Acts 14:8-20 “Hurt & Healing”

Upon Request, I have drawn a map of the travel that Paul is doing right now with Barnabas. John has left them since leaving Cyprus. So, they are no longer PB&J. Now they are just PB–Paul and Barnabas. So, remembering that last week we went with PB & J from Antioch to the island of Cyprus. They landed at Salamis on the western shore and made it to Paphos and converted the proconsul Sergius Paulus. After this, they board another ship and head north to the port at Perga. They then went on foot to the town of Antioch of Pisidia.

What? Didn’t they start in Antioch? Yes, there are two cities named after Antiochus. He was after all the greatest king of the Seleucid empire. Just think of it like Waimea being on the Big Island, Oahu, and obviously here on Kauai. We see that this Antioch is quite different. They are not accepting the gospel of Jesus, and in fact, they end up stoning Paul for being a blasphemer. Well, that is not fun. What kind of summer vacation is this?

Paul jumps back to life with Barnabus by his side and travels on to the next town over. This is Iconium. Once again the local Jewish population wants to stone them, but Paul and Barnabas learn of the plot and continue their travels to a really small village to the south called Lystra. That is where we pick up the story today.

They meet a man in Lystra who has been disabled from birth and unable to walk. Paul stares intently into his eyes. The Greek here implies that the lame man stared right back into Paul’s eyes. “I see faith in this man,” Paul states. Paul prays over him and tells him “to stand up.” This is the same word as “resurrect yourself” in Greek. Paul in essence commands the man to be resurrected! Cool! What a cool gift just to be able to look in someone’s eyes and see faith in that person! That is a gift of discernment as well as healing.

The people of Lystra who witness this healing make the mistake of misunderstanding who did the healing. They call Paul and Barnabas the Greek gods Hermes and Zeus. Outside of Lysta is a Greek temple to the God Zeus, so the priest starts bringing in bulls, probably about twelve of them to do it right. The priest dressed up the necks of the bulls with garlands, getting them ready to be sacrificed.

I want us to focus on this statement that Paul makes when he is trying to stop the people in Lystra from calling him the god Hermes. Paul says, “Look, we are only human.” Anybody remember the number one hit song from 1986? That is right: “We’re Only Human.” Here Paul and Barnabas tear their tunics to show that they really are only humans.

How often when we goof up our lives do we try to excuse our behavior by saying: “I am only human!”? Isn’t that demeaning in a way. Here we are, created by God in God’s own image and we try to excuse ourselves by saying that it is in our nature to be goof-ups—that God somehow created us to be goof-ups. In reality, we are goof-ups only because WE goofed-up, not God! You are God’s wonderful creation and God wants you healed.

We have to read Paul’s statement in context. He is not saying, “I am merely mortal and therefore not divine.” He is in fact stating “I am merely mortal as you are and within all of us is the divine light of God.” He is not saying, “I am only human!” He is saying, “We are all children of the one true God.” So, the next time you are tempted to shrug your shoulders and say, “Well, I am only human!” you perhaps ought to say, “I am only a child of God!”

Do you recall when Jesus was giving his Sermon on the Mount and he turned to all of the people gathered there and said, “This is how you ought to pray. . . “? What did he say next? He addressed God with the words “Our Father who art in heaven.” Note that he did not address God with “My Father in heaven.” Jesus told us that we are all to pray as children of the Almighty that even though Jesus is the true Son of God, we are all also children of God.

In Revelation 20-21, there is an image of the Second Coming of Christ in the End Times that I want to share with you. God Himself is sitting on a grand white throne in heaven. At His command all of the dead arise. Everyone who has ever lived is before that throne. Also there is a “Book of Life.” In this book is a list of names. Then there are other books. in those books everyone’s deeds on this planet are recorded. God is there just checking the names against whether that person has lived a righteous life or not.

Immediately two names are found not to be written in the Book of Life. This makes sense. The first name is “death” and the second name is “Satan.” These two are thrown down into a lake of fire and are destroyed. Death and evil are destroyed. Yeah! After this the throne of God descends to earth. Just as in the Garden of Eden, God dwells once more among his children. Then we can read these lines from Revelation 21:7-8, “Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted (and you know the list goes on), their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

The idea “You are only human” is the thing that Satan says to trick you to end up in the fire pit in the end with him. We are children of God. And, our names are written in that heavenly Book of Life. You know, we are human in so far as we make mistakes and get upset and need constant forgiveness in our lives from God and each other, but we are also so much more. We are the children of God.

When we look at our lives, we get down sometimes because things are not exactly perfect. We don’t always get everything that we want exactly when we want it. Sometimes the price of gas goes up. Sometimes our neighbors bother us. Sometimes you just wash the church van and a flock of seabirds take target practice on the roof.

I think about what kind of a day Saint Paul had in Lystra, and I am almost ashamed that I could compare any day I have ever lived to his one day in ministry in Lystra. On the plus side, mind you, he was able to heal a man who had been unable to walk before and drew a big crowd. On the minus side, he was stoned by that same crowd. Yes, once again Paul is stoned. This is now the second time in this vacation he is taking. As it turned out, some of those same people that stoned him in Antioch of Pisidia followed him all the way to Lystra. They riled up the crowd against Paul–despite the incredible miracle he just performed in the name of Christ.

Most of us do not go on vacation thinking that when we arrive we are going to have to be beaten up by the locals. We take great pains to avoid conflicted areas and be non-confrontational. We certainly do not want to sustain injuries or even get sick. That is just miserable.

The most amazing thing about Paul’s stoning is that after the people have stoned him, he just pops up and says “Okay then, let’s go now on down to Derbe to see what kind of ministry we can do down there.” That is by the way a 60 kilometer walk. After you get stoned nearly to death, there is nothing better than taking a walk, right?!

As my next point this morning: If you were not already stoned by an angry crowd this morning, you are probably doing okay. Just remember that Jesus was beaten, humiliated, and nailed to a cross while his friends abandoned him one by one. Jesus got right back up and in the game again! Paul got right back up and in the game again after his stoning. That is part of our Christian witness! Amen to that?!

When bad things happen to us, we might consider that there is this guy whispering into God’s ear, like he did in the Book of Job, “I bet that believer down there on planet earth will forsake you if I make his life hard enough for him or her!” Do you remember that wager that Satan made that Job would curse God if his pleasant life was taken away from him. Job suffered tremendously, but he stayed faithful to God throughout and was vindicated in the end.

Yes, this is the Devil’s wager against our faith! When bad things happen, the Devil is betting on our failure. I am not a betting person, really. However, I already know who is going to win every hand! So, when I am playing blackjack with Satan and I have a face card showing, I say “hit me”! It doesn’t matter what my hand is, the pot belongs already to God. Don’t you let the Devil win what belongs to God!

The journey continues on to Derbe. The only thing we hear about in Derbe is that a lot of people believed. Yeah. Success. Then, Paul heads back to Lystra, Iconium, and all the way back to Antioch where they started. We will hear more about this part of the vacation journey next week.

See you for the next leg of the journey! Amen