Category: Devotions

Who is responsible for the healing?

Acts 14:10

“and called out, “Stand up on your feet!” At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.”

 

Paul could see that faith was being born in this man. We read in verse 9 it was a faith to be healed and we automatically take that as meaning physical healing because he is lame. However the Greek word that the English translators have translated into healing is sozo, it means to save as well as healed. This is important if we want to see something that I think we may have often overlooked.

Jesus often in his healings would heal to demonstrate he had the authority to forgive sins. In Luke 5 we see these words of Jesus, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. . . .” He said to the paralysed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.”

“I am going to forgive you, to bring salvation to you, but to prove that I have the authority to do this to you and to others, here is your healing.”

In his gospel, chapter 18 Luke records Jesus saying to the blind beggar on the road to Jericho “receive your sight your faith has healed you.” In the Greek it is ‘your faith has saved you.’ The blind beggar’s faith in who Jesus was has saved him and the proof to him and to others is that he has received his sight.

We have the same thing happening here according to Luke.

Paul could see the lame man responding with faith to his preaching, it was a faith to be saved. He believes in the preacher that Jesus was the Messiah. Then Paul knowing that everyone was watching, this was very public, knew that here was an opportunity to prove what Paul had been preaching was true. Luke wants us to see that Paul was doing what Jesus did. Paul called out “Stand up …..”

To the paralysed man in his gospel Luke writes “Get up”

In Chapter 7 of his gospel Jesus says to the dead son of a widow in Nain as he touched his coffin “Get up.” He calls to the lame man that he sees has faith, “Stand up

In the story of the beggar, Luke says that Jesus announces “Receive your sight.”

Again Luke seems to be showing us that Paul is doing what Jesus did. He calls to the lame man who is showing signs he has faith in Jesus, “Stand to your feet!” with no hesitation the man did what he had never done.

What would have happened if the man tried but failed to stand? Those who had listened to Paul’s message that Jesus was the Messiah would have said ‘No he isn’t, that proves it!’

My point is that the responsibility for healing does not rest with the sufferer. It rests with the suffering Servant who carries our infirmities.

Therefore why say to those who suffer just have faith, well how much faith do I need? I have faith, but do I have enough? If I focus, believe harder, don’t sin, do all that I can, if I have to pay some money to the preachers ministry I will do it, I will do whatever it takes to demonstrate I have enough faith to be healed. Is that enough? Friends, it is rubbish, it really is. Luxurious careers are being built on such nonsense.

All the sufferer needs to be concerned about is this: do you believe Jesus is the Messiah? If He calls you to do something will you be obedient? However the success of this obedience is not on you, the result of any healing is not because of anything to do with you, it is because of Jesus. If you get healed He will be glorified but if the preacher says do something and you are not healed then the damage to the glory is the responsibility of the preacher not the sufferer. For Paul, it is the truth of who Jesus is and the credibility of who Paul is as a preacher that is at stake not whether or not the lame man has enough faith that he can be healed.

Faith in the identity of Jesus is the most important thing and the only thing a sufferer needs. The rest is left to God and the messenger as to whether or not healing is going to happen today.

I much prefer the responsibility being with the preacher than with the sufferer don’t you? We may end up having less preachers but we would also have less suffering sufferers. More importantly we would have more credibility in the Church and more glory given to God. That has got to be the preferred path.

FAITH TO GET HEALED …um

Acts 14:9

“He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed”

The lame man couldn’t walk, he had to be carried, but he could listen. What was Paul preaching? Was it healing? Luke does say Paul saw the man had faith to be healed and that is why many preachers say that we need to have faith that God will heal in order for us to be healed. Yet there is no evidence in the New Testament that Paul ever preached on the subject of healing (though I am sure he would have done so), he certainly is not known as a specialist on healing. Rather, Paul on his missionary journeys is preaching that Jesus is the Messiah who has come to fulfil the law, the cross and the resurrection and the plan of salvation and grace.

My point is that there are many who are suffering today particularly in the Western churches. This is not because of sickness but because a preacher has told them all they need to do is have faith for healing and they will be healed. So they muster all the faith they can muster, far more than a mustard seed, but many do not get healed. So they suffer twice. I do not think Paul was ever asking the man to believe he could be healed.

So perhaps I can offer this suggestion. Luke is showing us that what was happening as Paul was preaching Christ crucified, risen and ascended Lord was that this man who was listening attentively, caught the eye of Paul. Paul looked directly at him and God gave him the ability to see that this man was actually turning towards Jesus. He had a developing faith growing inside. The man was beginning to believe, like scales falling from a spiritual blind man. It was not so much the man who believed he could be healed but that Paul saw he was accepting of Paul’s message of Jesus and Paul could see faith in the man. This faith in Jesus the Messiah Paul knew was transformational. This faith in Jesus, who can do anything and even if the man hadn’t realised it, Paul knew that this faith when pointed in the right direction could change the man’s life. That is why it is Paul who then gave the command to stand up. It was not the man’s idea, it was Paul’s. This man may never have seen one healing in his life. This is certainly the first time and the only time a miracle is seen in Lystra. The man was not saying ‘do to me as you have done to the others’. But this man was beginning to say ‘I believe in You Jesus’.

The church today needs to go looking for faith not for miracles, signs and wonders. Share the faith, preach the faith, belief in Jesus Christ, who He is and what He has done. When we find faith in those who listen then maybe we might get those moments when something inside of us comes out, we cannot hold it in, but we just believe there and then that this faith in Jesus we have seen is going to be demonstrated here and now in many ways. But that’s for tomorrows devotion…

 

Lame

Acts 14:8

“In Lystra there sat a man who was lame. He had been that way from birth and had never walked.”

Some people have never moved. Everyone around them are going places, advancing into new destinies, meeting new people and having fresh experiences, some just sit by the wayside.

They are trapped, locked-in, unable to move or maybe they don’t even know how to move even if they were able. The years pass by more slowly than the crowds of people who have gone on their way to brighter futures. The child has grown. He is a man now. But some things never change.

Some people have what they need but they cannot use what they have. It is not that they have used it and it has become broken but that it has never been used. Is it worse that everything appears to be there but it really isn’t than if the nothing had no appearance of existence at all?

The name of the city is mentioned but not the name of the man. Lystra was at that time of Paul a Roman colony. It was a place of enlightenment and education. This man had a name but most knew him as lame. Some people are characterised by their condition. For them there is no great enlightenment, no revelation, no inspiration, no new learning and no development of the mind. Their condition wins every time.

Lame.

Some days it is more valuable to not try and have all the answers and not try to fix people’s problems. It is better to not walk by. It is better to pay attention to their story. True value may lay with the pain of a question mark because you have bothered enough to notice.

 

Acts 14:7 “… where they continued to preach the gospel.”

Go on, continue!

You may have received a refusal and not just one, but you can continue.

People may have stirred malicious lies against you, whisperings of your name may have spread, but you can continue.

In 1995 I made a phone-call to an acquaintance who has become a very close friend. He was on the scrap-heap of life, dumped there by people he trusted, there was no hope. I said to him, ‘Go on, continue’ and I helped him do just that. 22 years later that man is continuing today.

You may be battle-weary, tired from doing so much good yet receiving so much bad, but you can continue.

In 2001 I received a phone-call from someone who had been on my staff but I had removed him. His voice echoed in the recesses of my mind for a long time afterwards as he said “I will bring you down” and he had a very good go at it! But I found I could continue!

Your circumstances may threaten you, vivid pictures of your demise may be ever before you, but you can continue.

You may have had to flee, to take a step back, to come out of the line of fire for a while, but you can continue.

In 2012, I walked out of a hospice having journeyed through the valley of the shadow of death with a loved member of my church who died far too young. Standing in the hospice car park with tears in my eyes I announced to God I was finished, it was over. He graciously told me to shut up and I found I could continue.

Every year of my life not just the 3 years I mention I have learnt one over-riding important lessons, I can continue.

You see when one door comes crashing in on you another door beautifully opens up and you realise that no matter what comes against us, we can continue! Amen!

 

Taking a step back

ACTS 14:6

“But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country”

Paul and his team became aware of the threat to kill from the Jewish and Gentile leaders. If that action had been carried out then their mission journey would have ended. They needed to do something quick and they gathered together and decided to get out of the situation.

Sometimes we need to take a step back:

1. When we are made aware that circumstances are going to change. Getting a break from the line of fire is needed.
2. When the step back is actually a side step. To do a side step in order to keep going is not a bad thing.
3. When to flee is to escape being stopped. To flee is to say to the enemy you will not put a full stop after me.
4. When we need to see other places that are in need of God. The step back creates a new vista we were unable to have previously.
5. When it opens up more opportunities. Fleeing from the one city of Iconium opened at least 2 cities and the surrounding towns and villages.

Do you need to take a step back today?

Be careful who you dismiss

Acts 14:5

“There was a plot afoot among both Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them.”

Message: One day, learning that both the Jews and non-Jews had been organized by their leaders to beat them up

Amplified: When there was an attempt by both the Gentiles and the Jews, together with their rulers, to shamefully mistreat and to stone them

There is no limit to what man can want to do to man. The Jewish and Gentile leaders were plotting on stoning the apostles to death. They hadn’t carried it out yet, they had just got together a plan of attack, they had organised themselves to kill.

Recently I was told of how an executive board had decided not to go ahead with a previously organised plan of attack. They had organised themselves to set a trap to bring down a fellow executive member who they believed had been disloyal. They didn’t carry out that trap but it shows the level we are prepared to go to eradicate what we perceive as threats.

When there is an opposing view or when faced with the challenge of jealousy creeping into our lives sometimes we too can be dismissive completely. We want to eradicate that person out of our circles of comfort for they do not belong to our elite group of like-minded believers. We can perhaps form allies with people we would never have done so with previously because we have found a common greater foe. This verse shows an incredible force of unity amongst the Gentile and Jewish leaders but it is a shallow unity.

Of course we would never plan to execute someone. But we can be in danger of dismissing a servant of God completely because we are not happy with something we have heard or found out about them. We need to be careful what we dismiss for we may do away with God, if that were possible.

 

 

Apostle

Acts 14:4

“The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles.”

Nothing much has changed, there is still division. People are still taking sides but from within the Church. You see though we look at this verse and see a city divided, it actually reveals something new and it is the new that causes division today. This is the first time that Paul and his team are called apostles. Apostleship has caused walls of division for generations. By the second century the title Apostle had been replaced by Popes, Archbishops, bishops and other hierarchical titles. Interestingly it was in that century that mission began to wane.

In the early church apostles: had witnessed the resurrection of Christ and were sent by Him into the world.

1. Some say there were only 12 apostles. The only apostle gifting we have today are their writings.
2. Some say that there were more than 12 in fact the Bible would certainly indicate this with names not well known stated as holding the title, Andronicus and Junias in Romans 16 and even Jesus is given the title in Hebrews 3 because he was sent by the Father.
3. Some like my friend in Cote D’Ivoire hold the title apostle within his denomination because he has been a pioneer planting many churches.
4. Some say the apostles today possess exactly the same authority as those of Paul and the like.
5. Some say apostles exist but the Apostle doesn’t, meaning the gift but not the authority of the office.What do I say? I just think people like to take sides. They like to debate and argue. I would much prefer we got on with the mission at hand.
6. What do you say?

• Let us initiate new works to bring people to Jesus.
• Let us keep going to places where there is no church and plant one.
• Let us release the pioneers again, to blaze a trail that all the gifts of the church can then follow.
• Let us continue to raise up new leaders and new gifts within the church.
• Let us see more spiritual fathers building strong relational churches.
• Let us see church structures support callings and not the other way round.

If these things are done then we will continue to benefit from apostleship no matter what side we sit on.

Dig your heels in

Acts 14: 3

So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders

 

Sometimes you just have to stay and dig your heels in.

When most of us would move on to a more welcoming place, Paul and his team stayed to do the task of sharing the gospel. Alongside the opposition came the miraculous works of grace, the Spirit providing the support that they needed. The Jews were poisoning the minds of the Gentiles, the teams work looked like it was being undone, so they stayed. They did not fear man more than they feared their God. They were not here for their own comfort but to rescue people from their lost state. This took enormous boldness and courage.

Courage is not the absence of fear but it is acting despite the presence of fear.

Not many know of the story of the 19^th century itinerant preacher, Peter Cartwright. On one occasion when Cartwright was speaking, someone told him that US President Andrew Jackson would be in attendance and advised Cartwright to keep his remarks inoffensive. Ignoring such counsel, Cartwright preached a bold message and then concluded, “I have been told that Andrew Jackson is in this congregation, and I have been asked to guard my remarks. What I must say is that Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn’t repent of his sin.” Everyone expected that the shocking statement had offended the President. But as soon as the sermon was over, Jackson strode up to Cartwright and said, “Sir, if I had a regiment of men like you, I would whip the world.”

Charles Spurgeon, the great 19^th c. preacher wrote about himself and his colleagues

“Fits of depression come over the most of us … The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy …Such was my experience when I first became a pastor in London. My success appalled me; and the thought of the career which it seemed to open up, so far from elating me, cast me into the lowest depth … Who was I that I should continue to lead so great a multitude?”

The greatest battle to be won is that of yourself and often it is to remain where you are and to hold your ground for the good of the gospel.

Be bold be strong, for the Lord our God is with me … I remember singing this song like it was yesterday. How I need those words today in my life!

Today, dig your heels in, don’t back down, don’t run away, God will enable you to remain for the victory.

Poison

Acts 14:2

“But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the other Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers”

All was going well until the Jews began to infiltrate the Gentiles not with the gospel but with poison.

To poison is to make friends for an ulterior motive.

To poison is to keep others from being opposite to you.

To poison is to hide something bad within something good.

To poison is to change a person’s thinking, behaviour and life.

To poison is to turn the positive into a negative.

To poison is to harm the one taking the poison.

To poison is to harm others connected to the one poisoned.

To poison is to hate.

To poison is using something small for a big lasting effect.

-The warning sign of the skull and bones is a prophetic picture-

Have you been poisoned yesterday?

Beware what you hear today.

Protect your tomorrow.

 

Why go there?

Acts 14:1

At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.

So why did they go to Iconium? And what are the lessons for mission?

Perhaps these 7 lessons may help us …

1. The city is approximately 90-100 miles from Antioch where they had been treated badly and expelled.  Lesson: They put distance between themselves and the event. In other words ‘they moved on’ and so should we.
2. The city was still within a Roman province, of Galatia. Paul was a Roman citizen which gave him privileges of always having a fair legal trial, never having a death penalty and he could never be whipped. He also could appeal directly to Caesar.  Lesson: Use the privileges and the status that you may have, draw on favours, use your contacts. See everything as God-given to be used in mission.
3. The same Phrygian dialect was spoken as that in Antioch which Paul and his team were familiar with. Lesson: Language was not a barrier to their mission.
4. Iconium was on a major trade route called the ‘Emperor’s Road’. It connected the city with Antioch. Even today there is still an existing Roman bridge. Paul and his team walked this road and crossed the bridge at least twice on this their first missionary journey.  Lesson: Go where there are people. Go where you can be seen. Some churches act like they are an underground church in China.
5. The city was prosperous, agriculture was a growing business and there was plenty of water. Lesson: The salvation message isn’t only well received by those who are desperate, poor and the needy. It can also be received and is needed by people who have a sense of hope and well-being who carry a positive approach to their future.
6. The city worshipped the mother goddess Cybele. Cybele was the mistress of wild nature symbolised by the lion that accompanied her in every statue. She was the goddess of protection in time of war and of fertility. Lesson: Generally speaking people want to live peacefully and be productive. We carry the gospel of peace and purpose from the God of gods.
7. There was a Jewish synagogue in the city. Paul had been a Jewish student under Gamaliel. He belonged in the synagogue. Wherever he went he would head to the synagogue and start there, there was an open door always to him, at least to begin with! He was often invited to teach in the synagogue perhaps because they had previously heard about him. Lesson: Go where there is an open door already. Go to where you belong and work out from there. Go where you are familiar with the culture. Begin here.