Cross-Cultural Witness at Lystra and Today
Acts 14:8-22,
8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
We conclude our worship gathering here each week with the commissioning, reciting Jesus’ words to us in Matthew 28:19-20. He tells us to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you…”
The authority given to us from Jesus Christ, to “make disciples” from all the nations, applies to all sorts of tasks: it includes local tasks such as raising children, encouraging a brother or sister in Christ, confronting a friend who is drifting, or explaining the gospel to a Lyft driver. But it also goes beyond our local horizon to tasks like learning a new language to communicate in a different country.
When we come to “missions” Sunday, we mean something specific. Missions means that someone is sent, with purpose, for a goal. And the specific goal we understand with that term is, “cross-cultural witness” about Jesus. Why is that?
The Great Commission does not allow us to be content with our own home or neighborhood. It requires us to look beyond the horizons of our city, and of our nation or people. God has a special and distinct delight in creating disciples from among all nations.
That nudge, that delight, that push to emphasize “all nations” is what we call “missions.” Of all that God calls us to do, one part that requires a reminder and special attention, is to pray for, to send, and to go toward peoples who have not yet heard or accepted the gospel.
And in Acts 14 we have an example of the first missionary team to the nations, Paul and Barnabas.
This story gives us a picture or model of what it looks like to bring the good news about Jesus to a new place. Whatever situation we face today, we can ask how to respond in ways that reflect what we see from the Apostles.
My hope is that this text stimulates us to send cross-cultural witnesses (missionaries). And, I pray that it would confirm some people in this room with the desire to join that work.
How does cross-cultural witness glorify God? Cross-cultural witness glorifies (or makes much of) God—through Light, Life, and Love.
Light: It shines light into darkness.
Life: It brings new groups of people to Jesus.
Love: It helps believers walk in a cross-shaped way.
1) Light: Light into Darkness (vv. 9-18)
How does cross-cultural witness glorify God? It shines light into darkness. This is the main point of the story about Paul and Barnabas’s witness in the town of Lystra.
The story has three parts: a healing, a misunderstanding, and then light (the explanation).
Healing
The Apostles announced the saving power of Jesus through a miracle.
Paul says to a lame man, “Stand upright on your feet” (14:10). And the man rises. In fact, the text says that he “sprang up”, and began walking. The people of Lystra were no fools. They must have known this man. They knew he could not walk and had never walked. He was disabled from birth. There was no orthopedic surgery at this time. No Dr. Peter Cole to set those bones, and no physical therapy to train him to walk. And yet, in a moment, the power of Jesus changed everything.
We are all familiar with showcased, staged healings. It is difficult for us to contemplate what a real public healing would look like. What would you feel if you were there? Remember, this is someone the townspeople knew. The evidence, for them, was clear as the blue sky. This man couldn’t walk, and now he can.
And that makes their reaction a bit less surprising.
Misunderstanding
“And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, ‘The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’” (v. 11)
Paul and Barnabas didn’t understand what was said. Notice that the people were speaking in Lycaonian.
Paul and Barnabas were undoubtedly speaking Greek, and we think most people would have spoken Greek as well. Cities such as Lystra were founded as Greek cities several hundred years earlier.
But this verse tells us that there was a deeper culture, an older culture, an older language still at play. When the people were startled by this obvious miracle, they responded in their native language.
Verse 12 explains the confusion,
“Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.”
It would be a big surprise for you and me to be mistaken as “gods”. I think it was a surprise for Paul and Barnabas as well.
The people saw the miracle and concluded this must be a divine visit. They picked the most likely visitors from the Greek pantheon—Zeus, king of the gods, and Hermes, the messenger of the gods.
The misunderstanding went even deeper when the priest of Zeus proposed sacrificing an ox to celebrate the visit from these god-like figures.
The text says that when Barnabas and Paul “heard of it,” that is, someone had to tell them what was going on…they spoke up and explained the true situation.
Think about what Paul and Barnabas were feeling at that moment. “We’ve been totally misunderstood!” Even after Paul’s explanation, Luke records that “even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them” (14:18).
So, despite a clear word from Paul, there was misunderstanding.
Dear friends, have you ever been misunderstood in your gospel witness? It happens that we try as best we can to make the gospel clear, and yet people around us hear it through their own lens. Perhaps, “Ah, so you are religious and I’m not.” “So you hold a particular political view.” Or, as I experienced with a driver in Vietnam once, “You ask Jesus for good stuff, and I ask Budda for good stuff. We’re basically the same.”
But I want us to see in this text that misunderstanding has a purpose. It fuels clear gospel witness. Misunderstanding forces us to new and fresh ways of speaking. Misunderstanding is the stuff of cross-cultural witness because it forces us to push through. It forces us to learn a new language, whether a literal language or the vocabulary of a sub-culture we’ve never experienced—maybe even one in our own city.
Light
A misunderstood healing gives Paul a chance to speak. And he has a message, a beam of light into darkness. He says in verse 15,
“We bring you good news.”
What is that good news?
What was the great problem regarding god in the ancient world? Because there were so many powers in the universe, so many potential gods, the greatest challenge was to know which god should be worshipped. All the sacrifices in the pagan world were attempts to ask, “Will this help?” “Will that help?” My Vietnamese friend treated Buddha in the same way: He can help me get what I want.
That is why Paul says in verse 15, “We bring you good news!” It frees us to learn that there is one God above all. It is freeing to hear that this God has spoken. If I am worried about offending one of the many gods, to hear that there is one God above them all changes things.
Remember that the priest of Zeus is waiting there with a sacrificial ox. But Paul doesn’t say, “Just like Zeus, the god I proclaim is the king of the gods. He directs the lightning. He shows his power in the sky.”
The Living God is not like Zeus. He is not a part of creation, but completely separate from it. As the “living” God, he is life and he gives life. He created all things and so rules over all things.
And people need that same word today. Without a belief in the living God, people have no real connection to what is bigger than themselves. A world without a creator has a great emptiness. All our quests to be part of something bigger than ourselves are pointing in that direction. We may settle for building our own little empire, or devoting ourselves to a political cause, or vaguely hoping that “helping people” gets us a bit more meaning, but in quiet moments we know that we are alone in this universe without connection to one who created all things.
Dear friends, this is the “light” of the gospel message.
The God who made the world, the one whom we cannot avoid, has spoken and acted for us in Jesus.
Luke doesn’t record the end of Paul’s message here, but he does in Acts 17, when Paul visits Athens. There Paul says,
“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).
The resurrection of Jesus Christ has announced God’s salvation and judgment to the world.
Some of you are facing difficult conversations with friends and family about what you believe. You may be uncertain about how to make clear what you mean by faith in Jesus. Paul’s witness here reminds us that even in the midst of misunderstanding, the gospel announces real, solid light to every culture and sub-culture, to every sector of society, and to every man and woman.
And the work to make that gospel light clear is the glorious work of witness, particularly cross-cultural witness.
2) Life: New Followers of Jesus
Cross-cultural witness glorifies God because it results in life: that is, new followers of Jesus.
What Does Christian Conversion Look Like? (v. 15)
It is to “turn from vain things to a living God” (Acts 14:15). Paul explains this to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, “you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.”
Notice the contrast: Vain things, idols, that is, whatever claims to meet our needs. Instead we should turn to the “living God.” “Living God” does not mean simply that “he exists.”
Rather, he is life and he gives life. He is not an inert, distant power or force—like gravity. But he is active, alive, and giving life.
Psalm 36:9,
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”
This reminds us why the message is good news.
Turning to God is not just doing what we are told: like getting back to your homework after wasting 30 minutes scrolling. It is not like getting serious after throwing around some jokes with friends, or setting yourself a long list of goals to make yourself better. Instead, the New Testament describes conversion as turning from darkness to light. It is stepping away from emptiness and toward fullness.
It is to reorder your desires and values so that you look up to the one who is the most valuable and say, “Yes! I have everything I need in You!” Everything else is “vanity,” insufficient, incomplete, temporary, and ultimately unsatisfying.
If we have Jesus, then we lack nothing. Our cup is full. And we are satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. He is to us, not only Lord and Savior, but also our treasure.
Have you turned from vain things to the Living God? Have you given up on empty pursuits (and you know deep down that they are empty) to look toward the God who gives real life?
Paul calls the people of Lystra to the most significant moment of their lives. He tells them not to miss out on what God gives. And if you have not yet put your faith in Jesus, then God announces this to you again today: Come to him.
And the miracle is that people in Lystra believed.
New Disciples and New Churches
Acts 14:21-22,
“When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith....”
They “made many disciples” and they returned to “strengthen the souls of the disciples.” In the midst of misunderstanding, people believed. When Paul and Barnabas came back to Lystra, perhaps a month or two later, there were “disciples.”
This is the great promise of gospel witness. Real lives are changed. Human lives take a new direction.
And those believers make churches, churches that often endure. Do you remember Paul’s companion, Timothy? Do you know where he is from? Lystra. This very town (Acts 16:1-3).
I know Lystra is not on a tour of Bible lands today. That part of Turkey was conquered by Muslims in the Middle Ages, but the church in Lystra survived for at least four hundred years after this event. There is evidence that the bishop of Lystra attended a church council in 451 AD. So, the cross-cultural witness here produced fruit for hundreds of years to come.
How does cross-cultural witness glorify God? It brings life and joy that transform the lives of men and women…and then it bears fruit in churches and communities for decades and centuries.
So, Cities Church, if a mature member of this church says, “Yes. I want to give my life for that work in a fresh, cross-cultural environment,” will we get behind them? Are we ready to send a member or members of this church to live and witness cross-culturally for the sake of new spiritual life? Might that perhaps be you?
3) Love: Believers Walk in a Cross-shaped Way (vv. 19-20)
Cross-cultural witness brought Light (out of darkness and into light), Life (new life that grows in Christ), and then Love (Believers now walk in a cross-shaped way).
Acts 14:19-20,
“But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.”
Can you imagine this scene? As Paul, you are hit in the head with a stone that knocks you out. Next thing you know, you wake up in the dust on a road outside the town.
Imagine what that felt like for Barnabas. Here we are, a few months into this journey. We’ve seen some success, we’ve seen people come to faith. And even in Lystra it looked hopeful after the misunderstanding. But then, it all comes crashing down in a mob action directed at Paul.
How do you respond to that? Luke records this very simply: Paul got up, went into the city, and left the next day with Barnabas. These guys knew what they were about, and they were not surprised.
We have been studying John 17, and Jesus makes this perfectly clear:
“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (John 17:14)
“As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18)
Paul and Barnabas looked at each other that day and said, “Brother, we are not of this world. But we are sent into the world. The world hates our Savior, and so it hates us as well.”
Here is how Paul reflected on that day when he wrote to Timothy several years later, 2 Timothy 3:10-12,
“You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…”
When Paul thinks through his “persecutions and sufferings”, he goes back to this event. He tells Timothy, you want to know what my life looks like? Remember Lystra.
We can call it a cross-shaped life. Just as Jesus told us,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
Do you believe that, dear friends? The life of love is a life poured out for others in serving them and proclaiming the good news about Jesus Christ. And cross-cultural witness among unreached people makes this abundantly clear.
C.T. Studd, one of the missionaries to China in 1885 said about his years there:
“For five years we never went outside our doors without a volley of curses from our neighbors.”
Those who engage in front-line, pioneering cross-cultural witness often face a negative response from people. And yet there is glory in it. Would it not be a glory to display that cross-shaped life as a witness to a people group among whom there are few believers? Would it not be a grace to spend your life working through the frustration of cross-cultural misunderstanding to see new spiritual life spring up? Would it not be worth it to find yourself spent, tired, and poured out for the sake of people who might not hear the gospel clearly any other way?
And for every Christian, it may be that you will face a “volley of curses” when you go outside your door. You might even face such a thing today. And that is why Paul’s exhortation to the new believers in Lystra applies also to us, Acts 14:22:
“strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Your “many tribulations” might look like anything: this includes both opposition and just plain difficulty. Paul says to you that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” This is from God and God is with us in it.
The Table
And how do we know that God is with us in difficulty? One way is through the witness of the Lord’s Supper.
Believers have a life shaped by the cross. Behind our struggles with misunderstanding and opposition is a confidence in Jesus, who suffered and died for us.
And so, if you feel inadequate for a difficult situation. If you feel like your knees would buckle when faced with opposition. If you sense that your body and soul are not sufficient for the risk-taking life that we see in Paul and Barnabas here, then God has a word for you here at this table.
Jesus Christ endured all for you, and he gives himself to you to be received in faith, just as we take and eat these elements. And if Christ is in you by the power of the Spirit, then all of heaven works for your good.