There's this idea in professional sports of a prove it deal. Have you heard of this? I th if I'm understanding it right, it goes like this. You have usually a player who's done something in the past. They've put up good statistics, they've been a part of a championship team, but then they got hurt or they got in trouble, or they just had a bad couple of seasons. I don't know. Whatever the case, they've fallen from their lofty heights of the past. But maybe a team here or there starts thinking to themselves, maybe they got something left in the tank. Maybe now that they've healed up or come back from whatever their personal problems were, maybe now they can contribute again. And so they'll offer them a really low dollar deal for a really low period of time. So like a one-season deal for comparatively very cheap, contrasted with other players in the league. And the idea is show us what you got. We're going to give you some playing time. If it doesn't work out, you know, we're at a few bucks, no big deal in the grand scheme of professional sports. But if it works, you're back on your feet and we got really good play out of you for really cheap. Well, if a player goes out on a prove it deal and they just kill it, put up great numbers, or great teammate, no personal problems, no off-the-court, off the field kind of stuff, then well, you gotta come back to the negotiating table now that they have proven it, and you gotta work out a new contract. You gotta figure out what happens next. Likewise, I feel like Paul is on a prove it deal in the book of Acts. He's on this first missionary journey. He's got the blessing of the church in Antioch, but that's not really the blessing of the church in Jerusalem. I mean, Jerusalem is kind of where it feels like it all started. But it's not like the people in Jerusalem don't like him either. It's just that Antioch up the road, that seems to be his home base. And they put together the resources and the support to send him and Barnabas out to be like, hey, let's just go see what happens. If we really are convinced miraculously, because of the stuff that happened with Peter, with that sheet and everything and Cornelius, if we really think because of what we see in the Old Testament, that this is meant for everybody, then the miraculous work of God should go ahead of you on this relatively comparatively modest little trip that we're gonna send you out on. And we should see the work of God, and we should see a whole bunch of Jewish people become Christians, and we should see a whole bunch of non-Jewish people become Christians as well. It should look like the stuff that Jesus said it was gonna look like, especially in like Matthew chapter 10. So let's do it. Let's do a prove it deal, let's do a prove it trip. So they send him out on this first missionary journey, and that's what we've been looking at for the last few days here. This first missionary journey starts in Antioch, makes its way over to the island of Cyprus, and amazing things happened there. I mean, the governor of Cyprus became a Christian. That was pretty good. And Paul and Barnabas beat a sorcerer in a miracle off, I don't know what you call it, a standoff where they did miraculous things and where God defeated whatever magic or forces that that Cyprus sorcerer was tapped into. Then from there they go and do just a cute little adorable loop in southern, central modern-day Turkey. Back then they called it Asia Minor. This is a region of Roman provinces that all adds up to a region that at times was referred to collectively as Galatia. There is also a Roman province of Galatia, if I understand correctly, up north. So there's a little bit of ambiguity here as to exactly what you call this space geographically, and we'll talk more about that a little bit later on. But whatever we want to call it, they're in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Derby, Perga, Italia, Italia. I don't know how to say that one for sure. It's one of those that you just read until you have to say it out loud. A-T-T-A-L-I-A. That's how we're saying that one. Pronounce it however you want. So it's a pretty short trip with only a handful of little communities touched. But so far, through just the initial stops, Cyprus, Perga, and now Pisidian Antioch, dang, seems like this prove it deal is really working out. Just like back in Jerusalem, where the original disciples went and followed up on the Jesus stuff, there was amazing things that happened. People responded, miracles happened. Also, there was a bunch of resistance. Cool. The exact same thing is happening here in the book of Acts, and heck, you all the way back to Jesus, the exact same thing happened with him. And Jesus basically said, All the stuff that was happening to me, if you do this stuff in my name, it's going to happen to you too. So the prove it deal is looking really good. We leave Poseidon Antioch on this little initial journey. And then in Acts chapter 14, we find out that Paul and Barnabas go on to Iconium, and it says they went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. Can you even tell the difference between this story and the one that we just got done with in Pisidia and Antioch in chapter 13? Like I said, it just cycles over again and again. These things follow the same pattern. They're so similar. So a bunch of people sign up. Gentiles are signing up, Jews are signing up. Seems like the prove it deal is checking out all that much more, but the Jews who refuse to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. Okay, well, that's following the pattern as well. This is kind of starting to sound like YouTube, where an upvote is good because that kind of proves that the video got people's attention. But even a down vote is kind of good because it proves that the video got people's attention. It's like Jack Sparrow, right? You're the worst pirate I've ever heard of. Ah, but you have heard of me. So the positive response confirms that the prove it deal is real. The negative response, frankly, follows the pattern and proves that the prove it deal is real. We go on. So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. Aha! More prove it deal. The people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles, and there was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. But they found out about it and fled to the Lyconian cities of Lystra and Derby and to the surrounding country where they continued to preach the good news. Now in Lystra, there sat a man crippled in his feet. So look at this. They just keep going to these places. It goes well, it also goes badly. Then people get mad and want to hurt them, and then they leave, and we just keep repeating. So in Lystra, there's a crippled guy. He was crippled in his feet. He's been lame since birth and had never walked. I love the way the Bible always gives us these details when it's about to set up a miraculous story. I mean, come on, you know what's coming. It hasn't said that there's going to be a healing yet, but you see the pattern. There's going to be a healing. And what the text is trying to do is eliminate anybody who'd be like, yeah, he was faking it. Nobody knew who that guy was. He was a plant. He was an actor brought in from out of state to be a crisis actor and look like things were bad. Nope. This is somebody everybody knew. He'd been lame since birth. He'd never walked. Well, he listened to Paul as he was speaking. And then Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed, and he called out, stand up on your feet. And at that, the man jumped up and began to walk. Okay, remember, this is a prove it deal, or at least I've decided to describe it as a prove-it deal. I think it works. And what are the things you would need to see if you believed in Jesus and you believed in the story of the life and death and teaching and resurrection of Jesus and all that stuff? What would you need to see? Well, things that look Jesus-y, for one. And this has, you know, it echoes all kinds of stories from the gospels of people in just this situation being healed. I mean, there are other kinds of miracles that I suppose I could dream up that wouldn't follow the pattern of Jesus' stuff. And if those happened, you might look at it and go, I don't know, that one seemed a little bit darker and more sinister. That one has overtones of sorcery or paganism. Like Paul went into the town and he said, Bring me a male goat. And he dressed up the goat in robes and put a crown on its head as though it were a king. And then he slit the goat's throat and drained the blood into a dish. And then he drank the blood and offered prayers in an ancient pagan religion. And then the man could walk. You'd be like, uh no. That sounded super satanic. It doesn't, hmm. Maybe something happened there, but it doesn't follow the pattern of the Jesus miracles. The Jesus miracles, the pattern includes some kind of theological meaning that goes with it. The idea of being unable to walk, and now you can walk. And what's the first thing you do? You celebrate your salvation and with joy. The idea of being unable to see, but then the scales fall off of your eyes. You see, it's a metaphor, Liz Lemon. They're all making a point, is the point. And this one seems to be making a point. It follows the pattern. It's a prove it deal. And the prove it deal is working. Now the crowd, they saw what Paul had done. They shouted in the Lyconian language The gods have come down to us in human form. Wait, what? Uh-oh. So Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. That's what Hermes did in the Greek cosmology of gods. And the 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. Do you remember? Like one minute ago when I was all going to the miracles, they don't, there's a pattern to them. And like here's a weird blood ritual that feels satanic and pagan. That wouldn't make sense. Well, now they're fixing to do a ritual like that because they've mistaken them for fake gods who want different things and have different values and different expectations and are trying to do different things. The Greek gods are just very powerful people. They have all of the dark, duplicitous stuff of human nature, but they just also have superpowers. So that's how they thought about it. The god god, it's not like that. The actual God is not just an exaggerated version of us, both reason and the Bible at every turn makes that evident. He's not Thor, but with even more superpowers, but with a bunch of quirks and kind of gullible too. The God of Abraham is I am. He is essence, he is being, he's the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Yes, he is incarnational and does remarkable things to break the laws of time and space to make himself knowable in an approachable way, but in doing so, he never sacrifices his deity. He is God, he is other, yet he chooses to make himself familiar. Not so with Hermes and Zeus and all of these characters, they're getting it completely wrong. And in the Old Testament, the big mistake that the Israelites made is when they would take their cues for how to think of the one true God from how their neighboring pagan tribes interacted with their God. They're like, oh, these pagan gods seems like uh this is what they're into. Well, we're gonna treat the God of Abraham, the one true God I am, just like he's one of these dumb pagan gods who's petty and dumb and low-key like and mischievous. And then God's like, I reject your stupid sacrifices. You're getting it all wrong. You don't know who I am. Well, all of this is shaping up to happen right here. Of course, now we're gonna get the scene from this town where all the people are like, be gods, and Barnabas and Saul are gonna be like, nay, we are but men, rock. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd shouting, Man, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We're 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 in the past. He let all nations go their own way, yet he's not left himself without testimony. He's shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops and their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. But even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them. Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over, and they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. And the next day he and Barnabas left for Derby. What the heck did I just read you? This is one of the most insane stories in the whole Bible. We love you. You're Zeus and Hermes, and we're gonna kill a bull for you. And then some outsiders show up and they're like, No, they're not. These guys are jerks and they're frauds, and they're like, We were just saying that we're not gods. Why are you mad at us now? Okay, let's just we were gonna sacrifice to you a minute ago, but instead, let's just hit you with rocks until you're dead. Wait, what? There's gotta be some kind of middle ground here. Could we just but then the rocks come out and then Paul looks dead? Everybody believed he was dead. He looked dead enough that you could drag him limply outside the city, and at no point anybody was like, he's twitching a little bit, maybe one more rock. Nope. He looked that dead, but then he's just like, okay, there, I'm better now. I'll go back into the city, get everything rounded up, and we'll go on to the next place. Probably time to dust off the sandals. I mean, did God raise him from the dead right here? I don't know. Apparently, Luke didn't know either. And Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, had access to Paul, and maybe Paul didn't know either. Just what a wild story, what a wild turn of events this is. And you might say that is the worst mission trip I've ever heard of, but you have heard of it. As crazy as the events of Acts 14 are on this prove it missionary journey, it's still proving it. It's still checking out. And what that means is we're gonna need to wrap up this little prove it journey, and we're gonna need to go back to Jerusalem and get together at the headquarters and talk with everybody involved. And we're gonna have to sit down at the table and figure out what it is exactly that we have here, what's going on, and how do we move forward, which is what you do after you successfully prove it on a prove it deal. That's good for now. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.