That Word Above All Earthly Powers: The Book of ActsGrace Community Church Sunday SchoolActs 14

Iconium: The Pattern Repeats (14:1-7).

Iconium is almost 100 miles southeast of Pisidian Antioch, located today in Turkey’s fourth-largest town, Konya.1 They enter the synagogue on the Sabbath, “as usual,” Luke says, and preached the gospel there as well as to the Gentiles in the city (presumably during the rest of the week).

Their preaching was so empowered by the Holy Spirit that “a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed” (14:1 CSB). Like Antioch, a considerable number of people heard the Gospel and believed.

To reiterate a point made earlier in our study of Acts, notice how Luke can refer only to their faith as their response to the Gospel. This is not indicating that repentance and baptism are missing, but that they are assumed to be part and parcel with faith.

Also like Antioch, there is a hostile Jewish contingent in Iconium that militates against Paul, Barnabas, and the newly reborn believers. Their attacks focused on the Gentiles so that they “poisoned their minds against the brothers” (14:2 CSB).

Luke doesn’t tell us the motivation behind this resistance to the Gospel here. It’s possible that these Jews are moved by jealousy like their Antiochene counterparts. It’s possible these Jews view Paul’s message as a betrayal of their Hebrew heritage. It’s possible they’re just offended at the fact that Paul and Barnabas are preaching that they too are sinners who need forgiveness, just like all these Gentiles.

Whatever it is, they launch a campaign to sway the public in general and Gentiles in particular against Paul and Barnabas and the Church—the “brothers” (14:2). Notice how, in a single word, Luke conveys such a staggering and magnficent truth: Jews and Gentiles are no longer separated, but brought together in Jesus to be brothers. Jew and Gentile alike are children of Abraham by faith. Perhaps this was the offense that stuck in the craw of the Jews; these people were willing to call filthy Gentiles sons of Abraham!

Unlike Antioch, Paul and Barnabas “stayed there a long time” (14:3). During that time, “they spoke boldly for the Lord, who testified to the message of his grace by enabling them to do signs and wonders” (14:3 CSB).2

In Antioch, their departure was itself a message: by rejecting the Gospel of Jesus, Jews are acting more like pagan Gentiles; by accepting the Gospel of Jesus, the Gentiles are acting more like true Israelites.

Here, Paul and Barnabas choose to stay in Iconium. Perhaps they see the frailty of these believers’ faith and recognize that bold preaching against the Jews’ hostility can bolster them in their walk with the Lord.3 This seems to be the case as well, because Jesus “testified to the message of his grace by enabling them to do signs and wonders” (14:3 CSB). These baby believers’ faith was reinforced by the miracles

1 Nearly one hundred miles south-east of Pisidian Antioch, commanding the broad plateau which lies between the Taurus and the Sultan mountain ranges and which is well watered by their rivers, is situated the very old city of Iconium, which today is Turkey’s fourth largest town of Konya (Stott, KL 4071-4073). Iconium, modern Konya, lay on the Roman road about 90 miles (145 km) east of Antioch in the same area of the province of Galatia (the old district of Phrygia) (Marshall, 233, italics original).2 Meanwhile, Paul and Barnabas decided that in view of the hostility they must spend some time in the town, and they continued to witness boldly in dependence on the power of God. Their verbal testimony was confirmed by God who enabled them to do miraculous signs and wonders, just as the apostles had done in Jerusalem (5:12) (Marshall, 233, italics original).3 In fact the difficulty of the text seems to arise from Luke’s desire to emphasize that it was precisely because of the rise of opposition that the missionaries felt they must stay as long as possible to consolidate the infant Christian community, and departed only when they were absolutely forced to do so (Marshall, 232-233).

and signs that Paul and Barnabas did; Jesus validated these two as His spokesmen and validated their message as His own by the miracles.

We see again the purpose of signs and miracles is to be a means to an end, not an end in themselves. This is as clear a statement of the purpose of miracles as you can find: they support and point to the supremacy of the Word of Jesus.4 These miracles are not and cannot be separated from the message being preached. The Word itself is sufficient, but Jesus shows His tenderness and kindness to these believers by giving them gracious proofs of His Word.5

Whether it’s actual miracles or just answered prayers, I’m completely convinced that Jesus does this still today. I’ve seen it too many times to just label it “coincidence.” One example in particular that stands out to me is a prayer to move the clouds so the moon would come out one night.

Early on, Ellie learned that God was Almighty, and one of the things only the Almighty could do was move the clouds. One night on the way home, the moon was covered up by the clouds, and she has always loved looking at Luna.

We prayed for God to move the clouds so we could see Luna as we exited off of Skyhawk Parkway onto Highway 45. By the time we got off the exit, the clouds opened up and a bright, beautiful full moon shone on us like a spotlight. Coincidence? Sure, in that God’s delight in loving His children coincided with their prayers for something simple for Him to do, and that coincided with their wonder and gratitude for it. In that sense, it was absolutely a coincidence.

We have to remind ourselves over and over and over again that God is not a begrudging miser with the blessings of His kindness and joy. He’s not R. Lee Ermey screaming at us to get our acts together (using some hair-curling language in the process). He’s kind and gracious and compassionate, remembering that we are dust (as Psalm 103 says).

We can also be thankful that God is not as impatient with us as we are with others.

Iconium is split between the two factions: those who sided with the Jews and those who sided with “the apostles”6 (14:4 CSB).

This is the only passage where Luke refers to Paul as an apostle, a fact which is somewhat surprising in view of the emphasis that Paul himself lays on his status as an apostle (Marshall, 233).

The opposing faction was made up of both Jews and Gentiles—those whose minds were poisoned against them—who instigated a plot to “mistreat and stone” (14:5) Paul and Barnabas.7 The plan was discovered, and they fled to Lystra and Derbe and the region of Lycaonia. And there, they picked up where they left off and started preaching the gospel again.

4 The whole of verse 3 is reminiscent of Hebrews 2:3f. where the activity of God in confirming the message by miraculous signs is also described (Marshall, 233).5 So, undeterred by this propaganda, and even (it is implied) because of it, Paul and Barnabas stayed on and spent considerable time there, correcting the false witness and bearing a true one, speaking boldly for the Lord, or, more accurately, ‘in reliance on the Lord’ (epi, NEB), who confirmed the message of his grace, ‘a noble definition of the gospel’, by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders (3). Once again we notice the close association between words and signs, the latter confirming the former. As Calvin commented, ‘God hardly ever allows them (sc. miracles) to be detached from his Word.’ Their ‘true use’ is ‘the establishing of the Gospel in its full and genuine authority’ (Stott, KL 4079-4085, italics original).6 The use of the term apostles (14:4 note) is perhaps meant to stress the role of Barnabas and Paul as mere messengers of God (Marshall, 237-238, italics original).7 Slander against the missionaries deteriorated into planned violence. There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, that is, ‘with the connivance of the city authorities’ (NEB, JB), not only to ill-treat them (hybrizo implies insult and humiliation) but actually to stone them (5) (Stott, KL 4094-4098, italics original).

Neither town had a large population or lay on an important trade route, and the local Lycaonians were largely uneducated, even illiterate. Ramsay could even describe Lystra as a ‘quiet backwater’. Perhaps they were temporary refuges to which they ‘fled’ (6 and 19–20). At all events, here they continued to preach the good news (7), for nothing could silence them (Stott, KL 4100-4103, italics original).

The pattern of Pauline missions is beginning to establish itself. Paul enters a city, preaches at the synagogue (if there is one), many are converted, but the unbelievers stir up slander and violence against Paul and his companions. They eventually move on to another city or region, where it all starts over again.8 No matter where they are or what is schemed against them, they keep on preaching the gospel.

Lystra: Paganism Refuted (14:8-20).

Lystra was a backwater podunk in terms of the Roman Empire9, and yet it has a particular significance in Acts (and thus Christian history): this is the first recorded instance of missionary work in a town with no mention made of a synagogue or Jewish population.10 Here Luke recounts “the response of pure heathens to the gospel” (Marshall, 235).

There in Lystra was a man who had been lame from birth. Luke emphasizes the extent of his immobility with three variations of the same theme (so I’m in good company for repeating myself!): “without strength in his feet, had never walked, and had been lame from birth” (14:8 CSB).

Wherever it was that Paul happened to be preaching, this man was there—either because Paul came close to him, or because someone brought him along. Given how small a community Lystra seems to have been, either option seems plausible. In any case, this man heard Paul’s preaching about Jesus and believed that Jesus could heal him.11 Paul “look[ed] directly at him” and saw “that he had faith to be healed”12; Paul then loudly told the man, “Stand up on your feet!” The man who “had never walked” (14:8) “jumped up and began to walk around” (14:10 CSB).

This is the third of a trilogy of healings in Luke-Acts that are remarkably similar. We’ve already seen the healing of Aeneas in 9:32-35 as parallel to that of the paralyzed man lowered through the roof (Mark 2, Luke 5:18ff). There, we saw that the emphasis was on the fact that Peter was doing exactly what Jesus did. The same is true here.13 Jesus is teaching and healing through Paul.

There is also a parallel to the healing of the lame man in chapter 3, particularly when Luke uses the phrases “lame from birth” and “looked directly at him” in both instances. This parallel emphasizes the continuity between Peter and Paul; both men are empowered by the Spirit of the same Lord, and the miracles are validating that the message is the same for both men.14

8 The situation in 13:50 thus repeated itself, and it was when the city authorities began to connive at persecution that the missionaries felt they could no longer stay. They departed from the area of Phrygia into Lycaonia, and made their way to Lystra, some 18 miles (29 km) distant, and then to Derbe, some 55 miles (89 km) further. And still they preached the gospel, despite the setback they had received (Marshall, 234, italics original).9 Lystra lay 18 miles (29 km) south-south-west of Iconium; it was an insignificant village which had been made into a Roman colony in 6 BC, as part of a scheme for defence against local warlike tribes (Marshall, 236, italics original).10 The significance of the story of what happened at Lystra is that here for the first time in Acts the Christian missionaries came to a town where there was apparently no synagogue, or at least no mention is made of it (Marshall, 234).11 The effect of the preaching was now seen in the way in which a lame man, presumably a beggar, whose malady had been lifelong, responded to the message by believing that he could be healed; this suggests that the message included some reference to the healing ministry of Jesus (Marshall, 236).12 When Paul saw him and recognized his faith, he responded by a command that was at the same time a divine enabling to him to jump up and begin to walk (cf. 3:8) (Marshall, 236).13 …a healing miracle (which has parallels with Luke 5:18–26; Acts 3:1–10; 9:32–35, showing that Paul has the same powers as Jesus and Peter)… (Marshall, 235).14 Luke evidently sees the dramatic healing of this man as a counterpart to the healing of the congenital cripple in Jerusalem (3:1ff.), since several expressions in the two stories are identical (e.g. lame from birth and looked directly at him). But in Jerusalem Peter was

The response of the crowd is unlike any of the previous responses, however. Here we see Luke’s (and ultimately, the Holy Spirit’s) comedic touch come through, much as it did in chapter 12. The people began excitedly discussing in their own language15 (as opposed to Greek, which Paul and Barnabas would have been using and easily understood) that this must be Advent, because Zeus and Hermes have come incarnate! Barnabas had to have been Zeus, and Paul had to be Hermes, since he was the big talker. The local priest brought some bulls and wreaths to the city gates to offer sacrifice to these presumed Olympians among them.

The people are reacting this way because of a local legend recorded by the Latin poet Ovid in Metamorphoses where Jupiter (Zeus) and Mercury (Hermes) disguised themselves as mortals and visited this very region.16 John Stott elaborates,

About fifty years previously the Latin poet Ovid had narrated in his Metamorphoses an ancient local legend. The supreme god Jupiter (Zeus to the Greeks) and his son Mercury (Hermes) once visited the hill country of Phrygia, disguised as mortal men. In their incognito they sought hospitality but were rebuffed a thousand times. At last, however, they were offered lodging in a tiny cottage, thatched with straw and reeds from the marsh. Here lived an elderly peasant couple called Philemon and Baucis, who entertained them out of their poverty. Later the gods rewarded them, but destroyed by flood the homes which would not take then in. It is reasonable to suppose both that the Lystran people knew this story about their neighbourhood and that, if the gods were to revisit their district, they were anxious not to suffer the same fate as the inhospitable Phrygians. Apart from the literary evidence in Ovid, two inscriptions and a stone altar have been discovered near Lystra, which indicate that Zeus and Hermes were worshipped together as local patron deities (Stott, KL 4110-4117).

They were going to make sure not to repeat history17, so they made all the preparations for a blowout of a celebration with sacrificial bulls (which meant roasted beef for everybody) and wreaths (and who knows what else would have happened in their festivities).

By now, Paul and Barnabas have figured out that the response to their preaching isn’t repentance and faith; apparently somebody finally explains in Greek what’s going on. Paul and Barnabas “tore their robes when they heard this and rushed into the crowd, shouting” (14:14 CSB).

As with Rhoda leaving Peter outside knocking until his knuckles were raw, here Paul and Barnabas face a response to their preaching that’s exactly the opposite of what they’re going for. The people essentially ignore the content of Paul’s message and assume that because he has power, he and Barnabas must be Zeus and Hermes. Rather than preaching them out of idolatry, the people dig in deeper!

Here, the humor serves an important purpose: Paul isn’t doing anything differently in Lystra than he did in Antioch or Iconium. In fact, in Iconium he was doing miracles like this one. The people respond differently, and this is not a reflection on Paul. I wonder if this became a staple fireside story for Paul in later years, one of the tales guaranteed for a laugh.

There are sermons that you think are home runs that are total duds, and the ones you think are total duds can end up being home runs. The same thing applies to spiritual talks with your kids or in children’s

the agent of the divine healing; here it is Paul. The reaction of the crowd is different too (Stott, KL 4106-4108).15 The crowds, consisting of local people, believed that Barnabas and Paul must be gods who had come to visit them, and decided that they must be honoured. The fact that the missionaries did not recognize what was in store for them is explained by the comment that the people spoke in their own native language which the missionaries did not understand (Marshall, 236).16 A legend that Zeus and Hermes had visited this region was preserved in a Latin poem by Ovid, who gives the gods their Roman names of Jupiter and Mercury (cf. AV, RV): they were entertained by an aged couple, Philemon and Baucis, who were unaware of the identity of their guests. It is not surprising, therefore, that archaeological evidence of the cult of the two gods side by side dating from c. AD 250 has been found near Lystra (Marshall, 237).17 If the local people had failed to honour the gods as gods on their previous visit, they were anxious not to repeat the error (Marshall, 237).

classes here or in sharing the gospel somewhere. Praise God the Spirit is not hindered by either our competence or incompetence!

As in Acts 12, there’s an implied warning here, even amid all the humor. It’s all too easy to force the truth into something completely unrecognizable because of what we want to hear and want to believe and want to do and want to want. The Lystrans were blinded by this legend, and it may have cost many their souls.

We have to be careful that we don’t contort or corrupt the message of the Bible into something unrecognizable within its pages. Do we present the Bible as something only white male Republicans can and should hold to? Do we present the Bible as an American phenomenon? Do we pick and choose the parts of the Bible we want to emphasize at the cost of the parts that make us uncomfortable? Do we miss the forest of the whole Bible for the trees of nitpicking particular passages?

So Paul and Barnabas – who if they are anything in the pagan world are missionaries on behalf of the One True God, the God of Abraham, the God of Jewish monotheism who stands over against all pagan idols and declares that they are a load of empty nonsense – this Paul and Barnabas are not only faced with the full show of pagan worship, but they are themselves identified with the very gods they have come to debunk! It is remarkable what can happen to a message when the hearers insist on inserting it firmly into their own worldview ...One of the things this passage highlights is the almost bottomless pit of potential misunderstandings that await anyone who tries to speak, and live out, the essentially Jewish message of the gospel, with its remarkable news of the one true creator God. There are so many barriers in the way, so much anger against the way the world is (often with people simultaneously blaming God for all the bad and declaring that they don’t believe in him), so much distortion of what the message is, through bad teaching, or bad experience of church or synagogue (Wright, 29, 31).

Paul pleads with them to stop this nonsense, using a message that has a striking similarity to what he will preach to the Athenians in chapter 17.18

Notice how Paul appeals to these Gentiles differently than he appeals to the Jews in the synagogues. He can’t appeal to a shared heritage or history because there is none. But he can and does appeal to the testimony of creation and the continued blessing of God in sending rain and fruitful harvests and times of joy.19 Any goodness we have at all is enough to point us to the need to worship and be reconciled to the God who gave it.20

Notice also that each point of Paul’s appeals are found within Scripture, even if he doesn’t explicitly cite book, chapter, and verse.

“turn from these worthless things”: Isaiah 2 refers to false gods as elilim, a pun on the word elohim. elilim means “nothings”; Isaiah’s pun is that “your elohim are elilim”21

18 The very brief speech-summary which follows differs considerably from the earlier sermons in Acts delivered to Jews (or God-fearers) who already believed in Yahweh and needed to be told about the coming of Jesus as the Messiah. With a pagan audience it was necessary to begin a stage further back with the proclamation of the one true God. The speech is thus most closely related to Paul’s address to the Athenian philosophers (17:22–31) which treats the same theme on a more sophisticated level, as befitted an educated and cultured audience. Luke’s account of the preaching at Lystra is confined to this aspect of the message; his readers could draw on their knowledge of the earlier sermons to provide what Paul was likely to have said in addition (Marshall, 238).19 The sending of rain and the cycle of the seasons which cause crops to ripen meant that men were able to feed themselves and so have hearts filled with joy. The world of nature should thus have led men to recognize the existence, power and goodness of the Creator (Marshall, 239, italics original).20 There is one God, and he made the lot. He is responsible for all the good things in the world, and if you don’t see that then you are guilty of ingratitude to one who loves you and cares for you. Crops and good weather, seedtime and harvest, are all signs of the goodness and love of this one true God (Wright, 30).21 These vain things is a way of describing idols found in the Old Testament (Jer. 2:5), and the verb turn is used of conversion in 3:19 and elsewhere. In particular, the language here is remarkably close to 1 Thessalonians 1:9, which describes how the Thessalonian Christians had ‘turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God’, and shows that here we have the typical phraseology used to describe the conversion of Gentiles (Marshall, 238, italics original).

“the living God who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them”“The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD; for he laid its foundations on the seas and established it on the rivers” (Psalm 24:1 CSB)

“When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place” (Psalm 8:3 CSB)

“The heavens were made by the word of the LORD, and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth…For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded, and it came into existence” (Psalm 33:6,9 CSB)

“in past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own way”: “Though all the peoples each walk in the name of their gods, we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever” (Micah 4:5 CSB).

“although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy”

“For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45 CSB).

“He causes grass to grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, producing food from the earth, wine that makes human hearts glad—making his face shine with oil—and bread that sustains human hearts” (Psalm 104:14-15 CSB).

The essential point for us is this: Paul is able to speak in a thoroughly, robustly scriptural way without citing chapter and verse. There’s nothing wrong with citing chapter and verse, but that’s not a necessary component of being biblical. Paul’s mind is so saturated with the Scriptures that he just talks “bibley”.

When it serves the cause of the Gospel, Paul and Peter can say “as Moses says” or “as it says in the prophets” or “as David prophesied.”

In this case, the people of Lystra would likely have never heard of Moses or David or the prophets. Citing them as authorities doesn’t gain purchase in their hearts or minds, so Paul expresses the truths found in them in a compelling way without the references themselves being stumbling blocks.

Although what Luke includes is only a very brief abstract of Paul’s sermon, it is of great importance as his only recorded address to illiterate pagans. It invites comparison with his sermon to religious and educated Jews in the synagogue at Pisidian Antioch, which is the only other one that Luke chronicles during the first missionary journey. One can but admire the flexibility of Paul’s evangelistic approach. I do not doubt that wherever he went his message included the good news of Jesus Christ, which does not change. This must be what Luke means when he says that the missionaries preached ‘the word of God’, the ‘message of salvation’ (13:26), ‘the message of his grace’ (14:3) or ‘the good news’ (or ‘the gospel’). Nevertheless, although the substance of his message was invariable, he varied his approach and emphasis (Stott, KL 4124-4131).

This passage (verses 15–18) is totally unlike what Paul said in the synagogue at Antioch, for the very good reason that there he was addressing devout and potentially suspicious Jews and here he was addressing, in haste and under pressure, devout and very muddled pagans (Wright, 30).

Verse 18 makes clear that Paul went on to preach, so the combination of their earlier preaching with what they continued made the Gospel message clear to the Lystrans, who were still eager to worship them as gods.22

The zealotry of the Jewish hatred of Paul and Barnabas is proven by their willingness to travel those same hundred miles so they could finish what they started in their own towns. They “won over the crowds” and “stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead” (14:19 CSB).

How badly do you have to hate someone or what they believe to walk or ride 100 miles to kill them? People are certainly capable or murder; I don’t question that. I certainly am. But I’m also fairly lazy. One hundred miles is way too much effort. If you’re that far away from me, we’re probably not going to rub shoulders anyway.

The animosity toward Paul and Barnabas is irrational and inexplicable in terms of merely human foolishness. We see the militant hatred of Satan at work here, vainly flailing to land any blows he can while on his way down.

This helps explain and temper our expectations for living in the world. On the one hand, it explains why the world is so shocked, SHOCKED that Christian bakers refuse to make cakes celebrating homosexual ceremonies. It explains why the Christian sexual ethic in general is so widely mocked. It explains why Christians are easy targets for any kind of slander and mockery in our country today. People walked 100 miles to kill Paul. We’re not living in unusual times.

But it also helps temper our reactions. Thus far, all we reasonably expect to face in America is slander and mockery. In a few cases, loss of job or income (which is significant, to be sure). Thus far, people are celebrating the thought of murdering us in the streets with impunity. Persecution is persecution, even if it’s a lesser degree. But we do well to keep in mind that brothers and sisters around the world are in far worse situations than we can reasonably expect to find ourselves today.

The change in the crowd’s temperament is remarkable: they move from sacrificing to Paul and Barnabas as Olympians incarnate to murderous rage. How do you get there in such a relatively short period of time?

If these people aren’t Zeus and Hermes, who on earth are they? They must be imposters! At this point, Luke tells us, some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, still righteously indignant at the message which flew in the face of their traditions – just at the point when Paul and Barnabas have been explaining that the message flies in the face of the pagan traditions as well. The result is inevitable: violence. What is remarkable is that Paul survived it (Wright, 29).

It's completely possible that Paul felt more agony in the stoning than the mere physical wounds he endured; he likely remembered watching Stephen’s murder and understood the horror of such an end and marveled at the grace he showed in it.23

The frenzy wore off, and Paul was left for dead. Paul wisely played dead, letting them think they had accomplished their task. There’s no reason to think a miraculous resuscitation happened here; Paul just played possum until they left. Then he got up and went back into the city, reunited with Barnabas, and left for Derbe the next day. This is the stoning Paul referred to in his harrowing list of suffering in 2 Corinthians 11.24

22 In fact, the rest of the speech indicates that a continuation in terms of the distinctively Christian gospel must have followed… What Paul said was sufficient to restrain the crowds from their original intention of sacrificing to the missionaries, but only just; their superstition was deeply entrenched, and the miracle had made a strong impression on them (Marshall, 239).23 The stoning which had been plotted in Iconium (5) took place now in Lystra. It was not a judicial execution, but a lynching. As the stones were hurled at him, did Paul remember Stephen, and even pray Stephen’s prayer? This must have been the occasion to which he was later to refer, ‘Once I was stoned’ (Stott, KL 4144-4146).24 In any case the historicity of the incident is beyond question; we need not doubt that this is the event to which Paul himself referred in 2 Corinthians 11:24f., and further references to it are probably to be found in Galatians 6:17 and 2 Timothy 3:11. The story does not suggest that Paul actually died and came to life again, although some have been attracted to this inference; but Luke’s

‘I bear on my body the marks of Jesus,’ he was soon to write to the Galatians; was he thinking of the wounds he had received in Lystra? (Stott, KL 4154-4155).

Derbe was about 60 miles south of Iconium.25 Paul undertakes a sixty-mile journey the day after nearly being stoned to death. Luke doesn’t indicate their pace, but there’s an incredible determination and equipping by the Spirit for Paul not to hang ‘em up at this point.

Like Jesus, Paul remained unmoved. His steadfastness of character was upset neither by flattery nor by opposition (Stott, KL 4161-4162).

The journey of the gospel from Jerusalem ‘to the ends of the earth’ (1.8) is unstoppable, but uncomfortable. That comes with the territory (Wright, 31).

Back Home: Planting and Reporting (14:21-28).

Paul and Barnabas preach the Gospel in Derbe, winning many to the Lord there. This is a remarkably brief summary of what seems to be a remarkably successful mission.26

Derbe became the easternmost point of this first missionary journey; from there, they retraced their steps, visiting the believers in Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch on their way back to Syrian Antioch from which they originally departed.27

This seems to be a prime example of the proverb about thin lines between bravery and stupidity. In each of these towns, large mobs actively tried to kill them. This danger proved no obstacle to Paul and Barnabas because of their confidence in the Spirit’s guiding and their dedication to seeing vibrant churches grow in Galatia.28

We can see several valuable principles about missions from the decision to return by the way they came.First of all, we can see the importance of a continued investment in missions. Paul evangelized, planted churches, and then saw to the spiritual growth and health of those believers and churches whom he had birthed into the Kingdom.29 One of the ways we intend to put this into practice here is our focus on supporting missions and ministries that train and edify local, indigenous pastors. We’re not opposed to foreign missions, of course, but we want to follow Paul’s example by building up local pastors to serve in local churches.

Second, we see that danger is not inherently prohibitive to pursuing a mission. Paul loved Jesus and His Church more than himself, and he was willing to go back to towns at the risk of his own life for the sake

manner of expression, supposing that he was dead, and his failure to provide any positive indications to the contrary, indicate that there is no question of a miraculous resurrection here (Marshall, 239-240, italics original).25 The site of Derbe, formerly identified as Gudelisin about 60 miles (97 km) south of Konya (Iconium), has now been identified as Kerti Huyuk, about 60 miles (97 km) south-east of Konya; inscriptional evidence found on the site establishes the identity (Marshall, 240).26 All Luke tells us about the mission in Derbe is that the missionaries preached the good news there and won a large number of disciples (Stott, KL 4163-4164, italics original).27 Then they retraced their steps, revisiting (in spite of the danger) the same three Galatian cities which they had evangelized on their outward journey— Lystra, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch (21) (Stott, KL 4165-4166).28 Derbe marked the easternmost extremity of the missionary tour, lying as it did on the east border of Galatia. After evangelism there the missionaries retraced their steps, despite the hostile atmosphere which they had left, in order to strengthen and encourage the groups of believers which they had established. In particular, they made sure that some kind of leadership was established in order to consolidate the groups for the future. They then returned direct by sea to Antioch, where they reported on their work to the church, the emphasis lying on the way in which God had led them into successful work among the Gentiles (Marshall, 240).29 Paul’s regular practice was to revisit the churches which he had founded, or at least to keep in touch with them by means of his colleagues or correspondence (Marshall, 241).

of building up local churches in the faith. Paul was practicing the very thing he preached to them: “It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (14:22 CSB).

Third, we see the priority placed upon local leadership. Paul and Barnabas “appointed elders for them in every church and prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (14:23 CSB). Paul’s evangelism was not divorced from his ecclesiology; his missions was always done in view of the Church. Here, so early in the life of the Church, we can clearly see the importance of the pastorate to each local body and the importance of a plurality of pastors in each local body. Paul made sure each church he planted had able leadership in place before he left.30 It was an apostolic priority to do so, and it should be ours, as well.31

Stott sums it up well: ‘Nothing can alter or disguise the fact that St Paul did leave behind him at his first visit complete Churches.’ Indeed, ‘in little more than ten years St Paul established the Church in four provinces of the Empire, Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia and Asia. Before AD 47 there were no Churches in these provinces; in AD 57 St Paul could speak as if his work there was done’ (Stott, KL 4185-4188).

The entire enterprise, the whole movement, everything about following Jesus from top to bottom, is built on the belief that Jesus is Lord over the church as well as the world, and that by his spirit he calls, he equips, he guides, he warns, he rebukes, he encourages. It’s his business. And that is what the laying on of hands, with prayer and fasting, actually signifies (Wright, 33).

The fact that Paul leaves also demonstrates that the true Lord of the Church is not any particular man, even an apostle. Jesus is the Lord of the Church. Paul can confidently remove himself from the churches because he has left them with the full apostolic deposit of truth (and will provide more in the written and preached word). He himself is nothing, and admittedly so; the apostolic faith is what leads us to Jesus, and that’s what matters.32

These are the reasons why Paul believed that the churches could confidently be left to manage their own affairs. They had the apostles to teach them (through ‘the faith’ and their letters), pastors to shepherd them, and the Holy Spirit to guide, protect and bless them. With this threefold provision (apostolic instruction, pastoral oversight and divine faithfulness) they would be safe (Stott, KL 4221-4224).

30 The missionaries appointed leaders in each church, here described as elders. This is the first reference to elders outside the church at Jerusalem; elsewhere we hear of them in the church at Ephesus (20:17), in the church order described in the Pastoral Epistles (1 Tim. 5:17; Titus 1:5), and in James (Jas 5:14) and 1 Peter (1 Pet. 5:1, 5) (Marshall, 241, italics original). The whole point about the laying on of hands, with fasting and prayer, is, as Luke says in verse 23, to ‘commend’, or ‘entrust’ them ‘to the Lord in whom they had come to believe’. Laying hands on people isn’t a way of grabbing control over them; it’s a way of relinquishing control, of declaring publicly that they are now responsible to the Lord himself for what they do… It is assumed that churches, even new and small ones, will need, and will have, local leadership, trained on the job (Wright, 34). We notice that it was both local and plural— local in that the elders were chosen from within the congregation, not imposed from without, and plural in that the familiar modern pattern of ‘one pastor one church’ was simply unknown. Instead, there was a pastoral team, which is likely to have included (depending on the size of the church) full-time and part-time ministers, paid and voluntary workers, presbyters, deacons and deaconesses (Stott, KL 4209-4212).31 Such references as 1 Corinthians 16:15f., Philippians 1:1 and 1 Thessalonians 5:12f. show that Paul was certainly concerned with local church leadership (Marshall, 241). In addition to encouraging the converts to remain true to the faith (22), Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them (23a), who would continue to teach them the faith. Then, just as the missionaries had been sent forth from Antioch with prayer and fasting, so with prayer and fasting the elders of the Galatian churches were committed … to the Lord (23b) (Stott, KL 4171-4174).32 Paul exhorted the church members to remain true to the faith (22), which they had received from him. A number of similar expressions are used in different parts of the New Testament to indicate that there was a recognizable body of doctrine, a cluster of central beliefs, which the apostles taught. Here it is called ‘the faith’, elsewhere ‘the tradition’, ‘the deposit’, ‘the teaching’, or ‘the truth’ (Stott, KL 4195-4198).

Then they traveled back to Pamphylia and Perga, and they sailed from Attalia back to Syrian Antioch, the place “where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed” (14:26 CSB). They met with the believers there and “reported everything God had done with them and that he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (14:27 CSB).

This part of the chapter may not seem as important as the rest, but it is. These verses show that the believers in Antioch who sent the missionaries are just as invested in the work as the boots on the ground. They share in the blessings just as much as Paul and Barnabas. Their role was different, but that doesn’t mean it was less or less important.

It was the Holy Spirit of God himself who told the church of Antioch to set Barnabas and Saul apart, who sent them out, who led them from place to place, and who gave power to their preaching, so that converts were made and churches planted. The sending church had committed them to the grace of God for their work (14:26), and on their return they reported ‘all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles’ (14:27). True, he had done the work ‘with them’ (literally), in co-operation or partnership with them, but he had done it, and they gave him the credit. The grace had come from him; the glory must go to him (Stott, KL 4263-4267).

Here they reported on their work to a meeting of the whole church: it was natural and right that the church which had sent them out as missionaries should welcome them back and receive a report on their activity; the keynote of the meeting was evidently praise to God, as the reports made it clear that he had opened up the opportunity for Gentiles to respond to the gospel (Marshall, 242).

After this homecoming and report, they “spent a considerable time with the disciples” (14:28 CSB). Stott notes that this first missionary journey would have spanned the better part of two years, so Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch for a proportionally long time. The implication is also that they would be sent out again (otherwise Luke would have said they settled down in Antioch).33

33 When we read finally that the missionaries stayed for some time with the disciples, the inference would seem to be that this stay would be merely temporary; before too long God would be calling them to fresh work. But first of all an important matter of principle had to be settled (Marshall, 242). They will have been away for the best part of two years. So they stayed there in Syrian Antioch a long time with the disciples (28) (Stott, KL 4182-4183).