Eyes on the Prize: Acts 14:8-22 - Fourth Sunday of Easter

Sometimes, success is more dangerous than failure.

The apostles Paul and Barnabas were ministering in the ancient city of Iconium, located in modern day Turkey. Things had been going great. People were coming to faith in Christ left and right until an angry mob rose against Paul and Barnabas. Thankfully, they escaped the city unharmed and continued their ministry in the nearby city of Lystra.

Click here to read the Scripture text

There, they ministered to a man who had been paralyzed since birth. Upon seeing his faith, Paul said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” Immediately, the man sprang up and began to walk. When the crowds saw this, they were astounded. They believed that the gods had come down to them: that Barnabas was Zeus, and Paul was Hermes. The priest from the temple of Zeus brought oxen and garlands, and the people began offering sacrifices and showering them with gifts. When Paul and Barnabas realized what was going on, they tore their robes in distress. As hard as they tried to convince the people that they were ordinary men serving the one true God, they could not stop them from offering sacrifice to them.

Little did they know that the violent mob followed them to Lystra, and they turn the crowds against them. They stoned Paul so severely that the believers thought he was dead. Thankfully, by the grace of God, he survives. They even return to the city and bring many people to faith in Christ. Paul reminds the believers, “it is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.”

The apostles would rather be persecuted and even killed instead of having people worship them and shower them with gifts. What does that tell you?

For two thousand years Christians have suffered persecution. Here in America, we have not. Still, would you keep the faith if you had to choose between Christ, and your possessions, your reputation, or your life? Would you share your faith in Christ with someone else if there is even a slight change that you’ll be ridiculed or rejected?

We are blessed for the fact that we will likely never be persecuted like the apostles and Christians in other parts of the world. But that’s not to say that people will not persecute you for other reasons. The people on our prayer list are being persecuted by sickness, death, grief, hardship, unemployment, and hopelessness. Our church is being persecuted—and not by the world, but by our own anxieties over the future and our fear of change.

But the actions of Paul and Barnabas demonstrate something rather surprising: success can be more damaging to our faith than even hardship or persecution.

Witnessing this, you must ask yourself: would you rather suffer with Christ, or prosper apart from him? Do you want Jesus? Or do you want Jesus to give you good things?

Do you want to be happy, or do you want to be faithful? Do you want to be rich with treasures or rich with God? Would you rather be a big and wealthy church, or a small and struggling church that is faithful and fruitful?

And when you’re facing illness, unemployment, or loss of purpose, do you want Jesus to fix your problems? Or do you want Jesus to give you himself?

It's dangerous to seek good and positive things as rewards for faith or evidence that you are in Christ’s favor. You can be god-like in your power, success, and influence. You can hold the world in your hands. But you won’t enter the Kingdom of God without Christ. There is nothing on earth that you can have as proof of God’s favor to you, except for this: the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

You were the object of his desire when he bore the cross. God raised him from the dead to give you victory over sin and death, and all the things that affect you in life. Jesus’s desire is for you, which is why your desire should be for him!

I want to challenge you this week in your life of prayer to seek Jesus above all else. When you ask him for healing or strength, or the provision of something you need, let it be so that you may live more fully in him. When you pray for people you love and care about, don’t just pray that God would make them better. Pray that they would know the Lord. And when you pray over all the chaos and turmoil in this world, pray that the love of Jesus and the justice of Jesus will prevail.

Paul and Barnabas were so devoted to Jesus that they would rather be persecuted for him than to be exalted apart from him. Jesus was worth more to them than anything, even life itself. Do we need any more proof over what a world without Christ is missing?

Not too long ago I was praying at the bedside of a woman who had been a disciple of Jesus Christ for her entire life., She knew that she was going to die, and she was OK with that. She was thankful for the life that God had given her and for the people who loved and cared about her. Her last dying wish was for her children and for her grandchildren and all the people that she had known in life to be able to be as close to Jesus as she had been. That mattered more to her than anything.

Even though she died a short time later, Jesus Christ lives on in her memory and because of how she lived her life people will know Jesus Christ because they knew her.

Having a full and wealthy church does not mean as much to me as being a church that is committed to Jesus, and witnessing him transforming lives, whether our numbers are greater or small.    

Health, wealth, and happiness are fleeting. They are here today and gone tomorrow, but Jesus Christ is forever. Let him be the prize you seek— because Jesus is the one gift that God will move heaven and earth to give you.
 

Santuário Nacional de Cristo Rei by Julien Chatelain on flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0