Mistaken for Gods

“We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news.” — Acts 14:15

Paul and Barnabas travelled from town to town, telling people about Jesus. One day they came to a town called Lystra.

In Lystra there was a man who had never walked in his whole life. He had been born that way. He sat listening to Paul speak about Jesus. Paul looked straight at him, and saw that he had faith to be healed.

“Stand up on your feet!” Paul called out in a loud voice.

And the man jumped up and began to walk!

When the crowd saw what had happened, they got very excited. They started shouting in their own language: “The gods have come down to us in human form!”

They thought Barnabas was Zeus, the king of their gods. And because Paul did most of the talking, they thought he was Hermes, the messenger of the gods.

The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the town, brought bulls and garlands of flowers to the town gates. He and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas!

When Paul and Barnabas realised what was happening, they were horrified. They tore their clothes and rushed into the crowd, shouting:

“Friends, why are you doing this? We are only human, just like you! We have come to bring you good news: that you should turn away from these useless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them.”

Even so, they could hardly stop the crowd from offering sacrifices to them.

Then some enemies of Paul arrived from other towns, and they turned the crowd against him. The same people who had wanted to worship Paul now threw stones at him and dragged him out of the town. They thought he was dead.

But when the believers gathered around him, Paul got up and walked back into the town! And the next day he and Barnabas went on to the next town, to keep telling people about Jesus.

Paul could have let people treat him like a god. Lots of people would like to be admired and praised. But Paul knew that all the glory belongs to God, not to him. He pointed people away from himself, to the living God.

Read it in your Bible: Acts 14:8–20

Dear God, all the glory belongs to you. When people praise me, help me to point them to you. Thank you that you are the living God who made everything. Amen.