UNSEEN FRUIT

Acts 14:8-20

            Having been driven out of Iconium, Paul and Barnabas moved on to Lystra.  They did not go to a synagogue and there is no synagogue mentioned so we conclude there were not enough Jews in Lystra to merit one.  (There had to be ten male heads of households in a town in order to have a synagogue.)  So the brothers preached wherever they could.  One day Paul spotted a man listening to him who was crippled.  Luke discovers later that the man had been crippled from birth.  Seeing that the man had come to believe Paul commanded him to stand up and he was healed.

            Now we see that if there were many Jews in Lystra they had not influenced the pagan people very much!  Because the crippled man was healed the people immediately concluded that Paul and Barnabas were Zeus and Hermes who had returned to the Lystra Valley.  There was an ancient legend that said the two gods had come to the valley centuries before disguised as humans.  They went door to door and were turned away at every one until one poor, elderly couple invited them in and provided for them.  Afterwards, Zeus and Hermes took them to a hilltop while they flooded and destroyed the entire valley and all those who had rejected them.  Then the gods turned their humble cottage into a great temple in which the old couple served until their deaths.

            The people of Lystra would not make the same mistake twice!  They praised Paul and Barnabas as if they were the returned gods!  The priest of the temple brought oxen to sacrifice!  Paul and Barnabas did everything they could to convince the people they were merely men like them who had brought a message from the true God.

            It appears that somewhere in the crowds were Jews from Antioch and Iconium who had hunted Paul and Barnabas down!  They persuaded the people that the apostles were charlatans and trouble-makers.  The adoring crowd immediately turned into an angry mob and stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city leaving him for dead.  Paul’s disciples gathered around his body, perhaps prepared to protect their leader from further mutilation.  They were probably discussing what to do with the body when Paul rose up and went back into the city!  What amazing courage!  The next day the apostles left for Derbe.

            Lystra appears to have been an epic failure!  There is no mention of even one person believing the message and being converted!  Verse 21 says they revisited all the cities on their way home “strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith,” but there is no specific mention of any believers in Lystra.  How discouraging!

            When we get to chapter 16 we find that Paul and Silas return to Lystra.  When they get there they find a young believer by the name of Timothy who joins their team and becomes a key figure in the 1^st century church.  He travels with Paul.  He becomes the pastor of the church in Ephesus.  He is the recipient of two epistles from Paul.  He came from Lystra!

            We don’t know when Timothy came to faith.  He was already a believer when Paul returned to Lystra on his second journey.  Paul and Barnabas planted the seed of the gospel in Lystra and saw no fruit whatsoever.  Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit was at work behind the scenes.  The seed grew, unobserved to the apostles, and the fruit of that seed was Timothy.

            We never really know what the Holy Spirit will do with the seed we plant when we bear witness to people.  It may well appear that nothing is happening.  It may seem like we failed.  We may not be able to observe the seed taking root and growing.  But Lystra and Timothy are perfect examples of what God can and will do when we faithfully bear witness!  We have no reason to become discouraged and give up.  Just as Paul got up from the ground and went back into the city and then returned a few years later, we should keep going back again and again and sharing the truth about what God has done in our lives and what he will do for all who believe in Jesus Christ!

SO THEY REMAINED...

Acts 14;1-3

            “Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed.  But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.  So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord…”

            So Paul and Barnabas moved on from Antioch because the Jews there stirred up persecution against them and drove them out of the area.  But what did they do when they arrived in Iconium?  They went straight back to the synagogue!  The negative experience in Antioch did not turn them off to taking the message to the Jews first in Iconium!  Why did they stick with the Jews?  They knew they were called to do this and they were going to remain faithful to the calling they received from God.  So even if they were going to run into more trouble in Iconium they stayed the course and obeyed.  A reminder to us to remain faithful to God’s calling to bear witness faithfully no matter what the response we receive!

            Sure enough, the “unbelieving Jews” were very displeased with the wonderful response to the gospel in Iconium and they set about stirring up opposition against the apostles.  It is interesting that the Greek word for “unbelieving” could be literally translated “disobedient.”  The Jews who did not receive and believe the gospel of Jesus were being disobedient!  It was not just a matter of religious preference; it was a matter of disobedience!  The God who created their nation, protected and grew them in Egypt, guided them through the wilderness, gave them the law and the prophets, and the promises of the messiah/Savior, did not send his Son along with an option of accepting or rejecting him!  The Jewish people were commanded to honor and glorify their messiah when he came to them.  Their failure to do this was an act of disobedience.  The offer of the gospel to people today is much more than simply a religious option.  The God of the universe who created all people and who intends to create a planet in which all people obey and worship him does not simply offer Jesus as Savior but demands humble submission to him!  It seems the very least we can do as Christians is tell people about this God and his Son and what is expected of them!  If they reject Christ they are disobedient!

            Finally, Paul and Barnabas were experiencing the same kind of opposition and potential persecution they experienced in Antioch.  The Jews “poisoned the minds” of the Gentiles against them.  Time to leave, right?  Time to move on!  Time to shake the dust from their robes and go to the next city!  The next words of the text are just so matter of fact; “So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord…”  That just leaves me both amazed and rebuked.  It is as if they said to one another, “Wow!  There is a lot of opposition to the good news here!  We need to stay for a long time and keep teaching!”  We face little opposition to the gospel.  And when we do meet with opposition we are more likely to give up and move on.  Instead, we should pray and press on!  Never give up!  Keep bearing witness; keep teaching; keep loving people in Jesus’ name!