Acts 14


In Iconium

¹At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. ²But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. ³So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. ⁴The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. ⁵There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. ⁶But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, ⁷where they continued to preach the good news.

Acts 14:1-7

Explanation:

The First Missionary Journey (13:1--14:28)
The first missionary journey presents in microcosm all the main features of Paul's missionary call (9:15-16). Paul does indeed carry Christ's name "before the Gentiles and their kings" (14:27; 13:7-12, 46-48; 14:8-18) and "before the people of Israel" (13:14-41). He does suffer for that name (14:5, 19).



Witness at Iconium (14:1-7)

How often have we heard, "What happens in a politician's private life is his own affair; it only concerns the voters when it affects performance in office"? Yet often sexual or financial indiscretion means the ruin of political ambitions, no matter how cogent the political message. A message's truth is judged by the messenger's integrity.

Luke's narrative about the gospel's advance at Iconium sets side by side the Jewish persecutors and the Christian witnesses. By focusing on the courageous Christian witnesses, he helps us decide between the Jewish attacks on the gospel and that gospel's truth claims.

Believing Hearts Versus Poisoned Souls (14:1-2)

Expelled from Pisidian Antioch, Paul and his band travel eighty miles southeast on the Via Sebaste. They move across rolling country to Phrygian Iconium, also in the Roman province of Galatia. Iconium, which maintained its Hellenistic culture as a Greek city-state, was a prosperous commercial and agricultural center with five roads radiating from it.

The apostles go to the synagogue first (13:5, 14). In response to their speaking, a great number of Jews and Gentiles [believe]. Luke delights in portraying the effectiveness of preaching in quantitative terms (13:43, 44; 14:21) and the church in a growth mode (2:47; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 9:31; 11:21). This is certainly a challenge to church leaders in status quo or declining situations.

Unbelieving Jews, however, engage in counter evangelism. They stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. Literally they "made their souls evil against," pointing to an assault on the feelings not intellect. (The "soul" is that inward place of feeling that may be influenced by others.) The Gentiles, in turn, become hostile toward the missionaries (not all the Christian converts). As in physics every action spawns an equal and opposite reaction, so in the spiritual realm the proclamation of the truth will always encounter opposition (Lk 8:12).

Persevering Boldness (14:3)

Resuming the story line of the missionary journey's itinerary (13:51; see notes for 14:2-3), Luke highlights the persevering boldness of Paul and Barnabas's witness. Like Peter, John and "the Twelve" in the face of the Sanhedrin's threats (4:31), Paul and Barnabas speak openly the plain truth for--better "because of, relying on"--the Lord--that is, the Lord Jesus Christ (epi; Bauer, Gingrich and Danker 1979:287; Krodel 1986:252). Bold perseverance in the face of hostility is as much an evidence of the power of God as the great numbers who come to Christ (compare 4:8, 13).

The Lord, for his part, confirmed (literally "bearing witness to") "the word about his grace" through signs and wonders by the evangelists. Luke labels the gospel the message of his grace in order to show that the signs and wonders confirm the reality of the salvation blessings claimed by that word (see comment at 11:23; compare 4:33; 13:43).

Luke's presentation of signs and wonders here gives us criteria for judging claims today. Their true source must be God alone. They must occur at his initiative. Their fruit will not necessarily be an irresistible compulsion, so that all who witness and hear of them will believe. Rather, their true purpose and effect is "establishing the Gospel in its full and genuine authority" (Calvin 1966:3). Far from denigrating the verbal, cognitive appeal of the gospel in favor of the visual, experiential impact of miracle, Luke sees signs and wonders as confirming support to the gospel. These miracles at Iconium place the work of Paul and Barnabas in continuity with the mission of Jesus and "the Twelve" and bear witness to unbelieving Jews that the salvation blessings Israel experienced in the past and hoped for at the end of the age are now not only theirs but also the Gentiles' (2:22; 5:12; 15:12; Ex 7:3; Ps 135:9; Acts 2:19/Joel 2:30; Gal 3:4-5).

Final Rejection: Plotters Versus Apostles (14:4-7)

The city is divided. Taking advantage of the situation, Jews and Gentiles, together with their leaders, plot to mistreat and stone the missionaries. Their "plotting" manifests itself as uncontrolled irrational violence (horme; Lk 8:33; Acts 7:57; 19:29; compare Bertram 1967:470). The persecution is so fierce (Lk 18:32) that a mob intends to stone the missionaries (compare Diodorus Siculus Library of History 17.41.8).

Paul and Barnabas flee some eighteen and then sixty miles to the southeast, finding refuge in the Lycaonian Roman outposts of Lystra and Derbe. They act from prudence, not cowardice, for there they continued to preach the good news.

The gospel's opponents stirred up and poisoned souls against messengers of the truth, creating division and spawning a bloodthirsty plot of mob violence. The gospel messengers manifested evangelistic effectiveness, persevering boldness, miraculous divine confirmation, tactical prudence and persistence in witness. Whose message should Theophilus and we believe?

Acts 14


In Lystra and Derbe

⁸In Lystra there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. ⁹He listened to Paul as he was speaking. Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed ¹⁰and called out, "Stand up on your feet!" At that, the man jumped up and began to walk.
¹¹When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" ¹²Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. ¹³The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
¹⁴But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: ¹⁵"Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. ¹⁶In the past, he let all nations go their own way. ¹⁷Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." ¹⁸Even with these words, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from sacrificing to them.
¹⁹Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. ²⁰But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

Acts 14:8-20

Explanation:

Witness at Lystra (14:8-20)

It is increasingly obvious that we live in a religiously pluralistic society. Star athletes in Western nations have Islamic names; a Hindu worship center may be across the road from our church. The challenge is not that our neighbors are not Christians but that they are often adherents of a non-Christian cult or religion. How can we begin to witness to them? Luke gives us one strategy in his narrative of Paul's first proclamation to a completely pagan Gentile audience.

God's Power Displayed (14:8-10)

At Lystra, a fortified Roman frontier outpost eighteen miles south-southwest of Iconium, Paul is preaching the gospel to people of the local ethnic groups. Luke tells us that a man crippled from birth is sitting (possibly as a beggar), hears Paul's message and has faith to be made whole. To describe the man's aspirations Luke uses a term that is part of a word group he also uses to describe salvation; thus he links the healing that is about to take place with the salvation Paul has been proclaiming (13:26). The miracle will picture the completeness of restoration brought by God's salvation in Christ.

Paul fixes his attention on the man and sees that faith is present. So he calls out a command that is a creative word. The crippled man, showing faith by his obedience, leaps up and begins to walk. The healing is instantaneous and complete (compare 3:7-8).

Should miraculous deeds be an essential part of a contemporary strategy for approaching adherents to non-Christian religions? John Wimber's initial articulation of "power evangelism" would answer with an emphatic yes. His analysis of the Acts account of the early church's mission concludes, "Rarely was church growth attributed to preaching alone. . . . [Signs and wonders] were the catalyst to evangelism" (1986:118). Others would limit the working of signs and wonders to the apostolic age.

Luke takes a middle position that gives exclusive support to neither of these options. While Luke gives no evidence that miraculous gifts will necessarily cease with the close of the apostolic age, he does not present them as essential to the church's advance. When miraculous deeds and gospel proclamation occur together, proclamation is primary. During the first missionary journey, proclamation accomplishes God's saving purposes apart from miraculous deeds at Pisidian Antioch and Derbe. Jesus teaches that miraculous deeds, even his resurrection, in and of themselves cannot produce faith (Lk 16:27-31; 24:25-27). Indeed, they may be misinterpreted. Proclamation--the proper interpretation--is needed to declare the source and purpose of miraculous deeds. What miraculous deeds do accomplish is to manifest the divine power of God's Word and to authorize the preacher. Just as Paul, through spiritual discernment and Spirit-impelled command, was the means for the crippled man's restoration, so today God can choose to accompany the faithful preaching of his Word with miraculous deeds, especially in cultural contexts in which Satan's control is most evident.

God's Power Misinterpreted (14:11-13)

The crowd's response to the miracle shows both total excitement and total lack of comprehension. They cry out in Lycaonian, their heart language, that the gods Zeus and Hermes have come in human form. They repeatedly address Paul and Barnabas with divine homage. This is not surprising, for Ovid the Roman poet relates a legend of a previous visitation by Zeus and Hermes to the Phrygian region. They came in human form and inquired at one thousand homes, but none showed them hospitality. Only a poor elderly couple, Baucis and Philemon, took them in. The pair were rewarded by being spared when the gods flooded the valley and destroyed its inhabitants. The couple's shack was transformed into a marble-pillared, gold-roofed temple, and they became its priests.

The crowd's reaction to Paul and Barnabas, then, is understandable. They want to avoid punishment and garner any blessings that the gods may desire to dispense. They see Zeus, the weather god, and Hermes his messenger as the providers of fruitful harvests.

The crowd's response clearly illustrates the problem of communication to people with a non-Christian background. Unless the Holy Spirit opens their hearts and minds to receive and understand the gospel message as true, they will continue to interpret it and any miraculous manifestations in the only way they know how, in terms of their non-Christian religious beliefs and values. From one angle, this reinterpretation process simply is a communication problem. But from another angle, if the reinterpretation persists, it becomes syncretistic, permitting other worldviews to maintain themselves over against Christian truth claims.

God's Power Proclaimed (14:14-18)

Paul and Barnabas react with intense disgust. In Jewish fashion they show their revulsion at this blasphemous false worship by tearing their clothes. They rush out into the crowd, insisting that the worship stop.

Paul's speech begins with an attack on idolatry. His initial question, Men, why are you doing this? assumes that there is common ground between his audience and himself--that they can join him in his negative evaluation of idolatrous practices. He points out the miracle worker is not worthy of worship, since he is a human being like they. He identifies idols as worthless things that his preaching has called them to turn from. Idols are worthless, empty, indeed deceitful, because they do not produce the effect they promise (compare Jer 2:5).

Paul next proclaims the one true living God, the Creator of all that is. He is the true source of the miraculously benevolent. Later Paul says the supply of rain that makes the ground fruitful, providing human beings with abundance of food and gladness of heart, is the ongoing witness that the living God, not Zeus and Hermes, exists. Such arguments occur throughout the Scriptures (Ps 147:8; 104:13-15; Jer 14:22; Mt 5:45). Paul also implies the moral consequences of not recognizing the living Creator as God. Paul's call to conversion and his explanation of God's permissive will in allowing all nations to go their own way assume human accountability. He is explaining why in every past generation God did not act in judgment as he did in Noah's generation.

Paul's speech models elements that must be included in any strategy of effective witness to adherents of a non-Christian religion. We must assume common ground with the person, our humanity. We are both made in the image of God with an ability to reason and evaluate experience. We must have a flexibility of approach in presenting the gospel. We must be familiar enough with the person's religious beliefs to know what they are substituting for the one true God and his ways. We must correct them, but just as important, we must figure out how the gospel is "good news" so we may tell them how to truly fulfill their religious aspirations. Finally, we must witness with urgency, making the person aware of the consequences. Since we are all accountable before God, our dialogue with non-Christians is not a simple exchange of religious opinions but a discussion of life-and-death issues.

The Mission Advances Through Suffering (14:19-20)

Disgruntled by Paul and Barnabas's rejection of their worship, a crowd, incited to riot by Jews from Antioch and Iconium, stones Paul. They drag him out of the city, discarding what they think is a corpse.

Paul's suffering issues in a quiet victory. Lystran believers gather around him. He gets up, reenters the city and the next day proceeds to Derbe to preach there. Victory is manifest in his recovery, as instantaneous as the cripple's healing, and in his freedom of movement.

This last scene teaches us that being an instrument of God's saving blessing to others, even of miraculous workings, is no guarantee that we will be immune from persecution, including physical suffering.

Acts 14


The Return to Antioch in Syria

²¹They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, ²²strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. ²³Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. ²⁴After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, ²⁵and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
²⁶From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. ²⁷On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. ²⁸And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.

Acts 14:21-28

Explanation:

Witness at Derbe and the Return Trip (14:21-28)

The ruins of ancient religious temples, whether in the Peruvian highlands or the Cambodian jungle, are mute testimony to the assertion "A religious faith is always one generation from extinction." What can guard Christianity from extinction? Paul's example, at the end of the first missionary journey, of strengthening the just-planted churches through confirmation, consolidation and communication shows us the way.

Confirmation (14:21-22)

In the eastern provincial border town of Derbe (Lycaonian for "juniper tree"), sixty miles east of Lystra, Paul and Barnabas preached the good news. They make many disciples and evidently face no opposition (compare 2 Tim 3:11).

Afterward, instead of moving straight east to Tarsus, a straight shot of 150 miles, Paul and Barnabas decide to retrace their steps. As will become Paul's practice (see comment at Acts 15:36), the apostle will maintain contact with the churches he has planted, providing ongoing counsel and encouragement. Though Paul focused on church planting (1 Cor 3:6), the goal of his labors was to "present everyone perfect in Christ" to the Lord at his coming (Col 1:28; Rom 15:16; 1 Thess 2:17-20). So today, an evangelist or church planter who does not make provision for discipleship is like a farmer who harvests well only to see the crop spoil because it is not properly stored.

Paul's purpose is "to strengthen the souls of the disciples." He wants the new Christians to become "more firm and unchanging in attitude or belief" (Louw and Nida 1988:1:678). They have known persecution and will know the pressure of Judaizers' attempts to turn them from the "faith way" (Gal 1:6-7; 3:1-3; 6:12-13). Paul commands them to remain true to the faith (literally, "remain in"; compare Acts 11:23; 13:43). As it was Christ's divinely appointed destiny (dei) "to suffer these things and then enter his glory" (Lk 24:26), so his followers must [dei] go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22; compare Rom 8:17; Phil 3:10-11; Col 1:24). Many hardships are to be expected as a normal, indeed necessary, part of the Christian life. For Luke, they mainly come in the form of persecution (Acts 5:41; 11:19; 20:23). We must endure through them if we would hope to enter the kingdom of God, experience the full enjoyment of salvation blessings either at death (2 Tim 4:18) or at Christ's return. And today, if authentic Christianity is to be propagated and survive, it will be because we have said no to any "gospel" that promises glory without the suffering, and yes to the way of the cross, which leads to a crown.

Consolidation (14:23-25)

Paul and Barnabas combine encouragement with provision of a leadership structure. They appoint elders for each church.

We need to be careful not to use this passage alone to build a whole theology of leadership selection, complete with policies and procedures. When Luke is more expansive on these matters, he shows the congregation as having a role in leadership selection, as the post apostolic church did (Didache 15:1; compare Ignatius Letter to Polycarp 7.2). Acts 14:23 does teach us that there may be circumstances, especially in the life of a newly planted church under threat of persecution and false teaching, where missionary appointment of leaders is the wisest course.

The swiftness of these appointments has bothered some church-planting strategists (compare 1 Tim 5:22). But if the core of the membership came from the synagogue, they had sufficient biblical and theological background to permit rapid spiritual maturation. Further, "perhaps Paul and Barnabas were more conscious of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the believing communities" than we are today (Bruce 1988:280).

Paul and Barnabas, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord. This shows us that eldership was a spiritual ministry of the most vital kind (compare Acts 13:1-3; 20:28; 1 Tim 4:14; 5:17). Their teaching, spiritual governance and exercise of discipline could be undertaken only with the same total dependence on the Lord that characterized their abiding belief in him for salvation (compare Acts 20:28-32). Indeed, Paul and Barnabas place these elders "on deposit with the Lord" (paratithemi; 20:32; compare 2 Tim 1:12, 14). Such leadership will take the church into the next spiritual generation.

Paul and Barnabas make their way southward through wild, mountainous Pisidia to the fruitful alluvial plain of Pamphylia to preach at Perga, a major Greek city near the coast (compare 13:13). Departing from the port city Attalia, eight miles southwest, they sailed for Syrian Antioch and their sending church.

Communication (14:26-28)

As will become his custom (18:22), Paul reports fully to the church at his home base, Antioch. As Luke makes clear, God is truly the hero of the first missionary journey. Only because the Antioch church had . . . committed Paul and Barnabas to the grace of God (compare 13:3) have they been able to complete the journey. As Everett F. Harrison observes, the missionaries have carried out their task to the "full limits of possibility" (1986:238; compare Rom 15:19; Col 4:17). What they report to the gathered church is all that God had done through them--better, "for them" (see comment at Acts 15:4). The phrasing emphasizes their awareness of God's presence and his saving work throughout the mission (11:21; 15:4; compare 1 Cor 3:9). Finally, it was God who opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. This image captures what the first missionary journey was all about (Acts 9:15-16; 13:1-3). God did swing wide open to the Gentiles the door of faith, giving access to salvation by faith (Lk 13:24-25; Acts 13:38-39; 13:12, 43, 46-48; 14:1, 23). The church will survive to the next generation when it maintains this kind of fruitful communication between the just-planted church and the sending church.