Noble Intrepidity – Acts 14:19-20

The only comment that Jamieson, Fausset and Brown makes on Paul’ return into Lystra after his stoning is very terse:

It said: “Noble intrepidity.”

To be INTREPID is to be RESOLUTELY COURAGEOUS, to be FEARLESS.

Besides the fact that Paul probably had no choice but to re-enter Lystra, there is no doubt that he was always intrepid.

For a few minutes this evening let’s think a little more about Paul’s recovery and his first return to the city.

We’ll use these four headings:

“Standing round, rising up, going in, and going out.”

First, STANDING ROUND.

“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.”

WHO were those people which were standing around the lifeless body of Paul?

We are told that they were disciples, but let’s try to put a couple names on those faceless people.

It’s hard to believe that BARNABAS was not there, but that is possible.

It could have been that some of the believers in Lystra physically prevented Barnabas from joining Paul.

They may have hidden him at the time that Paul was taken,

Or they may have tried to spare him from running to Paul when they heard that he had been stoned.

Barnabas might have been one of those standing round the body, but the text seems to say that he wasn’t.

I would like to believe that TIMOTHY was there.

As we see in Acts 16 Timotheus was already a disciple when Paul returned to Lystra on the Second Missionary Journey

That Second Journey was was actually Paul’s third or fourth visit, depending on how you count them.

We aren’t told exactly how or at what time Timothy became a disciple, but we do know that it was through the ministry of Paul.

And I would like to believe his faith was pure – that the miracles were not necessary to reach his heart.

Unfortunately I have no scripture for that opinion.

Then, if we are going to put Timothy in that little circle of disciples, let’s put his mother and grandmother there as well: Lois and Eunice.

How many disciples were there in Lystra by that time?

Another question might be: how many saints were there in any of those cities, including Antioch & Iconium?

As we shall see on Sunday, churches were established in all those communities.

Does that mean that there were at least a hundred Christians in each?

How many disciples are Biblically necessary before a church should be organized?

My guess would be that in places like Lystra and Derby the churches were no larger than ours, although I would hope that they were much larger.

Here is another question that came to my mind, for which I have no answer:

We are told that Timothy was the son of a Jewess who had married a Greek.

His mother’s name was Eunice and his grandmother was Lois.

Acts 16:1 makes it sound like his father was still living.

Even though the man might have been a proselyte, and there is a very large “might” about that,

There is no hint in either Acts or Timothy that the man ever became a child of God.

My question is whether or not he was a part of the mob which stoned Paul.

Most conservative scholars say that Timothy was in his early to mid-teens.

Whether or not his father was a Jewish proselyte, if he loved him, he might have joined the mob in a mis-guided effort to protect his son from what he perceived to be religious foolishness.

One of the events of my early Christian life, for which I have always been ashamed, was that when I was baptized I didn’t tell my parents.

I had been saved a short while, and I tried to witness to my family in my very limited way, but I felt some resistence and confusion.

I was just about the same age as Timothy, and I had been raised in a semi-religious home.

My parents were not very happy about me “changing religions,”

So despite being urged to tell them, I neglected to mention my upcoming baptism.

I don’t think that my Dad would have stoned Pastor Rogers,

But I’m not so sure that Timothy’s father didn’t stone Paul.

So there was a little cadre of disciples surrounding the apparently lifeless body of Paul.

What were they doing?

I’m sure that some of them were weeping; that would have been a very natural thing to do.

Some might have been aghast and merely gawking, perhaps having never seen a stoning victim before.

They might have been deciding what to do next and where to have him interred.

But very likely many of them were praying.

What would you have been doing that day?

Try to put yourself in the shoes of one of those disciples;

Would your behaviour have glorified the Lord?

While they were standing round, Paul BEGAN RISING UP.

If you choose to believe that Paul was not dead at all, I won’t be angry with you.

Most conservative scholars believe that Paul died under that hail of stones, but that is not unanimous.

There are many who think that he was knocked unconscious by the first rock or two,

And when the mob saw that he was not moving they stopped.

Some think that it was never their intention to actually kill Paul, but just to drive him away.

There are even some, but I won’t call them scholars, who say that Paul faked death in order to avoid death.

Let’s think about whether or not Paul died.

As I said, it could be that the city officials only wanted the missionaries driven out of town.

But that raises the question: Why didn’t they also stone Barnabas as well?

It appears to me that people were angry about the preaching, and Paul was the primary preacher.

Secondly, it was the Jews from Antioch and Iconium who stirred up the Gentiles to attack.

Jews used stoning as their primary mode of execution.

And it doesn’t make sense to me to have some of them come over a 100 miles just to drive the missionaries out of a town for which they had little or no interest.

No, the Jews wanted Paul’s brains dashed out.

They may have thought that since he was now out there in the boondocks they could get away with it.

Third, the mob certainly thought that Paul was dead, whether they intended it or not.

And fourth, why were the disciples just standing around, if they didn’t think that he was dead?

If they believed that Paul was knocked out, wouldn’t they have been ministering to him?

Wouldn’t they have had some smelling salt under his nose, or slapping his face, or throwing water on him?

It appears to me that they thought that he was dead, just as the mob thought that he was dead.

And I would assume that they would make that assumption because of the wounds and all the blood.

On the other hand, neither Paul nor Luke ever said that he was dead.

Paul talks about being “stoned,” but never about being “slain.”

And the fact is, the way that verse 19 is worded comes very close suggesting that he was NOT dead:

“Having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.”

It’s ALMOST as if Luke was saying that those dumb Lystrans should of known that he wasn’t dead.

So as I say, if you choose to believe that Paul was not dead, I’ll forgive you.

That takes us to thought number three: PAUL’S GOING BACK into the village.

I will forgive you for choosing to believe that Paul was not dead,

But here is something on which I think that WE MUST AGREE:

He must have been seriously wounded and perfectly healed.

There was without a doubt a notable miracle performed by the Lord just outside the city of Lystra.

Why did everyone assume that he was dead, if there wasn’t an abundance of evidence to that effect?

There must have been blood and probably some expose skull, if not actual skull fractures.

In fact there were probably other kinds of broken bones, including compound fractures, if the stones thrown were of any reasonable size.

He was undoubtably unconscious and at the very least suffering from a serious concussion.

But as the little crowd of disciples wept and prayed, Paul awoke, got up and went back into town.

When a well-protected football player gets his “bell rung,” as they say,

He is almost always supported by a couple of men off the field, even if he’s able to walk.

And when a 95 mph fastball hits a baseball player in the head,

Despite his protective helmet, he is not quick to run to first base.

Usually that player is at the very least taken for immediate x-rays.

If we assume nothing more than that Paul was knocked out by a rock,

Then it would be reasonable to assume that he was carried or helped back into town,

But that is not suggested in the text.

It appears that he walked back to town without showing any effects of being hit with 95 mph fast balls.

And if we assume nothing more than that Paul was knocked unconscious, to read of him leaving the next day with Barnabas headed for Derby, is in itself miraculous.

I don’t see how any reasonable person can deny that a miracle was performed that day.

So why did Paul go back into the town where he had just been stoned?

Well, undoubtedly it was NOBLE INTREPIDITY,

But at the same time he probably he didn’t have much choice.

Derby, I am told was about 40 miles away.

Beside, he needed to get his luggage before leaving town.

Then lastly this evening, the next morning Paul and Barnabas LEFT FOR DERBY.

As we said a few weeks ago, this departure was by the general command of the Lord.

“Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city,

Shake off the dust of your feet.

Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.”

And in the same chapter – Matthew 10: “When they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another.”

I’m reading right now the biography of an high-ranking pilot in World War II.

The reader is told that the man often disagreed with the orders that he received,

But he was a navy aviator, and it was his duty to obey, so that is what he did.

The missionaries might have reasoned that despite the persecution against them,

Paul’s miraculous healing could have been used to touch the hearts of some of his persecutors.

But in this case it was not the will of the Lord to minister any longer in Lystra, at least at this time.

So Paul and Barnabas moved down the road to Derby.

But it needs to be remembered that neither the Lord, nor Paul were finished with these people.

And the poor, little, infant church was not going to be forsaken.

“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 much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”

Not only did Paul return in a few weeks, he also returned again in a few more months, this time with Silas.

I have entitled this message “Noble Intrepidity.”

Truly, Paul felt no fear of the wicked Gentiles of Lycaonia, nor of the Jews in Antioch or Iconium.

He had been saved and called with an holy calling, not according to his works, but according to the Lord’s purpose and grace, which was given him in Christ Jesus before the world began.

So he had stirred up the gift of God, realizing that “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

In Philippians Paul said – “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

When the children of God are persecuted, they need to remember that it is the Lord Who is hated.

That was one of the first things that the Lord Jesus had ever said to Paul: “Persecutest thou me?”

He still remembered it.

So, he said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

And “therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

Because the Lord had told him,“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

I believe that the Lord is still looking for servants like Paul – with “Noble Intrepidity.”