HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 14:8-20
Paul and Barnabas at Lystra; or, the Gospel among Barbarians
I. The miracle at Lystra.—
1. The subject. “A certain man, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked” (compare Acts 3:2). “The three phrases are like three beats of a hammer; there is no fine literary style in this device, but there is real force which arrests and compels the reader’s attention. Luke uses the triple beat in other places for the same purpose—e.g., Acts 13:6, ‘Magian, false prophet, Jew’ and Acts 16:6-7, according to the true text” (Ramsay, St. Paul, etc., p. 115). The cripple, who was obviously no professional mendicant but one whose sad history was well known, was, besides being a proper subject for benevolent assistance, manifestly one whom supernatural aid alone could restore to health.
2. The place. Most likely in the street at some public resort, as Lystra does not appear to have had a synagogue, the Jews in that rude and uncultivated region being probably a mere handful.
3. The time. When Paul was preaching and the cripple listening. “I, being in the way, the Lord led me” (Genesis 24:27). The Bezan text suggests that the lame man had been a proselyte before he came under Paul’s influence.
4. The agent. Paul, who had now taken complete precedence of Barnabas, who had already performed a miracle of judgment on the sorcerer (Acts 13:11), and who by the Lystrans was recognised as the chief speaker.
5. The manner.
(1) The apostle fastened his eyes upon the cripple as Peter had done on the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple (Acts 3:4), and as he himself had done on Elymas at Paphos (Acts 13:9). He had probably been arrested by the cripple’s eager look, and in turn had searched his inner soul with that penetrating glance which belongs only to souls filled with the Holy Ghost (Acts 13:9, Acts 23:1).
(2) Having perceived that the cripple had faith to be healed (literally, saved, but whether more than from his physical malady is impossible to tell), the apostle said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on thy feet! “Compare Peter’s address to the lame man (Acts 3:6), in which the name of Christ is invoked. That Paul omitted Christ’s name may be explained either by the brevity of the record, or by supposing Paul’s discourse had so clearly indicated the source of healing that this required no further mention.
(3) At once, without delay, the cripple “leaped and walked.” i.e., thrilled with a Divine power, he sprang to his feet (a single act like that in Acts 3:8), and began to step out as he had never done before.
II. The conduct of the Lystrans.
1. Their exclamation. Like Welshmen who, after listening to an address in English, revert to their mother tongue to find an outlet to their emotions, the Lystrans in their native dialect, the speech of Lycaonia (see “Critical Remarks”), shouted forth, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men,” and proceeded to identify Barnabas with Jupiter (Zeus) presumably on account of his combined majestic and benignant appearance, and Paul with Mercury (Hermes), not because of his bodily insignificance (2 Corinthians 10:1; 2 Corinthians 10:10), but because of his eloquence—“he was the chief speaker.” The belief that the gods were accustomed to visit the earth in human form widely prevailed among the ancients; that such a belief, especially with regard to Jupiter (Zeus), should have existed among the Lycaonians is not surprising considering that Lystra had a temple of Jupiter (Zeus) at its gates, and was thus, as it were, placed under the tutelage of the “Father of gods and men.” That Jupiter (Zeus) should have been accompanied by Mercury (Hermes) accorded also with their own traditions, one of which told of a visit made by these divinities to this very region (see Ovid’s story of Baucis and Philemon, Met., viii. 611, etc.).
2. Their action. The priest of Jupiter (Zeus), whether by himself or through his attendants, having procured oxen and garlands, caused them to be fetched “unto the gates”—i.e., to the temple, and, surrounded by the excited populace, would have offered sacrifice to the supposed divinities. Superstitious as the proposition was, it rebuked, and still rebukes, the lack of enthusiasm on the part of those who, though they know God, glorify Him not as God (Romans 1:21).
III. The protest of the apostles.—
1. The horror they displayed. Having learnt what the priest and people were about, Paul and Barnabas, as might have been expected of pious Jews, not to say enlightened Christians, with their strong monotheism, “sensitive conception of the awful majesty of the One True God,” and instinctive shrinking from the least approach to idolatry, “rent their garments, according to Jewish custom,” from the neck in front down towards the girdle (see “Critical Remarks”), and sprang forth—either from the city towards the temple, or from the house in which they lodged into the street, if the procession had not yet reached the temple—and dashed in among the excited and fanatic crowd.
2. The words they uttered.
(1) A question about the folly of the priest and people—“Sirs! why do ye these things?” An expostulation that might be addressed with propriety to many besides the Lystrans.
(2) A declaration about themselves and their mission, that they were ordinary mortals like the Lystrans, whom besides it was the object of their mission to turn from these vanities to serve the living God. These thoughts about ministers and their missions should be kept in mind both by ministers themselves and their hearers.
(3) A proclamation concerning God. His nature, as the living—i.e., self-existent and life-bestowing God (Deuteronomy 5:26; Psalms 42:2; Jeremiah 10:10; Daniel 6:26). His omnipotence, as the maker of the universe (Genesis 1:1; Nehemiah 9:6; Psalms 102:25). His justice, in suffering the heathen to go their own ways seeing they had first forsaken Him (compare Acts 7:42; Romans 1:24). His forbearance (according to a different interpretation of the verse) in allowing the nations to walk in their own ways without any manifestation of righteous indignation against them (compare Acts 17:30; Romans 3:25). His goodness, in giving them witness of Himself by sending them “rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness” (compare Matthew 5:45). On the course of the apostle’s argument, as illustrating his manner of dealing with the heathen, a remarkable light is shed by the apology of Aristides (see “Hints on Acts 14:15-17”).
3. The success they attained. They restrained, though with difficulty, the people from carrying out their design; that they obtained no deep hold on their hearts subsequent movements showed.
IV. The interference of the Jews.—
1. Whence these came. From Antioch and Iconium, where their hostility had been aroused and their rage baulked. Nearly every persecution Paul suffered proceeded from the Jews. However wrong, this was partly natural. No man likes apostates, and from the standpoint of the Jews Paul was an apostate of the first water.
2. How they proceeded. They stirred up the crowds who, besides being fickle, as all crowds are (compare Exodus 16:2; Exodus 17:4; Luke 23:21), were probably in a sullen and half hostile mood in consequence of having discovered that their visitors were not gods but ordinary mortals, and therefore most likely magicians and impostors.
3. What they effected. They so raised the mob that these “stoned Paul,” not beyond the precinets of the town, as the Jews had done to Stephen (Acts 7:58), but in the streets, where they were, “and dragged him out of the city, supposing he was dead.” See Paul’s allusion to this experience (2 Corinthians 11:25). How Barnabas escaped does not appear.
4. How far they failed.
(1) They did not kill him as they intended and supposed. “As the disciples stood round him he” came to, “rose up and entered into the city.”
(2) They did not detach from him all his friends in Lystra. The disciples gained there stood round his mangled body, when, like the carcase of a dead dog, it was thrown beyond the city, and received him into their homes, when, having revived, he returned into town.
(3) They did not prevent the prosecution of his missionary work. “On the morrow he went forth with Barnabas to Derbe.
Learn.—
1. The power of the gospel to work moral miracles.
2. The credibility of the doctrine of the incarnation.
3. The folly of idol worship,
4. The power, majesty, and goodness of God.
5. The rewards of the faithful.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 14:9. Faith to be saved.
I. Possible to all who need salvation.
II. Requisite for all who wish salvation.
III. Observed in all who seek salvation.
IV. Rewarded to all who obtain salvation.
Acts 14:8-10. The Lystra Cripple.
I. An object of sincere pity. Born lame, he had never walked.
II. A recipient of great privilege.—He heard Paul speak concerning Christ and salvation.
III. A subject of rich mercy.—He was healed in body and saved in soul.
IV. A monument of Divine grace.—Allowing to grace that he had been privileged to hear Paul, that his heart had been touched, that faith had been awaked, and that he had been healed and saved.
Acts 14:11. The gods are come down to us in the likeness of man.
I. The error contained in this declaration. That there were “gods,” heathen divinities, to come down to men.
II. The truth foreshadowed in this declaration. The incarnation of the Divine Son in the person of Jesus.
III. The lessons suggested by this declaration.
1. That the human heart instinctively believes in a gracious God who can and will and does hold fellowship with His creature man.
2. That the doctrine of an incarnation is by no means contrary to the intuitive con ceptions of the human mind.
3. That the gospel of Jesus Christ the incarnate Son can find a point of contact with man’s soul in the most benighted nations.
Grecian fables on the Subject of Lycaonia.—
1. The legend of Lycaon. See Ovid, Met., Acts 1:6. “The origin of the name Lycaonia is unknown, but as there happened to have been a king of Arcadia, called Lycaon, Greek invention soon discovered a connection. It was said that Lycaon had been warned by an oracle to found a city in the region of Lycaonia (why, it does not appear), and that the whole country thence derived its appellation. But further, Λύκος, or Lycus, a wolf, was so near in sound to Lycaon, that the resemblance was to be accounted for, and the ready-witted Greeks originated the fable, that when the earth was filled with wickedness Jupiter descended from the skies to satisfy himself of the fact, that he visited the house of Lycaon, and that the people around, when the god was recognised, were for paying him adoration; but that Lycaon mocked the servility of his subjects, and questioned the divinity of his inmate, and to put it to the test, served human flesh at the table to try the deity’s discrimination; that Jupiter was enraged at the attempt, and metamorphosed Lycaon into a wolf” (Lewin, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, i. 161).
2. The story of Philemon and Baucis. See Ovid, Met., viii. 631, etc. According to this fable Baucis and Philemon were an aged couple who lived in a small cottage in a penurious manner when Zeus (Jupiter) and Hermes (Mercury) travelled in disguise over Asia. Having extended to the wandering divinities hospitable shelter which the wealthier inhabitants refused, they had their dwelling changed into a magnificent temple of which they were constituted priests, while an inundation swept away the mansions of their churlish neighbours. In addition they were permitted to live happily to an extreme old age, and to die at the same hour, in accordance with their united request to Zeus, that one might not have the sorrow of following the other to the grave. After death their bodies were changed into trees before the door of the temple.
Acts 14:13. The Temple of Jupiter at Lystra. Concerning this, Professor Ramsay writes: “Much may yet be discovered at Lystra. We should be (specially glad to find some independent proof that a temple of Jupiter before the city (Διὸς Προπόλεως) existed there. From the many examples of such temples quoted by the commentators on Acts (see “Critical Remarks”), it seems highly probable that there was one at Lystra. The nearest and best analogy, which is still unpublished, may be mentioned here. At Claudiopolis of Isauria, a town in the mountains south-east from Lystra, an inscription in the wall of the mediæval castle records a dedication to Jupiter before the town (Δὰ Προαστίῳ).… “There is every probability that some great building once stood beside the pedestal in Lystra, dedicated to Augustus.” … “There is every probability that the worship of the Imperial Founder was connected with the chief temple, and that the pedestal was placed in the sacred precinet of Zeus, as at Ephesus the Augusteum was built within the sacred precinet of Artemis.” … “Very little excavation would be needed to verify this identification, and probably to disclose the remains of the temple, in front of whose gates the sacrifice was prepared for the Apostles” (The Church in the Roman Empire, pp. 51, 52).
Acts 14:15. Sirs! why do ye these things? Idolatry.
I. Indefensible in reason, since the gods of the heathen are “vanities.”
II. Degrading to man, since man is superior to the object of his worship, when that is an idol.
III. Insulting to God, since He alone is,
1. The living God.
2. The creator of the universe.
3. The providential ruler of the world.
4. The benefactor of His creature and child man.
All men alike.
I. In their origin.—
1. From God.
2. From the dust.
II. In their nature.—
1. Soul.
2. Body.
III. In their character.—
1. Sinful
2. Mortal.
IV. In their destiny.—I. To die.
2. To live for ever.
Acts 14:17. God’s Witness of Himself.
I. Beneficent in character.
II. Universal in extent.
III. Constant in duration.
IV. Despised by its recipients.
V. Condemning in its judgments.
Acts 14:15-17. The Light of Nature.
I. Its excellences.—It reveals—
1. The existence of a supreme Being.
2. His perfection in wisdom and power.
3. His supreme and absolute dominion.
4. His moral government.
5. His universal beneficence.
II. Its uses.—Various.
1. To show men their duty.
2. To convince them of sin.
3. To encourage them in repentance.
4. To vindicate God’s character as a moral governor.
5. To prepare for the gospel of His grace.
III. Its defects.—
1. It illuminates but a small portion of the things of God.
2. Is but dim and feeble.
3. Exercises little influence on men’s hearts and lives.
4. Can discover no effectual relief for guilt and sin.
Note.—The lightshed by the Apology of Aristides, a document composed in the second century (A.D. 120) in Athens, on the method commonly adopted by sub-apostolic writers in dealing with the heathen, is well worthy of attentive study. “Aristides,” says Professor George T. Stokes, D.D., “begins his address to the Emperor (Hadrian) by stating, as St. Paul often does, the effect of the contemplation of nature upon his own soul, teaching him the eternal power and godhead of the Author thereof. In the very opening of his argument he attacks that subtle Pantheism, with its belief in the eternity of the material universe, which characterised the religions of Greece and Rome. ‘O King, by the grace of God, I came into this world, and having contemplated the heavens and the earth and the sea, and beheld the sun and the rest of the orderly creation, I was amazed at the arrangement of the world; and I comprehended that the world and all that is therein are moved by the impulse of Another, and I understood that He that moveth them is God, who is hidden in them and concealed from them; and this is well known that that which moveth is more powerful than that which is moved. And that I should investigate concerning this Mover of All, as to how He exists, and that I should dispute concerning the steadfastness of His government, so as to comprehend it fully, is not profitable for me; for no one is able perfectly to comprehend it. But I say, concerning the Mover of the world, that He is God of all, who made all for the sake of man; and it is evident to me that this is expedient, that one should fear God and not grieve man.’ The argument of Aristides in this passage is just the same as St. Paul’s at. Lystra, or in that great indictment of paganism contained in the First of Romans, an indictment which Aristides amply confirms in all its awful details.”—Modern Discoveries and the Christian Faith, Sunday at Home, 1891, December, p. 107.
Acts 14:19. The Stoning of Paul.
I. A hideous crime.—On the part of the Jews who stirred up the Lystrans.
II. A pitiful spectacle.—For the disciples and friends of the apostle.
III. A strange experience.—Which must have recalled to the apostle’s mind the stoning of Stephen.
IV. A powerful argument.—Perhaps impressing the heart of Timothy as Stephen’s stoning did that of Saul.