Life Walk Lesson 94: Applying the Word
The setting of the early Church was in a region beset with idolatry and the worship of false gods and goddesses. Temples to these were everywhere, and this new belief in a Man called Jesus Christ was only just beginning to penetrate the society and its proclivity to rituals and sacrifices to keep those gods which they worshipped happy.
Barnabas and Paul enter Lystra, a city in Central Anatolia, without a synagogue, just north of the Taurus Mountains, in modern day Turkey. They come as representatives of the Kingdom of God, with healing and deliverance accompanying their message, and it causes no small stir.
The Apostles bring healing to a man paralyzed from birth, an illustrated sermon in itself, depicting the society at large — paralyzed by the devil, unable to move forward since ancient times when the demons demanded to be worshiped — a society kept bound, and far from freedom in Christ. God saw that an entire region needed to be set free from antiquated thought, born into bondage and incapacity under the influence of the demons, called Zeus and Hermes, and sent Barnabas and Paul to catapult them into a new era in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Acts 14:8-15
8 “And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked.
9 This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed,
10 said in a loud voice, ‘Stand up straight on your feet!’ And he leaped and walked.
11 Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, ‘The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!’
12 And Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.
13 Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out
15 and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the Living God, Who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.”
Just as when God the Father spoke over His Son “This is My Beloved Son. Listen to Him!” as recorded in Matthew 17:5, on Mount Hermon (the mountain where the fallen angels in the time of Noah’s father Jared, pledged to thwart God’s will for mankind, as recorded in 1Enoch 6:1-6, corresponding to, and corroborating, the account in Genesis 6:1-4) — the Apostles made it clear Whom to honor, and Whom to worship in their mountainous region — not men, not demons, but God Almighty, the Creator of heaven, earth, and sea, as He is known.
Encouragement:
The Apostle John records the words of Jesus, in John 15:4, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”
As we stay connected, and fully immersed in Christ, and God’s way of doing things in the Kingdom of Heaven, we become inseparable from God.
Romans 8:38-39
38 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Walk in Him, then, in all you do and reap the blessings that come from being one with God.
Created to Be Godly
Ephesians 4:17-25 [NKJV]
17 “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the Spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members one of another.”
Colossians 1:15-20
15 “He is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn over creation.
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18 And He is the head of the Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fulness should dwell,
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
Ephesians 1:3-14
3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.
11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,
12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
1 Peter 1:20-21
20 “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you
21 who through Him believed in God, Who raised Him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
