Join us as we read the scriptures and a daily devotion written by Don Crisp. We pray these messages will bless us all at this time.
Acts chapter 14 v 14-18:
Categories: Don’s Daily Devotions
Acts chapter 14 v 14-18:
V14: Paul and Barnabas are horrified – as servants of the living God to whom alone belongs the glory.
V15: They seek to stop the crowds, protesting that they are only mortal men like these Lystrans – but declaring they bring them a message of ” good news” – the root meaning of the Greek word translated as Gospel in our English versions.This is the truth that can deliver them from their false and vain religion to find the true and living God.
V16-17: They tell them God has in the past left other nations ( than His covenant people Israel ) to their false religions, yet He has given witness to His true being and nature in His providential provision for all men. We note how differently Paul presents the Gospel to these Pagans to his previous synagogue audiences, where he can take them to the OT and how it points to and is fulfilled in Jesus. Here, with no such common ground, he speaks of God in creation and providence. He will do this again in Athens, in chapter 17. ( See also Romans 1 v19-20; Matthew 5 v44-45.) We are reminded of the need to ” start where men are”, in our Evangelism.
V18: Yet even this declaration hardly prevents the crowd from offering them sacrifice. We see what a grip wrong beliefs can have on the hearts and minds of people.