The Strength To Live…
Before I met God, His one and only Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, if someone said “Let’s get stoned!” that would’ve been cause for “celebration! Has anyone among us been stoned by a multitude of people lately? No, not recently or ever.
Paul was stoned by the people and they thought that had killed him. They thought this to the point of dragging his body outside the city. This was done because Paul had preached the Word of the Gospel. The only problem was the multitudes did not hear the Gospel, they heard what they wanted to hear and acted accordingly.
This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” And he leaped and walked. Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.
But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways.~Acts 14:9-16 NKJB
How would you like it if someone, a stranger, showed up at your church, your home or somewhere you and many of your friends and family were gathered and this person just started telling you how wrong you are about the way you approach God; how you pray, your rituals were all wrong. Might be reason for some of people to want to stone the person.
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Even though Paul is standing there among the people teaching them about Jesus Christ and salvation the people only heard the “cues” for doing a sacrifice to their gods. When Paul and Barnabas told them what they were doing, well, Paul and Barnabas learned what the Greeks thought about their healing, their teachings and their God, Jesus Christ.
Who among us is ready to get stoned for preaching the Word?
Either the Gospel is divine inspiration, the Word of God teaching us how to live and how to be a reflection of Him, or it’s nothing more than a historical account of events.
