OPERATION YO-YO
ACTS 14:1-20
NASB
1 In Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. 2 But the Jews who [a]disbelieved stirred up the [b]minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren. 3 Therefore they spent a long time there speaking boldly with reliance upon the Lord, who was testifying to the word of His grace, granting that [a]signs and wonders be done by their hands. 4 But the [a]people of the city were divided; and some [b]sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles. 5 And when an attempt was made by both the Gentiles and the Jews with their rulers, to mistreat and to stone them, 6 they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra and Derbe, and the surrounding region; 7 and there they continued to preach the gospel.
8 At Lystra a man was sitting who had no strength in his feet, lame from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. 9 This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be [a]made well, 10 said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he leaped up and began to walk. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have become like men and have come down to us.” 12 And they began calling Barnabas, [a]Zeus, and Paul, [b]Hermes, because he was [c]the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was [a]just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their [a]robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out 15 and saying, “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these [a]vain things to a living God, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM. 16 [a]In the generations gone by He permitted all the [b]nations to go their own ways; 17 and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, [a]satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 Even saying these things, with difficulty they restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. 20 But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe.
14:2 [a]Or disobeyed [b]Lit souls 14:3 [a]Or attesting miracles 14:4 [a]Lit multitude [b]Lit were 14:9 [a]Lit saved 14:12 [a]Lat Jupiter, the chief pagan god [b]Lat Mercury, considered the messenger or spokesman for the pagan gods of Greece and Rome [c]Lit the leader of the speaking 14:13 [a]Lit in front of 14:14 [a]Or outer garments 14:15 [a]I.e. idols 14:16 [a]Lit Who in the generations gone by permitted [b]Or Gentiles 14:17 [a]Lit filling
NLT
1 The same thing happened in Iconium.[*] Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. 2 Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. 3 But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord. And the Lord proved their message was true by giving them power to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4 But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.
5 Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders, decided to attack and stone them. 6 When the apostles learned of it, they fled to the region of Lycaonia —to the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding area. 7 And there they preached the Good News.
8 While they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. He had been that way from birth, so he had never walked. He was sitting 9 and listening as Paul preached. Looking straight at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed. 10 So Paul called to him in a loud voice, “Stand up!” And the man jumped to his feet and started walking.
11 When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, “These men are gods in human form!” 12 They decided that Barnabas was the Greek god Zeus and that Paul was Hermes, since he was the chief speaker. 13 Now the temple of Zeus was located just outside the town. So the priest of the temple and the crowd brought bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town gates, and they prepared to offer sacrifices to the apostles.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening, they tore their clothing in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting, 15 “Friends,[*] why are you doing this? We are merely human beings —just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. 16 In the past he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, 17 but he never left them without evidence of himself and his goodness. For instance, he sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts.” 18 But even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them.
19 Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. 20 But as the believers[*] gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
[14:1] Iconium, as well as Lystra and Derbe (14:6), were towns in what is now Turkey. [14:15] Greek Men. [14:20] Greek disciples; also in 14:22, 28.
Back in the 1970s, the Washington Redskins had a grizzled quarterback by the name of Sonny Jurgensen —as tough as an old boot on the field and off. In fact, he seemed to thrive on bearing the brunt of criticism when the team struggled through a long slump. At one point, someone asked Jurgensen if all the flak from the press was getting to him. He grinned and replied, “No, not really. I don’t want to quit. I’ve been in this game long enough to know that every quarterback, every week of the season, spends his time either in the penthouse or in the outhouse.”[133]
Let me tell you as a pastor who’s been on the field a long time: The same applies to anyone engaged in Christian ministry! While in Pisidian Antioch, Paul and Barnabas preached one Sabbath to rave reviews and then received an enthusiastic invitation to return and tell the people more. The next Sabbath, however, the synagogue leaders decided to run them out of town. As the two men led their team down the highway to Iconium and beyond, they were about to discover that the high-low cycle is not just common in ministry, it’s the norm. In Iconium, large numbers believed, while others gathered stones, eventually forcing them to leave. In Lystra, like before, the men would be lifted to bizarre heights of acclaim only to fall fast and hard.
Along with the ups and downs that result from an audience’s acceptance or rejection, Paul, Barnabas, and the team would also encounter the frustrations that come with making mistakes while learning to cope with new situations. In Lystra, they would encounter a population with a worldview so foreign to Jewish thought that Paul and Barnabas would themselves be mistaken for gods. Even so, they would discover that, through it all, God is faithful. He will fulfill His promises and He will accomplish His plan —no matter what.
— 14:1-4 —
Iconium lay about 80 miles east of Antioch along the Via Sebaste, an impressive highway linking all the Roman colonies from Comama in the west to Lystra, which lay south of Iconium. The origins of this city lay far back in the mists of history, so obscure that even the ancient Greeks were unable to determine who established the settlement or when.[134] In the first century AD, Iconium was an agricultural and trade center. While the Via Sebaste was the newest highway, five roads converged on the city to make it an important link in the routes between major regions of the Roman Empire.[135]
When Paul and Barnabas arrived, they went straight to the synagogue, eager to share the good news of the long-awaited Messiah among their countrymen and to proclaim the open arms of God’s grace to the God-fearing Gentiles. As in Antioch, their message prompted a large number of people to believe, including God-fearing Gentiles who attended the synagogue service (14:1). And, as in Antioch, the Jews who rejected the gospel turned the town against the evangelists (14:2).
Although the team suffered opposition, the response appears to have been balanced: The people were divided (14:4). So, they continued preaching as they had been. In Pisidian Antioch Luke mentions nothing about miracles; in Iconium, however, God gave the men the ability to perform “signs and wonders” (14:3). As always, miracles served to validate their message as divine. This strongly suggests that miracles were not always a part of their ministry and were used only when rebellion was not the reason for unbelief.
— 14:5-7 —
Eventually, the unbelieving leaders of the synagogue managed to gather enough opposition against Paul and Barnabas to form a vigilante mob. That’s when the team wisely decided to move on. If miracles didn’t persuade the unbelievers, martyrdom would serve no purpose.
When sentiment grew too strong against them, Paul and Barnabas traveled roughly 20 miles south to the picturesque town of Lystra, which sat in an isolated valley at the convergence of two streams. Unlike Antioch and Iconium, Lystra did not warrant any major roads before Augustus designated it a colony and populated the town with military veterans. Then he routed the Via Sebaste through Lystra. Even so, Lystra never lost its remote, small-town identity.[136] Archaeologists have uncovered evidence to suggest that the town venerated Zeus and Hermes as patron gods: “One inscription records the dedication to Zeus on a statue of Hermes. Another records a dedication to ‘Zeus before the town.’”[137]
— 14:8-10 —
Luke doesn’t mention a synagogue, probably because there weren’t enough Jews to warrant one. (Tradition held that at least ten Jewish males were required to form a local house of prayer.) Timothy hailed from Lystra, and his mother, Eunice, and grandmother Lois were Jews, but his father was a Gentile (16:1-2; cf. 2 Tim. 1:5). When no synagogue existed, Paul typically went to the marketplace (agora [58]), where Greeks gathered to socialize. This is also where traveling philosophers and entertainers attracted attention. Paul may have begun to speak in the marketplace when he noticed a man disabled from birth.
The man’s condition was strikingly similar to that of the beggar by the temple gate in Acts 3:1-10. His feet were atrophied, perhaps from an injury at birth, and he had never walked (14:8). Everyone in Lystra undoubtedly knew him. Unlike the beggar outside the temple, however, the man’s healing came after his belief. Whereas Peter had addressed the beggar with no prompting other than from the Holy Spirit, Paul saw on this man’s face evidence of belief and then was moved to heal him (14:9). Luke undoubtedly intends for the reader to associate this healing with Peter’s; his use of similar terms, phrases, and imagery makes the connection unmistakable.
Paul commanded the disabled man to stand up (14:10). Notably, however, he didn’t invoke the name of Jesus Christ as Peter did (3:6). Clearly, Luke chose to include this incident to show that Paul’s apostleship equaled Peter’s. But Paul’s omitting the name of Christ in restoring the man’s feet caused problems he didn’t anticipate. Because no synagogue existed in the city, its citizens did not immediately identify the men as Jews, monotheistic worshipers of the God of Israel. Paul hadn’t accounted for the cultural divide in this new missionary context.
— 14:11-13 —
As a result, Paul and Barnabas found themselves thrust into a local myth involving Zeus and Hermes, the patron gods of Lystra (14:11-12). The townspeople may have been influenced by a story from ancient folklore that has been preserved in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.[138] The myth recounts a time when Zeus and Hermes (i.e., Jupiter and Mercury) found no hospitality in Phrygia until they came to the home of an elderly couple named Philemon and Baucis, who lived not far from Lystra. In return for their unselfish generosity, the married couple asked only two favors: to be caretakers of the temple and to die together so that neither would have to grieve the other. Their wishes were granted, and the two were transformed into a pair of trees adorning the steps of the temple.
The people of Lystra wanted to be generous like Philemon and Baucis, so they hastily prepared a sacrifice in honor of Paul and Barnabas, the supposed god-men (14:13). Unfortunately, they reverted to their local tongue, Lycaonian, so neither man could understand what was causing the people to become so animated. The origin of this language is a mystery. Some linguists say that Lycaonian evolved from Anatolian and Hittite tongues, while others suggest it was a special, regionalized dialect of Greek. Regardless, the people used their local language to deify Paul and Barnabas, so the two men could only watch in confused amazement as the local pagan priest made preparations for a sacrifice in their honor.
— 14:14-18 —
As my colleague Dr. Thomas Constable writes, “If Satan cannot derail Christian witness with persecution, he will try praise. Too much persecution has destroyed many preachers, and too much praise has ruined many others. One of the problems with miracles is that they often draw more attention to the miracle worker than to God.”[139]
Paul and Barnabas, however, felt horrified when they finally understood what was happening. They rushed into the crowd as they “tore their robes” (14:14). Apparently, it didn’t occur to anyone in Lystra that the gods in their midst didn’t speak their native language! The gesture of tearing one’s garments expressed overwhelming emotion, usually sorrow and grief.[140] Paul had healed the man through the power of Christ to authenticate the gospel as divine revelation, but he had not been prepared for the depth of the ignorance in Lystra. Therefore, to correct the misunderstanding, the men had to introduce the pagans of Lystra to the Creator God revealed in the Old Testament (14:15). They began by setting God apart from the king deity, Zeus, and the supposed creators of humanity, Prometheus and Athena.
The formula “the heaven and the earth and the sea” identified three realms of the Greek cosmos. The universe of Greek mythology thought of earth as a flat plane with air above, water around, and Hades below. Paul’s statement comes from a Hebrew concept of the universe (cf. 4:24; Ps. 146:6). He wanted the pagans to understand that one God made all realms of the universe and created all the creatures therein, but he was still speaking from a foreign worldview. Meanwhile, the priests continued to slaughter the animals for sacrifice and the people stoked the fires of the altar (Acts 14:18).
Paul and Barnabas continued with an answer to the obvious question: “If this God is the one and only Creator, then why haven’t we heard of Him before now?” Paul and Barnabas said that nations had been allowed “to go their own ways” but that the Hebrew God had revealed Himself by way of nature’s bounty (14:16-17).
Eventually, the people called off the great sacrifice of oxen —the most productive beast a farmer could own —but it seems doubtful that Paul’s crash course in biblical cosmology had convinced them. They probably halted the sacrifice because “Zeus” and “Hermes” insisted they stop.
— 14:19-20 —
Before long, the synagogue leaders from Antioch and Iconium tracked down Paul, Barnabas, and their helpers. They managed to sway the people of Lystra much as they had the city leaders in their own towns. Suddenly, the same people who had worshiped Paul and Barnabas as gods just days earlier rose up in anger to stone them as heretics (14:19). Execution by stoning was a distinctly Eastern, Semitic punishment, rarely heard of in Greek society. Clearly, the people of Lystra acted as a mob, following the lead of the Jewish instigators.
They stoned Paul, leaving Barnabas unharmed. Luke doesn’t explain why. The mob may have looked for both men and, finding Paul alone, stoned him on the spot before carrying his body to the edge of the city. The mention of “the disciples” most likely refers to the men Paul and Barnabas had taken along as helpers (14:20; cf. 13:5), although they may have been new believers in Lystra whom Paul and Barnabas were nurturing, undoubtedly including Timothy. In either case, Luke writes that these “disciples” witnessed the stoning, suggesting that Barnabas did not because he was somewhere else.
Luke doesn’t state whether Paul actually died, only that the mob “supposed” (nomizō [3543]) him dead. Regardless, he miraculously stood to his feet and walked back into Lystra in his own power (14:20). The mob had gone off in search of Barnabas, no doubt, but the rest of the town must have seen a bleeding and bruised Paul walking back from the dead, as it were. Over time, Paul would return to Lystra three more times (14:21; 16:1; 18:23). Doubtless, the memory of his ordeal helped to establish his authority as a genuine apostle among the believers.
This episode illustrates God’s ability to fulfill His plan despite the weaknesses of all the people involved. The Jewish population in Lystra didn’t warrant a synagogue, so these Gentiles were more ignorant than their peers in larger cities. As a result, their superstition ran deeper than other, more urban Greeks, who at least had the benefit of scientific and philosophical education. Furthermore, the people of Lystra proved to be exceedingly pliable, a trait that would cause Paul untold exasperation in the future (Gal. 3:1-4).
To be fair, however, this was not Paul and Barnabas’s finest hour. While the men did their very best, they nonetheless came unprepared for the extreme superstition and profound ignorance in Lystra. Paul assumed the people would attribute the healing miracle to the one and only Creator God and then interpret the event as validation of their message. In making this assumption, he underestimated the power of their primitive worldview to shape their perception. He would not make this mistake again.
APPLICATION: ACTS 14:1-20
How Not to Proclaim the Gospel
This segment of Luke’s narrative demonstrates that even the best ministers don’t always get it right. In fact, this is a rare instance in which we can learn from Paul’s example what not to do in ministry. I observe two glaring don’ts from this dark episode in the apostle’s first journey into the mission field.
First, don’t assume your audience knows much about the God of the Bible. Paul and Barnabas entered a pagan town that didn’t have a synagogue. Without basic knowledge of the Hebrew God, the superstitious people of Lystra had every reason to misunderstand what they saw and heard. The evangelists should have started by introducing Lystra to the one and only God revealed in the Old Testament. Only then would they understand their need for what Jesus Christ offers. Don’t assume people know much biblical truth. Ask questions. Listen carefully for gaps in their knowledge and for misinformation they might have picked up. Define your terms carefully. And follow up to be certain they understand what you have said.
Second, don’t underestimate the influence of one’s worldview. A worldview is how someone understands the universe —how it came into being, how it operates, and what purpose it has, if any. Primitive Greeks held to the old myths of a cosmos consisting of a flat earth surrounded by water and bounded by sky above and Hades below. Paul’s explanation that God made “the heaven and the earth and the sea” (14:15) could have been misunderstood, perhaps even to suggest that Hades lay outside the Lord’s control. Furthermore, the term “God” was not a name to the polytheistic Greeks, it was a noun that could apply to dozens of beings, some more powerful than others.
The same is true today. The word “god” means different things to different people. A Muslim will think of one being while a Buddhist will have a completely different idea in mind. An African pantheist will not hear the title “god” the same as a monotheistic Jew. Within Hinduism, there are dozens of different philosophies associated with the concept of divinity. Even within the United States, with its four-hundred-year-old Judeo-Christian heritage, you will find a dwindling population who thinks of God as the Bible describes Him. Consequently, the once-effective statement, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” may pose more problems than it solves.
Learn about the different worldviews people hold in the area you plan to evangelize. This will help you communicate effectively and decrease the potential for misunderstanding.
That said, don’t fear that you will create a mess too big for the Lord to sort out. Despite the ignorance in Lystra, and even with the foibles of the apostles, many people believed and became strong disciples. Paul went on to have an effective ministry in the area, because God remained in control. He still is. He will use our most inept good-faith efforts to accomplish His plan. The important thing is to go and witness.