Beeson Podcast, Episode 394 Earl Palmer May 29, 2018 www.beesondivinity.com/podcast/2018/telling-the-truth-during-a-hard-time Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson Podcast, coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the Campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. Now your host, Timothy George. Timothy George: Welcome to today's Beeson Podcast. Dr. Smith and I are here again to introduce a special preacher and a special sermon to you. The preacher is Earl Palmer. Dr. Earl Palmer is one of the great fresh voices for the gospel in our generation, and for many years he has been well-known as a pastor, a preacher, a writer of many books. I remember him from his several visits to Beeson Divinity School, and the sermon we're going to hear was preached in our chapel back in 2011, as a part of a series we were doing at that time on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Barmen Declaration. Dr. Smith, tell us what we're going to hear from our friend, Dr. Earl Palmer. Robert Smith Jr: Telling the truth during a hard time, which he bases this sermon upon Acts 14, verse 8 and following. His sermonic format, his process of taking us through the sermon is a portrayal of the legacy and ministry of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, in relationship to the ministry of the German Confessing Church in their declaration at Barmen in 1934 and the identity and the foundation of that ministry, which is biblically based and biblically saturated. It's very important that he expresses that Paul and Barnabas at Lystra have a mistaken identity and that Barnabas is considered Zeus, and Paul is considered Hermes. According to Palmer, which he makes a great statement and insight, they could have had an advantage evangelistically in a healing ministry if they would have allowed those individuals in that area to go by their mistaken identity. They could have launched a health and wealth ministry, etc., but it would not have been based upon the word of God in scripture, and therefore would not have had God's blessing. He challenges us to have a correct identity and to have our ministry based upon the word of God, for it will endure. He takes and weaves this story and these episodes in Acts 14 by explaining the text, illustrating the text, applying the text, which is what we've done all of these years. He walks through the passage, and he gives a challenge to us today to take the identity that God has given us as ambassadors for Christ so that we can be evangelistically approved by God, and our ministry can flourish, because it's built on Christ Ascender. Timothy George: You know, Dr. Smith, Earl Palmer is deeply committed to expositional preaching of biblical texts, and we hear that in this sermon, but he's also very much in touch with contemporary literature, with themes that are present in great figures of 20th century literature, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, and here we see Bonhoeffer and Barth also entering into his sermon, so it's a deep dive into the Bible, but with contemporary relevance for our own time and the issues we face today. "Telling the Truth During a Hard Time", Earl Palmer preaching at Beeson Divinity School in 2011. Earl Palmer: St. Paul and Barnabas met each other at Jerusalem, actually, and then Paul was in trouble with people. They were frightened of him after his road to Damascus experience, and the church decided to send him back to Tarsus where he could kind of calm down. That's where he'd grown up, so he went there, and then an amazing thing happened at Antioch. Christians who were Jewish Christians came there, and they started sharing the good news about Jesus Christ with gentiles, with Greeks. The way it's put in Acts 11 is, "They preached the Lord Jesus." The Lord Jesus, what an interesting way to describe the gospel. And people at Antioch, that amazing, unlikely city, a city you wouldn't expect, a wild city, third largest city in the Roman Empire but extremely wild ... Did you know that Roman soldiers were not allowed to have duty in Antioch, because it had such a bad reputation? In that city, where the believers were first called "Christians", probably the Antiochians were making fun of them ... But you know, isn't it neat? It was a good handle. They called us Christians. That's all they talk about, is Jesus Christ all the time. And many people in Antioch, Greeks, became Christians. And then Barnabas came down from Jerusalem and saw that it was for real, and he said to himself, "Paul could fit in here", and so he goes up to Tarsus ... how grateful we are ... to get this young man Saul, brings him to Antioch, and it's interesting. For a year, it says, they taught. Paul's whole strategy is to teach. He teaches his way through error. He teaches the gospel. Wherever he goes, he teaches. He went to Ephesus, he taught two and a half years at Ephesus, in Tyrannus Hall. He teaches, that's his strategy, and he did at Antioch. Well, at any rate, after a while the people at Antioch said, "Let's send these fellows out and let them begin to share throughout the Mediterranean world." So they go to Cyprus, they go around. They go over the huge mountain range up into what is the province of Galatia, and they go and make a trip there. And an amazing thing happens on that trip. They come to a town, a city, called Lystra, and I want to read to you what happens in that town. They come to Lystra ... By the way, those people in Lystra are going to later get a letter from Paul. One of Paul's first letters will be written to the Christians in Lystra and the region around Lystra, and that's the Letter to the Galatians. So Paul came to like that group very much. Here's what happened. Verse 18, Chapter 14 of Acts: "Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was a cripple from birth, and he had never walked. He listened to Paul speaking. Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, said in a loud voice, 'Stand up on your feet,' and he sprang up and walked. When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the Laconian language," unfortunately, Paul was not ... he was very linguistically talented, but not in the Laconian language, so he and Barnabas don't understand what they're saying. You'll see that plays into this text, becomes important. In the Laconian language, the people began to shout and praise and sing. Here's what they said: "'The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.' Barnabas they called Zeus." You know, he's at the pantheon, at the very peak of all the Greek gods. The Romans, who had to borrow all their gods from the Greeks, called Zeus Jupiter. Barnabas must have been a big and impressive man, so "they called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes." That's the Greek god Hermes, who's always known as running around interpreting things for people. The Romans called him Mercury. I like that name. That's a good name for a god, always running around explaining everything, and that's why some of you are taking Hermeneutics here to learn how to interpret and explain things. Because that's what Paul was. He was a teacher, always explaining things. "And so they called Barnabas Zeus, and they called Paul Hermes. And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in the front of the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifices with the people. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it," and they realized what was happening ... See, at first they didn't know the Laconian language, so they, "Oh, isn't this wonderful, this cheering? Thank you guys. Thanks a lot. This is so exciting." And then when they realized that they were treating them as gods, they did what Jews do. It's kind of an odd thing, but they tore their clothes. I'm not sure the Greeks would understand that, but that's a Jewish tradition. When you're upset and really grieving, you tear your clothes. So "they tore their clothes, and then they ran into the crowd," and ... I love what they say when they ran into the crowd ... "They tore their garments, they rushed in among the multitudes, crying, 'Men, why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? We are men of like nature like you, and we bring you good news.'" Now they're going to try to teach through this error. "We bring you good news, that you should turn from vain things, empty things, and serve the living God." Don't worship us, in other words. Don't worship vain things. This is not true. We're not gods. We're not Zeus, and we're certainly not Mercury. We are not these Gods, so don't worship us. "Turn to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that's in it." And then they continue in teaching: "In past generations God allowed all the nations to walk in their own way, yet he did not leave himself without witness," that almost sounds like the early chapter of Romans that Paul will write, "for he did good and gave you from heaven rain and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and kindness," showing the kindness of God's creation. And they were probably then going on from that point to share about the gift of Jesus Christ and his life among us. "And with these words, they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifices to them." But then the crowd shifted. Notice they clear the air. The crowd should have been happy about that. Paul and Barnabas cleared the air. It's kind of nice to know that we have a god in front of us or we don't have a god in front of us. Now, we don't have a god in front of us. We don't have these guys. They're not gods. So they cleared the air, but you know, the crowd didn't like that. It's a funny thing about crowds. You know, crowds love to be fans, and we're all a little bit voyeuristic, and we are fans of people who are heroic. And we pick these heroes, and we love them, and we cheer them until they disappoint us. It's a very interesting thing about crowds ... it's happened at rock concerts, it's happened at lots of places ... that a crowd loves to cheer their hero until the hero disappoints them, like maybe cuts the show short. Judy Garland was on a tour of Australia once, and the crowd loved her. And then in the middle of the concert, before she could sing "Over the Rainbow" and all her great signature songs, she took ill backstage. The crowd waited and waited and waited. When too many came in for the second half, and then they announced, "Miss Garland got sick, and we have to cancel the concert," and the crowd rioted. A few moments before, they're cheering Judy Garland. Now they had to get a police escort to get her out, to rescue her from an angry crowd. That very thing happened at Lystra. Notice, at Lystra, some people came, "Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and they persuaded the people against Paul at that point, and they stoned Paul." Here's one of Paul's close calls with death. They stoned him. A few moments ago, they were cheering him and calling him Mercury, calling him Hermes. Now they're stoning him. And they stoned Paul because he was a teacher, that's why they stoned him, probably, "and they were dragging him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. And the disciples gathered around him." I love this picture of the disciples, like Secret Service. You know, the Secret Service always fall on the president to take the bullet, to take the rocks. They form a star around the president, and the Secret Service play that role, that they're going to take the bullet, and they fall on him. And I think that's what happened to Paul. Paul is being dragged, and the Christians surrounded him, gave their backs to the rock throwers, and they got Paul out and rescued him, saved his life. By the way, do you know that in two chapters, Paul comes back to Lystra? And when he comes back to Lystra two chapters later, the beginning of Chapter 16, and he finds a young man there whose mother is Jewish and his father was Greek, and the young man was maybe one of those young men who put his back to the crowd. And that young man is Timothy, who will then go with Paul for the rest of his career. I wonder, if you wrote a novel ... Here's a great novel to write, the novel about Paul and Timothy, and I would put that scene in there. Imagine it. Maybe he was one of the young men that surrounded Paul, rescued him, and then two chapters later, early Chapter 16, he comes back to Lystra. Paul loves the people at Lystra. He goes there again. But notice this. They stir up the crowd, they stone him, the Christians gather around him, "he rose up then and got out of the city, then the next day he went with Barnabas to Derbe." Derbe is just a little ways away. And then they preach the gospel in that city. "They made many disciples," and now notice the next line: "And then they returned to Lystra," and continued to teach in Lystra and encourage the Christians in Lystra. Quite a guy, huh? That's teaching the truth in a hard place. Hey, but I want to ask you, has it ever occurred to you that for a few moments these two men are at a very important crossroads? If they had not been so definite in clearing the air with that crowd, and letting the crowd know that they were not gods ... by the way, this can happen to a pastor too, and the people maybe think you're a god. There's a moment of truth, and you better play that correctly, because they have a few moments there. They have a few moments, and have you thought about that? They didn't know at first what the people were saying in the Laconian language, and then when it finally dawns on them, they're praising Paul and Barnabas. And there is a few moments, it seems to me, where they're at a crossroads. If they had not been so definite in clearing the air, they could have used that mistake, couldn't they, at Lystra to their advantage? Maybe they could use it even to their evangelistic advantage, at least for a while, until a hard-working newsman does some research and says, "You know, we've done some research, and this guy is decidedly not Zeus, and he's decidedly not Mercury." But for a while, until that word would be out, they could use that. The crowd, even the priest of the Zeus temple wants to honor them, and they could use that to their advantage. I wonder about that. It's almost like you have a resume that you write when you want to get a job. Be careful what you put in the resume. There was one coach, very famous coach who's had a career at Notre Dame University for about two weeks until some newsman read his resume, and in the resume he said that he had been in the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. And when the journalist looked into it, found out that the guy was not even in the Army, and was not in Vietnam at all. And he lost his job at Notre Dame in two weeks. Notre Dame didn't want him around after that, because he had put that false piece of information in his resume. Well, here's some false information that's being put into the resume of Paul and Barnabas. These guys are gods. That will help them evangelistically tremendously. They could have a health and wealth gospel on the basis of the healing they did and the fact that now they're gods. And they could win people with their cult of personality. And there is a moment of truth when they could do that. Can I tell you about a bad dream I had? This is the honest truth. This is a bad dream. Do you know that a couple of years ago, well, several years ago, Whitworth University gave me an honorary doctorate, a DD. It's in this resume. I didn't even realize it would be in my resume. If you're impressed with this resume, I'm going to tell you about it. I got an honorary DD at Whitworth. And then, to make it even better, two years ago Seattle Pacific University, which I love, in Seattle gave me a Doctor of Humane Letters, so I have two doctorates, and I received those. I don't have a PhD. I'm just a working pastor. That's why I don't go "Dr. Earl Palmer." I'm just Reverend Palmer. But I got those two doctorates, and I was very thrilled to get those two doctorates. It was a great honor, until I had a very bad dream ... actually, a year ago I had a very bad dream, about nine months after I got the second honorary doctorate. It was the dream that I was at the University of Washington Medical School, and that everybody thought I was a surgeon. This is a terrible dream. Have any of you had a similar dream? That they thought I was a surgeon, and I was not only just a surgeon, orthopedic surgeon, and I was to do a surgery, and I didn't know what to do. In my dream, I was going to the library at the University, just desperately reading a book on surgery, and then looking at all the instruments and figuring out what ones you use first. And then I was doing the washing in the washing area. Now, that I had seen enough movies to know how doctors wash, so I was washing and getting ready for surgery in my dream. It was a terrible nightmare, and then I woke up, thankfully, and no one got killed or anything in my dream, because I woke up. But I thought to myself, "Wow, they thought I was a doctor. I'm not a doctor. I have two honorary degrees." And I told that story at Washington, D.C. last year, and a man came up to me afterward who is a PhD in English Literature, and he said, "You told that, and just last week I was on an airplane. I was on an airplane flying to Cincinnati or somewhere, and the flight attendant came up to me and said, 'Dr. Warren,'" his name is Warren ... It's a true story ... "came up and said, 'Dr. Warren, would you come with us? We have someone who's quite ill here at the back of the plane.'" And he said, "Oh no, no, I have a PhD in literature, I'm a PhD in Literature." And she said, "I don't care. Would you come please?" And the flight attendant would not let him off the hook, and he had to go back there and look at this patient. And he said, "I'll tell you, from then on, with United Airlines I'm never going to list myself as 'Dr. Warren'. I'm going to just be Mr. Warren from now on, because that was a terrifying experience, to be under false colors." But it does give you an advantage for a while, doesn't it, if people think you're an MD when you're not, or they think you have this doctorate, and it's not real? Or that you were a Vietnam War veteran gives you tremendous clout with the guys. You can tell war stories and everything, unless you didn't go there and somebody finds out. And then it all backfires. The reason I'm telling you this is I think in 1934, the German Evangelical Church faced a crisis not too different from that which Paul and Barnabas faced. They were at a crisis of definition, a crisis that was happening in the church, in the German Evangelical Church, of which they were a part, the great Lutheran Church of Germany. And they were facing a terrible crisis in figuring out who we are, because in 1932, a group of Germans formed a faith movement called the German Christians, which really took over, politically, a great part of the life of the church. And in June 6, 1932, the German Christian Movement was born, and it had some terrible things in their articles of faith. One, their Article 7 is, "We see race, folk, and nation as orders of existence, granted and entrusted to us by God, and they're God's law for us, and therefore we look to the preservation of these orders of folk. And therefore we are determined to keep our German race pure. We want an evangelical church that's rooted in our nationhood. We repudiate the spirit of Christian world leadership." And they came out against Freemasonry. I don't know why they got the Masons in on that. And they also made it very clear they didn't want any ... in the nefarious Aryan paragraph, "We didn't want anyone who was of Jewish background to be ordained in any way into the life of the church, even if they converted to Christianity. They should not. We should not have a mission to the Jews." This is all in that German Christian Movement, 1932, and the Christians of Germany that saw this right in front of their eyes, and then saw a Third Reich folk dream and a folk philosophy beginning to take over and defining who we are. Now what do we do with that? If we go with that definition, we'll have a lot of potential success, because rallies will be cheered on by the Hitler Youth, and all will be instructed to come to our rallies. We'll have advantage in our evangelism if we buy in to this description, this new description of ourselves, which is interesting. When the folks met at Barmen, they called it an alien description. An alien description. It's not out of scripture. It's not out of the confessions of faith. It's not out of our heritage. They called it alien. In fact, they called it "errors that are devastating the church today." And when they came together, they realized they were being defined as Christians by an alien criteria. It's almost exactly what happened to Paul and Barnabas. They're being defined right in front of their eyes, as if they were gods, Zeus and Hermes. They're not. If they go with that, they'll have a certain advantage for a while, and if the Christians would go with the way the German folk dream quasi-theology of the German Christian Movement, they'll have an advantage for a while. And a group of Christians met in Barmen, Germany in 1934, and you know the story. We're going to spend three days looking at that story. You're spending this whole semester, this whole quarter, looking at that amazing moment, when a group of Christians, lay and clergy, and not just Lutherans, also from the Reformed Church and other Christian fellowships, they came together and they decided that they had to define themselves. They had to define who they were, and find out what is the source of our meaning and the source of who we are? And then they had to do one more thing. After they define who we are, like Paul and Barnabas, who rushed into the crowd and say, "We're just ordinary human beings. We're not gods. We are under the text. We are under the revelation that God has given in the Old Testament in the law and the prophets and in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's where we get our identity." And so they first decide who we are, and then they decide to teach their way through that error. They go back to Lystra to teach. They have the terrifying persecution, but then they are determined to teach. This happened in the Confessing Church Movement in Germany, where they were determined to try to teach the faith ... that's the Finkenwalde school that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a part of ... to teach the young confessing pastors the truth, to teach them the gospel. And so they realized that first they had to make a statement of faith. They had to first affirm what is center. Tomorrow we're going to look especially at that Article 1 and Article 2. We read Article 1 together here today. It occurs to me that what the Barmen Declaration did in Article 1 and 2 is very much what St. Paul did in every city he went to. Have you ever thought of what was it that Paul preached? What was the preaching of St. Paul? So that it would be described by Luke as, "They preached the Lord Jesus." They told them about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. What did they teach? It seems to me they taught the life of Christ. They pointed to who is Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and took the people on a journey through, through that marvelous good news that sets us free. It sets us free, so that we don't have to be anything but what we really are, those sinners who have discovered that grace. And the rest is history. Well, the rest is history for Paul too. They went back to Lystra. He continues to carry on his ministry. He goes to Philippi and shares with the Philippian jailer. He shares with Lydia by the ... Again, I like the way Luke puts it, "The Lord opened Lydia's heart to receive the good news about Jesus Christ," and she became the first convert in Europe. And then he went to Thessalonica, and then he went to Athens. He preached on Mars Hill and preached the good news about Jesus Christ. Then to Corinth, then to Ephesus, two and a half years there, and then to Jerusalem. Then gets arrested and is stuck for two years incognito. Then goes by ship to Malta on a prison ship, preaches even in Malta and starts a Christian fellowship there. And then finally in Rome, and then in Rome he writes letters from the prison. That's Paul teaching his way through, teaching the good news, teaching who Jesus Christ is. Heavenly Father, thank you for this. Thank you for this legacy, this good legacy we have, that we see it at Lystra, we saw it at Antioch, we see it in the ministry of St. Paul, and we see it in our own century in the ministry of confessing Christians in Germany who dared to teach their way in the midst of error, in the midst of danger, and to point to the good news of Jesus Christ. Lord, help us to see the texts that they used, and how those wonderful texts give life. May we experience that same life. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Announcer: You've been listening to the Beeson Podcast, with host Timothy George. You can subscribe to the Beeson Podcast at our website, BeesonDivinity.com. 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