Chapter 17 – Iconium

Narration

Acts 14:1-5
 

Another new town, and again they followed Paul’s standard procedure.  When Saturday came, they went to the synagogue, talking about Jesus and grabbing the attention of any who would listen, whether they were Jews or God-fearing Gentiles.  They followed up anyone who was interested, and soon they were speaking to large crowds of Jews and Gentiles.  Many believed the good news, and Paul and Barnabas also performed amazing miracles – which helped convince even more.

However, the Jews who did not believe stirred up the crowds and drove them out of the synagogue.

The city was divided.

The unbelievers then got together with the rulers and plotted to mistreat and stone Paul and Barnabas – already an all-too-familiar situation – but they heard about it early enough to escape and flee to other towns.

Sketch 17.1

“By God’s grace, we escaped again, Barnabas!” exulted Paul.

“Yes.  If it weren’t for God’s grace, we’d be in our graves by now, wouldn’t we?”

“It’s amazing, but it’s scary too.”

“Don’t think about it too much.  We’re heading for another town now… which one, Paul?”

“Lystra.”

“Yes, Lystra, and… then we’ll start all over again.”

The joy and exultation were real, and the two missionaries were extremely grateful for God’s care – but it didn’t take much to remind them of their narrow escape from the brutal plans of their fellow Jews.  They traversed the dry, flat, uncultivated land for quite some time in silence, passing occasional rocky outcrops.  Infrequently they passed other travellers, but neither of them paid much attention.  Their minds were held prisoner by the thought that echoed and re-echoed endlessly in their minds: when they arrived in Lystra, it wouldn’t be long before another crowd was baying for their blood.

Even Paul, far more single-minded and optimistic than most and resigned to the task his saviour had appointed for him, couldn’t rid his mind of the alarming probabilities.

“I wonder,” mused Barnabas eventually, “is there anything we can do differently?”

Paul had no need to ask what he was talking about.  “I’m pretty sure that unless we stop preaching completely, nothing will change the results.”

“Can we try something different?”

“Such as?”

“Maybe we could start preaching somewhere other than in the synagogue?”

Paul didn’t answer for a few moments.  Then he sighed.  “Perhaps we could, but the synagogue is the best place to find people who are interested in God and the good news.”

“I know, but it’s also the best way to attract the hatred of the Jews who won’t listen.”

“True… and they seem very good at inciting others to hate us, too.”

“What a gift!”

The two friends laughed together, but humour alone wouldn’t fix the problem.  They continued on in silence once more.

“There’s no point in going to a town to preach if we don’t end up talking to the people who are interested!” Paul declared after a while.

“No, but there’s also no future for our preaching if we get ourselves killed!  So which is better: to preach to, say, 100 people in each of 20 towns over the next two years, or to speak to 1,000 people in Lystra tomorrow and then get killed?”

“You’re right, of course, but I don’t think it’s quite as easy to keep things under control as you’re implying.  I never heard Jesus preaching, but I gather he had a lot of difficulty trying to balance the response of the crowd: at times he had to stop people trying to make him king, then at other times he had to avoid them stoning him!”

“Well, we haven’t exactly had problems with people trying to make us kings!” laughed Barnabas.

“Which is good, because I’ve got no idea what we’d do if they did!”

“I don’t think we need to worry about it, really.  All we need to know is that Jesus made sure he stopped it, so we’d have to do the same.”

“And crowds can be very fickle,” said Paul.  “Jesus entered Jerusalem with crowds of people cheering him on, then a week later they were demanding that he be killed.”

“I don’t think it was quite the same crowd, do you?”

“No, not entirely,” agreed Paul, “but we’ve seen for ourselves just how quickly people can change.”

They passed a milestone.  Lystra was just two miles[1] away.

“Any other ideas of things we could do differently?” asked Paul.

This time it was Barnabas who sighed.  “No, not really.  We’ve got to preach the gospel, and that means some people will hate us.  Nothing we can do will change that.”

“And Jesus hasn’t let us be killed yet, so he still has work for us.”

“Yes.  He still has people to save.  I hope he has lots of people to save here.”

“It’s only the second day of the week, so we’ve got a few days before the Sabbath anyway.  Let’s start preaching.”

They approached the gates of Lystra with mixed feelings.

Chapter 18 – Lystra

Narration

Acts 14:6-20
 

Entering Lystra, they continued preaching.  By now they were quite familiar with the process that played out each time.  But this time was a little different.

A man who had never been able to walk sat and listened intently to Paul.  Paul saw that he had faith to be healed and said, “Stand up on your feet.”  Remember that this man had never walked in his life, so there would be all sorts of things stopping him, from weakness to fear.  But he didn’t let any of them put him off.  He not only stood up, he leaped up and walked around.

Naturally enough, the crowd was amazed, and declared in their local language that the gods had come down to earth.  They gave Paul and Barnabas the names of Greek gods, which upset the pair greatly.  Things were spiralling out of control, with the priest of Zeus coming with garlands of flowers and oxen to offer sacrifices to them!

Paul and Barnabas did some hurried straight talking, but it was only with the utmost difficulty that they stopped the crowds from worshipping them.  When they finally tore their cloaks in despair, this seemed to convince the crowd that they were serious.

You might think that if men could perform a miracle like this, they would also know how it was done.  But the crowd wanted none of their explanation about a living God.  Strange, really.

It was not long after this episode that troublemakers from Antioch and Iconium came on the scene.  They won over the crowd (possibly still a little bit upset with what Paul had said about their gods), and stoned Paul.  Thinking he was dead, they dragged him out of the city.

Perhaps he was dead, but whether he was or not, his work was not finished and when the disciples surrounded him, he stood up and went back into the city.  A brave man indeed.

Now Paul had suffered just as Stephen had done on that terrible day years before – a day Paul could never forget.  Like Stephen, Paul too had been beaten to the ground with stones of hatred, but unlike Stephen, he had survived to preach another day.  Was it repayment for his involvement in the stoning of Stephen?  If so, then he was paid back double.  Not only did he suffer the horrors of stoning, but he also had to endure the lengthy recuperation as bruises and cuts slowly healed.  Paul’s suffering for Jesus had well and truly begun.

The next day, Paul and Barnabas left Lystra.

Sketch 18.1

“How are you feeling after an hour of walking, Paul?” asked Barnabas.

“Surprisingly, the walking seems to be making most of it feel a bit easier,” croaked Paul, his words slurred.  “I can count all of my ribs, though.”

“It must be tough, but you’re doing well,” said Barnabas, sympathetically.  “Your face is a mess, though.  Can you see anything through those slits of eyes?”

“Don’t make me laugh,” groaned Paul.  “The ribs, you know, and my lips…”

“Sorry.”

“You wanted to try something different in Lystra.  Happy with the results?”  Paul’s slurred speech was quite different from his normally precise diction, and this time it took Barnabas a few moments to work out what he was saying.

“Oh, I suppose it proved what you were saying before we arrived: it probably doesn’t matter much how we preach.  If we preach about Jesus, we’re taking up a cross like he did, and we could suffer just the same result.”

“True.  How far to Derbe?”

“Another 80 miles or so[2].  About three days’ journey, normally.”

“Maybe four at the moment.”

“Or five, or however long you need.  After all, people might be more likely to listen to what you say if you don’t look like a battered wreck.  Perhaps by then they’ll be able to understand more of what you say, too.”

Paul groaned again.  “I thought you were meant to be Barnabas the Encourager!” he said.

“Normally,” laughed Barnabas.  “But some people don’t need encouraging, they need slowing down, bringing back to reality.”

“The way my feet are feeling, I don’t want to think about the reality of walking 120 kilometres.  And how can my backside be so badly bruised?”

“Don’t forget, they dragged you out of the city and dumped you, Paul.  Two men holding an arm each – you can guess which part of you was scraping on the ground.  It’s amazing that your tunic is still intact, not to mention what’s underneath!”

Notes:

[1] Roman miles were about 1.5 kilometres or 0.9 modern miles
[2] approximately 120 kilometres or 75 modern miles