Scripture
18But even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them. 19Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. 20But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe. Acts 14:18-20
Observation
Read this story again and imagine what was going on in the spiritual realm. Paul and Barnabas were threatening the spiritual strongholds over the region as many were being saved and healed. So much so that the persecuting Jews from Antioch and Iconium traveled upwards of 100 miles to execute them in Lystra. These Jews were pawns in a spiritual battle and this was the showdown in the OK Corral. Very similar to Jesus, one minute the crowds were praising Paul and Barnabas as gods and the next minute, stirred up by the Jews, they were grabbing stones and hurling them at their heads and bodies to kill them. Paul went down hard. The townspeople dragged him out of town and left him for dead. It looked like the enemy had won. Just as on that day on Golgotha when Jesus surrendered His spirit the Devil thought he had sealed his victory when He had actually sealed his fate. Though the scripture does not say, many scholars believe Paul was resurrected from the dead in this moment as the believers gathered around his lifeless body outside of Lystra. Some think that when Paul wrote of his scars (Gal. 6:17) he was referring to this incident. Some even suggest that when Paul was given a vision of Heaven (2 Cor. 12) it happened while he lay dead on the ground. It’s easy to assume that Paul remembered Stephen when he was being stoned and how Paul (then Saul) gave approval to his brutal execution. Incidentally, Stephen also saw a vision of Heaven in that moment before he surrendered his spirit (Acts 7-8). This is all conjecture of course, but what we do know for sure happened in this moment was truly miraculous. Paul had been pummeled by rocks. Paul got back up. Paul dusted himself off. Paul went back into the town that had just tried to murder him. They would all be forced to look at the man they thought was dead now walking around and still proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. Paul wouldn’t leave his assignment until God decided. He didn’t let fear, intimidation, worry or self-preservation keep him from his mission. Can you imagine the look on the people’s faces? Can you imagine the look on the demon’s faces? Oh no! Not again! Not another dead man walking! O death where is your victory? O death where is your sting?
Application
If there’s still breath in our lungs than God’s not done! Many believers I’ve been talking to have felt pummeled lately. Many marriages are feeling the strain of current economic and emotional challenges. Many parents feel more disconnected from their children than ever before. Many pastors are frankly just done with trying to lead others through a time of such great division on every level. I too have felt overwhelmed at times. It’s felt like two steps forward and ten steps back in so many areas. Yet, I know this is where God has called me to be and I’m not going anywhere. The battle is won when we keep showing up. Keep showing up to your marriage, your kids, your job, your church, your places of largest loss. Why? Because there’s a battle going on in the Heaven's and God needs you to stand even when everything is telling you to run. I’ve never had rocks thrown at me, but I did come close to death recently. I wasn’t resurrected, but I did have the believers gather around me and pray and I was healed. As I exited that hospital I had a new resolve. I’m not going anywhere because God has more for me to do. I’m not here to win crowds, because this story shows just how fickle followers can be. I’m not here for the quick or the easy, because this is a marathon and not a sprint. I’m making lots of mistakes and there’s people who don’t like what I’m saying or doing and that’s ok. Every day I’m going to get back up, dust myself off, and go back in.
Prayer
Lord, give me the heart Paul has here in Romans 5:3-5: “3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt
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