Even
saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them. But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But as the disciples stood around him, he rose up, and entered into the city. On the next day he went out with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the Good News to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom. When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.
Acts 14:18-23
Acts 14 [14.] But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes, and sprang into the multitude, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them; who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
Acts 14 [18.] Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them. But some Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there, and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
Acts 14 [20.] But as the disciples stood around him, he rose up, and entered into the city. On the next day he went out with Barnabas to Derbe. When they had preached the Good News to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom. When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.
Acts 14 [24.] They passed through Pisidia, and came to Pamphylia. When they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From there they sailed to Antioch, from where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work which they had fulfilled. When they had arrived, and had gathered the assembly together, they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the nations. They stayed there with the disciples for a long time.
Meaning:
At Lystra the crowd had tried to worship Barnabas and Paul as Jupiter and Mercury. The apostles tore their clothes and urged the people to turn from such “vain things to the living God” (Acts 14:15). These verses show how quickly the mood changed, how Paul survived a stoning, and how the first missionary journey ended with the careful strengthening of the new churches.
- “They hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them”
Even after Paul’s plain words, the people were hard to restrain. Long-held beliefs do not vanish after one sermon.
- “Having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul”
Opponents from Antioch and Iconium followed the apostles for days to reach Lystra. The same crowd that wanted to worship Paul now stoned him. Crowds can be turned quickly, as when the chief priests “stirred up the multitude” against Jesus (Mark 15:11). Paul later listed this among his sufferings: “Once I was stoned” (2 Corinthians 11:25). He must have remembered Stephen, stoned outside Jerusalem while the witnesses laid their garments “at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58). Now he suffered what he had once approved. He may refer to scars like these when he says, “I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus branded on my body” (Galatians 6:17).
- “Supposing that he was dead … he rose up, and entered into the city”
Luke says only that the attackers supposed Paul was dead. Most readers understand that he was left unconscious and badly injured, and that his recovery was God’s mercy; some see a miraculous revival. Either way, his first act was remarkable: he walked back into the city where he had just been stoned. Among the disciples who stood around him may have been young Timothy of Lystra, who later followed Paul through “those things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra” (2 Timothy 3:11; Acts 16:1).
- “They returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch”
From Derbe the shortest way home lay east through Paul’s home region of Cilicia. Instead, after making many disciples in Derbe, the apostles went back through the very cities that had driven them out, because the young believers needed them.
- “Through many afflictions we must enter into God’s Kingdom”
The apostles did not promise an easy life. They told the new believers plainly that suffering is part of the way to God’s Kingdom. Jesus had said, “In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Paul later reminded the Thessalonians, “we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction” (1 Thessalonians 3:4), and Timothy that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
- “When they had appointed elders for them in every assembly”
The apostles left each church with local leaders. The Greek word for “appointed” originally meant to stretch out the hand, as in a vote. Some take it to mean that the apostles chose the elders; others think the congregations had a voice in choosing them. Either way, the churches were given shepherds, as Paul later told Titus to “appoint elders in every city” (Titus 1:5). With prayer and fasting, as at their own sending (Acts 13:3), they “commended them to the Lord.”
The Significance of Acts 14:18-23
- Courage to return
Paul went back into danger for the sake of others. Love for people sometimes means returning to hard places rather than avoiding them.
- Honest discipleship
New believers need the truth that following Jesus involves hardship, together with the assurance that God’s Kingdom is worth it.
Cross-References:
2 Corinthians 11:25: "Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned." Paul remembers Lystra.
John 16:33: "In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world." Jesus foretold affliction for his followers.
2 Timothy 3:12: "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." The same teaching Paul gave in Lystra.
Titus 1:5: "appoint elders in every city, as I directed you;" Paul’s practice of appointing local leaders.
Conclusion: The crowd at Lystra, turned by opponents from Antioch and Iconium, stoned Paul and left him for dead, but he rose and went back into the city. After preaching in Derbe, Paul and Barnabas returned through the cities that had persecuted them, strengthening the disciples, teaching that the way into God’s Kingdom passes through many afflictions, and appointing elders in every assembly. They entrusted the new churches to the Lord.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible