PT-3 "Humility" (Acts 14:8-18)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/16/2018 8:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                     Focus:  PT-3 “Humility”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                      Reference:  Acts 14:8-18

            Message of the verses:  “8 At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, 10 said with a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he leaped up and began to walk. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have become like men and have come down to us." 12 And they began calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside 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 robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out 15 and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you 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 the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; 17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness." 18 Even saying these things, with difficulty they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.”

            In our last SD we ended up talking about evolution with a quote from John MacArthur, talking about how this false theory, which many in the world today think is fact, has caused many people to stop thinking about God as a creator and thus causing much trouble because they take God out of the picture, God who all mankind is accountable to.  Also we talked about the phrase from verse 16 “in the generation gone by permitted all the nations to go their own ways,” and this is speaking of God doing this.  I have mentioned that one of the faults of the children of Israel was that they did not spread the Word of God to Gentiles, which is something that they were called to do, therefore the Old Testament which was written by the children of Israel was not spread around the known world making it difficult for any Gentile to see.  After Jesus Christ came to earth and died on the cross for our sins and then went back to heaven the church age began soon after that and the good news of the gospel was beginning to be spread around the world which is what Paul and Barnabas were doing with this first missionary trip.  Paul goes on in verse 17 to say to these men at Lystra “and yet He (God), did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”  Paul is saying that even though there was little understanding of the OT Scriptures God did give a witness by what we would call nature, as people could look at the stars and see the fact that they received rain to water their fields in order to grow food, things that we would call common grace.  Psalm 19 is a good place to see how one can understand that there is a God by looking to the heavens.

            Now I want to go back to verse sixteen where we finished up yesterday and look at a quote that John MacArthur has in his commentary from a man named Albert Barns as he explains that God allowed them to “go their own ways”

“To conduct themselves without the restraints and instructions of a written law.  They were permitted to follow their own reason and passions, and their own system of religion.  God gave them no written laws, and sent to them no messengers.”

MacArthur goes on to write “Those times ended with the coming of Christ (cf. Acts 4:12).  Since then, although ‘having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent’ (Acts 17:30), and the gospel is to be preached to every creature (Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47).”

            Now as we finish with verse 18 “Even saying these things, with difficulty they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them,” we see that because these people were so stooped in their pagan religion that they could not help themselves to try and offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas, and as we continue to look at the next paragraph beginning with verse 19 we will see that even though they saw a great miracle and wanted to worship Paul and Barnabas and sacrifice to them that when they could not they decided to try and kill them.

            MacArthur concludes this section:

“This incident reveals the humility of Paul and Barnabas.  To be acclaimed a god was the highest honor imaginable in the Greco-Roman world, and was much sought after (cf. Acts 12:22).  Yet they disavowed any such notions about themselves and instead pointed the pagan crowd to the Creator God.  They successfully handled the temptation to succumb to pride.  Had Paul and Barnabas yielded to that temptation, it would have destroyed their usefulness.  Those who seek glory for themselves are on the path to spiritual weakness and impotence.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Satan temps me in different ways which is what he was doing with Paul and Barnabas, and so I must do like they did and not succumb to those temptations.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Put on the spiritual armor and use it.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “By using the Word of God” Matthew 4:7).

Today’s Bible question:  “Who said “From henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles?”

Answer in our next SD.

3/16/2018 9:29 AM