When Things Go Too Well

When Things Go Too Well

Acts 14:8-18

Theme:  It is God's purpose to reveal Himself and ours to remain humble.

Being a mother is somewhat like being a missionary.  This strange, almost foreign bundle arrives in your lap - whom you love very much - but with whom communications are very limited, and you are responsible for its upbringing and morals.

When New Tribes Missions goes into a new area, they have a plan.

It involves the missionaries living among the people, in order to demonstrate the unique life of the follower of Jesus Christ.  They also learn the language and the culture of the people they are seeking to reach with the gospel  and when the gospel is presented, it is done so in a way that assumes no prior understanding of God and His ways.

I wonder if they got that plan from our passage for this morning?

Acts 14:8-20 is the story of the first incursion of the gospel into what we might call pagan territory.  Every other time prior to this, Jews or God-fearers were present whenever the Gospel of Jesus was shared; people who had a basis of knowledge about God.  But here in Lystra, this all changes.  Here, Paul and his associate, Barnabas are in uncharted territory.  

Here there is no synagogue, very little, if any, influence of Judaism,  because Paul and Barnabas take it right to the streets.

The city of Lystra kind of a small, rural village located about 24 miles south of Iconium.  These were tribal people, with a mix of retired Roman soldiers and a few officials.

Today's text is increasingly important for believers sharing God's Kingdom news today, because our world, even our country, is not what it used to be. Increasingly we are seeing more and more secular world views capturing people's imaginations.

So today's text is about taking the news of the Gospel into uncharted territory.  It is, as we will see, about confusion and miscommunication.  It is also about the temptations that God's witnesses face in the midst of such confusion.  We've looked before at the trials and sufferings often associated with witnessing, but what does one do when everything seems to be going great?  What happens when things go TOO well?

As we read from Acts 14,  verses 8 -18, we will observe that....

God Is Revealed  (vv. 8-10)

gods Are Worshiped  (vv. 11-13)   and

God Is Proclaimed (vv. 14-18)

1. Body
1. God Is Revealed  (vv. 8-10)
1. God reveals Himself in certain ways as He wills
1. A man crippled from birth
1. Fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy of the Messiah
1. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
2.       And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
3.       6 Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
4.       And the tongue of the dumb sing.
5.       For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
6.       And streams in the desert.
7.       7 The parched ground shall become a pool,
8.       And the thirsty land springs of water;  -- 35: 5-7
2. Lame man healed by Jesus  (John 5)
3. Disciples continue that ministry to the Jews  (Acts 3)
4. Now to the Gentiles
2. He listens and believes
1. We can gather from this that since the man was listening to a story of a man, Jesus,  who had been crucified and then came up from the dead as He Himself had predicted, he must have been saying in his own heart something like, “If this One could defeat death, then certainly He could heal me too”.
3. He obeys and stands
4. Illustration -- We should find out where God is working.
1. Henry Blackaby writes about trying to get a Bible study started at a local college. After consulting with experts, they tried to get something started in the dorms. For two years, they failed to get anything off the ground. One day he called aside the students who were part of this effort and told them to start looking for where God was already at work. He reminded them from the Scriptures that there are none who are righteous and seek after God, and no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws them. He advised his students to keep their ears perked for people asking spiritual questions.
2. The following Wednesday one of his students reported that a girl she had been in class with for two years came up to her and started asking questions about the Bible. It turns out that she and some other girls got curious and started studying it on their own, but they wanted someone who knew a little bit about it to lead a Bible study. Would she be willing?
2. gods Are Worshipped  (vv. 11-13)
1. God's ways are not always understood or recognized
1. "The gods are with us!"
1. According to Greek mythology, recorded by poet Ovid in his work, Metamorphosis, Zeus and Hermes once visited Lystra and were rejected by all of its citizens except one couple. Philemon and his wife Baucis welcomed the disguised visitors and fed them food that they could scarcely spare, being very poor. As a result, when Zeus flooded the area, destroying homes and turning the region into a swamp land, the home of Philemon and Baucis, rather than being destroyed, was turned into a beautiful castle where they lived as prince and princess. When they died, according to the myth, they turned into two beautiful trees whose branches intertwined.
2. similar event in Acts 28, when Paul is gathering sticks and a poisonous snake bites him yet he shakes it off without effect.  The people there assume he must be a god.
2. "Let's make offerings!"
1. So here are the multitudes of Lystra, worshipers of Zeus and undoubtedly very familiar with this tale of Philemon and Baucis, and not wanting to have their homes destroyed like those who had rejected the gods in an earlier time, and when they hear Paul give this command and a lame man leaps to his feet, by golly, it’s time to sacrifice an oxen or two and keep these guys happy!
3. "Uh Oh!"  "Oh No!"
1. The apostles tear their garments
2. a universal sign of grief and humiliation
3. they would do whatever they could to avoid becoming objects of worship  -- unlike some perhaps who spread the Word
1. not a new thing -- Isaiah 56: 11ff speaking of Israel's leaders  --  they are greedy dogs Which never have enough. And they are shepherds Who cannot understand; They all look to their own way, Every one for his own gain
2. to Timothy, Paul warned -- But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.  -- 1 Tim. 6:9-10
3. God Is Proclaimed (vv. 14-18)
1. Some occasions of witnessing call for going back to the basics of common human experience
1. Repent from your wrong thinking (sin?) -- turn to God
1. turn from these useless things to the living God
2. God created all things
1. God made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them
2. who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.
3. implication:  But now - through Christ - is calling the nations back to Himself
3. God provides good things
1. He has always maintained a witness through His provision
2. He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.
3. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.  James 1:17

1. Conclusion

1. This is Mother’s Day, and I’m preaching to the choir when I remind mothers that it is horrible to be misunderstood.    The following series of advertisements reportedly appeared in a daily newspaper:
1. Monday: "The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale. Telephone 626-1313 after 7 p.m. and ask for Mrs. Donnelley who lives with him, cheap."
2. Tuesday: "We regret any embarrassment caused to Rev. Jones by a typographical error in yesterday’s paper. The ad should have read: ’The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale, cheap...Telephone 626-1313 and ask for Mrs. Donnelley, who lives with him after 7 p.m.’"
3. Wednesday: "The Rev. A.J. Jones informs us that he has received several annoying telephone calls because of an incorrect ad in yesterday’s paper. It should have read: ’The Rev. A.J. Jones has one color TV set for sale, cheap. Telephone 626-1313 after 7 p.m. and ask for Mrs. Donnelley who loves with him.’"
4. Thursday: "Please take notice that I, the Rev. A.J. Jones, have no color TV set for sale; I have smashed it. Don’t call 626-1313 anymore. I have not been carrying on with Mrs. Donnelley. She was, until yesterday, my housekeeper.’"
2. It's horrible to be misunderstood.  In our text this morning, Paul learns that lesson.  There are some lessons there that we might learn also
1. God will reveal Himself.
1. He continues to do so throughout creation
2. He will do so amid the hearts and lives of all humanity.
2. Sometimes God and the Kingdom news is misunderstood
1. People only hear what they will
2. People try to place things into familiar boxes.
3. People react from places of comfort and fear of change.
3. It's often necessary to start with the basics
1. Begin at the beginning
2. Explain the nature and heart of God
3. Assume no prior knowledge
4. Above all, avoid the temptation to receive praise and worship for yourself.
1. Don't "play along" with  their misunderstandings simply because that's the easier way.
2. Set the example in repentance and humility.