Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro:
AG: Lord I Need You
Father, Your are our one defense and righteousness
Without You we could do nothing!
TS: Paul and Barnabas moved to Lystra and Derbe to continue their church planting ministry.
These mighty men of God would not let anything stand in their way when it came to doing God’s work!
Lystra- 18 miles to the south of Iconium.
It had become a Roman colony in 6 BC under Augustus.
Scholars believe there was no synagogue, since we don’t mention of Paul and Barnabas starting there and later, opposition arises from out of town rather than from Lystra’s synagogue.
Person of note: Timothy was from Lystra and had a Jewish mother, though his father was Greek.
Lystra was primarily a town of pagan gentiles
Here, Paul and Barnabas display the power of God only to have it misunderstood.
Paul uses their pagan misunderstanding as a springboard to point them to the real and only God who is all-powerful.
RS: We live in a similar world to Lystra.
Our society has forgotten much about God.
There are many who have never heard the truth of God who surround us every day.
We see in this text three things about God’s power....
1. Displayed
Acts 14:8-
EX: God’s power was displayed
Preaching the gospel led to the man’s faith.
God worked a miracle.
Validated the gospel which Paul and Barnabas preached to ones who were more pagan than the crowds we have seen them with up to this point.
The man was impotent on his feet from his mother’s womb.
He had never walked.
This condition was all he had known.
Paul saw the man and his faith and told him to get up!
Lindsay said of the man’s response, “It was a sudden spring as the faith found vent, one act showing that the cure was perfect and then a continuous power to walk.
There could be no doubt in their minds that divine power had been displayed.
God demonstrated His reality and validated the message which Paul delivered.
AP: God’s power is still on display today!
Through His creation (more on this later).
Through the changed lives.
God still works in the world today.
Yes, he cures the sick and heals the lame.
But those are nothing compared to what His main focus seems to always have been.
There is no better miracle than when those dead in their sin are made alive in Christ Jesus.
The transformation God brings in lives, physically, spiritually, and mentally, displays His awesome power.
God doesn’t just give eternal life to His children.
He gives us an abundant life
God changes lives
He gives us a new nature
He gives gifts to equip us to serve Him and His spirit to guide us along the way.
IL: During the late 1800’s an English evangelist named Henry Moorhouse made
several trips to preach in America.
On one of those occassions he was
taking a walk through a poor section of town when he noticed a small boy
coming out of a store with a pitcher of milk in his hands.
Just then,
he slipped and fell breaking the pitcher and spilling the milk all over
the sidewalk.
Moorhouse rushed to the childs side and found him unhurt
but terrified.
"Mu mama’ll whip me," he kept crying.
So Moorhouse
picked up the boy and carried him into the nearby store where the
preacher purchased a new pitcher.
Then he returned to the daity, hd the
pitcher washed and filled with milk.
With that done, he carred the boy
and the pitcher home.
Putting the youngster down on his front porch, Moorhouse handed him the
pitcher and asked, "Will your mama whip you now?"
A wide smile spread across the boys tear stained face, "no sir, cause
this is a lot better pitcher than we had before."
In grace God saves us.
He doesn’t patch up our old lifes that have been
shattered by sin and satan into a million pieces.
That would not do.
His reputation is at stake.
We are His workmanship!
2. Misunderstood
Acts 14:11-
EX: The pagan crowd leapt to a pagan conclusion.
The strange reaction by the people of Lystra to the healing had its roots in local folklore.
According to tradition, the gods Zeus and Hermes visited Lystra incognito, asking for food and lodging.
All turned them away except for a peasant named Philemon and his wife, Baucis.
The gods took vengeance by drowning everyone in a flood.
But they turned the lowly cottage of Philemon and Baucis into a temple, where they were to serve as priest and priestess.
Not wanting to repeat their ancestors’ mistake, the people of Lystra believed Barnabas to be Zeus and Paul to be Hermes.
AP: God is often misunderstood today.
AP: God is often misunderstood today.
Gone are the days when the majority of people around us know at least some of the things of God.
Like Paul and Barnabas in Lystra, we are surrounded by a pagan and foreign culture.
When they hear and see the things of God, they often misunderstand them because they have no reference point to compare to!
IL: Blind men first meeting the elephant
1 touched the trunk, 1 the side, the other the ears.
Proceeded to argue over what the elephant was like.
A snake
A wall
A bird
All had such a limited encounter, they couldn’t grasp the whole.
That is where we find ourselves today in our post-christian culture.
God’s power and message will misunderstood more as our culture continues to walk away from Him.
When that happens, we must do as Paul and Barnabas.
3. Proclaimed
Acts 14:14-
EX:
Paul and Barnabas tore their robes.
Jewish way to show their horror and shame at the blasphemy.
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