Acts 14:19-28

Chapter 45

Prayer

Almighty God, thou hast made the gate of tribulation the way into thy kingdom. It is a hard and narrow way, but the end thereof is everlasting life. Where we fear, thou dost cause us to hope. Where we expected to die, thou dost enable us to pray. Thou hast overruled all difficulty and battle and sorrow, and shown us how, through fields of severest controversy, we may pass into the land where there is no sorrow, nor crying, neither any more pain. The gates of hell shall not prevail against thy Church, thou crucified and risen Christ. Tribulation shall work patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and, thus, out of a black root thou wilt bring blossoming infinite in the tenderness of its beauty. All things work together for good to them that love God. Perfect love casteth out fear. We have no more cloud or doubt resting upon our life when it is hidden with Christ in God. Then the way is upward, and the light increases as we ascend, and heaven comes down to meet us on our upward pilgrimage. Put within us thine own Spirit, thou living Christ, thou mighty Priest, whose prayer carries its own conclusion and is its own beneficent reply. Then shall we know nothing of fear, or unrest, or trouble, but our heart shall be as water undisturbed in its depths of sacred and holy peace. Thou dost teach us by the events of time. Thou dost send messages to us from the houses of our neighbours. The dead man delivers thy letter to the living. We see by those who are falling around us that our turn may suddenly and must surely come. May we be among those who are wise servants waiting, having their hearts stirred by a secret expectation that the Bridegroom may come at any moment, and complete his love. Show us thy way, O Lord, and enable us to walk therein steadfastly and lovingly. May thy way be our delight, and may thy statutes be our songs in the house of our pilgrimage. Thou dost take away one and another. Thou dost dig up the cedar, and the fir-tree howls because of the mighty fall. Thou dost also pluck off the blossom ere it is yet formed, or set in promise of fruit. The old thou dost call home, and the young thou dost take up in thine arms and suddenly transfer to the upper kingdom. It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth good in his sight. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Our loved ones, who have died in Christ, are not lost, they have gone before, they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat; but they shall dwell in thy presence, and be led by the Lamb to living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. We will not, therefore, bow down in trouble and sorrow, but rather stand erect in the consciousness of an infinite triumph, and say, O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? We will not look to the grave of the body, but to the heaven of the spirit. We will comfort ourselves with the holy words, the Resurrection and the Life.

The Lord destroy everything in us that is evil, set up his kingdom in our heart, and perfect us in the grace and virtue of Christ Jesus. Amen.

Act 14:19-28

19. But there came Jews thither [to this foolish, fickle Galatian mob] from Antioch and Iconium; and, having persuaded the multitudes [that if the Apostles were not gods, they were God's foes], they stoned Paul [ 2Co 11:25 ], and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

20. But [again], as the disciples stood round about him [ so we learn he had not preached here in vain; Lois, Eunice, and Timothy probably were about him. Cf. Act 16:1 ; 2 Timothy 1:5 ; and Galatians 3:0 , Galatians 4:0 , Galatians 5:0 ], he rose up [miraculously restored], and entered into the city: and on the morrow he went forth with Barnabas to Derbe.

21. And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch [in Pisidia],

22. confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must [it is necessary, for God so wills it] enter into the kingdom of God.

23. And when they had appointed for them [gross Roman Catholic mistranslation. The Greek verb means to elect by holding up the hand in the ecclesia or church-meeting; rarely, as here, used of the president, in the sense of causing the assembly so to elect. When they had caused each church to elect its elders. Note the plurality of elders in these the first small-town churches], and had prayed with fasting [G. fastings], they commended them to the Lord [G. has no comma, i.e., they are referred to the Lord as the true Shepherd of each of these separate churches], in whom they had believed.

24. And they passed [from Antioch] through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia.

25. And when they had spoken the word in Perga [ Act 13:13 ], they went down to Attalia;

26. And thence they sailed to Antioch [in Syria], from whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled [four or five years were thus occupied between 44 and 51 a.d. The Apostles went not as Xavier or Livingstone, sustained by wealth and political influence, but like Socialist workmen go earning their bread as they pursue their propaganda from town to town].

27. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all things that God had done with them [ i.e., as their Helper], and how he had opened a [G. the] door of faith unto the Gentiles [hitherto only Gentile proselytes had passed on to Christianity from Judaism; now it was proved possible to found Christian churches, at once, among the pure heathen. Jew and Gentile henceforth entered abreast into the fold of Christ].

28. And they tarried no little time with the disciples [here, probably Titus was converted 2Co 8:23 ].

Tribulation Accepted

THE Apostles Barnabas and Paul had wrought a great miracle at Lystra, and so astounded were the people that they wished to offer sacrifices unto the Apostles, and were hardly restrained from doing so by the stern and severe expostulation of the Apostles themselves. The enemy can be as active as the friend. Sometimes we are inclined to think that the enemy can outdo the friend in energy. Enemies seem to be more determined than friends. As a general rule friends are timid, and reluctant to move. They wish to live quietly, whereas enemies are not so restrained, they are fearless, desperate, resolute nothing will stand in the way of the accomplishment of their base designs. Still one would rather lean toward the thought that love can outlive hate; but, truly, hate has a long life! We find that Paul and Barnabas were not allowed to go upon their journey without knowing that the enemy had them in full view. There came to Lystra "certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people" and turned their hearts against the very men whom but yesterday the Lystrenians would have deified! The Jews from the Pisidian Antioch and Iconium brought reports from these places concerning Paul and Barnabas, and turned the homage of the people into hatred. So Paul was stoned. The Jews had no easy work to get to Lystra. They also had to travel the hundred and thirty miles which separated the towns. But what is a distance of a hundred and thirty miles, even in an age so ancient as the time indicated in the text, when the heart is burning with hatred, and the life is aflame with sectarian indignation? The Jews did not travel the hundred and thirty miles under such disadvantageous circumstances merely as a luxury. They hated the new faith, they abominated the detestable democracy which would throw down sonship in Abraham, and make the Gentiles equal to the Jews, and so they, too, were missionaries, though animated by a different spirit. Paul was but once stoned, and he never forgot it! Writing an account of his experiences, he puts into the summary of them this line "Once I was stoned." No man can forget that experience. In former years those who were engaged in stoning Stephen lay down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. The wheel of Providence turns round! There is no resentment in God, but there is justice at the very heart of things. When Paul himself is stoned it will not be to gratify a grudge, but to express the spirit of the eternal righteousness, without which the whole heaven of stars itself might fall in night. Justice keeps things together. Righteousness must hold the reins. Once let wickedness hold them and drive the steed of the universe, and in one night they will plunge into abysses out of which there is no extrication. "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice," for the security of goodness is not in strength but in righteousness. They left Paul, "supposing he had been dead." That is a common mistake about Christianity itself. Many a time has Christianity been stoned and drawn out of the city, and thrown into the ditch "supposed to be dead." Paul recovered his consciousness. He was blinded and stunned, but not killed. So, to the joy of the little circle of weeping disciples, he got up, and stood upon his feet a kind of resurrection before the time! Take it as a typical instance, and regard it as teaching the impossibility of killing truth. You may "suppose it to be dead," but the error is in the supposition. Whatever is true rises again. It may be thrown down; it may be kept upon bread and water; it may be spat upon; it may be thrust through with a dart; over it all hell may have a moment's laugh, but it finds its feet again! "Truth is great, and must prevail." These incidents, which we call personal and transitory, are in reality typical, and because of their interior meaning and suggestion, they are the strongest and broadest lines in history.

The next day Paul travelled twenty miles he departed with Barnabas to Derbe; and the thought came to the two men that, instead of making a detour, and getting back to Antioch by any short cut that might be open, they would go, step for step, along the road they had come. They would have a return missionary journey. It is not enough to go once over a track. People do not know you on one visit. Life is a revelation. We see sections of one another, but we must live with one another the year in and the year out, all the four seasons to see really the depths that slumber in any genuine life. Paul and Barnabas, therefore, went back, "confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith" with this line added: "and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." We cannot copy pathos. We must learn it by life. We may not write our sermons with ink, for then they would be but rhetorical emptiness. We must live them, gather fruit from trees that have grown around us, and return to the people week by week with some new blessing in the language, some deeper tone in the voice, some nobler appeal in the exhortation. How simply, and yet subtly, comes this line into the preaching! namely, "that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." Paul was suffering when he said those words. His head had not recovered the stunning blows of the stoning at Lystra. There was a subdued sob in the man's emphasis as he said this. Strangers might not detect it, but the speaker himself was conscious that a new thread a golden one was being run through the web of his eloquence as he exhorted the Christians at Derbe and Lystra and Antioch and Iconium to continue in the faith, and to accept tribulation, not as a discredit, but as an endorsement.

Paul and his colleague came back to Antioch after, some say, more than a year's absence, and others calculate an interval of nearly two years, and the twenty-seventh verse would seem to contain the summary of all that was done, but it does not. "And when they were come, and had gathered the Church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." Into no speech with which I am acquainted is so much meaning condensed. It is the penalty of speakers who have a condensed style that they do not get credit for all they say. There are minds that must have bulk as well as quality; minds that must have everything beaten out to the thinnest and widest possible surface before they can begin to think. They do not fly on the wind, or take two mountains at a time in their gigantic stride; they, therefore, say they cannot follow the writers who have written such a verse as the twenty-seventh, which is now before us. Look at it. "And when they had gathered the Church together." How easily we say these words! How much they may possibly involve! The Church did not live on the open street, or in the fine houses. The Church was a scattered people, a hidden little band, talking in whispers perhaps often communicating secretly despised amid the pomp and splendor of the Syrian Antioch. The Church had to be "gathered together." But why not tell the little missionary story on the open thoroughfare to the passers-by? Simply because it is useless to speak to men in an unknown tongue. Only the Church can understand the speech of the Church. Even those who can catch the English sentences do not catch the Christian sentiment, unless they be in the secret which unites and inspires Christian hearts. Having gathered the Church together, they "rehearsed ALL." But we want to hear the detail. The little word "ALL" is really the greatest word in human speech. In its three letters the whole universe is included. We want to take it to pieces, to go into analysis, into the separation and classification of events, to understand the entire case. But we are put off with an allusion instead of being gratified by a detailed rehearsal. "They rehearsed all" and yet, perhaps, they did not. Who can tell all? You cannot write all you want to write. Having written what you think is a complete statement, you find that it is only a table of contents, and not a statement at all! After having elaborated the rehearsal until you think not one line can be added, you read the whole, and are appalled to find that you have referred to everything but the subject! Whatever is deep requires long time for its evolution. Whatever is spiritual requires all language for its expression. Not in a handful of words can you set forth the details of a lifetime. "They rehearsed all that God had done with them." They connected the whole story with God. What the stoning? Yes! The statement does not read that, having called the Church together, Paul put his hand upon his head, and said, "Oh, what I have suffered for you!" Not a word of the kind is said. Stoning and hunger and peril and persecution these things God has done! It is because we do not recognize that fact that we suppose ourselves to be the victims of circumstances and the butt of enemies. Get rid of that sophism. God sent the hunger to bite you. God spread the cloud in the face of the sun to shut you out in darkness. God allows your enemy to smite you on the head, and on the face, and to malign you, and misrepresent you it is God's doing! It is part of the Divine education. "Can there be evil in the city, and the Lord not have done it?" Done it! not in the little narrow technical sense of hand-working, but in the larger sense of working up together in one complete massiveness hells and devils, dangers and sorrows, into one sublime issue. "He maketh the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder thereof will he restrain." The Lord reigneth. The wet days are his, as well as the days that are full of summer light and summer music. And the graves are his, as well as the flowers which grow upon their green sward. And hell is his, and the key of it is on his girdle, and he will know what to do with it in the upgathering and total issue of his providence. They left one impression upon the Church what was it? How God "had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." There is no whine in that tone! The Apostles, returning to the Syrian capital, said, "Brethren, the door is opened, the Gentiles are accessible. Arise: shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." They were very heroes of men! Instead of saying, "The way is very difficult," they said, "The door is open." Instead of saying, "If you go to the Gentiles, you may expect to be stoned by the Jews," they said, "Who are these that flock as doves to the windows?" These were the men that rocked the world in the storms of their sacred enthusiasm! All personal suffering was forgotten in the opened door. The stoning was a very little thing when the Apostles thought that the Gentile provinces were to be added to the empire of their Lord.

Nor was this all. There was an incident that happened which is not recorded in this verse. Twenty years afterward Paul wrote a letter to a man whom he called "my own son in the faith," and "my dearly beloved son," and "my fellow-worker"; and in that letter he said, "But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions; afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me." How did Timothy come to know about the stoning at Lystra, and the persecution at Antioch and Iconium? Paul, writing to Timothy, said he greatly desired to see the youth, being mindful of his tears. "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also." Where did he make the acquaintance of the little family grandmother and mother and Timothy? Why, at Derbe probably, on this very missionary journey. That was the proof that the Lord was with him. He brought up from the Lycaonian wilds the dreary wolf-land memories of Lois and Eunice and Timothy, which cheered him in his old age; and in the loving Timothy, who would carry on his own noble work, he found a compensation for the stoning at Lystra. We cannot tell what we are doing. Some men may be won to Christ by a discourse who will afterward vindicate the propriety of the argument which that discourse contained. Twenty years after we may hear of some young man who, being here this morning, was touched with a live coal from off the altar, and has gone out to declare that "this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Christ will find his own ministers. Christ will not let the Christian pulpit go down for want of capacity, ability, eloquence, learning, pathos, or sympathy. We do not always know what we are doing, but the Master knows, and that is enough.