¹⁵ 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,

Acts 14:15 NKJV

When Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra, Paul healed a crippled man by merely encouraging the man to stand to his feet. Yes, this was a miracle healing that similar to what Christ did; Paul was able to do by the gifts he received through the Holy Spirit. Scripture tells us that people began to loudly shout that Paul and Barnabas were the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes after witnessing the miracle to which both men cried out asking, “why are you doing these things?”

The people of Lystra worshiped idols and false gods. Both Paul and Barnabas were there to proclaim and minister the good news of the gospel of Christ to these very people because they needed to hear the gospel badly; the people of Lystra were ignorant of the gospel as they did not know about Christ nor the good news. Such ignorance of God, at one point in time, was overlooked by God as said in Acts 17:30-31. However, the Lord does not ignore such ignorance any longer because He has given His Word (the only begotten Son) to the world.

The word of God is widely available today in many forms of media around the world. Many know of God making the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that’s in them. In fact, I’d even say that many know of Christ – His death and resurrection. However, not so many accept what they have heard. There aren’t too many that can claim ignorance of the Lord today and God won’t let it be done any longer. So, this is why I will constantly encourage that if you know of the Lord but aren’t close to Him, today is a certainly a good time for you to draw nearer to Him. You certainly don’t want to be the one that goes before His throne one day and try to claim ignorance.