Acts 14

     The same pattern as had begun in Pisidian Antioch continued, with local variations, in the other cities the apostles visited.

     14:3.  Signs and wonders were granted as God’s witness to the truth of new revelation, and were the signs of a true apostle (cf. 2 Cor.12:12).

     14:6.  They did not put the Lord their God to the test (Mt.4:7; cf.Mt.10:23).

     14:8-18.  The Jews were far advanced over the Gentiles in their understanding of the true God.  They would never have made the mistake which the people of Lystra made, who had been allowed by God to go the way of their own perverted imaginations (16).  Yet the evidence of the true God was all around them (17), and now through the preaching of the gospel of Christ, they could be reconciled to their Creator just as the Jews could.  Yet the Jews, with such superior knowledge, were so blinded by the pride of that knowledge that they were often more blind to the one thing they yet lacked than were the Gentiles.  Pride and presumption are the great stumbling stones of privilege (cf. Ro.9:30-32).

     14:19-28,  After Paul’s stoning, and being perhaps miraculously spared, they completed their circuit, and after revisiting and strengthening the churches, returned to their home base at Antioch (Syrian Antioch).

     14:23.  John Calvin (Inst.4:3:15) has this to say about this verse and the manner or means by which Paul appointed the presbyters (elders).  He translates the verse–“presbyters elected by show of hands in every church.”  An editor’s note backs up this translation, saying that one of the meanings of the Greek word in question is ” ‘to elect by show of hands,’ a common procedure in Greek polis.”  The editor cites two Greek-English lexicons for this, Liddell and Scott, and Arndt and Gingrich.

     To continue further quoting Calvin in his comments as to how the apostles appointed elders: “…these two apostles “created” them, but the whole group, as was the custom of the Greek elections, declared who it wished to have by raising hands.  In like manner, the Roman historians frequently say that the consul who convened the assemblies “created” new magistrates for no other reason than that he received the votes and acted as moderator of the people in the election.”  John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Westminster Press, 1960, p.1066.

     This is an important issue.  The people have a right to elect their own pastors, both teaching and ruling elders.  Representative government and democratic elections had a long history in western civilization long before the Christian church began.  To allow a self-appointed hierarchy to rule over the church is worse than unchristian.  It is even retrograde for what was best in the heathen cultures the church first engaged.  There is one King and Head of the church.  Those who lord it over the people usurp not only their rights, but also the crown rights of Jesus Christ.