#BibleStudy. Expressions of Faith. Acts Ch 12. Not Your Cookie-cutter Travelogue

⁶ But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, ⁷ where they continued to preach the gospel.

 Acts 14:6-7

Most of Chapter 14 reads like an unusual travelogue.

• Traditionally called Paul’s First Missionary Journey, the bulk of Chapter 14 is where and what happened to Paul and Barnabas when they were a team.
• The trip took two or three years, so what and where are significant.

What’s important for Christians to focus on is how God works through the duo in cities decidedly non-Hebrew in customs or people.

• In verse 10, Paul commands a crippled man to stand.
• The man, lame from birth, does that.
• Paul doesn’t use Jesus’ name in this miracle.
• However, verse 9 reports the man was listening as Paul preached.

Pagan citizens in Lystra decide that Barnabas is Zeus and Paul is Hermes. 

• There was a fable about a time when that city lost favor with the gods because they did not recognize Zeus and Hermes when they visited. The townspeople were determined not to make that mistake again.

Paul and Barnabas refuse their sacrificial offerings.

• Troublemakers from Antioch arrive and turn the people of Lystra against Paul.
• Paul is stoned and left for dead.
• The threat of being stoned is usually enough to deter most people from continuing the behaviors that lead to execution.
• Few survived stoning.
• Paul survives.

He and Barnabas travel about 60 miles to Derbe.

  

 They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening 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. 

Vv. 21-22

What’s the worst persecution you’ve faced as a Christian?

How did you react?

 

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