A Vision Check

Acts 14:8-11

Have you had your vision checked of late?  For most of my life my vision was great, and sometime in my late forties something happened and I began to buy the $10.00 readers at the local drug store.  Then my wife who had worn glasses or contacts since the age of three ask me to see her eye doctor, and that is where my vision went down hill.  He said I could not see as well as I thought and prescribed glasses that I needed to wear all the time.  So how well do you see, do you have 20-20 visions if so you are blessed?  As we look at Acts 14:8-11, we come to this understanding that the apostle Paul had the ability to look into a man and see his faith, do you have that kind of vision?

Dr. Luke gives this account: “Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” (Acts 14:8-11 ESV)

A little history on Lystra, it’s identification was uncertain until 1885 when J.R.S. Sterrett discovered an inscribed Roman altar three and a half feet high and a foot thick at a mount some 25 miles southwest of Iconium.  On the stone, in Latin, was “Lystra,” along with a statement that it had become a Roman colony under Augustus Caesar. Taken from the Archaeological Supplement by G. Frederick Owen, D.D. page 1674 of the Thompson Bible.

Back to the account, a lame man crippled from birth had never walked.  We do not know the age of the man, but we do know that in Lystra most of the people knew him or they knew about him.  But that did not change the fact that he was the guy that was born with bad feet and had never walked.  Now we do not have his name, just a man who was born lame, but what we do have is a man who also may have dreamed of some day doing what most of us take as a way of life, the ability to walk.  When Paul began to talk to the people of Lystra, where was the man?  Doctor Luke tells us that they went into the Jewish synagogue, so that means that someone must have carried him to the Synagogue, and when Paul began to speak we are told that he listened.  Now, if you have ever spoken to a group of people it’s easy to look at the group and see who is with you an is taking notes, and Paul saw something most of us never look for, he saw a faith to be healed. 

Often, we try to put Paul and Peter and others as not human, but they were very human, they sometime let their emotions get in the way of God’s plans or His best, but they also were called to be apostles of Jesus Christ, as you and I are called to be His disciples.  To see something like hope in another person and they listen to the Spirit and do what He leads is often not seen in the local church, but Paul saw with spiritual eyes and then listened and acted on what he heard, and told the man, “Stand upright on your feet.”  And the lame man sprang up, and that does mean he jumped up, he was on his feet faster than an Olympic athletic at the starting block of the 100 meter race.  And doctor Luke tells us he began walking, now if you had known him, if you had watched him from a child, if you were the ones who carried him that day to the synagogue, you might be over come with joy, and you also might believe that Paul and Barnabas were more than just men?

Why would I say that because people of all generations have been looking for someone who they could put faith in, and often they refuse to look and listen to a God who cannot be seen, so they look for what is seen.  We have many who find Jesus in a tortilla and then put their trust in an image on a tortilla, can you image what they would do if they had been in Lystra?  The same thing as these folks, “And he sprang up and began walking. And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 

After reading this, the word of Jesus came to me, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”  (John 14:12 ESV)  And one last question, do you believe Jesus tells the truth?  If so, it’s time to ask for spiritual vision and an ear to hear and the courage to act on what you see and hear.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice