Bible Study series: Acts 14:8-18. God cares for people and he will use yielded vessels to heal the one he has chosen to heal.
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At the link to the original post, next, I write more commentary and dig a little deeper into the Greek. I also offer a section Observations for Discipleship at the end. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided in the commentary section for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Acts 14:8-18
8 In Lystra, a certain man sat with disabled feet, lame from birth, who had never walked. 9 He heard Paul speaking, who fixed his gaze on him. He saw that he had faith to be healed and 10 said with a loud voice, “Get up on your feet, upright!” He jumped up and walked. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul did, they raised their voice in the Lycaonian dialect, “The gods becoming like men have come down to us!” 12 And they began to call Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, since he was the lead speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus of the temple outside the town, along with the crowds, brought to the gates bulls and wreaths and were wanting to sacrifice them.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and ran into the crowds and shouted out: 15 “Men! Why are you doing this? We too are men with the same natures as you! We proclaim the good news to you to turn away from these empty things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them! [Ex. 20:11; Ps. 146:6] 16 In the past generations, he permitted all the nations to go along their own paths. 17 And yet he did not leave himself without a testimonial of doing good acts, giving you rains from heaven and crops growing in their seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. 18 After saying these things, they barely stopped the crowds from sacrificing to them. (Acts 14:8-28)
Comments:
This is Paul’s first recorded miracle, though we learn that he had been working signs and wonders throughout his ministry.
8-9:
The point here is that the man has never walked, and everyone knew it, so his need was great, but so was the miracle. He did not have an injury from a job, which would heal naturally over time. The man needed a miracle for the impossible.
The lame man heard Paul speak, and faith grew in his heart. The Word must be preached before a miracle—even a little word, like this: “God spoke to me that you have a back problem. Can I pray for you? It will show you how much God loves you.” That may be enough to ignite faith in the receiver’s heart.
“fixed his gaze”: it comes from the verb that also means “stare intently or intensely.” Luke is fond of it: Luke 4:20; 22:56; Acts 1:10; 3:4; 3:12; 6:15; 7:55; 10:4; 11:6; 13:9; 14:9; 23:1. Then Paul uses it twice: 2 Cor. 3:7, 13. You know you have God’s authority when you can stare at a man lame from birth and see a healing coming.
“seeing”: Paul from his own insight and his ability did not perceive the man had the faith to be healed. He received the supernatural gift of the word of knowledge, which he later taught on in 1 Cor. 12:7-11. This takes place when God speaks or somehow communicates with the Spirit-filled believer a piece of knowledge or information that the believer would not know in any other way. And God communicate this to Paul for the lame man.
“faith”: it was a surge of faith mentioned in 1 Cor. 12:7-11.
“healed”: it is the verb sōzō (pronounced soh-zoh and used 106 times). Here is this verse it is clear that healing is part of salvation and flows from the atonement and the cross.
What Is the Work of Salvation?
How Do We Respond to God’s Salvation?
10-11
Paul issued a command. Jesus healed a paralytic and also simply pronounced his healing, though in that case, sin got in the man’s way (Mark 2:3-5). Here, however, sin was not mentioned. We have to be careful about working out an unbendable system for causes of disease. They are not always sin-caused (most are not), but natural—the physical world is messed up, including the human body.
In Matt. 8:3-15, a centurion had a servant who was paralyzed and suffering terribly, but the centurion said that Jesus only had to issue a command where he stood at a distance, and the healing would happen. Jesus commended the centurion in the highest terms. And why wouldn’t he? It was a marvelous and faith-filled declaration.
Jesus also commanded a disabled man at the pool of Bethesda to “‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!’” And at once the was cured. He picked up his mat and walked” (John 5:8-9).
When you pray, speak a declaration over the diseased person. Don’t pray some flowery prayer: “O thou God, if it be thy will, heal this man.” No, not that. “Get up!”
Paul never saw Jesus heal anyone, so the Spirit had to guide him. No doubt in his travels to Jerusalem and his living in Antioch where believers from Jerusalem visited enabled him to hear stories of how Jesus worked healing.
In this verse, it worked! He jumped up and walked!
Miracles are supposed to draw people to Jesus who does the healing, but here confusion took over. People without God can be easily deceived (and so can some believers, if they are not careful).
12-13:
Zeus was the chief God, and Hermes was the messenger god. We know why Paul got this pagan name, because he was the chief speaker. But why did they give Barnabas the chief god’s name? Did they do this just to honor him with a major deity, and not a minor one? Or did they see a leadership quality in him that Luke does not record? No matter. But it is good to know that Barnabas was a leader.
In any case, a local legend says that two local gods came down to the area, but no one showed them hospitality, though doing this was very important. Only an older couple, named Philemon and Baucis shared their supplies with the unrecognized gods. The gods rewarded them by appointing them priest and priestess and eventually turning them into sacred trees (Schnabel, comment on v. 12).
A temple of Zeus was in front of the main entrance to the town.
14:
apostles: see note on v. 4.
“tore”: It could be translated as “ripped,” which is also onomatopoeic, incidentally. Ripping clothes was a customary way of expressing distress or grief in that culture. Let’s not import it to the world today.
“ran”: picture Barnabas and Paul rushing (without leaping like a gazelle) into the crowd, waving their arms in gestures to get them to stop, in addition to tearing their clothes. Paul was not afraid to run into trouble and danger (Acts 19:30). You know you have God’s Spirit anointing you when you have boldness. God has not given you timidity. If you have timidity, you can pray every day for God to give you the inner strength and anointing to stand and not to fold or flag during satanic or broken human attacks. I do this almost every day, and it works!
“same natures”: Here it can be translated as follows: NAS: “same nature”; NIV “human like you.” The Shorter Lexicon suggests “same natures.”
“proclaim the good news”: it comes from the verb euangelizō (pronounced eu-ahn-geh-lee-zoh). See v. 7 for a closer look.
“empty”: it comes from the adjective that means idle, empty, worthless, or foolish.
16-18:
This is called argument from design or the Design Argument. God made this world inhabitable for humanity. It is fine-tuned for us. Either this universe came about by chance or by design. The Bible says by design, and the designer is God. It is deceptive to hide God behind the generic label “Intelligent Designer.” No, the Bible calls him Elohim (God).
It can also be called natural theology or natural revelation. We can look at the world of nature around us and up at the night sky and come to a certain level of knowledge of God, but it cannot lead the observer in the pagan world to salvation. Combined with moral reasoning and conscience, observing nature can lead perhaps to good behavior, knowing that God can judge people for bad behavior.
Bruce on preaching the gospel to pagans (as distinct form a Jewish or God-fearing audience):
Preachers to such audience would not be expected to insist on the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, as they did in addressing synagogue congregations; instead, an appeal to the natural revelation of God the Creator is put in the forefront. Yet this appeal is couched in language largely drawn from the Old Testament (See Exod. 20:11; … Esther 4:17; Jer. 2:5; 8:19) (comment on vv. 15-17).
This kind of preaching can be effective because 1 Thess. 1:9-10 says:
… They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath (1 Thess. 1:9-10, NIV).
No doubt Paul discussed with the Thessalonians the Son of God and then backed up his preaching with signs and wonders
Also, Paul tells the Roman audience, who had already believed, the following:
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. (Rom. 1:19-20, NIV)
But then Paul goes on to say that most people became dark in their thinking (Rom. 1:21-23). Human nature is weighted down with sins and often crushes moral reasoning. Polhill explains the differences between Paul’s speech here in Acts and his letter to the Romans: “Paul used the argument from creation to build bridges, to establish a point of identification with his pagan hearers. While they may never have heard of his God before, they had seen him—in his providential works of nature. In Rom 1:18–25 Paul was seeking to establish humanity’s responsibility before a just God” (comment on vv. 14-18).
It is best to tailor our preaching to the audience.
Note how Paul is using argumentation to communicate the truths of God. Argumentation does not mean getting in an unpleasant quarrel, but a logical and sequential and orderly presentation of your beliefs and passions. An argument is a “coherent series of reasons” (Webster’s).
Paul was a balanced believer in Jesus. He had the gift of the Spirit working in him and did a healing miracle in the previous section. A man lame from birth was healed. And now Paul is using a series of coherent reasons to persuade stirred-up people—barely!
Keener (p. 350): “If response to the apostles’ message was mixed in Iconium (14:1-7), it proves still more ironic in Lystra. After Jesus’s message heals a permanently disabled man (14:8-10), the crowds attempts to venerate the apostles (14:11-13); after the apostles reject such veneration (14:14-18), fellow monotheists have them stoned—for blasphemy (14:19-20a)!”
GrowApp for Acts 14:8-18
1. In today’s world this looks like celebrity culture. Those traveling evangelists who hog the spotlight on the platform need to be avoided. How have you reacted when people want to exalt you as a celebrity?
2. Or do you treat celebrities like the people did Paul and Barnabas?
RELATED
The Historical Reliability of the Book of Acts
Book of Acts and Paul’s Epistles: Match Made in Heaven?
SOURCES
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