07 - Paul's Perseverance

VII. PAUL’S PERSEVERANCE.

’And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them. And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconinm, who persuaded the people, and. having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city; and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through great tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,’-—Acts 14:18-22.

Scripture is so full of heavenly food, that often a single text furnishes more than one sermon. In these cases the text is generally a precept. In the narrative portion matters are of necessity not so condensed as all that, and a whole passage, containing several verses, takes the place of a text. For example, here are four verses it would be unwise to separate for the purposes of discourse, and wise to read them all four with care, and consider what they reveal: what a picture of human nature, and of God’s grace!

These marvellous passages of Divine story are so briefly and so simply told, compared with other narratives, that people too often read them and hear them read, without discovering all that lies in them for our edification. They require intelligent and prayerful study, and they repay it, as a mine repays the spade.

Now and then these gems of narrative are lost in part, through a mistaken notion in the mind that they record prodigies — acts we are to admire at a distance, but not try nor hope to imitate them, even at a distance.

Many people look on the Apostles and Saints as superhuman creatures, or as so upheld by the ever-present arm of God that they did their great work, and sufiered their great trials, with none of that difficulty and pain we should have encountered in their place, and are bound to encounter if necessary.

Now, it is wise to revere Apostles and Saints; but it is most unwise to take them for prodigies. For no man imitates a prodigy — he feels it would be useless. But it is our duty to imitate, to follow the steps of Apostles and Saints, and, more than that, it is our duty to follow them exactly, though it be at ever so humble a distance. And in this Scripture encourages us. It tells us that our Lord Himself was tempted in all things as we are, though without sin, and it sliows us that He actually suffered much innocent sorrow, grief, mortification, and one dark hour of despairing agony.

We are not invited to believe that, when He wept over Lazarus and the sorrows of his bereaved sisters, He did not feel as brave men feel when they weep for others; we are not to assume — without a word to justify it — that when He was scourged, buffeted, and spat upon. His poor cheek did not bum with shame; that when beaten, and fastened with cruel nails to a cross, His whole human frame did not quiver with pain; nor that when the disciples, whose faith He had so carefully armed for the trial with His earnest, loving words and the commemorative supper, all forsook Him and fled, a sword did not pierce His human heart.

How much more His Apostles, who were entirely human, must have felt their trials just as we should, though grace gave them the victory!

Now, first realize this simple truth, and then put yourselves in the place of Paul at Lystra.. His good work among the heathen began hopefully at Iconium; but by-and-by it was baffled by the unbelieving Jews. Men who worshipped one God actually sided with idolatry through mere hatred of Christ, and, though they never troubled their heads to correct the worship of devils, stirred up the heathen against the ministration of the Gospel, and nearly succeeded in putting those two Apostles to death by stoning, which was the punishment of blasphemy.

They prevailed in part. Paul and Barnabas, the two greatest benefactors that ever entered Iconium, were compelled to slink out of the place like criminals, or die the death of the blasphemer.

Here was mortification and disappointment, all the more bitter that their hopes had been raised at first.

Well, they retired, and did not lose heart, as most of US would have done. They carried their great, rejected boon to Lystra.

Paul was an extempore preacher, and therefore his eye was never on the wrong place, a book or manuscript, but always on the right place, his hearers. He preached to the heathen at Lystra, and observed his hearers keenly — habit of all real orators. Presently he noticed two eyes fixed on him with faith. The great orator saw that those eyes were drinking in the Gospel in earnest. He also observed that this man, who heard so eagerly, and believed, was a cripple.

Paul stopped in his discourse, and said, with a loud voice: Stand upright on thy feet. To the amazement of the audience, the man stood up, leaped, and walked.

Lystra was not a large place; doubtless this man, a cripple from his birth, was known; the miracle was evident; the heathen were not — like the Jews — fortified by prejudice against the evidence of their senses. They took the Apostles for gods, the imaginary gods they had been accustomed to worship, and they proceeded to oflfer sacrifices to them; the very priest of Jupiter claimed his part in the ceremony.

Now, this was a temptation of the evil one.

We ought not to underrate it merely because it failed. There is no other recorded instance of its failing. Alexander the Great accepted flattery in this impious form. So did Augustus Csesar and his successors. So did Herod, to his cost. But Paul and Barnabas were struck with pious horror; they ran in among the people and rent their clothes, and declared their common humanity, and diverted the blind piety and gratitude of these poor heathen to the true God. So much for grace.

Now for human nature. This same fickle mob were presently talked over by the Jews, and made to believe the Apostles were impostors.

Impostors! — and they had cured the lame.

Impostors! — and they had refused divine honours! This fickle heathen mob acted in concert with these stiff-necked Jews and amongst them they actually stoned the man they had proposed to worship, and dragged his breathless body outside the city. Lystra was not to be defiled by dead Paul. A monstrous act, yet perfectly natural. The unwise always run from one extreme to the other, and probably the vanity of these unstable men was wounded at the very thought that they had been on the point of worshipping a couple of Jews, whom their own countrymen now came and denounced as impostors.

Now, stoning a man did not mean flinging small stones at him from a distance. Their way was to drag the victim to his knees, and raise heavy stones with both hands, and hurl them down on his back, his loins, his neck, his head, till the life was battered out of him. So was that holy man crushed and pounded to death. He was breathless — he was insensible. So far as the pam of dying was concerned, his poor body suffered all and more than it did a few years later at Rome, when one swift blow of a sword — the most merciful of all his foes, and indeed his kindest friend — released him at once from the burden of the flesh and the battle with sin. This battered body — the body of the greatest benefactor that ever visited their paltry city — the men of Lystra dragged outside the gates with ignominy, and then returned in contemptuous triumph.

Now realize the scene that followed, ye skimmers of Bible facts, and divers into Bible guesses, and quibblers of dogmas. The murderers are gone. There lies the body of Paul, crushed, bloody, ghastly pale, dirty, deserted by all but a few disciples who stood sadly round, and being new converts, their faith is oozing fast out of ihem as they look on that pale and battered saint, who could heal the lame, but could not defend his own life. But stay — what is this? The body stirs — the crushed one sighs — he moves — he rises feebly, with a little aid. He utters no word of complaint; blames neither his foes for their cruelty, nor his friends for their cowardice. He is unable to travel — he is assisted back into that murderous city: and there he lies racked in every joint.

How long? Six months? Well, then, three?

One afternoon. The next day he limped to Derba What for? For medical advice probably; for repose, if he could not afford a physician; for a soft couch to lie on and ease his aching frame? No — to preach the Gospel.

We read his fortitude and his zeaL What it cost him we must learn from our own commonsense. No man is nearly killed by many violent blows and not much hurt After such cruel usage pain may intermit, but it does not leave a man in a day, nor yet in a week. Let the saints of this our day, who do Gods work in spite of pain, and disease, and weakness, take comfort by example, and be assured that many a throe wrung Paul’s stout heart, long after he was stoned and left for dead at Lystra, yet neither pain nor threat cou]d quell him; with aching body, but undaunted heart, he preached God’s word at Derbe.

After some bitter trial God often rewaids His soldier, even in this world. The Apostles preached at Derbe with great success, and made many converts. This done, they marched into a neighbouring town. Its name was Lystra.

What Lystra? No doubt there are two Lystras. That was no uncommon thing. This was doubtless some Lystra a hundred miles distant from the Lystra that stoned Paul and dragged his body outside the walls.

No; it was the Lystra that stoned him. He returned to it, not frona a tour of towns, but direct from Derbe, with the pain still in his body, but the Gospel in his indomitable heart,

Iconium had tried to stone him, so he will go there soon, we may be sure; but Lystra has already stoned him, so he will go there first; and, if not killed there, he will go to Iconium and Antioch, the very centres which sent forth those very Jews who all but destroyed him at Lystra. He will beard those very men in their own dens, with the sword of the Gospel and the shield of Faith. Was this premature return to Lystra bravado or desperation?

It was neither. It was courage and wisdom.

Religion, like philosophy, can teach by examples.

Paul had a great lesson to teach in those three cities. He had, as the sacred narrative informs us, to confirm the souls of the disciples in thoso cities, and exhort them to continue in the faith, and teach them that we must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Now, Paul could do more than preach this lesson at Lystra; he could show it as powerfully in his own person, as he had shown the power of God in healing their lame citizen.

Just imagine, for one moment, how the men of Lystra stared with amazement when these two Apostles walked back into their market-place and resumed their preaching, as if no serious interruption had ever occurred. No details are given of this second visit; but the result speaks for itself. Reaction reigned their lame fellow-citizen had been walking those streets, showing his limbs, and speaking his mind, wo may be sure. No Jews ventured a second experiment upon heathen credulity. Faith, Patience, Fortitude, were more than conquerors even at vile Lystra! In that terrible conflict of spiritual powers, of which this world is the arena, Satan often wins the skirmish and God the battle.

Now, this great heroic story, told in four verses, reveals nothing absolutely new in Scripture history, and nothing that will ever become obsolete, least of all the great lesson that we must enter Heaven by the Gate of Tribulation.