Unyielding

Intro - One of my favorite animals are wolves. Hunting in sometimes large packs and covering great distances and yet their average success rate on hunts is 3%-14%…yet they continue on, unyielding and undeterred. What once was favorable circumstances can turn bad quickly and yet they press on for themselves and their pack…We see here a similiar scenario in Lystra…when favorable circumstances go south the message remains the same…they don’t stop until they cross the finish line

TR: First let’s take a look at the whimsical mob...

The Whimsical Mob

Paul still at Lystra continued to preach the Gospel message as well as instruct those who believed in the Gospel

The Jews from Antioch and Iconium, referenced in chapter 13 and 14:1-7, came down and once again turned the hearts of the people against Paul and Barnabas

In this case they turned a Gentile mob against the people that they previously were worshipping and offering sacrifice to.

There was a consistent opposition to the message that they preached but it wasn’t because they thought it was unfounded.

They believed, as represented many times in the Gospel writings, that it threatened their place.

It’s interesting who someone will unite with when it serves a common purpose. How many things will be overlooked?

The church was in turmoil. Some church leaders felt the church should make peace with the political party who was strongly opposed to communism and “godlessness”....they thought that by wedding the church to the state, they would restore the church and their country to her former glory. Hadn’t this political leader spoken of restoring moral order to the nation. They didn’t agree with him on everything, but they believed that if the church’s prestige were restored, they might be able to influence him in the right direction.

This quote was slightly modified by me…anyone have an idea about when it is speaking? It’s speaking of the staunchly Lutheran, biblically centered, soundly indoctrinated German church in relation to Hitler and the Nazis.

Politics make strange bedfellows…here we see that played out.

Where people are united against a cause that matters to them they will commonly jettison all other obstacles.

So here, while Paul and Barnabas were literally being worshipped a couple verses ago…now they have been treated as heretics.

The powerful mob swept away by emotions manipulated by people with alterior motives in the Jewish leaders.

This is why one issue politics is so dangerous…and by politics I don’t just mean voting I mean in personal lives as well.

When we are focused only on our hatred for a thing rather than considering the totality of it all, we too are manipulated.

In doing so the whimsical mob selected a traditional Jewish form of punishment which is death by stoning, which they attempted to do.

In addition, they offered him no burial, although they believed he was dead, and instead sought to shame him further by letting him rot outside the city.

We can see the mindset of the mob. Not only were they desirous to see Paul killed but shamed at ALL costs.

There are times when we behave like the mob. Anytime you sacrifice your witness for the win you have already lost.

When you “got to just get something off your chest”...

The very sight of Paul conjured up feelings of animosity and resentment.

Be aware that you too live in a culture that is given to feelings over facts. Feelings that determine truth...

If it feels good it must be moral and if it makes me feel bad it is wrong! Yet you are called to preach the Word of God!!

And when this world has left you for dead, there are those in the faith waiting to see how you will respond.

Sometimes other people’s anticipation of your response is so that they can be testified to about the strength of your message.

Your loved one died…will you get back up?

Your name was disgraced…will you get back up?

You failed as a person, parent, friend, spouse, whatever…WILL YOU GET BACK UP?!!!

That whimsical mob that you tried to help, that said they loved you, has left you for dead…WHAT WILL YOU DO!!!

TR: I’ll tell you…you’ll show that you preach a resilient message!

The Resilient Message

After Paul was stoned, left for dead, and by the grace of God managed to get back to the city and the next day he went to another one…what did he do?

Did he get some R&R? Say hey…I’ve run my race, it’s time to let the young folk handle it? Did he plan for retirement???

NO! He preached the Gospel and MADE DISCIPLES!!! He was unyielding and his message was resilient!

Then after doing that…he doubled back to the cities that stoned him and ran him out of town! To do what? 4 things....

Paul strengthened the disciples

He was more concerned with making and strengthening disciples than some of us have been in quite a long time.

Why did he do this? Especially at risk of his own life.

He was more concerned with their steadfastness than he was his own life!

I can’t get past this radical idea that Christianity is rooted in a core principle that seemingly works against it’s own preservation but ends up establishing it.

The idea that the other person is more valuable to you than you are to you.

Paul didn’t want them to be moved by the culture that they were in. He “propped them up” in the faith…gave them some stability!

One of the people that do this for me is Sis. Leslie Harris…she is consistently propping me up in my faith. Keeping my focus right…expect for listening to 5 Blind Boys and advocating for Chitlins she has kept me on the straight and narrow!

To you older saints…spend the remaining years of your race doing all you can to firm up us younger disciples…YOU’RE NEEDED!!!

Paul encouraged them in the faith

Paul showed them the model by doubling back to them and coming alongside them…he didn’t abandon them!

He walked with them and showed them not just what the Gospel was but how to live it out!

Who have you come alongside of lately?

Paul advised them of the path ahead

He didn’t lie to them about what laid ahead...”tribulation”!

The term for “tribulation” is a pressing down of something...

Paul emphasized this point…you will be pressed down…expect it!

But the idea of going “through” something is that there is an end to it.

You will have the temptation though to flee and seek your security and comfort…after all isn’t that why many of us do what we do?

Nietzsche had a belief that people don’t follow rules because they have integrity but because they fear consequences thus people aren’t morally good. Rather they are afraid…

So for the Christian that may look like coming to Sunday gatherings, reading your Bible, praying, not because you actually love God but because you don’t want to be punished and you want comfort.

What happens then when you aren’t given comfort, pain is all around you, there’s no evidence of things getting better, and to add icing on the cake…there is a godless way that you can improve your circumstances that’s culturally permitted?

See....pressure will come…do you understand that that’s the path to the Kingdom of God?

Paul appointed them leaders to guide them

Then because his devotion to the disciples was so great, he made sure he left them with qualified leaders to continue to guide them.

Every gathering of believers had a plurality of individuals that would carry on the legacy of the faith...

TR: After all was done with Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch to describe God’s worshipful moments to the brethren...

The Worshipful Moments

The missionary trip that started in Acts 13 now comes to a conclusion with Paul and Barnabas returning back to Antioch

“they were commended to the grace of God for the work that…they…had…fulfilled”

What are your moments where you’ve seen God move?

LAND IT LOUD

I know you have had a journey…I know it’s been long…yet you’re still here.

I know that many of us long for this world to pass on and the next one to come into view…however, THERE IS A WORK THAT THE LORD HAS COMMENDED YOU TO DO...

You must return with the work being FULFILLED! FINISHED! DONE!

There is no coasting across the finish line!

Listen let me make it plan…I don’t care where you are or what you been through…God ain’t done with you!

Listen…2020 has taught me a lot…the chief lesson being…I don’t have time for foolishness…I’ve been called to do a work and my mama didn’t raise no quitters

The grace of God has PLACED A WORK BEFORE YOU…WILL YOU FINISH IT???

YOU’VE BEEN TERRORIZED, LEFT FOR DEAD, BAD MOUTHED, BETRAYED…THE LIST GOES ON

BUT GOD’S GRACE DEMANDS YOUR EVERYTHING!!! Christians DON’T RETIRE!

And I love how the passage finishes…imagine this scene…Paul and Barnabas come home...

All the believers are gathered around them as they declare the amazing things that the Lord had done…and then they remained with the family of God for a while....

There will come a time family…when you will be gathered to the saints, you will have a chance to declare all that the Lord has done and you will remain there “no little time”

BUT UNTIL THEN…YOU ARE ON MISSION...

Go to your Antioch, Lystra and Derbe!!!

Stop just coming back here Sunday after Sunday and you telling the same story you told last week!

Did God stop working in your life? Tell me about that restored marriage, tell me about that bout with depression that you rejoiced your way out of, tell me about that loved one you’ve been praying for that accepted the Lord.

GO! And come back and tell us how that whimsical mob was no match for Jesus’ resilient message so you have many worshipful moments to share…