Acts 14: 8-20

The crowds in Lystra get confused when Paul and Barnabas come to town. Luke doesn’t give us details on what Paul was saying when he encountered a lame man. All we’re told is that the lame man was drinking in Paul’s words. Paul’s teaching struck a chord with him.

This man, lame since birth, responds to the gospel with faith, at least, enough faith to be healed. So Peter “called out, ‘Stand up on your feet!’ At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.”

A physiotherapist helped me appreciate how big this miracle is. Ususally a lame person who is healed needs months of rehab:

His leg muscles and ligaments need to stretch and grow strong.

He has no callouses on his feet. His feet are too sensitive to walk on dirt and stones; even grass.

He needs to develop coordination and balance - he’s never walked in his life!

Think of the weeks it takes a crawling baby to pull themselves up on furniture and start cruising with support. They need confidence to let go and step away. Even when they take a few steps, it’s days before they’re walking. Now look at what Luke describes. This man jumped up and began to walk in one sentence. You see how amazing this is?

The man in Lystra is not the only one to be healed from lameness. Reading Luke’s gospel and Acts in the past half year, we’ve heard similar stories : Midway through Luke’s gospel, John the Baptist questions if Jesus really is God’s long-promised rescuer. Jesus responds by alluding to the OT prophecies of Isaiah:

Luke 7:22 NIV

[Jesus] replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Jesus roots his ministry in OT prophecies of God’s intervention in the world. God is on the move! Jesus has begun healing the brokenness of the world, dealing with the consequences of human rebellion and sin.

In Acts 1, Jesus ascends to heavenly glory, but miracles of healing keep coming! The implication is that Acts is the account of what Jesus continues to do after he was taken up to heaven.

In Acts 3, Peter and John went to the temple. When Peter told the lame beggar to get up and walk, the lame man started walking and leaping and praising God!

In Acts 8, Philip starts preaching in Samaria with amazing miracles:

Acts 8:6–7 NIV

When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.

Here, in Acts 14, Paul, tells a man, lame since birth, to get up and walk - and he does.

Throughout Luke and Acts, amazing miracles grab people’s attention, so they hear the gospel.

But there was confusion in Lystra. This miracle sure got people’s attention. But they completely misunderstood it.

Amazed at this miracle of healing, the crowd focuses on Paul and Barnabas. The crowd loses sight of God, Jesus, and the gospel! The crowd is stuck in their old understanding of the world. They can’t see the new thing that God is doing through Jesus. Instead, they process this miracle through their old categories and thought processes. They reach the wrong conclusion.

It’s a case of mistaken identity.

If you saw Paul heal a lame man in Tillsonburg today, you wouldn’t think Paul was Hermes and Barnabas was Zeus. It wouldn’t even occur to you ... unless you’ve been reading the Percy Jackson books. But people around Lystra grew up on stories about Greek gods, Titans, and their adventures. Everyone in Lystra heard stories of Greek gods wandering into town. In fact, we have copies of Ovid’s Latin poem about a visit Zeus and Hermes made near Lystra.

Everyone in Lystra knows that Greek gods are unpredictable. If the gods are respected, you’ll enjoy great rewards. If you insult the gods or treat them rudely, the gods will stir up mischief.

The townsfolk and the local priest of Zeus aren’t taking chances. When they see the lame man walking, they conclude Paul and Barnabas are Hermes and Zeus. The priest of Zeus comes to the city gates with bulls and wreaths for a welcome party. The crowd gets excited for a wild night of partying with Hermes and Zeus!

It’s not the response Paul and Barnabas were hoping for with gospel-telling and miracles of healing. They’re horrified at the terrible misunderstanding. They’re not gods! They don’t want to be the guests of honour at a wild night of partying.

Tearing their clothes is a sign of how upset they are. Listen to them shout:

Acts 14:15 NIV

“Friends, why are you doing this? We too are only human, like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them.

Paul and Barnabas use language from the OT. Referring to the Lord as “the living God” is a way of distinguishing the LORD from idols and false gods. The LORD is alive, unlike Hermes, Zeus, and all the other Greek gods. They introduce God as the Creator, as a kind God who provides rain, food, and fills their hearts with joy.

It’s a reminder for us. It might help our gospel-telling too.

We’re so used to sunshine and rain, we don’t think too hard about who called the sun into existence and who designed the water cycle.

It’s the living God who causes seeds grow into plants for food.

It’s the living God who makes eggs hatch and reveal chickens and turkeys that produce chicken-noodle soup and turkey dinner.

We’re used to broken bones healing in 6-8 weeks. Is it medical attention or a cast that heals a broken arm? Not really …

Stop to marvel at the way the living God designed the body so that blood clots when a bone breaks. That clot develops into a soft callous, then cartilage forms the connection, and finally new-grown bone makes the bone as strong or stronger than before.

Flying in an airplane is amazing. Yet flight not an invention of science. Scientists apply the principles the living God used to create the world. These are principles God used to create birds, bats, and winged insects. Yet for all the airplanes zooming through the sky, it’s not often we stop to say, “Wow! God made this possible and he’s amazing!”

There are days when we’re more like the crowd at Lystra than we like to admit. We think of the world according to old patterns of thought. The surrounding culture and common myths shape our understanding. All the advances in science are amazing, but scientists’ work is exploring the possibilities that God built into our creation. We need to hear God speak through Paul and Barnabas to remind us that the living God is the Creator. The living God is responsible for how the world works.

Sometimes the living God intervenes in the normal processes of the world to work a miracle. Such a miracle happened when Jesus died. Normally a person who is executed remains dead and buried. God raised Jesus to demonstrate that Jesus was telling the truth about his identity. Jesus is the Anointed One; God the Son - alive and in the flesh. Jesus’ promises of the coming kingdom and all the miraculous signs of healing the lame are connected with God’s covenant promise to deal with sin and heal the brokenness of his creation; brokenness caused by sin and disobedience.

In Jesus’ resurrection, not only does death work backwards, but Jesus’ resurrection is a sign that creation is coming alive after death: first Jesus, then the rest of creation. By faith, we experience God’s healing – sometimes people born lame are healed so they can walk, sometimes people with cancer are healed, sometimes God uses counselling and medication to relieve symptoms of mental illness, and sometimes we won’t be made healthy and whole until Christ returns – but always, when received by faith, Jesus’ death and resurrection heals our relationship with God. Our relationship with god, broken by sin, is repaired by Jesus’ death and resurrection.

By faith you are forgiven and adopted into God’s family as God’s dearly loved children

Forgiveness of sin is possible because Jesus does what we can’t do. At the cross, Jesus takes the punishment for our sin and wrongdoing. He is 100% righteous yet dies the death sinful people deserve. By faith in Jesus’ resurrection, our sin and guilt are washed away. By faith we’re raised to new life as if we’d never sinned or been a sinner.

It’s the exciting part about baptism. We see how water washes the body and makes us clean. It’s an outward sign of what God does inwardly in baptism: the HS cleanses us from sin, fixes the broken relationship with our Creator, and gives us eternal life with God and for God.

So, it’s true. Back in Lystra, Paul and Barnabas ruined the big celebration the priest of Zeus was planning. They canclled the feast and wild night of partying the crowd expected.

You can understand why the crowd started chucking stones at Paul. If Paul had played along with being Hermes, they could all be feasting all night. Instead, Paul was teaching about the living God and preaching about Jesus’ coming kingdom.

It’s not that Paul and Barnabas were trying to ruin their fun. They were trying to redirect it to something life-giving. Instead of a wild celebration of false gods, Paul was pointing them to the living God, the God of life and celebration.

Last Sunday at Lord’s Supper, we got a small taste of the celebration that’s in store for Jesus and his people. We’re waiting and preparing for the day when all things are made new. We’re filled with confidence and eager expectation for God to answer our prayer for his kingdom to come. In Jesus, the kingdom has come and is coming.

The angel of God promised that Jesus will return the way the apostles saw Jesus go away. When he comes, all creation will be healed, restored, and renewed. All brokenness and sin will be set straight. We will bask in God’s love and providence without any confusion of who is the source of all good things.

Meanwhile, we enjoy the harmony and unity of faith in our worship services. We catch a glimpse and a taste of the coming kingdom when we gather for worship and service. When Christ returns, we’ll enjoy an endless celebration!