The true God reigns from above.

 

Sermon for Easter 6, May 25, 2025

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Acts 14:8-22  ⁸In Lystra there was a man who was sitting down because he had no strength in his feet.  He had never walked because he was lame from birth.  ⁹When he was listening to Paul as he was speaking, Paul looked at him closely and saw that he had faith to be healed.  ¹⁰Paul said in a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!”  And the man jumped up and began to walk.  ¹¹When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form.”  ¹²Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the main speaker.  ¹³The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and garlands to the city gates, because he wanted to offer sacrifices, along with the crowds.  ¹⁴But when the apostles Paul and Barnabas heard about this, they tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd, shouting, ¹⁵”Men, why are you doing these things?  We too are men with the same nature as you.  We are preaching the good news to you so that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.  ¹⁶In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways.  ¹⁷Yet he did not leave himself without testimony of the good he does.  He gives you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons.  He fills you with food and fills your hearts with gladness.”  ¹⁸Even though they said these things, they had a hard time stopping the crowds from sacrificing to them. (EHV)

The true God reigns from above.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            More times than not, people want to experience God being actively present in their lives.  They expect that we should always be able to see God’s action in the things of this world.  Rather than trust God’s Word, many people want to understand His message through the filter of their previous beliefs.  Sometimes that leads us to see God’s hand working where we shouldn’t and to miss His intervention when we should see it. 

The people of Lystra mistakenly saw gods in two of the Lord’s disciples, yet many of those people didn’t understand the saving message the two apostles had brought for them.  However, we know that at least one man got the message, and he rejoiced that The true God reigns from above. 

            Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra after escaping a conspiracy in which Jews from Iconium and Antioch planned to stone them.  Shortly after the incident of our text, that mob succeeded in stoning Paul at Lystra, leaving him for dead.  By God’s grace, their evil intention was thwarted by our Lord in heaven, and Paul was able to pick up his beaten body from the ground and return to his preaching.  There was great opposition to the truths the apostles proclaimed, even as there is in our day.  What seems to be the case is that whenever the Good News is preached, people are inclined to accept what lines up with their long-held beliefs, but as soon as the message crosses their former ideas, their rejection can become deadly.

            For one crippled man, however, that was not the case.  As Paul was preaching the Good News of a Savior who had taken away the sins of the world, this crippled man received that message with joy and full confidence in everything Paul was proclaiming.  Likely, he had been told from little on that his affliction was the result of some great sin in himself.  So, when Paul declared that all his sins were forgiven for Jesus’ sake, what joy lifted his spirits to sing praise to this Savior he had not previously known. 

Here, Paul was given the ability to see the Gospel enlighten this handicapped man to believe that he too was saved.  We aren’t told how Paul could tell, but it doesn’t matter.  The Lord in heaven knew that this afflicted man had been drawn to the salvation of the Christian Church and by His loving grace, alone, God chose to heal also the crippled man’s earthly affliction.  “Paul looked at him closely and saw that he had faith to be healed.  Paul said in a loud voice, ‘Stand up on your feet!’  And the man jumped up and began to walk.”  The healing of the life-long crippled legs was instantaneous and complete.  The muscles, joints, tendons, and bones became as if there had never been a problem.

Now, if you and I had been there, we too might have assumed that Paul had been the source of the healing, but Paul would be the first to tell you that the power to heal this man came straight from his Savior in heaven.  Paul was given the privilege of announcing God’s grace upon the cripple.  He didn’t need praise or honor for that, nor would he accept what rightfully belonged to God.  The healing came straight from The true God Who reigns from above. 

It is amazing how often we want to give God the credit (actually, I should say the blame) when things go wrong.  Yet, when something great takes place, it is very common for people to look at earthly things as the source of the blessing.  Maybe we point at our own efforts or think we have earned the good favor.  Maybe, we call it chance, or fate, or give credit to some great hero. 

Here, the people heard Paul give the command to stand, and remembering the myths of their pagan religion, assumed that their idols had arrived to bestow favor upon their village.  One of their ancient myths told of Zeus benefitting a man in a nearby place, and they didn’t want to miss out on their chance.  In other words, they hadn’t understood any of what Paul had been preaching to them.

When the people of Lystra saw the miracle that was intended to show that Paul and Barnabas were servants of the most high God who had created the heavens and the earth, the villagers recognized only their previous religion.  God, the Father?  Jesus?  The Holy Spirit?  None of those names made a connection with most of the Lycaonians.  Rather, they immediately assumed this miracle had been done by Zeus (who in reality had never done a miracle anywhere).  The idol worship of their forefathers was all they knew and all they cared to know.  “When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form.”  Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the main speaker.  The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and garlands to the city gates, because he wanted to offer sacrifices, along with the crowds.”

The majority of the people in Lystra were talking about the miracle, but they didn’t try to find out the true source of the healing.  They just assumed their dead idols had come to help.  Still, this healing was such an unexpected happening that the news spread through the town like wildfire.  The priest who served in the temple of Zeus heard about it and immediately tried to take advantage.  He orchestrated a thank you sacrifice even though there was no evidence that his master had anything to do with the event.

Sometimes when we preach the news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, our listeners react as if we are speaking a completely foreign tongue.  They hear the words, but none of it makes sense in the context of their previous beliefs.  Paul had been preaching Christ and Him crucified.  For some of the people in Lystra, this was the most welcome news.  Like the crippled man, they soaked it in, and without hesitation absorbed that message of forgiveness, life, and salvation.  For the majority though, it would take time, and for some, nothing would ever crack their stone-dead hearts.  It is that way always.  Even after almost two thousand years of the Good News being proclaimed in every part of the world, many still cling to the false ideas Satan has implanted in those who reject the true God above.  So, if you wish God would perform some great miracle to convert all the pagans of our world, understand that it wouldn’t make any difference.

However, there is one thing that does change hearts, and it’s not you and me, or famous preachers like Peter and Paul, or good times or bad, or miracles or the lack thereof; only the Gospel empowered by the Holy Spirit can transform idol worshipers into Christians, and the Gospel is only heard when it is carried to the many lost souls by those of us who have been converted. 

Remember how few people stuck with Jesus as He went to the cross—actually none, correct?  All of His followers first abandoned Him and fled in fear.  Jesus had been preaching to the people of Judea and Galilee and the surrounding areas for three years.  He had sent out His disciples to share the Good News even further.  Still, Christianity didn’t grow until Jesus returned to heaven to send the Holy Spirit to work faith in sinners by Word and Sacrament through followers who had previously been saved.

When the two apostles saw the dreadful mistake the people of Lystra were making, “they tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd, shouting, ‘Men, why are you doing these things?  We too are men with the same nature as you.  We are preaching the good news to you so that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them.  In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own ways.  Yet he did not leave himself without testimony of the good he does.’” 

It would have been easy for Paul and Barnabas to accept the praise of the people.  Many false teachers have done so.  They could have had a great big following there among the pagans, and only a few would have known the difference, but the Lord would know, and the apostles would too

To accept that spontaneous outpouring of praise (even though sincerely given) would have meant eternal death for everyone involved.  Therefore, with the most strident call possible, the two apostles rushed to give credit where credit was due.  They were not the source of the healing, and certainly Zeus and Hermes had nothing to do with it.  Those two idols had never done anything to help because they were just figments of human imagination and lies of the devil’s prompting.  So, Paul pointed the people to the source of every blessing, the living Lord God who had created the world and everything in it, who had continued to bless even those who didn’t recognize Him as Lord.

In effect, Paul preached that day about God’s right hand, and His left.  He preached about God’s love shared with us through His natural providence, and even more important about God’s love given to us through the suffering and death of His Son.  For many of those people in Lystra, it made no difference at all.  A short time later, those pagans conspired with Paul’s enemies to stone him until he was nearly dead.  Yet, for some of the listeners, Paul’s message made all the difference in their forever. 

After Paul rose up from being stoned, and after he had proclaimed Christ crucified in other areas, he returned to speak again with those who had heard him preach and seeing the miracle had believed for life everlasting in The true God Who reigns from above.  Paul shared God’s Word with them, again, “strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith.  They told them, ‘We must go through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God.’" (Acts 14:22)

Dear friends, there are probably times when we grow frustrated with the slowness of other people to come to faith in Jesus.  Certainly, there are times when we wonder if what we are doing makes any difference.  We may even be tempted to wonder if Jesus has forgotten about us all together.  Be assured, The true God reigns from above.  Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Through Jesus, all of your sins are forgiven, even for those weak moments when you wonder.  Your Savior lives, and He is working all things right now for your eternal good.  He continues to share His salvation with sinners around the world through people like you and me who share His Word in whatever way possible. 

How can we be so sure of these things when almost everyone around us would tell us something else?  Because the One true God who made this world and everything in it has enlivened us by His Gospel.  He washed us clean of every sin and marked us as His own through the Baptism our Lord Jesus commanded, and our Savior continues to be with us through all the troubles and trials of this world, just as He promised He would be.  No, we don’t always see His mighty hand at work, but His Holy Spirit has worked this confidence in us.  His Word is faithful and true.  His message is life.  The true God reigns from above for the good of those He has chosen, for people like me and you.  Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore.  Amen.