Acts 14

Acts 14
by Pastor Mark Hudson

Acts 14 concludes the first missionary journey.  This first trip is rather short, beginning in chapter 13 with the call from the church in Antioch and concluding at the end of chapter 14 with a report to the church in vs. 27-28.  We are witnessing sustained incursions or outreach into Gentile lands.  The Jerusalem church (and the Jewish temple) have been left behind. Antioch is where the disciples leave from and return.   These missionary trips, as we call them, are important since Luke is teaching us through these efforts.  This is theologized history not a mere narration of the facts. You will notice the practice is to go the Jew first, and then the Gentiles (Rom. 1:16; 2:9-10).  So, for that reason and since there is no church in these areas, where else would Paul and Barnabas go?

As we see so often, there is both belief (v. 1) and unbelief, even violent unbelief (v. 2, 5, 19) in response to the gospel. It always has been that way and always will.  There will always be opposition to the gospel, but we can imagine that Paul kept thinking of his previous violence against the church and how patient God had been with him.  I imagine Paul had hope for everyone knowing that even the most violent person opposing the gospel could be called by God to be born again and serve Him. If you look at vs. 3 and 7 and compare those two verses with verses 3-5, you observe this tension that surrounds the gospel.  Opposition is on all sides, yet the gospel continues to thrive.

In verse 8, a man is described as ”crippled from birth and had never walked.”  Paul notices him, somehow perceiving that he “had faith to be made well” (v. 9) told him to stand up and he did.  What happens next could not be predicted.  The people shout in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men.”  You ought to know there was a legend that is found in Ovid’s work Metamorphoses that 50 years prior Zeus and Hermes visited Phrygia disguised as mere men.  Looking for hospitality, there were denied 1,000 times. Finally, a poor older couple: Philemon and Baucis entertained them.  The gods rewarded them but, by a flood, destroyed those who did not extend hospitality.  So, this may be the background for how the Lycaonians respond.

As the people come toward Paul and Barnabas the apostles do not understand what is happening since they are speaking in a language Paul and Barnabas do not understand.   But when Paul and Barnabas do understand, they react in horror by tearing their garments and plead with them to leave these vain things and “turn from these things to a living God” (v. 15).  So, their first reaction is to worship these two as gods.  Verse 18 concludes this section with this sad comment, “Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.”  The next verse, after Jews from Antioch and Iconium come, these very same people who wanted to worship Paul, now stone Paul, and leave him for dead.  Either Paul is a god or the devil.  One minute they want to worship him; the next minute they stone him.

Verse 20 is not insignificant.  The disciples are almost mourning his death and Paul gets up and where does he go?   He goes back to Lystra.  Back to the town where he was stoned.  How did Paul live through that stoning?  Stoning is not throwing small stones at someone 10 feet away.  Stoning is picking up rocks that are almost too heavy to pick up and dropping that rock on someone.  The person being stoned presumably covered their head and eventually died by blunt force trauma.  Paul is left for dead probably because he was no longer moving and covered in blood.  This Paul was a courageous man.  Imagine seeing someone you thought was dead from stoning getting up and walking away.  The next day Paul and Barnabas go to Derbe.  Can you imagine walking or riding an animal the next day after getting left for dead from stoning?

Paul and Barnabas preach at Derbe and made “many disciples” and then return to Lystra and Iconium.  Can you imagine listening to Paul “saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” and looking at his bruises on his face, arms, and a possible limp?  Paul was not begging anyone to be a Christian, yet he invited all to believe.  Reflect that this is how the church grew in the first century and how it still grows in many parts of the world.  Suffering is not hypothetical like it is for most of us in North America.  Suffering for one’s Christian faith for many believers around the world is a normal and expected part of their Christian experience.  We, on the other hand, do not really understand Paul’s exhortation in v. 22.  If Paul spoke at our churches with his bloodied face and bruises, we would probably be inclined to take him aside and direct him to less violent areas.

In verses 23 Paul and Barnabas are not satisfied with conversions but want a church in every city they visited.   The gospel converts and bring new life to individuals, but the gospel always forms new communities.  Paul and Barnabas were church planters not just evangelists.  They “appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they believed.”  How well they knew these elders, exactly how they choose them, what training Paul and Barnabas provided, and a host of other questions are not important to Luke.  Luke does stress the fact that elders were appointed and the care in choosing these elders.

Finally, we see the apostles returning to Antioch where they “gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” in v. 27.  When a missionary visits us, we invite our membership to listen.  Do you think of this verse when you are invited or think of what you would rather be doing?  Do you think it matters if you show up?  It does to the missionary.

Lord, thank you for Luke’s condensed version of this missionary journey.  In many ways their experience seems so distant to us.  And yet, Christians for the last 2,000 years keep reading, teaching, and preaching on Acts gaining insight and encouragement.  Correct our thinking on our church, Christian life, and outreach through this book.  May our souls be strengthened (v. 22) by Your grace.  May our churches experience renewal and awakening by Your Spirit.  Start with us.  Start in our hearts.   In Christ’s powerful name.  Amen.