Listen to Glisten: Paul in Lystra

Acts 3:1-10: Peter healing the Beggar

The Lame Beggar:

Acts can get confusing at times with stories that repeat...

Unusual Detail: “Could not use his feet. Crippled from birth, had never walked”

Like Peter, Paul looked ‘intently at him’

Like the other beggar, the man was ‘jumping’

Important to show the continuity of authority from Peter to Paul

A similar similarity is the chaos that ensued the miracle:

Peter: Threw chaos in Jerusalem

That event began this battle between the Judaizers and this new Christian movement.

Now Paul is still in the midst of that battle hundreds of miles away from that first miracle performed by Peter in Jerusalem...

Spiritual battle going on as Paul and Barnabbas make their way to Lystra...

Worldview Whirlwind

Lystrans

Skipping over the time he’s spent in Inconium;

90 miles south east of Antioch

19 mile trip to Lystra

David Peters: “cultural backwater”: Those from Lystra “were frequently characterized as largely rustic and uncivilized. Their gullibility in this story plays on the stereotype...’” David Peterson

But why were they so gullible?

Not sure if it was because they were gullible!

A couple generations before Paul and Barnabas come to town, it was believed that Zeus and Hermes dressed like commoners and knocked on doors to see who would invite them in. After knocking on a thousand doors, no one invited them inside. Not recognizing these two strangers, no one showed them hospitality. No one, except for an elderly couple. This poor couple entertained these disguised gods in their little cottage. Later in the story, Zeus and Hermes honoured this couple by replacing their humble cottage with the temple. When the elderly couple died, they were transformed into elegant trees in front of the temple, which I think was a good thing for them? It sure beats what Zeus and Hermes did to those who didn’t open their doors. They destroyed them all died in a flood.

Each commentary I read suggests that the people of Lystra would have been familiar with this local legend. If this local legend was more like Holy Scriptures to the crowd, it would make sense that the people of Lystra get it right this time!

Let’s not get it wrong this time!

Culture of Lystra:

Zeus: Supreme deity of the Greek Pantheon

Hermes: Zeus’s son. Main speaker: Hermeneutics

Zeus: Temperamental and unpredictable.

Not a worship of Love, but of appeasement

Worship comes out of fear: Fear of Judgment

Here they are!

Priest of Zeus steps out of the crowd

Motions farmers to present their best oxen.

Dresses up Barnabas and Paul with Wreathes

Parade towards the alter for sacrifice and worship!

All the while Paul and Barnabbas are like, “NO! Got the wrong guys!

“You Guys are putting the divine in human size!”

The Divine in Human Size

Tannehill: “diminishes the divine to human size”

Problem in the text is that they have made their own versions of the incarnation!

They deified the two dudes! They dubbed these buds Zeus and Hermes and created their own “immanuels’!”

Our immanuels! “Our God with us’s”

Who or what is our immanuels in our culture today:

What are the world’s idols?

What do people talk about?

What gets people excited?

My uncle tells this story of meeting one of his favorite baseball players named Fred McGriff. Fred McGriff played first base for the Blue Jays in the 80s, and he had a media pass on the field as a photographer.

“I think you’re Mister Power.”

What gets people angry?

Heather always knows I’m reading about the Blue Jays?

What do people get defensive about?

College Conversation: “I’m not trying to be offensive, but what literally would you have to fight for?

What do people protect at all costs?

Car?

Where do people spend their time?

What do people spend their money on?

Where do they go to unwind?

TV, video games, walks with the dog?

Where do they vacation?

Snap shot of their preferred place? Always going to Disney?

What are they striving for?

Job is central?

Job takes over parental responsibilities?

What do they collect?

What podcasts do they most prefer?

Spare time listening… What are they feeding their soul?

What are their cravings?

Do they have an addiction?

All these questions are intended to crack the window open to the throne room of the heart, to catch a glimpse into who or what is sitting on that throne? Like, within that throne room, you may see a car, or a sports team, or a musician, or your house in the throne room. The question is, what are those things bowing to. What is the thing on the throne that need debunking? You have to use your imagination here a little… Room filled with stuff and people. If Christ isn’t on that throne, there’s something to debunk!

And these questions are only good to ask of others. They are good to ask yours truly!

To Deify is to Defy God

15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

Now, let’s consider this sermon for a second… What’s missing from this sermon?

Where’s Jesus?

Where’s the resurrection?

Where’s Jesus Kingship?

Wrote Galatians just a few months later!

Filled with the Gospel message. He just didn’t start with it! He started with the basics.

He started with killing their icons!

He started by chipping away at their worldviews.

He started by detaching the the divine.

But Paul doesn’t start with Jesus. He doesn’t start with the cross or the empty grave or the Kingdom. He’ll get there, just not yet.

What he chips away at is this concept: To deify is to deny God. They’re basic concept of theology is messed up! How in the world can Paul talk about Jesus when they’ll just make Jesus another version of Zeus, or Hermes??

It’s like how other religions have embraced Jesus. They’ve made room for Jesus, it’s just that that Jesus isn’t on the throne!

And so just briefly, let’s consider some ways in which Paul chips away at their worldview—like, how they see reality so that Jesus just isn’t a throw in, tossing his name into the ring of deities to worship:

What does Paul do to convince the crowd that to deify is to deny God?

1. Demotion

v. 15: “We also are men, of like nature with you.”

“We desire the same things you do!”

Paul’s response from Peterson: “We also are people with the same passions as you.”

Nature= “similar passions” Same emotional construct

Same natural dispositions!

To detach false divinities is to see the futility in your idolatry!

Same disposition

2. Point to the Living God

v.15: “And we bring you good news...”

“That you should turn from these vain things to a living God...”

“Who made the heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.”

Started with the LIVING God

ZAO: Zoo or zoology. Study of a living things.

3. Recognize Common Grace

“He did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

Common Grace:

Theological Concept that says God gives gifts

Common grace is a theological concept that teaches that God has provided for everybody! He’s provided gifts and talents. He’s ordained government.

He’s provided rain for farmers…

He’s even satisfies peoples hearts with food and gladness!!

He Restrains Sin:

He gives all people a sense of truth, morality, and religion

The Canons of Dort “There remain, however, in man since the fall, the glimmerings of natural light, whereby he retains some knowledge of God, of natural things, and of the difference between good and evil, and shows some regard for virtue and for good outward behavior.”

He gives the ability for people to practice good and “civil righteousness”

Living out the 2nd Table of the Law:

Honor you parents

Shall Not Murder

Shall not Commit Adultery

Shall Not Steal

Shall Not Bear False Witness

Shall not Covet

Conclude:

Paul’s sermon tried hard to get to the heart of the issue, tried to demote, tried to point to the Living God, and told them who gave them all their blessings and joy! He chipped away, but all the while, do you know what he’s doing?

Two verses that flank this sermon:

Acts 14:14: But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out...

Acts 14: 18: Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

Scene of chaos, scene of confusion, scene of passion...

Paul and Barnabas ripping their robes, pleading with people to stop doing what they’re doing!

End with this picture! Not the picture of Jewish leaders causing the city to turn on Paul and Barnabas, not on Paul left to die on the road or getting up again like a boss to preach in nearby Derbe, or of Paul going back home and setting up leaders in each city on the way back… ALL VALUABLE!

I want to end with this scene of Paul and Barnabas pushing against the crowd, passionately sticking up for the TRUTH despite the temptation of being revered!

That scene of Paul and Barnabas ripping their cloaks is where I want to leave us:

In the chas of that scene:

Paul and Barnabas were keenly aware that whenever you make a created thing into an ultimate thing, blasphemy has been committed. Confusing creation and the Creator is always blasphemy because it takes stuff away from God and stamps it on something normal. It pushes the priority of some ‘thing’ beside or on top of our God. That’s why Paul and Barnabas ripped their clothes when they realized the crowd was preparing to worship them. Tearing ones clothing was a response to blasphemy. In fact, the book of Leviticus commands that one should do this in response to blasphemy. It’s publically announcing that you are offended. Paul and Barnabas were like priests, grieving the crowd’s confusion because they are taking away worship that belongs to God.

So ripping one’s clothing is in response to blasphemy, and it’s something I think we need to consider:

- Are you grieving the idols in our culture or caving to them?

- Are you metaphorically ripping your clothes against them, or are you spiritually tipping your cap to them?

I think Christians are so comfortable with our context, that we chose to remain blind to the idols that surround us and the idols perched on the arm chair of your hearts throne. I think we’re more syncetistic then we would like to admit.

Only Christ was Immanuel: Only Jesus was God with Us, and only he deserved the attention in our throne room. ALL OTHER THINGS MUST BOW TO HIM.

When we consider robes being ripped, we need to consider the confession stated by the high priest at Jesus trial:

The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

“Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Matthew 25:63-65

Keep in mind, that in Leviticus 21:10 that the high priest ought not tear his clothes! (The priest who is chief among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil is poured and who has been consecrated to wear the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose nor tear his clothes.)

What’s the point of all this? The point is that the incarnation is indeed an offensive thing that actually happened. It would have been blasphemy if it wasn’t actually true. The Creator God did reveal himself to us in Jesus. He was the incarnation that actually happened and deserves all our attention.

We have to go back to Jesus, and to his death on the cross to discover that in order to fix the problem of idol-creation, we need to be re-created! See, the remedy to our wondering minds, the remedy of attributing divine elements to the elements, is being made new. Rather than fixing God to our hearts desires, God fixes us to his. The point this evening is that the Creator entered creation so that we can be re-created! Our Creator entered creation so that we can be re-created. Only he has the power to dethrone our idols by the Spirit. It’s in this post-Easter season that we await the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Henry touched on this in this morning’s service. But we await the Holy Spirit’s arrival the same way we await Jesus’ birth.