Paul, back from the dead and right back into it

Acts 14:21 says, ‘And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch.’

“Paul preached in Derbe and then Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, to confirm the souls and to establish the structure for the local church. Notice the first place he went back to was Lystra.

“If you look at verse 8, it says there was a certain man at Lystra, and what happens in Lystra is in verses 9-18. Verse 19 says, ‘And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.’

“My own personal, private, subjective, individual opinion is that Paul was stoned to death. Nobody drug him out thinking he was dead that wanted him dead that didn’t check a pulse. Their estimation of stoning Paul was that they killed him.

“Verse 20 says, ‘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.’

“I would take it that they killed him and God raised him from the dead. That’s the point in time, it seems to me, where, in II Corinthians 12, Paul talks about how, ‘I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
[3] And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
[4] How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.’

“My point to you is, where did that happen? It happened in Lystra. In Lystra, they got so mad at Paul that they killed him, yet they didn’t kill him. They thought they did; they stoned him and that’s bad enough.

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“You ever had anybody stone you? Can you imagine the headache that would have been? Years ago, I was on a golf course and heard a ‘WHACK!’ I looked up and saw a golf ball coming right toward me. You ever had one of those moments when you see it and you know it’s going to be bad but you can’t move?

“I watched that golf ball coming toward my head and I could actually see the dimples in it as it spun and hit me right square in the noggin. Next thing I knew I was on my back, looking up at the clouds in the noon-day sky. There were stars everywhere I looked; light flashes all around my eyes as I sat there in a daze. A big, old goose egg came up on my forehead and that was just one little golf ball.

 “Paul was stoned; he didn’t have pebbles thrown at him. They thought to kill the dude.

“Now, I went away from that golf course with a headache and a minor concussion. No broken bones. My point to you is, what did he experience at Lystra? It wasn’t good. So what does he do?

“He goes right back into that city where they just tried to kill him! It was so important to him that they get a local church properly established at Lystra that he was willing to risk his life.

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“Establishing a church wasn’t just a, ‘Well, you know, when I’m retired, I think I’ll do this.’ For Paul, it was a life or death situation. It was that critically important to the work of the ministry.

“Come to Ephesians 3 and see why that local assembly is so important to Paul. The churches of the Gentiles—where do you think Paul got the idea that it was that important? Where’d he get his ideas for what the ministry was? The preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. Christ gave him instructions for what the work of the ministry was to be about.

“When he established churches of the Gentiles, that’s what he was doing in Acts 14.

“By the way, when he went into every city, he went into Thessalonica in Acts 17 and established a local church; a church of the Gentiles. Then, in Acts 18, he went over to Corinth and established a church of the Gentiles. Then he went to Ephesus in Acts 19 and established a church of the Gentiles.

“In Acts 13 and 14, he established churches (plural) of the Gentiles. But you know what he did to those churches in Acts? He wrote to them about the churches of Galatia. He wrote two letters to Thessalonica. He wrote two letters to the Corinthians. He wrote the letter of Ephesians and I Timothy to the assembly and Timothy there in Ephesus.

“Then he says over in Colossians that he got this dispensation of God to fulfill the Word of God. But in connection with fulfilling and completing God’s word . . .

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“You see, you and I today are the first people in all of God’s dealings who have a complete Bible. The revelation of the mystery, the secret of God’s will, has been completely revealed now. And when Paul says it was done in order (Colossians 1:25-26), it was to fill God’s Word up completely so there was nothing left.

“When you fill something up, that means you can’t get anything more in it and nothing’s left out. There was some information that needed to be written down in God’s Word so that everything God wanted men to know would be there and that’s what the revelation given to Paul does; it completes God’s Word. That’s why there’s nothing else that needs to be added to it; there’s nothing left out of it. You’ve got it all revealed to you.

“But in order to do that, he wrote nine epistles to seven local groups of churches: Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians. Then he wrote Timothy about the church at Ephesus. He wrote Titus about the churches at Crete and he wrote Philemon about the church in Colossi.

“The work wasn’t just tossed out there like seed in the wind; it was produced by ministry to the local churches.

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“When he talks about preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ, that’s Ephesians 3:8. When he says, ‘I want to make all men see,'  that’s verse 9: ‘And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.’

“He’s talking about something beyond preaching it. He’s saying, 'I want all men to SEE.' That’s not just understanding the doctrine.

“By the way, when he says ‘make all men see,’ doesn’t I Corinthians 2:14 say the natural man can’t see the things of the Spirit of God? Well, how can he see and understand something he can’t get?

“Paul doesn’t say, ‘I want all the Believers to see it.’ What is the fellowship of the mystery? The new bibles say ‘dispensation of the mystery.’ That’s not what it means; it’s fellowship.

“The fellowship of the mystery is back in Ephesians 3:6: ‘That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.’

“The fellowship of the mystery is what you and I share together, the fellowship that we have with Christ in the Body of Christ with one another.

“Paul says, ‘I’m preaching the grace of God out here among the Gentiles and trying to put it on display so that people can see what it means to be in fellowship with Christ; be members of the Church the Body of Christ.’

 “Ephesians 4:20-21 says, ‘But ye have not so learned Christ; [21] If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.'

“Tell me, where did these people HEAR Christ? They weren’t there in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These dudes are a bunch of pagans who didn’t care what was going on over there in Jerusalem. How did they hear him?

“Well, they heard him through Paul’s preaching. In Galatians 1:15, he says, ‘But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace.’

“He told the Corinthians, ‘Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.’

“You see what’s going on in the Body of Christ? There’s this unique body of Believers who have this unique truth and then put it on display in the local church.”

“Paul writes in Ephesians 5:30, ‘For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.’ Verse 32 says, ‘This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.’ ”