27th Mar 26 | 16:08
Studies by Book
02 Acts 14 08-20 THE MINISTRY AT LYSTRA 32 Acts 14 15-17 One body in Christ
📖 Acts 14:08-20
32 – Sat, 22 Nov 2025 – *One body in Christ*- _Acts 14:08-20_ – THE MINISTRY AT LYSTRA – _Colossians 03:10-15_
_Acts 14:15-17 and saying, "Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the *same nature* as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, (16) who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. (17) Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."_
Barnabas and Paul told the crowd that they were of the same nature as them, except that they were now having a new nature in Christ. The old nature of man is the nature of death. God told Adam that the day he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. _Romans 6:23 For *the wages of sin is death*, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord._
We have considered two dimensions of death. First is our alienation from God. The second death that we looked at is the law of sin and death that has now settled into our flesh. These are situations from which we have no hope of being brought back to life. This is the reason Jesus came to bring us from death to life. _Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,_
Let us go further into understanding other dimensions of death.
Sin within us caused us to be hostile to one another.
_James 4:1-2 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? (2) You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask._ / _Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, (21) envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God._
When God created us, They created us in their unity and oneness. _Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "*Let Us* make man *in Our* image, according to *Our likeness*; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."_
The unity within the Trinity was given to us in creation. *We were to work together in love* to bring the dominion of God over creation. Each of us has a special gift and role, and *we need each other. We cannot fulfil the purpose of God without submitting to one another. _Ephesians 5:21 submitting to one another in the fear of God._
*We must see the good in others and encourage that quality to develop so that we, together, fulfil the purpose of God, which is dominion over God’s creation.* _Philippians 2:3-5 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind *let each esteem others better than himself*. (4) Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (5) Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,_
This alienation from one another, which is loud and clear among us, is healed through the cross. _Ephesians 2:14-16 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, (15) having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, *so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace*, (16) and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby *putting to death the enmity*._ / _Colossians 1:20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross._
Through faith in Jesus, we are once again made to be one.
_Colossians 3:10-15 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, (11) where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. (12) Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; (13) bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (14) But *above all these things put on love*, which is the bond of perfection. (15) And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful._
This passage gives a beautiful description of how the church ought to be.
As Barnabas and Paul told the crowd at Lystra that they were of the same nature as them, they were also simultaneously leading them to faith in Jesus, by which they would truly have a new nature.