Thorburn-Sutherland's River Pastoral Charge

O God, we seek your wisdom and truth in the Scriptures. Send your Holy Spirit upon us to open our minds and hearts to receive the gift of your Word. Challenge and comfort us in what we hear, and strengthen us to follow Jesus, your Living Word. Amen

Three Sundays ago, we left our two intrepid missionaries, Paul and Barnabas, in the process of being driven out of the town of Antioch by an unruly mob. Here’s how the Apostle Luke described that scene, “But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.” (Acts 13:50)

What had taken place was that they had come into Antioch and on the Sabbath had gone to the local synagogue. During worship they had been asked by the leaders if they had anything they wished to share with the congregation. Paul stood up and addressed the people telling them that Jesus Christ was the long-promised Messiah for Israel. As a result, this is what happened, “As they went out, the people begged that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him.” (Acts 13:42-45) And because of that jealousy the Jewish leaders had incited a crowd to force Paul and Barnabas out of town.

Now this morning we find them in Iconium, a town about 90 miles south of Antioch. And despite being thrown out of Antioch, Paul and Barnabas had left a core number of new believers there, of whom Luke says, “…were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” They had shared God’s message and those new believers would be key in building up the Christian faith in that town.

Now, as was their custom, Paul and Barnabas went to the local synagogue to worship. This is what took place, “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.”

This is becoming a pattern for Paul and Barnabas, they enter a town, speak in the synagogue and many of the listeners come to accept Jesus as their Saviour. But then the leaders see their power and influence beginning to slip away, they become jealous and work to incite the crowds against them. The problem with that is not that some of the Jews rejected the message of Paul and Barnabas, Jesus himself cautioned his disciples of that when he had warned them, “‘Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.’” (Matthew 7:21), no, the trouble is not in their disbelief, but rather it lies in them inciting others to reject Jesus as well.

And yet, despite such hostility, Luke says, “… they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” But those Jewish leaders in Iconium were persistent in their opposition, and so after a period of time Paul and Barnabas were forced, once again, to flee for their lives.

From there they entered another town, Lystra, where they were about to encounter opposition of another kind. To begin with things were going well, Paul was able to heal a man crippled from birth. Here’s how Luke describes that incident, “Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking.”

It's important to note the words, “And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well.” Paul’s ability to heal him was based on the man’s faith, it was that man’s confidence that God, through his servant, Paul, could heal him that made him be able to walk for the first time in his life. Paul couldn’t do that on his own. God’s intention for this miracle healing was to show his love for mankind, to show the power and truth of the gospel and encourage the other believers who witnessed the miracle.

But unfortunately, it had some unexpected fallout. This is what happened, “And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” Barnabas, they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.” Not knowing about the God of Israel, nor his son, Jesus Christ, some of the people of Lystra mistook Paul and Barnabas for the gods which the Greek people worshipped at that time. They thought that Barnabas was Zeus, who the chief god we often heard about in Greek mythology and Paul was Hermes, who was the messenger for Zeus.

This was not at all what Paul and Barnabas were hoping for. And to make matters worse, the local pagan priest arrived from the temple of Zeus and brought with him oxen, which he was preparing to offer as a sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas. Suddenly, it became clear to these two missionaries that they were being worshipped as though they were pagan gods. And certainly, they had no desire or intention of receiving the worship of men, they knew that it was only the God of Israel, the one true God, who deserved to be glorified.

Yet even in the midst of this chaos, Paul finds an opportunity to bear witness to God by adapting his message to his Gentile audience. But before he can tell them about Jesus the Messiah, he must tell them about the one true God. He urges them to “turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.”  Only with great difficulty were Paul and Barnabas finally able to put an end to this heathen ritual of honouring them as “gods.” It is astonishing how they persevered in those early days and how many difficulties they surpassed thanks to their faithfulness to God.

So, in summary we’ve seen Paul and Barnabas driven out of two towns, Antioch and Iconium, for trying to preach the message of Jesus Christ as the Messiah for the world to the people living there. And in a third town, Lystra, Paul’s attempt to show the love of God for mankind by the healing of a lame man is met with confusion. Some of the people there mistaking them for gods of mythology and treating them harshly.

In each case it is the refusal of people to accept others for who they are that lies at the root of the problem. And things are no different today, I constantly hear of church leaders worrying about the number of immigrants who are coming to North America. And their concern is not in the people themselves, but rather it’s about the religions they are bringing with them. They see Christianity losing its power and prestige and fading away. It seems like they want to restrict immigration and keep us from being a welcoming place.

But what we should be doing is looking at Canada as our mission field. Not that we stop supporting overseas missions, they have been, and always will be vitally important, but we now can practice mission much closer to home, even in our own communities. If we’re not careful we will miss opportunities to reach to those in our own communities who do not know God. And with the prevalence of secularism in our world, it is not just newcomers anymore who do not know God, there are many, many all around us. But there are also many, many opportunities for us to share the love and hope of God through our Saviour, Jesus.

In the first chapter of Acts, Jesus gave this command to his followers, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) And that applies every bit as much to us today, we’re to take the gospel to the ends of the earth while not neglecting the Jerusalem of our day, which is our mission field at home. It is important for us, as disciples of Christ to identify and then reach out to those who have had the least exposure to the gospel. And these least-reached people may very well be your neighbours.

Let us Pray:

Lord Jesus, you gave your people a duty to fulfill here on earth. You said to them “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”. Lord, I pray that this will be the mission of our church. I ask that you keep our hearts and minds open so that we willingly seek to touch those outside the four walls of our church; those who do not know you. So many have turmoil and pain in their lives. Give us the faith to help us reach them with your everlasting love and peace. Amen