This chapter continues the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas. John Mark started out with them, but turned back when they arrived in Perga. Success among the Gentiles brought persecution from the Jews, and the missionaries fled from Pisidian Antioch to Iconium. Here we learn of the rest of their ministry in Asia Minor, and we accompany them back to Antioch as they retrace their steps. Let’s take a look.
1) V1-7 – 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.
Luke records the usual method of Paul and Barnabas as they came to a new city. But again the division among the Jews caused trouble for the evangelists and the synagogue congregations. It is unlikely that Jerusalem or Antioch leadership realized that this problem would arise, especially so quickly. Paul was conscious of his calling to evangelize Gentiles, but he saw the God-fearing Gentiles in the Jewish synagogues as those providentially prepared to be a bridge to wider Gentile audiences. Though it was virtually impossible to evangelize Gentiles without offending Jews, in this setting, Paul saw his ministry as indirectly serving to expedite Jewish salvation as well (Romans 9-11; Deuteronomy 32:21; Hosea 1:9). F.F. Bruce says, “It was as natural for God-fearing Gentiles to embrace the blessings of the gospel on these terms [salvation by grace through faith apart from the law] as it was for Jews to decline them on these terms.”
2) V8-18 – 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.
Forced out of Iconium by Jewish dissenters, Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra, a Roman colony like Pisidian Antioch. Timothy was likely converted from Judaism to Christianity here, along with his mother and grandmother (Acts 16:1), but Luke’s emphasis is on the conflict with pagans that Paul and Barnabas experienced. They healed a crippled man, the pagans were so amazed that they began to worship Paul as Hermes (the talker) and Barnabas as Zeus (the one in charge). Paul’s speech to them (unintelligent pagans, opposed to the later intellectual pagans in Athens) in Acts 14:15-17 was ineffective (Acts 17; Jonah 1:9), and they still tried to worship Paul and Barnabas with sacrifices.
3) V19-28 – 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. 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.
The Jews who had come following Paul and Barnabas from Pisidian Antioch and Iconium incited the pagans against them, and Paul was nearly stoned to death (2 Corinthians 11:25); however, he persevered and the next day left Lystra for Derbe. After making converts in Derbe, 60 miles southeast from Lystra, Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps, encouraging the young congregations and appointing elders (v23).
Paul and Barnabas left Antioch in the spring of 44 AD. They were gone for about two-and-a-half years. V26-28 say that Paul and Barnabas, upon their return, stayed in Antioch “a long time with the disciples,” which probably means from the fall of 46 until the summer of 49 AD, another two-and-a-half years. Syrian Antioch had become a mother church, and the Jerusalem church had mixed feelings about that. Gentiles, unlike Jews, were not generally moral people, so conforming them to Jesus’ teachings would be difficult. Barnabas and Paul continued their evangelical efforts, but Jerusalem leaders could not continue with theirs, as persecution against them had kicked into high gear under Herod Agrippa’s short reign. James, the brother of John, was executed and Peter would have been had he not miraculously escaped prison (Acts 12). Even after Agrippa’s death in 44 AD, Jewish Zealots began persecuting – often by means of terrorism – anyone who was suspected of siding with Romans (and that included those engaged in Gentile proselytizing, the very bridge-building that was deemed acceptable by the Jewish Christian church leadership).
The simple solution for the Jerusalem church to maintain authority as the true mother church was to demand circumcision from Gentile converts. Theologically, this enforcement would have made the converts more significantly conform to Jewish, and now Christian, moral standards; it would have likely kept any half-hearted converts from making that extensive leap to prove their faith; and perhaps equally important, from a political perspective, it would have appeased the Zealots and saved themselves from their persecution. But what of the already-converted Gentiles in Antioch and Galatia? It came to a head when, around that time, some Jerusalem Jews came to Antioch teaching that Gentiles must be circumcised in order to be saved (Acts 15:1,5). Paul and Barnabas disputed this teaching, and they and other church members went to Jerusalem to discuss the issue with the church leaders (Acts 15; possibly Galatians 2:1-14), which is what we will learn about in the next chapter.
Footnotes
- 14:23 Or Barnabas ordained elders; or Barnabas had elders elected
Bible text from Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.