Thriving in the Storm
Read Acts 14:1-7
Paul and Barnabas are still preaching among the Gentiles. Evangelism doesn’t come easy when you are sharing a new thought amongst people who have been accustomed to worshiping hundreds of deities. This message of Jesus was causing the people of what is now Turkey, to rearrange their whole thinking. Some were open to listening, but some wanted to kill them for the things they were saying.
Are you willing to die for the message? Are you willing to give it all up for Jesus?
It’s easy to say yes without truly understanding what that could entail. Examine your heart and be honest with yourself. Could you walk away from everyone and everything if God asked you to? How do you thrive in the storm created by sin?
Read Acts 14: 8-18
This is an odd predicament Paul and Barnabas find themselves in. Things go from extremely dangerous with a stoning to worship and awe. How fickle the human heart is.
Pride, as with satan, could have been a stumbling block in this situation. We think we are safe from that kind of pride, but have you ever felt so important that you needed to be the voice giving the message in tongues or the interpretation? That you question the message because it wasn’t given to you? Have you ever pushed yourself in at the altar because it was your hand that needed to lay on the one being prayed for? Have you ever felt important to be noticed when God uses you? Do you make sure that your name is announced to be noticed for some action or some title?
Again, we have to be brutally honest with ourselves. I’m not asking you to acknowledge it aloud. But in your heart of hearts, examine motives. Pride is a stinking sin with demons attached. Putrid.
Read Acts 14:19-28
Three very important points must be made from this passage.
Paul stoned but God saved his life. DIVINE PROTECTION
Psalm 121 I will lift up my eyes to the hills—From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel Shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, Nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in From this time forth, and even forevermore.
2. “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”
James 1: 2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
3. They appointed elders in every church,
and prayed with fasting,
they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Exodus 18: 13-22 And so it was, on the next day, that Moses sat to judge the people; and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. So when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?”
And Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a difficulty, they come to me, and I judge between one and another; and I make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
So Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself. Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you.
There is so much meat in this chapter. I want to focus on the fact that Paul and Barnabas were moving through what is now Turkey; a place that was predominantly Roman Gentiles. They had turned from focusing on the Jews to ministering also to the Gentiles as God had commanded them.
It was not an easy task. These two suffered much during their time in these cities. This chapter names 8 cities. It was something that Luke, who was a companion of Paul’s, felt important to add into this chapter. Why would the Holy Spirit tell details of their travels?
Possibly to give credence to the work they did for the kingdom, but I think there’s other importance there as well. Let’s look at each of these cities and see how we might apply the information to our own lives. God delights in deep dives.
These cities were fraught with dangers, persecutions, and possible death for the disciples of Jesus. Each city, if we look at the name deeper, brings with it its own form of danger for believers.Things that create a perfect storm - you can either be washed away and destroyed or you can man the ship and persevere traversing the waters that God has placed you in.
Iconium - This city in modern day Turkey, is situated on an important Roman road from Ephesus to Tarsus, Antioch and the Euphrates.
Iconium is derived from the familiar noun meaning image or icon, possibly on account of a legend that involved Perseus' conquest of the region by means of an image of Medusa: The name Iconium literally means City Of The Image, and may perhaps indeed be named after some sacred effigy.
2 Timothy 3: 10-11 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
Paul talks about how dangerous it was for him in this city. He’s warning Timothy about it. Iconium, the city of the Image.
Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;
When Jesus came and fulfilled the law, He didn’t abolish the 10 commandments.
Matthew 22: 37-38 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.
God does not share! We can put nothing before the jealous God who is Jehovah!
Exodus 34:14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
We think of images and we picture little Buddha statues or the foul statues that have been erected in New York, Texas, and even Michigan. We cry out to God in repentance for our nation. But bring it on home.
God will not share his place in your life with a job, He won’t share with your spouse, nor your children. He won’t share with wealth or fame. If you think to get out of Iconium without answering to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords…you are sadly mistaken. He is perfectly clear. We are to worship Him only!
2. Lystra - The formal meaning of the name Lystra is lost, but to a Greek audience it may have sounded like Loose Goats, Pain Relief or City Of Madness.
The name Lystra might perhaps also be construed to have had to do with the verb meaning rage or fury. The word denotes someone who is raging or raging mad.
Psalm 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, They have done abominable works, There is none who does good.
Fools, not wise men, reject God, and sin invites Satan into a person's mind. Ultimately, his influence causes madness. Evil people cannot control their desires, and society cannot control them, so crime rages on. Living God's way of life as revealed in the life of Christ is the answer. God provides the right mind to produce the fruit of the Spirit, including self-control. There’s no controlling loose goats and madness; but with Jesus, there is wholeness and order.
Luke 8:35 – The people went out to see what had happened; and they came to Jesus, and found the man from who the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they became frightened.
Until a person comes to Christ, it is impossible for them to reason or think correctly about spiritual things. What seems perfectly obvious to the mature believer is simply foolishness to the one who refuses to surrender their mind and heart to God.
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Lystra, aka madness or being a loose destructive goat is a dangerous place to be. Without bathing our minds daily in the word of God, it is difficult to stay in the right mind of Christ.
3. Derbe - It's unclear what the name Derbe means, or even from which language it stems. The Latin word derbiosus means scabby and denotes a pustular skin disease.
In the biblical era, leprosy was not only a physical affliction but also a potent symbol of sin, uncleanness, and spiritual separation.
Sin that is not cared for will fester and wreak havoc in our lives; the worst of it being separated from God.
Repentance is a crucial step to being in right standing with God.
Luke 13:3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Unrepented sin, however, brings despair. We live in a country that might as well be called Derbe, a place of sin and uncleanness. It’s dangerous to serve God here. The opposition against God is no longer something that people hide.
We used to say that you shouldn’t talk about politics or religion…now people thrive on the argument. No one holds their tongue from making snide and derogatory remarks. No one stays silent if they have nothing nice to say…we puke every foul thing out of our mouths.
It takes a brave person to carry the message of Christ into such an atmosphere as this. We have to have very broad shoulders to carry on in this type of storm. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me is a very false statement.
Ezekiel 24:13-15
"It is sin that makes you unclean. I have tried to make you clean, but you would not be made clean from your sins. So you will not be clean again until My anger against you is finished"
Isaiah 64:6
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away".
Matthew 15
"But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean'". Jesus says that evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander are what make a person unclean.
4. Antioch - Place That Has The Empire's Back, Town Of Imperial Meaning opposite, and Antichrist is a related word.
The city name Antioch comes from the personal name Antiochus which derives from the verb to support or hold against (collapse or assault).
On occasion it describes the contrariness of an adversary, but more often it means instead of, and indicates previousness or even substitution (such as the antichrist being substituted for the Messiah).
On the very surface, we know that the antichrist will bring a collapse or assault on every person who has been made in the image of God. He hates us. Many of us are watching the signs and looking at everything going on and everyone involved to tell who this evil one is.
1 John 2:18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
1 John 2:22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
1 John 4:3 And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
We may be looking for the one called the antichrist, but I say to you today that anything that stands in opposition to Christ is antiChrist. That spirit has been prevalent for eons. Be wary of any teacher or supposed religion that doesn’t believe in the divine nature of Jesus. If you stand with that teaching, you are standing against Jesus.
Make sure that your beliefs are founded in scripture. It’s fine to surmise things and ask God about them, but stand only on the Word of God!
Leave Antioch in tact with rightly dividing the word of God and being alert for false teacher. They will lead you down the path of destruction.
5. Pisidia - The meaning is unclear. Pisidia was proverbially rough and mountainous and hard to traverse. Its informal collection of Pisidian tribes were wild and unruly.
Some commentators surmise that Paul was thinking of his perilous journeys through Pisidia when he wrote:
"I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen,..". (2 Corinthians 11:26).
The Bible talks about being rough and unruly.
1Thessalonians 5:14, "14 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone."
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Now obviously, we don’t take the unruly to the gates of the city to be stoned, but God is serious about living within the confines of the laws and being submissive to those who govern over you. Rebellion is not to be tolerated.
Leave Psidia, for within the chaos of those travels, there is only heartache.
6. Pamphylia - The name Pamphylia literally means All The Tribes, or The Whole Of Human Nature. The Pamphylians sported a mostly Greek culture but were of proverbially mixed origin: traces of various indigenous tribes and several migrations abounded. The Pamphylians themselves considered themselves a multi-cultural and multi-ethnical union.
When you first consider Pamphylia, that sounds very good, very inclusive. It was an amalgamation of differing peoples and beliefs. They might even put a bumper sticker on their car that reads, coexist.
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
You cannot be a part of every belief’s camp. If you are a child of God, BE A CHILD OF GOD. You cannot be Buddhist, Confuscist, Hindu, Muslem, or any other religion that’s out there, and be Christian at the same time. That’s what the Bible calls being double minded.
James 1:6-8 "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways". It also says that someone who doubts is like a wave of the sea, tossed by the wind, and should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other".
You can see where the trouble lies in this type of inclusion. Again we go back to the fact that God is jealous, and He will share our devotion with no one and no thing.
7. Perga - Perga was a city in Pamphylia, once renowned for its temple of Artemis but nowadays mostly remembered as the city where young John Mark abandoned Paul and Barnabas. Abandonment; leaving the ministry; walking away from the will of the Father.
When people actively choose to ignore God's guidance or choose a different path than the one He has laid out, they are considered to be outside of His will.
The Bible warns that living outside of God's will can lead to negative consequences, including hardship, suffering, and separation from God.
Matthew 7:21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
Romans 12:2 "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Rebellion to the will of the Father is the same thing as witchcraft. If you want to enter Heaven, you must do the will of the Father. It’s that simple.
Being separated from God is as dangerous as it gets, for we are not promised tomorrow. Lean in to what He has called you to, knowing that you can do all things through Him who strengthens you. It may be scary; it may be hard, but you can do it because God equips you for everything He has called you to.
Perga is dangerous.
8. Attalia - Attalia is the daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Attalia may also refer to a city in the region of Pamphylia, which was a major port during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods.
The city was surrounded by two walls which were constructed at various times from material taken from the ruins of the ancient city; the outer wall was protected by a moat. The modern town, lying partly within and partly without the walls, is thus divided into quarters. In the southern quarter live the Christians; in the northern the Muslims.
Meaning to be exalted or dealt violently with, and the name of the Lord. The verb is not used in the Bible but it may be equivalent to an Arabic verb that means to deal violently with, and from which derives a word for lion.
And ultimately, these verbs may stem from an underlying idea that growing great and inflicting violence often coincides.
Three things I notice here:
The daughter of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel - the product of pure evil
Two walls - divided minds
Growing great coincides with violence - again pride and arrogance.
In the Bible, 1 Kings 18:13 says, "Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord".
Jezebel was the wife of Ahab and was known for her fierce energy and attempts to destroy those who opposed her. She persuaded Ahab to introduce the worship of Baal-Melkart, a nature god from Tyre, and ordered the killing of most of the prophets of Yahweh.
Obadiah hid 100 prophets of God in two caves to protect them from Jezebel. That’s how evil this woman was.
Following Jesus and standing for holiness and righteousness will always cause the enemy to destroy you. But all they can do is destroy the body…giving in to their beliefs by being double minded and full of pride will destroy the soul. This is far more serious, ending in an eternity of damnation.
We have to carry the gospel into dangerous places just like Paul and Barnabas. Granted, it may not be going in amongst a strange people group like missionaries do, but sometimes the natives are more kind and open than your next door neighbor.
Conclusion
As you can see, this chapter has so much meat. If you enjoy digging into scripture, I would recommend going past just reading the words on the page. There is so much for us to glean in every single word between the covers of the book.
Many trials and tribulations greet us in our walk for Christ. It’s not an easy walk. The Bible even calls it the narrow road that is difficult to traverse and not many choose it. To make it through to the end, we have to prepare, armor up, and determine in our hearts to withstand the storm that rages around us.
