Acts 14:1-12
Dear RTB’ers,
Today, again a short reading, only twelve verses. Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that signs and wonders be done by their hands. (v. 3) Luke makes a powerful statement here, that the Lord was personally intervening – that He “was testifying” (or “bearing witness”) to the words that Paul and Barnabas were speaking, allowing “signs and wonders to be done by their hands”. Luke also notes that Paul and Barnabas were speaking “with reliance upon the Lord”. So put these two items together – if we speak boldly with reliance upon the Lord, will He testify to His words with signs and wonders done by our hands? Do we have that kind of confidence in the Lord’s power in this day and age? I daresay that I fail in this regard. I have seen “signs and wonders”, but mostly they have come as a surprise. And I have spoken boldly about the Lord, but probably not with complete reliance upon Him. Speak boldly. With expectation. Signs and wonders. Major steps of faith!
Today we have a third take on the lame being healed. We had the paralytic in Luke 5:17-26 being lowered through the roof by his friends. Luke 5:20 has Jesus “Seeing their faith…”, presumably the faith of the friends and maybe of the cripple himself, but clearly the plural “their” implies faith on the part of the friends. Then we have Peter and John healing the lame beggar (Acts 3:1-10, ff). The lame man was begging, hoping for a handout. But here it was not the cripple or his friends, but Peter’s faith in God’s power that led to the healing. Today we have a third take on the lame being healed – the man himself had faith to be healed: 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… (vv. 8-9) Paul spoke, the man believed, and he was healed. That is expectant faith! There is no “putting God in a box” as to how He chooses to work!!
My Study Bible had some interesting information on today’s story. Evidently Lystra had a temple dedicated to Zeus and according to legend, Zeus and Hermes (the Roman gods, Jupiter and Mercury) had visited that general area in ages past. Unfortunately, however, they were not recognized by anyone except an old couple. So the Lystra townspeople in today’s incident wanted to make sure that this time they treated “Zeus and Hermes” correctly, thereby glorifying Barnabas and Paul as these gods. So interesting…! Paul’s response to this “glorification” is not his typical “gospel, conversion” speech. Maybe that accounts for the outcome that we will read TOMORROW!! 😊!!
Blessings!