul during his first missionary journey. Paul shared the gospel and called for a response from the people. One minute the people were treating him not as a hero but as a god, and the next minute they were treating him worse than a bum, leaving him to die outside the city. How do you respond?
Opening Passage | Acts 14:8-10
8 In Lystra a man was sitting whose feet were incapacitated. He had been disabled from his mother’s womb, and had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke. Paul looked at him intently and saw that he had faith to be made well, 10 and he said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” And the man leaped up and began to walk.
Focus Passage | Acts 14:8-20
Outline |
How Do You Respond to the Word (vv. 8-10)
The man’s physical condition is representative of our spiritual condition - ‘…whose feet were incapacitated...’
Each one of us find ourselves naturally in the condition of this man. We find that this man was incapacitated in his feet. He was paralyzed. He was helpless and unable to move without help. This had been his stride in life since birth. We all find ourselves in this same condition spiritually. We find ourselves unable to change our circumstances. We find ourselves in a hopeless situation. We find ourselves incapacitated spiritually by all kinds of sin. We were born this way. David, while confessing his sin over Bathsheba, writes…
5 Behold, I was brought forth in guilt, And in sin my mother conceived me.
Without Christ, we are incapacitated by sin. As Paul writes to the church at Rome…
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Just as Paul and Barnabas had an answer to this man’s condition then, I submit the answer to your hopeless, sinful condition, Jesus Christ. Paul and Barnabas look at this man who, heard the Word of God being spoken by Paul, This man was listening to Paul as he spoke. This man responds.
How do you respond to the word
The Word of God produces faith
This man, incapacitated since birth, found something that day as he heard the word of God, faith. His faith was not in idles of the city, but in the God of creation. That day, the man’s inner being was pricked by the Holy Spirit. As Paul, looked at the man, he found something in the man, faith. We find that Luke writes, Paul looked at him intently and saw that he had faith to be made well. This is exactly what the Word of God produces, faith.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Within faith, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we find healing. However, this is not just physically healing. The healing that the gospel brings is spiritual healing.
Faith produces healing (i.e. salvation)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
We are saved by faith not works. We are saved by the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, by trusting the Gospel message of Christ.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Not only do we need to respond to the Word, we must also respond to the the redemptive work of Christ.
How Do You Respond to the Redemptive Work of Christ (vv. 11-13)
11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us!” 12 And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. 13 Moreover, the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.
How do you respond to the redemptive work of Christ without the Word
Without the Word, faith is not known - ‘…the crowds saw…they raised their voice, saying…The gods have become like men and have come down to us...’
Without the Word, change is recognized, but the source of the change is not
Without the Word, false honor and deception can be had - ‘…the priest of Zeus…wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds...’
How Do You Respond to the Crowds (vv. 14-18)
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard about it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out 15 and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men, of the same nature as you, preaching the gospel to you, to turn from these useless things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them. 16 In past generations He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; 17 yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 And even by saying these things, only with difficulty did they restrain the crowds from offering sacrifices to them.
How do you respond to the cheer of the crowds - ‘…they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out and saying, Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men, of the same nature as you…’
How do you respond to the crowds with the Word
As Paul, began to continue to expand on the truth being presented, preaching the gospel unto you, he once again expands on the gospel. He begins by pointing them to the true God among them, not the valueless idols they worship, Zeus and Hermes. He states, turn from these useless things to a living God, who made the Heaven and the Earth and the Sea, and Everything that is in them.
How do you respond to the crowds in such a way they respond to the Word
When Paul and Barnabas saw and heard the crowds to the point of worship them as gods, Paul begins, once again, declaring the gospel of Christ and reiterates the need for repentance.
16 In past generations He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; 17 yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
Even with this, the crowds were resisting the truth, only with difficulty did they restrain the crowds from offering sacrifices to them.
How Do You Respond... (vv. 19-20)
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking that he was dead. 20 But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
How do you respond when a crisis of faith arises
As Paul declares the gospel and calls the city to repentance in the Lord, the enemy is there among them fighting and resisting the call to repentance. We find that same crowds that caused issues in Antioch and Iconium were not finished and travelled the 18 miles to Lystra and stirred the crowds up once again, But the Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds. The same people who were a short time before cheering them on and calling them gods were now raging against them.
How do you persevere through persecution - ‘…they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead…’
How do you build relationships through the storm
As we face the storms of life, friends turning their back on us, and ones who once championed us now turning their back on us, we find that God will never leave us alone, But while the disciples stood around him. As God surrounds us with help in the midst of our storm, do not give up, he got up and entered the city. Finally, Through the relationships that are formed by trials and tribulations, remember to keep moving forward with the gospel, The next day he left with Barnabas and Derbe.
Conclusion |
The most important message that we can share is the gospel. The most important message that we can hear is the gospel. The most important response that we will make is our response to the gospel. How do you respond?
