Acts 14:1-7

Chapter 43

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 Son, which cleanseth from all sin, answering every charge of the law, repelling every suggestion of despair, and drawing us into deeper and tenderer trust in the living God, the Saviour of all mankind. If all our days are few and evil, thou canst make them many and good. The disappointments of time thou canst sanctify, the losses of earth thou canst make up to us until we forget their distress yea, the grave itself is the field on which thy greatest miracles can be seen. Thou who dost bring creation out of the void, thou who dost find order and beauty in the midst of tumult and shapelessness, wilt also bid death, cold and dumb, arise and stand up and forget itself in the glow of immortality. This is thy sweet Gospel, thou who once wast crowned with thorns and pierced with spears, Man of the Cross, Creator of the world; and we receive it and answer it, and will live in its spirit, and die in its light, by the mighty energy and tender and continual comfort of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Act 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 Joh 3:16 ] a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks [ i.e., uncircumcised proselytes of the gate, Act 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., Psalms 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 [ Act 14:2 ] and of the Jews with their rulers [the conspiracy was Jewish in its organization, cf. Php 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 into 12 tetrarchies. Amyntas "fed his 300 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 Act 18:23 ). To these Galatians Paul wrote his epistle], Lystra and Derbe, and the region [of Galatia] round about. 7. 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 son, the mother against the daughter, and friend against friend? Seeing your hand locked in evil friendship, it does not hesitate to rend your hearts asunder; when all your papers are kept together in the same archives, and your secrets are whispered to one another in tender confidence, Christianity does not hesitate to set fire to the archives and the papers, and to blow the secrets away by a furious wind which cannot be stilled. Christianity says, "Behold, I make all things new." It will not say to a man, "Hand me your work, and I will complete it; I will give the last touch of beauty to what you yourselves have been labouring upon successfully"; it comes with a mighty iron hammer, which it wields with an arm of omnipotence, and it shatters our brazen idols and all our best performances, smiting them in vital parts, and denouncing them with fierce righteousness. Then it must be a long time since we have seen anything of Christianity! So it is; we know nothing about it in these social aspects now it is a name we sometimes conjure by. It is not the power of God it is a theology, it is a controversy in words, it is a map of orthodoxy; if you will buy it, accept it, fold it up, and put it away that is all that is often asked of you!

These histories throw some light upon Christian service. The ministry used to mean something it means nothing heroic now. It is a profession. It is one of the learned professions! The ministry a profession! It was not much of a profession in the days of Paul and Barnabas, and their missionary visits and propagations of the faith. Christian service is the supreme passion: it puts out everything else, it has no partnerships, it has no relations except those which it can press into its own purpose and sacrifice. We must love the Sabbath more than the day that went before, or the day that comes after, if we arc truly in the Lord's work, and bound to the altar hand and foot, head and heart. To us, then, there is only one day in the week, a seven-day-long Sunday, Christ's day, the Cross day, preaching day! It is not so sufficiently now. We mark off Sunday; we lock up the church; we attend to its business after all other business is done; we give our weariness where we ought to give our enthusiasm, and put out a stiff hand, cold and bloodless, where we ought to send forth a whole heart burning with the very heat of God's own love. Christian service exposes to daily danger. If we have escaped the danger, it is because we have escaped the service. When did we ever rebuke a wrong-doer? We have talked about him when he was not there that I admit; and that has proved our un- Christianity: about the latter there can be no doubt. When did we ever say to a man face to face "You lie" ? That would now be called discourtesy; but when were we ever licensed to be courteous to falsehood? Produce the charter which entitles you to treat a liar as a gentleman. Christianity is not a book of etiquette it is a book of commandments, statutes, precepts, a gospel of righteousness as well as a gospel of compassion. When did we ever stand before a house, and say, "This house must come down if the price be fivefold what it will fetch in the market; it must come down, it is a trapdoor into hell, and it must fall"? Let a man say that, and he will soon see that England is like Antioch and Iconium, and all the other scenes of apostolic labour and sacrifice. But if we come into the church, pass through the services, hasten away home again, and lose ourselves in controversy that has no heavenly accent and no heavenly savour, I wonder not that we pass our days and nights very composedly, and that we are going to heaven, as we imagine, lulled by some theological narcotic. It is no heaven we are going to! It may have written heaven above its portals, but that inscription is a lie! You cannot speak the truth and be quiet; you cannot be true and have no trouble. "If any man will live godly in Christ Jesus, he shall, suffer persecution"; the persecution itself may change in form and method and tone, but righteousness can never confront unrighteousness without a battle.

Christian service divides public opinion. "A great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed, but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren." "The multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the Apostles." That is how it ought to be always. It is pitiful to hear sundry self-indulgent persons talking against what they term religious sensationalism. They do not know what they speak about; Christianity is nothing if it is not the supreme sensation. It is not one of many. It takes its numerical order, as first, midst, last; and so is passed by if it be not fire, sword, uproar, tumult of a vital kind. There are those who say they do not believe in sensationalism. What do they believe in? Have they read the New Testament? Are they in sympathy with the ministry of their own professed Lord and Master? They cannot be! If Christianity were amongst the churches today, men, instead of criticising sermons which they hear, would go out and preach sermons themselves, would borrow any chair, or stand on any stone at the street corner, and if they could not preach the Gospel, they could at least read it. Fifty thousand men at the street corners today reading, with one voice, the third chapter of John! why, Apostolic times would have come back again! That chapter needs no comment; it says, "Read me, and let me do my own work." Do not be frightened by the long word "sensationalism"; people who use it do not know its meaning, and they only seek to terrify you out of your newborn earnestness in the Christian cause. Nothing divides society like Christianity: its voice is, "Come out from among them, and be ye separate: the good to the right; the bad to the left." It is a tremendous righteousness; it does not sit in silken slippers, and in downy chairs, indulging itself with philosophical musings about nothing; it goes to roots and cores, to hearts and inmost lives, and there its law pierces like a sting, there its righteousness burns like an oven, there its Gospel sings like an angel.

Christian service survives all ill-treatment. The time had come when the Jews, with their rulers, began to use the Apostles despitefully; that is, with wanton malice and cruelty, and to stone them. And as soon as the Apostles became aware of this determination, they "fled unto Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and unto the region that lieth round about"; and then in one line in the seventh verse we read as if nothing had happened before, "and there they preached the Gospel." They preached better for their persecution. We should have wonderful preaching if we had more burning and stoning; marvellous preaching, great bursts of vital eloquence, cries that would pierce, and welcomes that would warm the heart. We should, too, have wonderful hearing as well as wonderful preaching! If we had to steal into the church by some backway, and had to listen in fear and trembling lest the oppressor should lay his iron grip upon us, oh, how we should listen! How every word would become a jewel set in heavenly gold; how every promise would be a door straight opening upon the glory unseen; how the Bible would be like a sheet let down from heaven, fastened at the four corners, and containing all sweet messages from the skies! The loss of persecution is the loss of spiritual energy. So-called "peace" may be but mere indifference or cowardice. Do not say that Antioch was at peace until the Apostles visited it; peace is a composite term; it is not a simple sound. Peace means intelligence, purity, righteousness, trust in all good; then it cannot be broken. There is a so-called peace that is only a false name for death. How then can we enter into tumult and difficulty now the times of persecution have gone? No; as we have advanced from darkness, go from light to light. You will, pursuing that course, soon find out persecution!

We must in our Christian system make room for so-called heretics. The heretics may be Paul and Barnabas with modern names. If men come amongst us denying the Bible, flatly contradicting what we believe to be revelation, then have no part or lot with them; but if men come amongst us, saying, "This is the right interpretation hear it," then let us listen. If men of spotless character and sacred devotedness of spirit should arise in the Church, and say, "Men and brethren, we have found the interpretation of this Scripture, or of that," hear them, though many an old notion may be displaced, and many an old interpretation may have to give way before truer grammar and deeper exposition. We use heretics of that kind most basely! Who can tell where truth begins and where truth ends, or how much is involved in the word orthodoxy, or the word heterodoxy? two words the history of which is a history of mischief. There be men in Christian cities today who have no dinner because they are supposed to be heretics. They may be the angels of God; they may be the Paul and Barnabas of their day; they love the Bible they come to it as men come to fountains for water, to the sun for light; they think the Spirit has revealed to them some new interpretation, or entrusted them with some new light, but when they speak they are counted as evil persons, and when they write their writings are left unread. Let us make room for every man who, reverently accepting God's Word, thinks a new interpretation has been entrusted to him. What was the fault of Paul? This: that he said a prophecy had been fulfilled nothing more. Whilst men were looking for the fulfilment and realization of ancient prophecy, he said, "Men and brethren, the Word you expect to be fulfilled is fulfilled": that is all he said. The Jew said, "The prophecy is there we are expecting its fulfilment, we are praying for its fulfilment"; and when the Apostles arose, and said, "The prophecy is fulfilled it is a living fact," they were stoned, they were driven from house and home, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented of whom the world was not worthy! And Christianity has its prophecies, Christian doctrine has yet its issues brighter than our fancy has measured; and if any man, coming with Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms and Christ, and the Apostles, shall say, "Men and brethren, let us sit down together, and read the Holy Word, and hear what I believe to be its true meaning," let us not take up stones to stone him, but listen, knowing, in the words of the Pilgrim Father, "that God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from His Holy Word."