A Stoned Preacher
Acts 14:19 – 22
After years of debate, including plenty of good science, the governments of many jurisdictions in the free world have made marijuana legal. This is in spite of all the evidence of how harmful it can be. Many of the arguments I have seen for it over the years prior to this happening have not been by people who really need the medicinal qualities it is often reported to have, but that is what they have used to support their position. The fact is, in most cases, they just wanted the legal right to smoke it and get intoxicated, otherwise known as getting stoned.
The Bible forbids intoxication, yet many preachers now endorse its legalization everywhere, in a bid to keep the 18 to 34 crowd from abandoning their churches. In fact, many preachers now imbibe, as well. Can you imagine a stoned preacher?
Today we’re going to talk about a preacher who was stoned in a different way. Stay tuned!
Scripture
Brother Paul was the Apostle who many times in his epistles told us to be sober. But he was also the preacher who got stoned, not for any kind of recreational purpose, and not from any kind of drugs, but from real stones! When I referring to him as a stoned preacher, he really was stoned. But what is the point of this record being included in the scriptures?
I He WAS Stoned
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Paul was literally stoned by the people of the city of Lystra, who had been riled up by the same Jews who tried unsuccessfully to kill Paul and Barnabas while they preached the gospel in Antioch and Iconium (previous chapter).
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They stoned him to death, they thought, right in the city, then dragged him out of the city to dispose of him. Obviously, they simply dumped him out there and returned to the city.
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Unlike someone passed out from consuming drugs, Paul was unconscious and believed to be dead from having rocks hurled at him.
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II The Disciples
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The disciples stood around him as he lay there on the ground, likely stunned by what had just happened. Here was the man who only recently had preached the gospel to them and led them to faith in Jesus Christ, now lying dead at their feet.
III A Miracle Happened
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Paul got up. We’re not told if his wounds just vanished or anything like that. From reading other accounts of him being beaten and whipped, etc., he probably was showing some pretty serious cuts and bruises.
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But in spite of his wounding, right in front of the astonished eyes of the disciples, he rose up and went right back into the city where he had just been stoned!
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Note that people who voluntarily get stoned on some kind of substance often can’t walk, at all! But Paul was filled by someone much more powerful than any kind of drug known to man – the Holy Ghost!
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Brother Paul trusted God and God empowered him to continue no matter the opposition, including getting involuntarily stoned. Remember the words of God to Jeremiah: “Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the LORD. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.” Jeremiah 15:19 – 21
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Paul knew those words and knew that even though he was, as he saw himself, “the prince of sinners,” it didn’t matter, because he had returned to God by faith in Jesus Christ.
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IV Don’t be Afraid of People
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Really. Don’t be afraid of people. People are not your enemy. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12
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It is the spiritual rulers of darkness whom we can’t even see who are our enemies. They have a powerful influence over those who still do not know Jesus Christ. They are the ones who want to destroy us. But they cannot. Unless God steps out of the way, they can’t even harm us physically, and it is impossible for them to take away our eternal life once given to us by God the moment we trust Christ.
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Paul had just gone through a terrible experience! The people of the city he was preaching in threw big stones and rocks at him until they were sure he was dead, then dragged him out of the city!
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Probably the last place most people would consider going if they survived an ordeal like that would be back into the same city. But that’s exactly what Paul did.
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Paul wasn’t afraid of what people could do to him, but he was very afraid of what was going to happen to those people if they didn’t accept God’s gift of salvation. No power on earth could stop Paul from preaching the gospel for as long as he had breath.
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That is true Christian commitment. We ought always to put others ahead of ourselves, because they so desperately need Christ.
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Notice that Paul and Barnabas stayed overnight in that same city, then left the next day to preach the gospel at Derbe.
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But when they had preached the gospel in that city and taught or discipled many, the returned to Lystra, where Paul had been stoned to preach to the believers there, and then continued on to Iconium and Antioch! Those cities were where the troublemakers came from who stirred up the people to stone Paul in Lystra! The religious leaders in Iconium had them expelled from the city prior to them first going to Lystra, and in Antioch, there had been a major plot to kill Paul. But they wouldn’t quit, because the gospel message is too important.
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V Don’t be Queasy
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The reward for getting stoned on substances such as drugs and alcohol is almost always a queasy stomach and a rotten start the following day. That’s kind of backwards, isn’t it?
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The reward for being a Christian, even though we must go through tribulation, and even if it includes getting stoned, is eternal life in the kingdom of God.
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Don’t be queasy – it isn’t easy to be a no-compromise, Bible-believing Christian in this world. It never was and never will be. But the reward is worth it all.
Conclusion
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Now, some might say, well, “I asked Jesus to come live in my heart and I’ve had no trouble at all!”
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To that person, I would answer, “Which Jesus? And which gospel? And which Bible verses? Has your life changed?” Far too many people have prayed a prayer, crossed “getting saved” off their list, and are not saved at all. The careless way they live proves it.
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“Now you’re being judgmental!” I can hear them scream. “Jesus loves me! That’s all that matters!”
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Do you love Jesus?
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Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” John 14:15&21
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Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
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The gospel is not, “Jesus loves you and if you just pray this prayer, you will go to heaven.” Gospel means “good news.” But this good news tells us that we are all sinners and all have come short of the glory of God. It tells us that the wages, or payment for sin is death and we’re all guilty as charged. But the gospel continues, “The gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus.” Who is Christ Jesus? He is the Son of God, who became fully man so that He could die for our sins, as prophesied in ancient times and would be buried, but then rise from the dead three days later, again, as prophesied. Jesus Christ is the living Son of God, in whom all who put their faith are forgiven and given everlasting life. If you have truly done this, you are saved and no one can take that from you, including you, for you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:4 and 4:30). You will go through tribulation, as Paul did, but in the end, it will be well worth it as you enter into the eternal kingdom of God!