Acts 14

Acts 14:1

GALATIAN COUNTRYNow in chapter 14 Paul and Barnabas face the almost impenetrable paganism of Galatia. I personally believe that the Galatian field was the hardest mission field that Paul ever entered. You need only to read the Epistle to the Galatians to discover that. Galatians was the harshest epistle that Paul wrote. He wrote it to a group of people who had a spiritual bent in the wrong direction. They were constantly going off the track. He visited those churches more than any others. Let me give you this brief background of the Galatian country which Paul is entering on this first missionary journey. The people for whom the province was named were Gauls, a Celtic tribe from the same stock which inhabited France. In the fourth century A.D. they invaded the Roman Empire and sacked Rome. Later they crossed into Greece and captured Delphi in 280 A.D. At the invitation of Nikomedes I, king of Bithynia, they crossed over into Asia Minor to help him in a civil war. They were a warlike people and soon established themselves in Asia Minor.

In 189 A.D. they were made subjects of the Roman Empire and became a province. Their boundaries varied, and for many years they retained their customs and language. The churches which Paul established on this first missionary journey were included at one time in the territory of Galatia, so this is the name which Paul would normally give to these churches. The people were blond orientals. These Galtic Celts had much of the same temperament and characteristics of the majority of the American population, which came out of that same stock in Europe and the British Isles. Caesar had this to say of them: “The infirmity of the Gauls is that they are fickle in their resolves, fond of change, and not to be trusted.” Another writer of that period described them as “frank, impetuous, impressible, eminently intelligent, fond of show, but extremely inconstant, the fruit of excessive vanity.” Paul wrote them a very harsh letter because they needed that kind of letter. The majority of the people in the United States are like them. That is the reason so many cults and “isms” have begun in this country. We are a fickle people.

One day we follow one leader, and the next day we follow someone else. It is amazing to watch the polls of our political candidates. If they make one statement, one slip of the tongue, the entire population shifts from them to someone else. We are a fickle peoplevery much like the Galatians. All of this should make this section especially interesting to us. Martin Luther used the Epistle to the Galatians for the Reformation because it was written to folk who are like we are. THE WORK IN ICONIUMIf you follow the journey on a map, you will notice that they crossed over the length of the island of Cyprus, and then sailed to Perga in Pamphylia. Then they traveled up into the country of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. These are the cities of Galatia. So they are now in the heartland of Asia Minor.

Acts 14:2

Paul and Barnabas cause quite a division in the city. You must remember that Paul and Barnabas are both Jews. They always went to the Jews first and used the synagogue as a springboard to get to the Gentiles.

Acts 14:5

Because they didn’t get a very good reception in Iconium, they fled to Lystra and Derbe. However, we know that they came back through Iconium so there must have been some believers there.

Acts 14:8

THE EVENTS AT LYSTRAAs we have seen, Paul and Barnabas had the gifts of an apostle, the sign gifts. They came into these places without any New Testament with the message of the gospel. What were their credentials? How could they prove their message was from God? The sign gifts were their credentialsthey needed them. Today we have the entire Bible, and what it has to say. If only we could get people to do that! The other day I played golf with a very affable, generous, bighearted man. He is an unsaved man, and he told me very candidly that he was chasing around. Mutual friends had asked me to play with him. I attempted to talk with him about the gospel. He knew the facts of the gospel as well as I do. And you know something else?

He believed them. He said he believed that Jesus died and rose again, and he believed that if he put his trust in Jesus, He would save him. So I asked him why he didn’t do that. Then he began to mention names, names of certain men whose lives just didn’t measure up to their profession of faith. So I said to him, “For goodness sake get your eyes off men. In the first century the apostles performed miracles, and men got their eyes on the apostles.

So it was necessary to get their eyes off the apostles and turn them to the Book which presents the Lord Jesus Christ. You need to get your eyes on the Word of God and learn what God says today. He tells us that the important thing is our personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. All those other men you mention will not even enter into the picture when you stand before the Lord Jesus someday. The only question will be your personal relationship to Jesus Christ as it is revealed in the Word of God. Go to the Word of God.” I’ll be very frank with you; I didn’t really get very far with this man.

He did say that I had given him a new approach; he had never heard it that way before. He thought maybe he would try it. I encouraged him again to get his eyes off other Christians because we all have feet of clay. The people at Lystra were looking to Paul and Barnabas.

Acts 14:11

The man had real faith to be healed. When Paul told him to stand upright on his feet, he leaped and walked. Remember that the people in the area were pagan, heathen people. When they saw what Paul had done, they began to shout that the gods had come down in the likeness of men. Their eyes were on Paul and Barnabas. They were really excited about them.

Acts 14:12

Paul is the leader of the team, the chief speaker, and the people want to make them gods. They bring garlands and sacrifice and are ready to worship them. Fickle! Does it remind you of someone else? In America it is a baseball player one year, then a politician, then a football star, then another politician. By the following year they are all forgotten, and it is someone else new. It is the same way with the preachers. One can preach the Word of God, and everyone will acclaim him as a wonderful preacher. Then the next day they are ready to crucify him.

Acts 14:14

Paul and Barnabas are not only startled and amazed that these people want to worship them, but they are completely shocked. They rush in among them, shouting, “We are human beings like you are!” You will remember that Peter had to say the same thing to Cornelius when Cornelius bowed down to him to worship him. Certainly none of us is to bow down to worship any man. A Christian is not to be so obsequious that he gets down to lick the boots of anyone. Unfortunately, even in Christian work, we find some people who want others to bow to them. How tragic that is.

Acts 14:17

He is attempting to turn their attention to the living God who is the Creator. He wants to draw them away from their heathen, pagan idols and the mythology of the Greeks.

Acts 14:19

How amazing this is. Such fickle people! One day they are ready to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods. The next day they stone Paul to death. (How like Americanswe follow fads. One time it is the hula hoop. Then it is the miniskirt. We simply follow one fad after another.) They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city “supposing he had been dead.” Do you think he was dead? I’ll tell you what I think. I think he was dead. Later Paul writes of the experience he had: “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2Co_12:2-4). Who was that man?

It was Paul himself. “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (2Co_12:7). I don’t think that crowd left him there half dead; I think they left him dead. I believe that God raised him from the dead. Why would God permit this stoning? Gal_6:7 tells us: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Paul reaped what he had sowed. He had ordered the stoning of Stephen. Maybe someone will object that now he is converted. Yes, but even after conversion we will reap whatsoever we have sown. This is a law of nature as well as a law operating in our lives. We shall reap whatever we sow. Because Saul took part in the stoning of Stephen, years later the same thing happened to him.

Acts 14:20

This is miraculous. A man who has been stoned would be brutally wounded. Paul rose up, and the very next day he was able to travel. This is a miracle whether or not he was actually raised from the dead.

Acts 14:21

If you are following the map, you will notice that Derbe is the pivotal point. It is the end of the line. At this point they turn back and retrace their steps through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch.

Acts 14:23

They return through Pisida and Pamphylia, and preached again in Perga. Then they go to Attalia, and sail from that port back to Antioch.

Acts 14:26

Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch to give a report of the work because this is the church that had sent them out. They revealed that God had now definitely opened the door of the gospel to Gentiles. When the gospel started out, the churches were comprised entirely of Hebrews. Then they became partially Gentile. And now the gospel is going definitely to the Gentiles. Now the churches in Asia Minor are comprised entirely of Gentiles. Although there may also have been some Jews in these churches, it seems that in most places the Jews rejected the gospel and the Gentiles received it.