Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: If you can just read your Bible carefully, you hear the heart of God. In Deuteronomy, He says, "Oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me." Not be afraid of me, but the word fear is to reverence and respect. He says to keep my commandments always that it might be well with them.

Guest (Male): Choosing the way of the Lord is the delight of God, says Pastor Brett Meador. Why does God want you to keep His commandments? Is it to make sure you have no fun? No, He wants you to keep His commandments so that it will go well for you. Do not miss the heart of God.

After a miraculous healing of a lame beggar through Paul, the gathered crowds of Acts 14 are eager to worship him and Barnabas as gods. Moments later, those same people are persuaded to stone Paul instead. From today's word, Pastor Brett Meador reflects on Paul's sermon of how our faith must be anchored in the unchanging truth of God's word. Faithful, despite man's faithlessness.

Brett Meador: Acts 14:11 says that when the people saw what Paul had done, the miracle, they lifted up their voices saying in the speech of the Lycaonians, "The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men." We have a problem. Paul and Barnabas heal this guy and he is rejoicing, jumping around, whole and healed. Suddenly the town runs to Paul and Barnabas and says, "These are not men, but these are gods."

There is a bit of a backstory with this. First, let me tell you about Lystra. It is a pretty place in Turkey, but there was a legend that made the men of Lystra very superstitious. The legend was part of their mythological thing. We see that in verse 12. They called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people.

The men of Lystra saw Paul heal this guy and they said this is Jupiter and Mercury. That is the King James version. It is not wrong, but more accurately, it is Zeus and Hermes. The men of Lystra were great worshippers of Zeus and Hermes particularly. The reason they did this is because of an ancient story they believed happened in their city centuries earlier.

The story goes like this. Hermes and Zeus once visited their land and disguised themselves as mortals, but no one gave them hospitality or treated them nicely, except for one older couple. In their anger, Zeus and Hermes wiped out the whole population of the city except for the little old couple. Then, depending on which version you hear, they take the little old couple and set them in front of the Zeus temple and turn them into two trees. That is the legend.

Paul is about to preach a sermon to them to try to set them right, but this is a contentious situation. They are ready to sacrifice an ox right there before Paul and Barnabas. They are getting the garlands, which were part of their religious trappings of worship of Zeus and Hermes. Paul and Barnabas wonder what they are going to do, so Paul is going to preach a short sermon here, but it is a powerful one nonetheless.

When the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard that they brought the garlands to sacrifice with the people, they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying out. This idea of ripping your clothes is not something we do very often in America, but the Jews were known for ripping their clothes if they were in total despair, mourning, grief, or trouble. Ripping their clothes was something the Jews did as a show of disapproval.

Paul starts his sermon and says, "Sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you. We preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein." The first thing we understand from Paul's sermon is the stupidity of idolatry. Scripture says those that worship idols are dumb like them.

In verse 15, Paul says, "We are just like you. We are of like passions." In other words, we have the same desires, sinful and otherwise, that you do. We are just like you. One of the things we all need to remember is that Paul starts with saying we are just like you. Then he says that what he is going to preach to you is that you have to get away from this idiocy.

The word he uses here in the English translation is vanities. If you look up the Greek word for that, it is worthless, useless, and empty. It is a total waste of time. This is what Paul is saying. We want to show you that what you are worshipping here with Zeus and Hermes is a total waste of time, emptiness, and worthless. It is going to be useless for you.

At the same time, we see other Bible stories where Paul and Barnabas and others heal someone and people just rejoice and they give God glory. That is what the Christian does. You can say you are happy about this and praise be to the Lord for what He has done, the great things He has done. When good things happen, we can give glory to God, not to man. That is important.

The stupidity of idolatry is Paul's thing. What you guys are into, this whole Zeus and Hermes thing, is a total waste of time. Then he gets into the reality of the true and living God. In the middle of verse 15, he says that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, earth, the sea, and all the things that are therein.

The living God is real. Hermes and Zeus are fake. In one fell swoop, Paul gives the reason why you know that God is real and Hermes and Zeus are fake, and it is about the creation. This is something the Bible speaks of over and over again. Psalm 19:1-4 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech."

In other words, the heavens and the firmament speak to you every day. Night unto night showeth knowledge. When you look at the stars, you realize there is knowledge that God exists. When you look at outer space and the solar system, there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. You do not have to speak Spanish, English, Greek, or Hebrew. It is a universal language that every person with a pulse on the planet can see.

Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set the tabernacle for the sun. God made a place for the sun to dwell. It was God who created the universe. This is what theologians call general revelation. Generally, everybody on the planet has a general revelation. No one has an excuse because it is revealed to every single person.

That is why Paul said in Romans 1:20, "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen." You can see evidence for God in the creation of the world, being understood by the things which are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Paul might be anticipating what his listeners are thinking about.

If God is so big and powerful, why are there bad things? If God created the beautiful, amazing world, then why are things so bad in the world? Paul almost anticipates that question because he goes right into that in verse 16. It says, "Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways." There it is. Why are there bad things in the world? God gave humanity and the nations free will to do whatever they wanted to do.

My mom used to say you cannot win for losing. I feel like that is the position they put God in because people say if God is love, why does He not make everything right and righteous? God could have done that. We do not know all the answers. All we know is that God gave humanity free will. Some ask why He did that, noting that it seems mean because look at how we have taken it.

We have cancer and death, but that is the fall of man. If God did not allow for sin, then we would have been creations that had to follow God. We would be like automatons saying, "Yes, Lord, we follow you. We believe in you." Is that what God wanted? The answer is no. The Bible says God requires a relationship. He wants a relationship. Love demands a choice.

In creation, God says He wants us to follow Him and believe in Him and love Him, but He is not going to hold a gun to our heads and make us follow Him. You might say God is holding a gun to our heads because of hell. If you do not follow God, you go to hell. That is true, but when you carefully read the narrative of the Bible, you have to understand that every human being with a pulse is on a slippery slope to hell.

That is just the natural progression and we did that. God suffered, and the word suffered is not a mistake. Suffering means allow, but also with a negative connotation of sadness. God suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. We are all walking on that slippery slope to hell with our sin and our depravity. Then God so loved the world that He wants to intervene and pluck us off that slippery board to hell to save us and have us go to heaven.

The Lord says He would that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. This brings us to the third point of his message, which speaks of the charity of the true God. That is the love of God. You have the stupidity of idolatry, the reality of the true God, and the charity of the true God. The world has mostly chosen rebellion. God does not delight in this.

If you could read your Bible carefully, you hear the heart of God. I always cringe when I hear people say that if God is love, then this and that. Then you hear God's heart. In Deuteronomy 5:29, He says, "Oh, that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me." Not be afraid of me, but the word fear is to reverence and respect. He wants us to keep His commandments always so that it might be well with them.

Why does God want you to keep His commandments? Is it to make sure you have no fun? He wants you to keep His commandments so that it will go well for you. It is the little bratty kid that says he is going to do what he wants to do. The parents tell him that if he puts his hand on the hot stove, it is going to singe his hand. Some children say they do not care and they are going to do what they want to do.

Maybe you are that kid when it comes to God. You do not care about sex outside of marriage and you are just going to do that because everybody else is doing that. God says He wishes it would go well with you. People are wondering why they are sad, depressed, diseased, and troubled. Their relationships are messed up and their marriages are failing. God says if you would have followed His commandments, it would have gone well with you.

You can be stubborn and do your own thing because He gave you a free will. The love of God not only says He wishes you would fear Him and follow His commandments always so that it might be well with you, but also with your children forever. That is the heart of God. Do not miss the heart of God. In verse 17, he goes on further with the charity of the Lord.

He says, "Nevertheless He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." This is what God did, even though the world went its own way in their sin and depravity. God is love and He is kind. He gives us rain. He rains on the just and the unjust. The idea is He gives rain to people that do not deserve it and people that do.

It is no different. God is still kind and He gives us rain. If God wanted to, He could just dry up all the rain of the earth and that would be the end. That would be real global warming if God did that. God does not. In His love, even though we are a sinful, wretched bunch on the earth and in rebellion mostly against God, God says He is going to continue to give us His rain and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and with gladness.

There are a lot of people that are not thankful for the food that we have and the gladness and the good things we have. Every good and perfect gift comes from this charitable, loving, true God. That is Paul's argument. He is telling the men of Lystra to dump their worthless gods and turn to the true God evidenced in creation. You should not be afraid like you are of Zeus and Hermes. You should be glad that you can rely on God for rain and food.

He is the one where all that comes from, not your goofy gods, and He gives us gladness. This sermon is powerful. The charity of the true God is so good. It reminds me of God's faithfulness even when we are faithless. It is like 2 Timothy 2:13, "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself." There is one more point I would like to add, and it is not so much Paul's sermon, but their reaction to the sermon.

The fourth point is the inconsistency of the people. Ten seconds ago, they were wanting to make Paul a god and Barnabas Zeus. In verse 18, it says that with these sayings, Paul's sermon, they scarce restrained the people that they had not done sacrifice unto them. That is just saying they still wanted to sacrifice, but they barely were able to stop them. Paul and Barnabas are giving this sermon, but people are still wanting to sacrifice an ox unto Zeus and Hermes.

That was how bad the people were. They did not listen. Then something really bad happened. Certain Jews came from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. They just killed the apostle Paul. No, they think he is dead and they lay him outside of the city. That is a tough day at the office.

Do you notice the inconsistency of the people? Do not be surprised at how people flip-flop. They go from one minute wanting to make you a god to the next minute wanting to make you dead. That is something you see in humanity. I hope you are not the person that is a flip-flopper. Celebrities are flip-floppers. If you are getting your ideas of who to vote for from celebrities, it is not a good idea. They do not know what the average person in the world is going through.

At the same time, we as Christians should not get our idea of what to believe from anywhere else than the Bible. The Bible is the best source anybody can ever use for truth. If you do not go to the Bible, you are going to be a flip-flopper. You are going to think something is really true and then you realize it is not true. People ask how I can be so bold to come against climate change.

The Bible says there are going to be regular seasons until the earth is destroyed by the Lord. The Bible tells us what is going to happen with climate. It is right here in the scriptures. If climate change really destroys the world, then you will have to say the Bible was wrong, but the Bible has never been wrong. I am going to go with the Bible on this one. If you want to not be a flip-flopper, you go with the Bible.

As Christians, we should be set in our way and not easily maneuvered. We should be solid. In Jeremiah 26, Jeremiah is told by God to go speak the word of the Lord on the courtyard of the temple. He tells him he wants him to speak word for word His word. Jeremiah does that and people get ticked off at him. They hate him because he speaks about the destruction of Jerusalem. They said they should kill him.

Jeremiah stands up against the riot and tells them they can kill him if they want to, but Jerusalem is still going to be killed. He said his blood will be on their heads. The people backed off and decided they probably should not kill him. No one ever listened to a word Jeremiah said. They did not take heed and Jerusalem would be destroyed. He was right and they did not listen.

There is a funny comparison that I love in Jeremiah 26. There was this guy who thought he would give it a whirl to talk like Jeremiah, but he was not like Jeremiah. He was a poser. His name was Urijah. Urijah comes and speaks the words of Jeremiah, but he was not a prophet who heard from God. He just heard the words from Jeremiah. He starts speaking this to the people and King Jehoiakim said they should kill him.

Urijah runs for his life to Egypt, which is a picture of the world. They hunt him down there, kill him, and fling his body on a grave where the common people died. One guy had conviction, stood his ground, did not flip-flop, and was not afraid. He just spoke the truth and the word of the Lord. He was not afraid of people killing him. That is what we need to be as Christians, like Jeremiah.

If you are a nominal person who does not really care about the Bible or studying the scripture, but you say you are a Christian, when things get heated up, I think we saw a little of that with the COVID thing and the shutting of people up. There are people that are held to their conviction and they stick with it, and then there are the people that go with whatever wave is happening.

The Bible says the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. You do not want to do that. You want to be the person who is grounded and rooted in the word of God and not a flip-flopper, not going from one extreme to the other. We see that here and the inconsistency of the people is very obvious. You have to be firm in your faith. Let us make sure that our worldview is shaped by the Bible.

If you are not a Christian and you say you are an atheist and believe in evolution, can I just ask you to give an honest look at the intricacies and the fine-tuned universe that we live in? Look up the fine-tuned universe because what you are going to find is some Christian guys jumping on the bandwagon, which you would expect. You also see a bunch of secular people trying to figure out an answer to that, and they do not have it.

Evolution does not show how a finely-tuned universe could have ever come about. I challenge you to reconsider and be open to that possibility. You have been duped by your high school biology teacher or your college professor. More than that, you do not want that to get in between you believing in a true and loving, kind-hearted God who wants to pull you off of that slippery slope that is determined to take you to hell.

God is saying He wants to save you. How are you saved? You recognize you are a sinner and you confess your sins to God and repent. The word repent means to change your mind about it. It does not mean you are perfect. It means you are perfectly forgiven. You change your mind and then you confess, "Lord, I believe that Jesus came and died on the cross for my sins and that He rose up from the dead." Romans 10:9-10 says you will be saved if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave. Do not miss that.

Guest (Male): Just as scripture claims the heavens declare the glory of God, Pastor Brett Meador, drawing from the words of Paul in Acts chapter 14, shared how every good and perfect gift comes from the loving God of the Bible, including His free gift of salvation. Pastor Brett will be leading us in a closing word of prayer in just a moment, so I hope you will stick around for that.

But first, let me tell you a little bit more about Brett Meador. He is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Brett has been the pastor of Athey Creek for 30 years. If you have missed any portion of our study, you can find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages by going to todayswordradio.com.

In addition to the main Athey Creek campus in West Linn, Oregon, we also have other locations in the Portland area. For more information, go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link locations. Again, that is todayswordradio.com and click the link locations. To conclude the message today, here again is Pastor Brett Meador to close in prayer.

Brett Meador: Lord, I pray that you would give us all ears to hear as we read this story. We see in this old story the same propensities of humanity to be flip-flopping one way and the other, to worship men above you, Lord. What a shame that we have that tendency to put other things ahead of you. I pray that we would have ears to hear and hearts to discern and meditate on this passage.

Lord, I pray that as Christians, we would be champions of that message that you loved the world so much that you save us by the sending of your son Jesus that died on the cross and rose from the grave. Even in creation, we see your glory. May we see this week that every day we hear the voice of creation speaking out to us of your truth and your reality. Bless these, your people, now as we go our way. In Jesus' name, amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Meador at the close of our program here on Today's Word. That is all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will continue looking at the missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas as they faithfully preached the grace of the gospel. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Meador is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.