Acts 14:1-7

 United by the Gospel  

September 22, 2002

You’ve no doubt seen the fish wars, the battling bumpers across the land displaying a variety of fish seeking to make a convincing statement to every passer-by. Years ago, Christians stuck-on, "fish" plaques to their bumpers. Displaying the stylized "fish" - an ancient, once-secret symbol of Christ - is considered a way to publicly proclaim one's faith. Then, fish "mutations" began appearing on other cars. The most popular is a fish sprouting tiny feet and the word "Darwin," referring to the founder of the theory of evolution. Other models featured the word "evolve" with a fish holding a wrench; a spaceship-shaped alien fish; a dead and decayed fish; a gay-pride fish; a shark fish; and a Jewish gefilte fish. Then the Christian "fish" struck back. A "Truth" fish with its mouth wide open swallows a smaller Darwin fish. There also is a plaque featuring a Darwin fish lying dead on its back with its feet pointing upward.

In the early Christian church, the fish symbol was used for a serious purpose, at a time when it was dangerous to be known as a follower of Christ. In order to identify oneself to a stranger, a Christian would draw two curved strokes in the dirt, then erase them just as quickly if the stranger showed no recognition or one believer would draw a single line in the sand and the other would complete the fish as a way of identifying each other. The word fish in Greek -- ichthys -- is an acronym for Ieosous, Christos, Theou Uios, Soter, or Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. The fish became the first symbol of the Christian church, but today it is a marketing ploy to attract customers or a decorative ornament to announce one’s faith.

But that the once uniting symbol of Christianity is today a divisive emblem should come as no surprise., in fact the fish wars today are quite tame. Throughout Scripture and history the same pattern has occurred. The gospel which unites is the gospel which divides and that can be seen quite clearly in our passage this morning. READ Acts 14:1-7

Iconium was a city-state, located in the heart of Galatia, in what is today modern Turkey. It revivals Damascus as one of the oldest inhabited cities, situated on a plateau between the Taurus and Sultan mountain ranges and today is Turkey’s fourth largest town of Konya.

An interesting note, a second century document called The Acts of Paul and Thekla, written by an opponent of Paul, originated in this same region, and contains the only known description we have the apostle Paul. According to this tradition, Paul "was a man small of stature, with a bald head and crooked legs, in a good state of body, with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat hooked, full of friendliness; for now he appeared like a man, and now he has the face of an angel.”

Paul and Barnabas, having left Pisidian Antioch, traveled 100 miles to Iconium and soon entered the local synagogue, as was their habit. Even though the Jews in Antioch were initially receptive to the gospel, they became enraged when they realized that God would be gracious not only to good people like themselves, but also show mercy to the most vile of people. Paul and Barnabas left that city, shaking the dust off their feet, proclaiming that the gospel would now go to the Gentiles. Nevertheless, they did not reject all Jews, but in each city took the gospel first to their fellow Jews.

Paul never gave up on the Jews. There were always some who would gladly hear the message of the Messiah’s coming. There were also those Gentiles in the synagogue who were familiar with God’s dealings with the Jews and the promises he made over the centuries.

But once again the same pattern continues. Some Jews and Gentiles believe while those that do not stir up opposition forcing their departure once again. The pattern continues as the gospel which unites people in faith is also the gospel which unites people in opposition.

The gospel unites

The events in Iconium begin the way we love to hear, with success. At first, the response is tremendous, a great number of both Jews and Gentiles believe.

This is the kind of response that enable people to write books on church growth, hold seminars sharing their secrets for how to do church. The prevailing assumption in our culture is that if a church is growing, it must be doing something right.  But while we should be excited about growth, its lack, or the presence of conflict, is not indicative of doing something wrong. As this passage will show as we move along, the gospel unites people in faith or division.

But while the conflict which results receives most of the attention here, we must not miss that God still was working in people’s hearts. We must not allow the presence of conflict to overshadow what God is doing. Success is not to be measured by the absence of conflict or the presence of peace.

It was in situations such as this that what Paul later wrote to the Church in Rome rings true:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

In Rom. 1:16 Paul begins with the negative the initial response to the gospel. It is easy to be ashamed of it, for it seems so contrary to human wisdom and it often is meet with harsh opposition.

• It is contrary to human wisdom for the gospel is the simple truth that it is God who declares us just and not our own efforts. Human wisdom demands that what we do must count, that we must have some input into God’s view of us. But the counterintuitive gospel turns our default mode of self righteousness to trusting in God’s righteousness.
• Secondly, we can easily be ashamed of the gospel for it does unite people both in faith and disbelief. You can’t be neutral when it comes to the gospel. There isn’t available a third option. There is an exclusivity in the gospel, for it demands people to either accept or reject it.

But what removes the shame is that the force of the gospel is in God’s sovereign grace available to all who believe.

The gospel is about God’s power. What can take disparate Jews and Gentiles, what can take people of different socio-economic backgrounds, conflicting political ideologies, various ethnic or cultural influences, even differing racial make-ups and put them in the same room and they will address each other as brother and sister in Christ? It is the gospel. The power of the gospel to unite means that we must never seek any other means to bring the unity that we all long for so much. The truth that our righteousness, our desire for a perfect record before God, can be found only in looking, by faith, to the completed work of Christ. Anything other than that is, in the end, powerless. No lasting unity will ever result.

The gospel divides

While we must never miss out that the gospel unites, it also divides. People, by nature, apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, will not be inclined to cease self effort and trust God’s completed work. As we saw last week, it is God who appoints people to eternal life so that they will then believe. Whenever the gospel of God’s free grace is proclaimed clearly, division is inevitable. Very quickly sides are drawing in Iconium. It was not enough for some to remain neutral themselves, but they had to convince others to join their cause in opposing the gospel.

The word in v2 describing the Jews, unbelieving, interestingly has a range of meaning which includes not just the refusal to believe, but posses the active quality of disobedience. When confronted with the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, that his death is a propitiation, appeasing the Father’s wrath toward our sin and that by faith in Christ’s substitutionary death we will be declared righteous, they did not just refuse to believe, their unbelief at the very heart is disobedience.

That disobedient unbelief is seen in what they said not only to their fellow Jews, but to the Gentiles. They poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against their brothers. Not only did they not want to believe, they wanted to be sure that even the Gentiles did not accept the offer of grace.

When God’s Word comes into a dark area it does what light always does. It causes things to grow; in the case of the gospel it brings the fruit of the spiritual life God has already put there. And it causes the creatures of the dark to scatter; Jesus said that some people would not come to the light “because their deed were evil (Jn 3:19).

When we lived in South Carolina we were introduced to the Palmetto Bug, but in reality it was a cockroach on hormones. This huge reddish brown insect was big enough to carry off small children and pets. Like any cockroach, they are adverse to light, so as one would stumble in the bathroom or kitchen at night and turn on the light so as not to stub a toe, the light helped to see, but it caused these vile creatures to flee. So we often picture the darkness which scatters as depraved sinners.

It is important to drive home that the people who were opposed to the gospel were not Iconium lowlifes, the dregs of society who live in darkened allies doing detestable things. Those that poisoned the minds were the good, moral people. That is where the opposition comes from, as the gospel promises divine regeneration with out personal rehabilitation. The pandemonium in Iconium was that sin is not removed by one’s own self effort, but is done by the power of God. That is good news to hard boiled sinners. It is bad news, unwelcomed news to moral people. 

The opposition to the gospel is less often from those people who know their sin, battle it daily. They hear it as good news. Division comes from those who love the morality of the church, but despise the need for personal, daily repentance. The opposition you will face among family and friends to the gospel will come from those you least think would be opposed. But remember, Jesus got little flack from the prostitutes but from the priests.

As Iconium was divided over the gospel, those who did not care to be told that their sin is offensive, but that God graciously provides satisfaction for sin in Christ, banded together to stop its spread.

Iconium was governed by an assembly of citizens, following the Greek ideal of democracy, for this reason the Gentile and Jews could turn the city leaders against Paul and Barnabas. Since it was the duty of every such local assembly to keep the peace, Paul and Barnabas were obviously creating a colossal problem for them. In v5 Luke informs us as to their intent.

How did Paul and Barnabas respond to the division caused by the gospel?

At first, they continued on. In v3 they remained not just to tie up loose ends, but Luke tells us they remained for a long time. Initially the opposition described in v2 was seeking to turn the Gentiles against their fellow Gentiles. It was the new believers taking the heat, at first. It was not so much directed at Paul and Barnabas as it was dividing family loyalties. Paul and Barnabas kept speaking boldly. If there was ever a time for teaching and encouragement in the church, it was when it was facing hostility and opposition. This was the only way to correct the false and show the true.

Rather than allowing the rejection of the gospel to discourage them, they were emboldened. Many of those who have risen from failure to real achievement have rejected the rejection of this world. In 1902, the poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly returned a sheaf of poems to a 28-year-old poet with this curt note: "Our magazine has no room for your vigorous verse." The poet was Robert Frost, who rejected the rejection. In 1905, the University of Bern turned down a Ph.D. dissertation as being irrelevant and fanciful. The young physics student who wrote the dissertation was Albert Einstein, who rejected the rejection. In 1894, the rhetoric teacher at Harrow in England wrote on the 16-year-old's report card, "a conspicuous lack of success." The 16-year-old was Winston Churchill, who rejected the rejection.

This same kind of spunk is seen in a letter written by a high school senior who had received a letter of rejection from the college he wanted to attend. "Dear Admissions Officer," the student wrote, "I am in receipt of your rejection of my application. As much as I would like to accommodate you, I find I cannot accept it. I have already received four rejections from other colleges, and this number is, in fact, over my limit. Therefore, I must reject your rejection, and will appear for classes on Sept 18." (Neil Postman, Crazy Talk).

How do you respond when you feel rejected for your faith?

This is a very real problem for people who come to faith later in life. The powerful influence of old friends and family can tug at you. You may wonder what people are thinking about your new found faith, what your co-workers think about how your order your life. Someone said:

“You wouldn’t care so much what people think of you, if you realized how often they don’t.”

But as your are feeling pulled by people who may mean much to you, notice how Paul and Barnabas responded, as they “bore witness to the word of his grace.”

Far too often our response may be one of anger or bitterness, taking a vindictive approach, calling up the fires of hell to lick their sorry, reprobate heels. But the boldness of the apostles was to meet resistance with grace.

Such pluck and spunk has always been true of God’s warriors, John Wesley once encountered a village bully when their carriages met upon a narrow road. The bully knew Wesley and dislike him and would not give him any leeway, standing in the middle of the road. John Wesley cheerfully gave the man the entire road, even though he had to turn into the ditch. As they passed, the bully said, “I never turn out for fools,” and Wesley – all five foot two of him – retorted, “I always do.”

The response of grace to rejection is a rare commodity. Too often Christians appear more adept at spiritual whining, that whimpering sound you hear when our culture ignores or belittles us, when we realize the courts are not on our side, that the universities do not teach Scripture, that politicians play lip service and do as they please. So ascends this great whine that we are so persecuted.

Paul and Barnabas did not respond with greater condemnation, they did not remind these people of God’s wrath, but rather of God’s grace. When people clamor that the gospel is too easy, pastors may want to show that they have spiritual guts. They’ll show being a Christian is indeed a manly life, for it requires strenuous effort to do all that is required. Sometimes it seems as though Christians want to out pious each other, that their brand of faith is more rigorous. But that is not being bold in grace. 

In this situation, God likewise responded, granting signs and wonders. The intimate connection between God’s Word and God’s wonders is seen here.

Sometimes we imagine that if only we had miracles like these today, performed in the public eye and witnessed by masses of people, we would see people turning to Christ in greater numbers. The Scriptures show, however, that evidence is not a converting ordinance. Facts and education do not change minds that are steeped in contrary precommitments and presuppositions. The miracles attested the message, but it was the message and the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit that converted people to Christ. Against all the evidence of the truth and power of the gospel, the same coalition of malcontented religious and civic leaders plotted to ill treat and stone Paul and company.

So there came a point at which they had to leave. When they realized that the opposition was not just making life tough for the new believers or even hard for themselves, but that their life was in danger, they fled to Lystra and Derbe. They moved on, but did not give up.

How do you cope with rejection, with the possible division which comes from the gospel?

Discouragements in the Christian life are, says Lloyd Ogilvie, like “splinters in our pride.” Even one little discouragement seems to outweigh any number of encouragements. Setbacks, failures, rejections, discouragement – call them what you will – tend to get under our skin. They are blemishes on what we want to be a perfect record of progress. They tell us that more is needed than our best efforts in order to avoid setbacks. They remind us of our frailty. They tempt us to think that the Lord may not be completely in control of his own work. In the end, discouragements can become occasions of the sin of not believing that God is all things works for the good of those who love him (Rom 8:28). (Keddie, You Are My Witnesses, 160)

Years after these events Paul wrote from jail, awaiting his own death, to his disciple,Timothy. In 2 Timothy 1 Paul looks past the seemingly hopeless situation saying,

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

There is never a need to be ashamed of the gospel, never a reason to doubt that God is nevertheless at work, doing what he pleases. The one in whom we trust will strengthen us to what ever task he has called us to do.