30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
02 Acts 14 08-20 THE MINISTRY AT LYSTRA 55 Acts 14 19 Dying with Christ
📖 Acts 14:08-20
2/55 – Mon, 15 Dec 2025 – *Dying with Christ*- _Acts 14:08-20_ – THE MINISTRY AT LYSTRA – _Colossians 03:03_
_Acts 14:19 Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, *supposing him to be dead*._
The people of Lystra stoned Paul, dragged him out of the city supposing him to be dead. In their minds they had killed Paul, ridding themselves and their city of evil.
What the people did to Paul was what he considered daily for himself. _I Corinthians 15:31 I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, *I die daily*. / _Galatians 2:20 *I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live*, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me._
When we come to Christ we die to ourselves. _Romans 6:3-5 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (4) Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) *For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection*,_
Unless we are united with Christ is the likeness of His death, how can we identify with Christ in His resurrection? Many people want to live a victorious life but we have not understood and applied this truth into our lives that *unless we die with Christ, we cannot live with Christ*.
This matter of dying with Christ leads us to understand the Gospel message consists of three parts – the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, which is represented by baptism. The Great Commission calls us to baptise people to make them disciples of Christ. _Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) *Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them* in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen._
The Gospel message consists of three parts. _I Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that *Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures*,_
What is it that must die within us, if we have to live with Christ, since this seems a paradox?
The self or flesh must die. The self in us is our soul. We were made to be living souls because we were subjected to the Spirit of God. _Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became *a living soul*._ (KJV)
*To remain alive as living souls we had to remain subjected to God.* This was one of the reasons for God commanding the man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. _Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."_
Adam and Eve ate the fruit which God commanded them not to but they don’t seem to have died. _Genesis 3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate._
Then what is the death that happened in man? Man died because he was no more a living soul. *We are now living in a state of death.* We are alienated from God who is the source of life. _Job 33:4 The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life._
*The self or flesh in us came alive and we died in our relationship with God.* We see the effect of the life of the self or the flesh. _Ephesians 2:1-3 And you He made alive, who were *dead in trespasses and sins*, (2) in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, (3) among whom also *we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind*, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others._
*This self or the flesh in us must die if we must live, for which Jesus came.* _II Corinthians 5:15 and He died for all, that *those who live should live no longer for themselves*, but for Him who died for them and rose again._
```Praise God that e die daily to the self in us.``` _Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God._