SERIES: “LESSONS FROM THE EARLY CHURCH”
TEXT: ACTS 14:8-20 (read with points)
TITLE: “THOUGHTS ON LIVING WITH THANKSGIVING”
INTRODUCTION: A. In certain regions of Mexico, hot and cold springs are found side by side. Because
of the convenience of this natural phenomenon, the women often bring their laundry,
boil their clothes in the hot springs, and then rinse them in the cold springs.
A tourist watching this procedure turned to his Mexican guide and commented,
“They must think that God is generous to freely supply such ample, clean hot and cold
water.” The guide replied, “No senor, there is much grumbling because He supplied
no soap.”
B. November isn’t the only time of the year in which we should be thankful
1. 1 Thess. 5:18 – “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in
Christ Jesus.”
2. Sophocles (c. 447 BC) – “Ignorant men don’t know what good they hold in their
hands until they’ve flung it away.”
3. There are some principles of living with thanksgivings that are illustrated in our
passage this evening
I. BE THANKFUL FOR FAITH (whether any else hat it or not)
--Acts 14:8-9 – “In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never
walked. 9He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be
healed 10and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
A. Heb. 11:1 – “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
1. Imagine that you’re walking on a mountain path on a cloudy, moonless night with no flashlight. In fact,
there is no source of light whatsoever.
a. You know there is a very deep ravine that you’re going to have to cross over on a footbridge
--But you’ve also seen that bridge earlier in the day and also saw someone else cross it
b. Very carefully you walk that path know that the bridge is there even though you can’t see it
2. Have you ever looked for something you couldn’t find but you knew it was there even though you
couldn’t see it?
3. Both of those scenarios describe operating on faith.
B. People, both Christians and non-Christians, operate on some level of faith everyday
1. When you walk to the water faucet in the kitchen, place a glass under it, and turn the know, you’re
expecting water to come out.
--There’s no absolute guarantee that water is going to come out but you’ve seen it do it before and you
have faith that it will do it again.
2. When you walk into your house and flick that little switch on the wall, you expect a light to come one
--There’s no absolute guarantee that flicking that switch will turn on the electricity that makes the light
bulb light up, but you’ve seen it happen enough that you have faith that it will do it again.
C. Hebrews Chapter 11 contains a great “Hall of Faith” comprised of people from the Old Testament: Abel,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Rahab, Gideon and so on to the end of the chapter.
1. All of these people lived their lives in expectation that God would do what He had promised
2. By their faithfulness, they enjoyed God’s faithfulness.
D. Heb. 12:1-3 – “ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off
everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race
marked out for us.”
1. All those people who have lived before us and are our ancestors in the faith have proved God’s
faithfulness over and over again.
2. They are our encouragement when our faith begins to falter
3. We need to be thankful for the faith of those who have gone before us
--Both those mentioned in the Bible and the ones who have lived since the 1st century up till today
a. Without their example and encouragement we would falter and fail
b. We need to look at their example and realize their faith was not perfect but it was grounded in the
God who is always faithful and know that He will continue to remain faithful throughout eternity
E. Faith is essential and vital for us to live lives pleasing to God:
1. Heb. 10:38 – Has God saying: “But the righteous will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not
be please with Him.” (italics mine)
2. Heb. 11:6 – “And without faith, it is impossible to please God…”
F. It was Paul’s faith in Christ that gave the witness that caused the lame man to have faith
1. There was something about Paul’s message that day that made a difference in the lame man’s faith
--I think that this lame man recognized that Paul’s message wasn’t just words but something that made
a difference in Paul’s life
2. D.L. Moody described three kinds of faith:
a. Struggling faith – which is like someone fighting to keep from drowning in deep water
b. Clinging faith – which is like someone hanging onto the side of a boat
c. Resting faith – which finds the person safely within the boat and moreover, able to reach out with a
hand to help someone else.
3. Paul had resting faith and was able to reach out and pull the lame into the boat.
II. BE THANKFUL FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO TESTIFY (whether anyone believes or not)
--Acts 14:11-17 – “When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The
gods have come down to us in human form!" 12Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes
because he was the chief speaker. 13The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought
bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them. 14But
when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd,
shouting: 15"Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you
good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth
and sea and everything in them. 16In the past, he let all nations go their own way.
17Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven
and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."”
A. There are a lot of times that we’re like the people at Lystra – we interpret events to fit our own personal
belief system
1. The Roman poet Ovid tells of a myth of Jupiter and Mercury coming to that same region long ago
disguised as mortals.
a. Jupiter, called Zeus by the Greeks, was the chief God in the Greek pantheon.
b. His worship was almost universal: He was called Ammon in Africa, Belus in Babylon, and Osiris
in Egypt.
2. Mercury, called Hermes in the original Greek text, was the legendary inventor of speech and the
messenger of the so- called gods.
3. According to Ovid’s legend when the god’s came to visit the community of Lystra, everyone except
for one rejected them.
4. The 2 gods sent judgment on the area except for the old couple who were rewarded for their
receptive welcome by being made guardians of a magnificent temple on the outskirts of Lystra.
--Sure enough, there was a temple to Jupiter (Zeus) at the main gate into Lystra
5. The people in Lystra confused Barnabas for Zeus and Paul for Hermes
B. These two men, through misinterpretation of events, had an opportunity to testify about the truth: the
goodness and mercy of the true God.
1. There are many times that we’re given opportunities to testify about the true God
2. Do we take advantage of the opportunity or do we rationalize it away by saying, “Now is not the
right time”?
a. Someone: “An opportunist is a person who, finding himself in hot water, decides he needs a bath
anyway.”
b. This little poem says it well:
When opportunity does knock,
By some uncanny quirk
It often goes unrecognized –
Because it so resembles work!
C. Even though the people at Lystra were acting strangely, Paul and Barnabas made the best of the
opportunity
1. I have to be honest. Most likely I would have said: “These people are kind of weird. Let’s cut our
losses and move on to the next town.”
--But Paul and Barnabas’ faith was so strong they just stepped out onto the bridge
2. God doesn’t ask us to be successful
--He just asks us to be faithful
3. Someone: “We do not stand in the world bearing witness to Christ, but stand in Christ and bear
witness to the world.”
III. NEED TO BE THANKFUL FOR CONVERSION (even when others aren’t)
A. “Conversion” – “change” or “turn”
1. Mt. 18:3 – “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never
enter the kingdom of heaven.”
2. vs. 15 – Paul warns these unbelievers to “turn from these worthless things to the living God…”
3. So many worthless things to worship today:
a. The basic goodness of humanity (God says otherwise)
b. The philosophy that any religious belief is all right (God says otherwise)
c. The idea that comfort and pleasure are the most important things (God says otherwise)
d. We even believe that some of our religious pageantry impresses God (God says otherwise)
B. Don’t confuse the worthless with the priceless
1. The lame man at Lystra had traded what was worthless for what was priceless
--vs. 20 mentions also that there were several others
2. However, the great majority had failed or refused to understand
IV. NEED TO BE THANKFUL FOR THE MESSAGE OF GOD (whether anyone listens or not)
--Acts 14:18 – “Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.”
A. The people at Lystra were so much like people today – they twisted what they heard into what they
wanted to hear.
1. Rom. 1:18-23 – “18he wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and
wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about
God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world
God’s invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew
God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and
their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and
exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and
animals and reptiles.”
2. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 – “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead,
to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their
itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
B. God has consistently and aggressively sought to communicate with His creation
1. Heb. 1:1-2 – “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in
various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all
things, and through whom he made the universe.”
2. John 1:1, 14 – “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us…” “The Word became
flesh and made His dwelling among us…”
3. God speaks through creation, He spoke through human beings, and finally, like Hallmark Cards,
God cared enough to send the very best – His Son Jesus Christ
C. God’s message to us is that He loves us, that He made us , and that He cares about us
1. He tells us that He wants to have a relationship with us
2. He tells us that He is willing through the death of His Son to wipe out all those things that separate
us from Him and wants us to come to Him in repentance and confession
V. NEED TO BE THANKFUL FOR STRENGTH TO PRESS ON (even when others are trying to stop
us)
--Acts 14:19-20 – “Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned
Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20But after the disciples had gathered around
him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.”
A. Two kinds of people we meet as we go about our journey on this earth:
1. Those who try to help
--two kinds of helpers
a. Those who think they’re helping but don’t have any connection to the truth
--They wish they could help but their help is at best a Band-aid and at worst useless
b. Those who can help, have the ability to help, and do so
2. Those who try to hinder
a. Those who know how to help but refuse
b. Those who try willfully to do anything to keep us from what God wants us to do
c. My basic philosophy for those who think they’re Christians but try to hinder any advancement of
the gospel or the ministry of the local church: “Lead; follow; or get out of the way!”
--Amen?
B. In all these circumstances, God can give us the strength to continue
1. Ps. 46:1 – “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”
2. Ps. 121:1-2 – “I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from
the LORD , the Maker of heaven and earth.”
C. It was God who gave Paul the strength to continue
1. Notice this particular time it occurred when those who were believers gathered around him.
2. Have you ever faced rejection or downright hatred from people who once supported you?
3. Have you ever turned on someone that you once supported
4. How easily swayed are you by the opinions of others?
--like the people here at Lystra
5. One of the most refreshing and encouraging moments when you’re struggling is when you realize that
you are not alone in the battle
--when you know God’s people are standing with you
CONCLUSION: A. A Sunday school teacher was doing a lesson on thanksgiving. She went around the
class and asked the question, “What are you thankful for?”
One little boy said, “My glasses.”
Teacher asked, “Why are you thankful for your glasses when most boys your age
don’t like their glasses?”
Little boy replied: “Because they keep the boys from fightin’ me and the girls from
kissin’ me.”
B. What’s the main reason that someone lives life with thanksgiving
1. Their attitude – they live with an attitude of gratitude
2. When others are busy complaining, people who live with thanksgiving are busy
looking for opportunities
3. Back in the late 1940’s, a shoe company had hired two new salesmen. They took
their sales training and were both sent to the same area. They were to separate and
canvass the area selling shoes. They were to call in to the sales manager after the first
day and report on how they thought this area would respond to this company’s shoes.
After the first day on the job, the first salesman called the sales manager and said,
“This is a horrible area to try to sell shoes. Hardly anybody here wears shoes.”
The second salesman called into the sales manager and said, “This is a great place
to sell shoes. Not very many people here own shoes.”
C. IF you don’t have anything to be thankful for, try some of these:
1. That only you and God know all the facts about you
2. That even if you can’t pay your bills, at least you don’t have to be one of your own
creditors
3. That in case your job is a little harder than you like it, it’s worth remembering that
you can’t sharpen a razor on velvet.
D. Aren’t you thankful this evening for Jesus who came to dies on a cross in your place sl
that you can have an everlasting relationship with God
