Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

By Staying the Course 02/15/09

Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging our Vision

                Title: ‘By Staying the Course’    Text: Acts 14

Introduction: When the world trade center was bombed in 2001 President Bush said we would “stay the course” in our fight against terror.

To stay the course means “to stand firm in pursuing a goal or course of action, to persevere in the face of whatever challenges or obstacles one may encounter (Leland Patrick)

But it’s not always easy to ‘stay the course’ is it? All of us need help from time to time. When you will read about the lives of those you thought were successful and had it all together, you’ll find they didn’t have it any easier than the rest of us.

ILL: Take John Wesley for instance, one of the greatest preachers...ever! Here’s one page from his journal.

·       Sunday a.m., May 5 - Preached in St. Ann’s; was asked not to come back anymore.

·       Sunday p.m., May 5 - Preached in St. John’s; deacons said, ’Get out and stay out.’

·       Sunday a.m., May 12 - Preached at St. Jude’s; can’t go back there either.

·       Sunday p.m., May 12 - Preached at St. George’s; kicked out again.

·       Sunday a.m., May 19 - Preached at St. Somebody Else’s; deacons called a special meeting and said I couldn’t return.

·       Sunday p.m, May 19 - Preached on the street; kicked off the street.

·       Sunday a.m., May 26 - Preached out in a meadow; chased out of meadow when a bull was turned loose during the service.

·       Sunday a.m., June 2 - Preached out at the edge of town; kicked off the highway.

·       Sunday p.m., June 2 - Afternoon service, preached in a pasture; 10,000 people came." (Bob Hartman)

·       John Wesley stayed the course! But it wasn’t easy.

Transition: Open your Bibles to Acts 14:1 (pg. 843 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it’s there we’ll discover we enlarge our vision for God by staying the course.

I. Acts 14:1-7          Stay one who is faithful

Read: Acts 14:1-7

Arriving at Iconium, Paul and Barnabas resumed their usual approach to sharing the Gospel…they went to the local synagogue. They remained faithful to God’s plan…the Jew first, then the

Gentiles.

And notice the text says ‘…a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed.’ But, as was also the norm where Paul and Barnabas went, there were those who didn’t believe, and those who worked to keep others from believing. It was no different at Iconium.

So what do Paul and Barnabas do in the face of opposition, in the face of rejection? They decide to stay in town a little longer and speak boldly for Jesus Christ. Staying the course for Paul and Barnabas meant being faithful…hanging in there, doing what they were called to do even in the face of opposition, even when it wasn’t easy.

The result was many joyfully placed their faith in Jesus Christ and many strongly rejected their preaching as well. The text tells us ‘The people of the city were divided…’ You see, it’s impossible to remain neutral when it comes to Jesus. Everyone takes sides:

·       They are either a friend of God or an enemy of God.

·       They have either accepted Jesus as their Savior or they have rejected Jesus as their Savior.

·       They are either in submission to God’s will or rebelling against it.

·       They are either heaven bound or hell bent.

There is no middle ground.

Before I leave this section, I want to mention something about the signs and miracles done here by Paul and Barnabas.

I believe in the supernatural. I believe in miracles and signs. I will never limit God’s ability to do anything He wants, any time He wants. Even if I don’t understand what He is doing.

But…sometimes the signs and miracles we see in Scripture are meant to be a sort of a parable for us. Yes they happened, but there is something more to them than just the sign or miracle. Let me explain.

·       Some people struggle for years to free themselves from habits, thoughts and attitudes that are harmful to them and perhaps to others, and are never able to do it.

·       But, when they come to Jesus, the chains fall off, the burdens are lifted and they are free!

·       We gave God thanks for just that in our Celebrate Recovery small group on Thursday night.

There is a supernatural element or character that must be present and seen in all of God’s children. When people look at us if all they see is our education, personality or background, then we’ll look just like everyone else.

BUT, if they look at us and scratch their head in wonder because they just can’t figure out how we can do the things we do, then that’s God at work, that’s the supernatural, in us…everyday!

When people see that in us, we will be the signs and miracles God provides to help them come to faith in Jesus.

OK…back to the text. Paul and Barnabas, hearing there’s a plan to kill them, leave town.

·       Paul and Barnabas were brave, not foolish.

·       Paul and Barnabas were born again, not born yesterday.

God wants to protect his children, but he also wants us to use our common sense. It was time to leave town.

Transition: Paul and Barnabas stayed the course by being faithful.

II. Acts 14:8-20          Stay one who is humble

Read: Acts 14:8-20

Here we have two different but related events.

·       The healing of a man born crippled.

·       The humility of 2 men born again.

It seems there wasn’t a synagogue in Lystra as none was mentioned. Perhaps Paul and Barnabas were doing a bit of street evangelism.

Well, they come across a man who was born crippled…he couldn’t walk. Listen again to how the text describes him.

‘In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. He was listened to Paul as he was speaking.’

The idea here is, the crippled man was looking intently at Paul and truly listening to what he was saying. Paul could see in his eyes that he was genuinely interested in the Gospel

It is said that eye contact helps people in almost any walk of life.

·       Salvation Army bell ringers claim they almost always get a donation if they make eye contact with the people as they walk by.

·       Salespeople who make eye contact with customers  say they generally make larger sales.

·       Parents often find eye contact the most effective way of getting their children’s attention.

·       In seminary we’re taught that when preaching make eye contact with the people in the congregation as this will help them connect with you and with what you’re saying. There is also a down side to this…we see those who are distracted, those who don’t like what we’re saying, those who are struggling with sleep and those who have lost the struggle.

This crippled man wasn’t asleep when Paul was speaking and Paul seeing the faith in his eyes tell him ‘Stand up on your feet!’ And he does.

And in that moment 2 miracles happened

·       the man could walk

·       and he had stepped across the line between hell and heaven. He became a man of faith…in Jesus Christ who not only relieved him of his physical burden (his crippled feet) but of his spiritual burden (sin).

Well, the crowd saw this and they cry out ‘The gods have come down to us in human form.’ And they prepare to worship Paul and Barnabas with a sacrificial bull and wreaths.

Now, it would have been very easy for Paul and Barnabas to feel pretty good about themselves…people getting saved and they just healed a man…how cool. Come on, this really isn’t worship…it’s just their way of showing thanks.

ILL: It reminds me of the story of a pastor who felt he really hit a home run one Sunday with the sermon. He felt that day would make a lasting impact on everyone who showed up to hear him speak. He went home and asked his wife ‘Honey, how many truly great preachers do you think there are in this world? She replied ‘One less than you think dear.’ (Jerry Shirley)

No…what the townspeople were going to do was worship, and God will not share his glory with another. So, Paul and Barnabas display great humility when they plead with the people not to worship them…but to worship the one True God

instead.

This is where it gets interesting. Notice Paul and Barnabas do not share the gospel the same way they did in the synagogues.

·       In the synagogues the people knew about God and what he had done, they had the Old Testament scriptures.

·       These people were pagans…not Jews and not God-fearing Gentiles and they knew nothing of the OT Scriptures.

So Paul and Barnabas speak to them differently…they speak of God’s general revelation in nature and how he cares for all people…even them.

But when Paul started to say their gods were ‘worthless things’ and when the instigators from Antioch and Iconium came, the people’s demeanor rapidly changed from worship to warfare, from happiness to hatred.

They were OK as long as you didn’t ask them to change anything about themselves…sound familiar?

So, Paul is not able to get away and is stoned by the townspeople who leave him for dead.

·       Perhaps this event is what Paul referred to in

2 Corinthians 11:25 ‘Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea’

Galatians 6:17 ‘Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.’

·       Perhaps Paul was thinking about Stephen and how he stood by when Stephen was stoned for sharing the Good News of Jesus in Jerusalem.

·       Just one more perhaps…Perhaps a young Timothy was there in the crown that day when Paul was stoned. Coming up in Acts 16:1 we’ll find that Timothy and his mother were from Lystra.

After everyone leaves, the new believers come to get Paul’s body and find him alive. They take him back to the city perhaps to mend his wounds. Then we read Paul and Barnabas leave the next day.

Conclusion

ILL: Can you remember the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, in which hundreds of Americans were killed or wounded as they slept? I can still see the terrible scene as the dazed survivors worked to dig out their trapped brothers from beneath the rubble.

A few days after the tragedy, Marine Corps Commandant Paul Kelly, visited some of the wounded survivors in a hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. Among them was Corporal Jeffrey Nashton, who was severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that a witness said he looked more like a machine than a man; yet he survived.

As Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and racked with pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it back to the Commandant. On the slip of paper were only two words -- "Semper Fi" the Latin motto of the Marines meaning "forever faithful."

With those two simple words Nashton spoke for the millions of Americans who have sacrificed body, limb and life for their country -- those who have remained faithful.(J. Dobson & Gary Bauer)

We can learn much from the two words…forever faithful. Here are a few more we can learn from.

·       Be encouraged!

·       Fight the good fight!

·       Do not give up?

·       You are not defeated!

·       Over and over we read this in Scripture but we must believe it in our heart.

By God’s redemptive work, you have been set apart.

·       You are a son, a daughter of God, a child of the King!

·       The God of heaven and earth who had redeemed you from Satan’s hand, declares you righteous in Christ Jesus.

·       In declaring you righteous in Christ, God has placed within the soil of your heart the precious imperishable seed of eternal life. Eternal life.

·       The forces of evil cannot destroy the works of God and you are God’s greatest work.

When we believe that, we find strength to stay the course and we enlarge our vision of God.