Bible Commentaries

Chapter43

Prayer

Almighty God, do thou come to us as the light; make morning in our hearts; let the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and flood our souls with the dawn of heaven. Thou knowest how our eyes are filled with darkness, and how our feet stumble like those who walk in the night; but if thou wilt come to us, the gloom shall flee away, the whole sky shall burn with glory, and our life shall be a joyous advance amid the increasing splendours of day. Thy Son our Saviour is the Light of the world. In him is light, and there is no darkness at all. May he be amidst his saved ones, walking in their midst as their light, their salvation, and their defence. Recall by his presence all his ministry; then shall we hasten to Bethlehem to see the Child Jesus, and to the temple, and to all the way of the cities and the villages which he visited, and we shall find Golgotha, Calvary, the Cross, and see the blood and know its meaning, and watch by the grave until death is swallowed up in victory. Thus in the presence of his life on earth shall we see the meaning of his ministry in heaven, and great and elevating comfort shall lift up our souls to a new level of existence, and sacred joys shall drive away all earthly sorrows, until our hearts shall be as temples of God. If we breathe great prayers in thy hearing, it is because thou hast first breathed them into our hearts. Lord, thou dost teach us how to pray; thou dost not inspire the prayer and then deny it; thine answer is as large as thine inspiration. So are we comforted by replies from the throne of grace. We will not be downcast into despair by reason of our sin; we will rather be driven by it to penitence, to broken-heartedness, and to the contrition which brings sweet hope and tender grace; thus our sin shall open wider the door of thy love; where sin abounded, grace shall much more abound, and out of a bitter root shall there arise a tree the fruit of which shall be good. Thou art our Lord and God, the source of our being and the source of our regeneration; and because of this faith, we are strong today, looking upon all the incidents of time with a calm and patient contemplation, knowing that thou art sitting on the circle of the earth, that all things are in thy right hand, that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without thee; and comforted and strengthened by this deep and sacred trust, we wait and watch and sing in the night time, and above the morning glory we see a still brighter light. We come always to thee as thou wilt, and as our sin necessitates. By no golden stair of our own making do we climb—we come by the way of the Cross; we have not found any other way into the court of thy righteousness, or into the presence of thy mercy; in our right hand is blood, in our left hand is blood, upon our head is blood—the blood of Jesus Christ thy Acts 14:1-7

1. And it came to pass in Iconium [fifty miles from Antioch] that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that [cf. "so that" in John 3:16] a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks [i.e, uncircumcised proselytes of the gate, Acts 13:43] believed.

2. But the Jews that were disobedient [to this word] stirred up the souls of the [heathen] Gentiles, and made them evil affected against the brethren [literally: "stirred up and exasperated the souls," etc, Psalm 106:32. Jews excited all the persecutions of the Acts except two].

3. Long time therefore [because of the faith of some, and of the disobedience of others to the Gospel] they tarried there speaking boldly in the Lord, which bare witness unto the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.

4. But [the second, unfavourable, consequence of the faith and disobedience] the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the Apostles.

5. And when there was made an onset [a "movement," not an actual onslaught] both of the Gentiles [ Acts 14:2] and of the Jews with their rulers [the conspiracy was Jewish in its organization, cf. Philippians 1:1] to entreat them shamefully, and to stone them,

6. They became aware of it, and fled unto the [minor] cities of Lycaonia [Pliny states that Iconium was still the capital of the "Lycaonian tetrarchy." The Gauls or Galatians who had dispossessed the former Phrygian owners of Central Asia Minor, in the third century before Christ, had divided themselves into12tetrarchies. Amyntas "fed his300 flocks" in Lycaonia, before becoming king of all Galatia. After his death Galatia was organized as a Roman province. This Lycaonian "region of Galatia" was revisited by Paul (as related in Acts 16:6, and Acts 18:23). To these Galatians Paul wrote his epistle], Lystra and Derbe, and the region [of Galatia] round about7. And there they preached the Gospel.

Persecution Turned Into Inspiration

THE Apostles had finished their work in the Antioch of Pisidia in a great storm. Can that be true, a sweet word of God, which so violently impassions men and divides quiet cities into hostile camps? It would seem as if the heavenly word would surely bring heavenly peace along with it, and seal its divinity by composing into enduring rest all controversy and discord. That is our narrow and sophistical reasoning. The Son of man came not to send peace on the earth, but a sword. Do not think that I have come to send peace on the earth; I have come to send fire. That is the idea which we have lost. Now that the Apostles have come to Iconium, they will act in a different manner. We correct ourselves by our mistakes, and thus we make today nobler than yesterday; but we find that such was not the case. There, in little beautiful Iconium, we have angry division, despiteful usage, and stoning! How is this? There must be an explanation beneath it all, otherwise we had better let Christianity alone. These histories throw some light upon what is called unanimity. We find that unanimity is now regarded as a virtue by some people. There is no more virtue in unanimity than there is in sincerity. If we have been thinking that sincerity is a virtue, we have been thinking on wrong lines. Unanimity is no virtue, sincerity is no virtue, earnestness is no virtue; we must ascertain what the unanimity is about, and what men are sincere in doing, and earnest in carrying out, because good fire may be used for the forging of bad instruments. Surely it was a pity for two wandering tent-makers to go from town to town, disturbing the unanimity of families and of townships! Why not let families and corporations alone? They are living peaceably, quietly, without controversy, without the spirit of hostility. Why not say, "Sleep on; yea in deeper slumber still take your rest"? Why this propagation of a fighting faith? Why this inauguration of controversy which brings with it stoning, imprisonment, fire and blood? This is the way of Christianity. It will not let people alone. Hence we find these histories throwing some light upon Christian doctrine, as well as upon unanimity. It was not a little puzzle to please the fancy, nor a pyrotechnic display around which the children gathered, and which they hailed with childlike pleasure and gratification. It was something very different. Christianity is not a suggestion; there is no "If you please" in the lips of Christianity; it saves, or slays. It builds high heaven, sunlighted and eternal, or it digs deep hell, and plunges into it all wickedness and unrighteousness, all rebellion and perverse disbelief. We are always open to suggestions if men will timidly whisper them and mealily refer to them circuitously, and in language which will admit of any number of modified interpretations; we are not the men to disdain them; but Christianity comes in and puts its foot down soundingly on the Church floor, and lifts itself up, and says, "What is this?" and then unfolds, in royal tone and noble speech, its revelation; and though smitten in the face, it lifts up a countenance, marred and broken, of indestructible beauty, and repeats the revelation which has thus been brutally received. What wonder if it came upon sleepy towns like the rushing of a thunderstorm, unparalleled, at midnight? Christianity is not a compromise; it does not come saying, "I can complete the line which you have drawn"; it does not propose to give a little and take a little, and make a quiet pacific arrangement with anybody; it comes with instruments that mean digging up and pulling down, and blowing all to pieces the proudest and strongest fortresses of man's trust. We are always open to a compromise; we are willing to meet difficulties, and to adjust them by apparently fair and equitable concessions, but Christianity concedes nothing, admits nothing; Christianity insists upon having everything; it receives no suggestions, makes room for nothing else; it fills the whole space of the mind and heart. What wonder, then, that everywhere it broke up families, and set the father against the Acts 14:8-18

8. And at Lystra there sat a certain Acts 14:1, Acts 14:3],

10. said, with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped up and walked [G, "was walking"].

11. And when the multitudes saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying, in the speech of Lycaonia [which the Apostles did not understand. But all these Galatian tribes would understand Greek as the Welsh do English], The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men.

12. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercury, because he was the chief speaker [see Ovid, Met8 , for the legend of a previous appearance of these divinities in this neighbourhood. Barnabas was probably of more venerable aspect than Paul, but there is no ground here for the tradition about Paul's mean physique].

13. And the priest of Jupiter, whose temple was before the city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates [of the town; for these supposed divinities were there in the city], and would have done sacrifice with the multitudes.

14. But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul [Barnabas takes the lead], heard of it, they rent their garments [ Matthew 26:65. Ritualists put on garments at such times, that they may exploit the superstition of the masses], and sprang forth [out of the city] among the multitude, crying out,

15. and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions [lit, "sympathetic"] with you, and bring you good tidings [the evangel versus ritual], that ye should turn from these vain things ["vanities": the imagined presence of these gods] unto the living God, who made [ch17] the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is:

16. who in the generations gone by suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways.

17. And yet [how mildly—Chrysostom says "secretly"—the charge is laid against them! See Romans 1:22, Romans 3:10, etc, for the way Paul writes of the same things to converted people. The model missionary is here!] he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.

18. And with these sayings scarce restrained they the multitudes from doing sacrifice unto them.

Apostolic Service and Temptation

THIS [ Acts 14:8] is the kind of man who is always looking out for religious excitement or entertainment. He would not be admitted into a drawing-room; he would be a spot on any feast of high conviviality; he could not join in the whirling dance; he must find his dissipation in listening to speakers who have something novel to say. You find this man everywhere—he is the padding of every congregation; he seems to have a kind of hereditary right to be in the Church, and to take an interest in speakers of all kinds; we could not well do without him; he is a good make-up, and gives a base to the assembly. We begin with him everywhere. If we can advance to a higher social grade, well and good; but Christianity always begins with the cripples, with the poor, with the outcast, with the friendless. Christianity will begin anywhere. The one cry of Christianity Acts 14:19-28

19. But there came Jews thither [to this foolish, fickle Galatian mob] from Antioch and Iconium; and, having persuaded the multitudes [that if the Apostles were not gods, they were God's foes], they stoned Paul [ 2 Corinthians 11:25], and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.

20. But [again], as the disciples stood round about him [so we learn he had not preached here in vain; Lois, Eunice, and Timothy probably were about him. Cf. Acts 16:1; 2 Timothy 1:5; and Acts 13:13], they went down to Attalia;

26. And thence they sailed to Antioch [in Syria], from whence they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled [four or five years were thus occupied between44,51 a.d. The Apostles went not as Xavier or Livingstone, sustained by wealth and political influence, but like Socialist workmen go earning their bread as they pursue their propaganda from town to town].

27. And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all things that God had done with them [i.e, as their Helper], and how he had opened a [G. the] door of faith unto the Gentiles [hitherto only Gentile proselytes had passed on to Christianity from Judaism; now it was proved possible to found Christian churches, at once, among the pure heathen. Jew and Gentile henceforth entered abreast into the fold of Christ].

28. And they tarried no little time with the disciples [here, probably Titus was converted— 2 Corinthians 8:23].

Tribulation Accepted

THE Apostles Barnabas and Paul had wrought a great miracle at Lystra, and so astounded were the people that they wished to offer sacrifices unto the Apostles, and were hardly restrained from doing so by the stern and severe expostulation of the Apostles themselves. The enemy can be as active as the friend. Sometimes we are inclined to think that the enemy can outdo the friend in energy. Enemies seem to be more determined than friends. As a general rule friends are timid, and reluctant to move. They wish to live quietly, whereas enemies are not so restrained, they are fearless, desperate, resolute—nothing will stand in the way of the accomplishment of their base designs. Still one would rather lean toward the thought that love can outlive hate; but, truly, hate has a long life! We find that Paul and Barnabas were not allowed to go upon their journey without knowing that the enemy had them in full view. There came to Lystra "certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people" and turned their hearts against the very men whom but yesterday the Lystrenians would have deified! The Jews from the Pisidian Antioch and Iconium brought reports from these places concerning Paul and Barnabas, and turned the homage of the people into hatred. So Paul was stoned. The Jews had no easy work to get to Lystra. They also had to travel the hundred and thirty miles which separated the towns. But what is a distance of a hundred and thirty miles, even in an age so ancient as the time indicated in the text, when the heart is burning with hatred, and the life is aflame with sectarian indignation? The Jews did not travel the hundred and thirty miles under such disadvantageous circumstances merely as a luxury. They hated the new faith, they abominated the detestable democracy which would throw down sonship in Abraham, and make the Gentiles equal to the Jews, and so they, too, were missionaries, though animated by a different spirit. Paul was but once stoned, and he never forgot it! Writing an account of his experiences, he puts into the summary of them this line—"Once I was stoned." No man can forget that experience. In former years those who were engaged in stoning Stephen lay down their clothes at a young man's feet whose name was Saul. The wheel of Providence turns round! There is no resentment in God, but there is justice at the very heart of things. When Paul himself is stoned it will not be to gratify a grudge, but to express the spirit of the eternal righteousness, without which the whole heaven of stars itself might fall in night. Justice keeps things together. Righteousness must hold the reins. Once let wickedness hold them and drive the steed of the universe, and in one night they will plunge into abysses out of which there is no extrication. "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice," for the security of goodness is not in strength but in righteousness. They left Paul, "supposing he had been dead." That is a common mistake about Christianity itself. Many a time has Christianity been stoned and drawn out of the city, and thrown into the ditch "supposed to be dead." Paul recovered his consciousness. He was blinded and stunned, but not killed. So, to the joy of the little circle of weeping disciples, he got up, and stood upon his feet—a kind of resurrection before the time! Take it as a typical instance, and regard it as teaching the impossibility of killing truth. You may "suppose it to be dead," but the error is in the supposition. Whatever is true rises again. It may be thrown down; it may be kept upon bread and water; it may be spat upon; it may be thrust through with a dart; over it all hell may have a moment's laugh,—but it finds its feet again! "Truth is great, and must prevail." These incidents, which we call personal and transitory, are in reality typical, and because of their interior meaning and suggestion, they are the strongest and broadest lines in history.

The next day Paul travelled twenty miles—he departed with Barnabas to Derbe; and the thought came to the two men that, instead of making a detour, and getting back to Antioch by any short cut that might be open, they would go, step for step, along the road they had come. They would have a return missionary journey. It is not enough to go once over a track. People do not know you on one visit. Life is a revelation. We see sections of one another, but we must live with one another—the year in and the year out, all the four seasons—to see really the depths that slumber in any genuine life. Paul and Barnabas, therefore, went back, "confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith"—with this line added: "and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." We cannot copy pathos. We must learn it by life. We may not write our sermons with ink, for then they would be but rhetorical emptiness. We must live them, gather fruit from trees that have grown around us, and return to the people week by week with some new blessing in the language, some deeper tone in the voice, some nobler appeal in the exhortation. How simply, and yet subtly, comes this line into the preaching!—namely, "that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." Paul was suffering when he said those words. His head had not recovered the stunning blows of the stoning at Lystra. There was a subdued sob in the man's emphasis as he said this. Strangers might not detect it, but the speaker himself was conscious that a new thread—a golden one—was being run through the web of his eloquence as he exhorted the Christians at Derbe and Lystra and Antioch and Iconium to continue in the faith, and to accept tribulation, not as a discredit, but as an endorsement.

Paul and his colleague came back to Antioch after, some say, more than a year's absence, and others calculate an interval of nearly two years, and the twenty-seventh verse would seem to contain the summary of all that was done, but it does not. "And when they were come, and had gathered the Church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." Into no speech with which I am acquainted is so much meaning condensed. It is the penalty of speakers who have a condensed style that they do not get credit for all they say. There are minds that must have bulk as well as quality; minds that must have everything beaten out to the thinnest and widest possible surface before they can begin to think. They do not fly on the wind, or take two mountains at a time in their gigantic stride; they, therefore, say they cannot follow the writers who have written such a verse as the twenty-seventh, which is now before us. Look at it. "And when they had gathered the Church together." How easily we say these words! How much they may possibly involve! The Church did not live on the open street, or in the fine houses. The Church was a scattered people, a hidden little band, talking in whispers—perhaps often communicating secretly—despised amid the pomp and splendor of the Syrian Antioch. The Church had to be "gathered together." But why not tell the little missionary story on the open thoroughfare to the passers-by? Simply because it is useless to speak to men in an unknown tongue. Only the Church can understand the speech of the Church. Even those who can catch the English sentences do not catch the Christian sentiment, unless they be in the secret which unites and inspires Christian hearts. Having gathered the Church together, they "rehearsed ALL." But we want to hear the detail. The little word "ALL" is really the greatest word in human speech. In its three letters the whole universe is included. We want to take it to pieces, to go into analysis, into the separation and classification of events, to understand the entire case. But we are put off with an allusion instead of being gratified by a detailed rehearsal. "They rehearsed all"—and yet, perhaps, they did not. Who can tell all? You cannot write all you want to write. Having written what you think is a complete statement, you find that it is only a table of contents, and not a statement at all! After having elaborated the rehearsal until you think not one line can be added, you read the whole, and are appalled to find that you have referred to everything but the subject! Whatever is deep requires long time for its evolution. Whatever is spiritual requires all language for its expression. Not in a handful of words can you set forth the details of a lifetime. "They rehearsed all that God had done with them." They connected the whole story with God. What—the stoning? Yes! The statement does not read that, having called the Church together, Paul put his hand upon his head, and said, "Oh, what I have suffered for you!" Not a word of the kind is said. Stoning and hunger and peril and persecution—these things God has done! It is because we do not recognize that fact that we suppose ourselves to be the victims of circumstances and the butt of enemies. Get rid of that sophism. God sent the hunger to bite you. God spread the cloud in the face of the sun to shut you out in darkness. God allows your enemy to smite you on the head, and on the face, and to malign you, and misrepresent you—it is God's doing! It is part of the Divine education. "Can there be evil in the city, and the Lord not have done it?" Done it!—not in the little narrow technical sense of hand-working, but in the larger sense of working up together in one complete massiveness—hells and devils, dangers and sorrows, into one sublime issue. "He maketh the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder thereof will he restrain." The Lord reigneth. The wet days are his, as well as the days that are full of summer light and summer music. And the graves are his, as well as the flowers which grow upon their green sward. And hell is his, and the key of it is on his girdle, and he will know what to do with it in the upgathering and total issue of his providence. They left one impression upon the Church—what was it? How God "had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." There is no whine in that tone! The Apostles, returning to the Syrian capital, said, "Brethren, the door is opened, the Gentiles are accessible. Arise: shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." They were very heroes of men! Instead of saying, "The way is very difficult," they said, "The door is open." Instead of saying, "If you go to the Gentiles, you may expect to be stoned by the Jews," they said, "Who are these that flock as doves to the windows?" These were the men that rocked the world in the storms of their sacred enthusiasm! All personal suffering was forgotten in the opened door. The stoning was a very little thing when the Apostles thought that the Gentile provinces were to be added to the empire of their Lord.

Nor was this all. There was an incident that happened which is not recorded in this verse. Twenty years afterward Paul wrote a letter to a man whom he called "my own son in the faith," and "my dearly beloved son, " and "my fellow-worker"; and in that letter he said, "But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions; afflictions which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me." How did Timothy come to know about the stoning at Lystra, and the persecution at Antioch and Iconium? Paul, writing to Timothy, said he greatly desired to see the youth, being mindful of his tears. "When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also." Where did he make the acquaintance of the little family—grandmother and mother and Timothy? Why, at Derbe probably, on this very missionary journey. That was the proof that the Lord was with him. He brought up from the Lycaonian wilds—the dreary wolf-land—memories of Lois and Eunice and Timothy, which cheered him in his old age; and in the loving Timothy, who would carry on his own noble work, he found a compensation for the stoning at Lystra. We cannot tell what we are doing. Some men may be won to Christ by a discourse who will afterward vindicate the propriety of the argument which that discourse contained. Twenty years after we may hear of some young man who, being here this morning, was touched with a live coal from off the altar, and has gone out to declare that "this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." Christ will find his own ministers. Christ will not let the Christian pulpit go down for want of capacity, ability, eloquence, learning, pathos, or sympathy. We do not always know what we are doing, but the Master knows, and that is enough.