Paul and Barnabas continue to preach the gospel. They persevere through persecution(Acts 14:1–7).

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Paul and Barnabas continue to preach the gospel. They persevere through persecution (Acts 14:1–7).

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, June 1, 2025

Swindoll:

In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl wrote these amazing words:

“We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last pieces of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: The last of his freedoms is to choose his own attitude in any given set of circumstances—to choose one’s own way.”1

I could not be in greater agreement. We make a choice every waking moment of our lives. When we awaken in the morning, we choose the attitude that will ultimately guide our thoughts and actions through the day. I’m convinced our best attitudes emerge out of a clear understanding of our own identity, a clear sense of our divine mission, and a deep sense of God’s purpose for our lives. That sort of God-honoring attitude encourages us to press on, to focus on the goal, to respond in remarkable ways to life’s most extreme circumstances.

It was that kind of remarkable attitude Paul and Barnabas consistently maintained throughout their missionary journey. The two Antioch-sent servants faced and overcame countless and extreme obstacles with a relentless determination to stay focused on the goal.

We all need a reliable game plan for facing extreme circumstances. The situation that now looms in front of you may be fixable, or it may seem impossible to overcome in your own strength. It might be the result of your own actions, or you may be an innocent victim, caught in the backlash of someone else’s consequences. Whatever the case, we can easily become intimidated, even fearful, and eventually immobile when facing such obstacles. The only way to move beyond that sort of paralyzing stalemate is to learn to accept and trust God’s plan. You release the controls and wait for Him to move. And while you wait, maintain a good attitude.[1]

We are continuing our trek through Acts.

My theme today: Paul and Barnabas continue to preach the gospel. They persevere through persecution.

The application: persevere in what God calls you to do.

  1. First, we see that a great number of both Jews and Gentiles respond to the message (Acts 14:1-2), but some stir up contention.
    1. Acts 14:1–2 (ESV)
    2. Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. 2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
    3. Remember, they are on their first missionary journey. They are taking the gospel to many other cities.
    4. In the previous section, they were forced to leave Antioch because of persecution. This is Antioch in Pisidia. It is not the same as the city of Antioch that is north of Jerusalem (Acts 13:1-3).
    5. This is modern Konya.[2]
    6. Again, they enter a Synagogue.
    7. Interesting that they go back to the synagogue after all the persecution they have already gone through.
    8. They spoke in “such a way”–what does “such a way” mean?
    9. It must have something to do with persuasion and convincing.
    10. A large number of Jews and Greeks believed.
    11. One source shares: Because the native language of Iconium was Phrygian, Paul and Barnabas may address mainly the Greek-speaking upper social strata, or they may speak through interpreters (cf. 14:11, 14); but it is more likely that most of the crowd understands Greek, even if it is not their first language.
    12. Among the deities that the Gentiles of Iconium worshiped, the most prominent was Cybele, the Phrygian mother goddess; Phrygian mystery cults were also common. But inscriptions testify that the Christian faith spread and Iconium later became a major center of Christianity in Asia Minor.[4]
    13. Look at verse 2:
    14. Even though a large number believed this verse makes it clear that there were Jews, at least, who didn’t believe.
    15. These Jews make the Gentiles angry. They “stirred up” or, actually, the NIV says, “poisoned their minds” against Paul and Barnabas.
    16. I once heard that only one percent of rat poison is poison. Ninety-nine percent of it is fine. That means that to incite trouble against Paul and Barnabas, all they may have had to do is change some small and subtle things about them, or that Paul and Barnabas were saying and change the truth.
    17. That type of stuff happens in the church today and is dangerous.
    18. Gossip can do a lot of damage.
  2. Paul and Barnabas spend time discipling converts (Acts 14:3).
    1. Look at verse 3: So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
    2. Again from Swindoll: A sentence in the diary of James Gilmore, pioneer missionary to Mongolia, has stayed with me since the day I first read it. After years of laboring long and hard for the cause of Christ in that desperate land, he wrote, “In the shape of converts I have seen no result. I have not, as far as I am aware, seen anyone who even wanted to be a Christian.”
    3. Let me add some further reality to that statement by taking you back to an entry in Gilmore’s journal made in the early days of his ministry. It expressed his dreams and burdens for the people of Mongolia. Handwritten in his journal are these dreams: “Several huts in sight. When shall I be able to speak to the people? O Lord, suggest by the Spirit how l should come among them, and in preparing myself to teach the life and love of Christ Jesus.”
    4. That was his hope. He longed to reach the lost of Mongolia with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How different from his entry many years later, “I have not, as far as I am aware, seen anyone who even wanted to be a Christian.”
    5. What happened in between? He encountered the jagged edge of an authentic ministry. When I write about succeeding in the work of the Lord, I’m not promising success as we define it in human terms. I’m not saying because you are faithful to proclaim the Word of God your church will be packed. Some of God’s most faithful servants are preaching their hearts out in places where the church is not growing. A great temptation for those in that difficult setting is to turn to some of the other stuff that holds out the promise of more visible results. Don’t go there. Stay at it. God is at work.[5]
    6. They were not only speaking but speaking boldly.
    7. God confirmed His message with signs and wonders.
    8. Do signs and wonders happen today? Do we look for them?
    9. I once heard a man on Focus on the Family preaching, and as he was preaching, his voice was restored. A while before that, he had an illness which made it very difficult for him to talk. His voice was never supposed to be the same again, but it was healed. Praise God!
    1. Look at verse 4:
    2. But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles.
    3. This verse notes that the people of the city were divided.
    4. Some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles.
    5. An apostle is one who is on a mission. Paul’s message divides the city in half (Acts 14:4).
  3. Paul and Barnabas flee (Acts 14:5-7).
    1. Look at verses 5-7:
    2. Acts 14:5–7 (ESV)
    3. 5 When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, 6 they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, 7 and there they continued to preach the gospel.
    4. The Jews from verse 2 were somewhat successful because now there is an attempt made by not only the Jews but also the Gentiles and the rulers to mistreat and to stone them.
    5. In verse 6, the text talks about the other areas that Paul, Barnabas, and their group went after finding out about the plot.
    6. They fled to Lystra and Derbe which were cities of the district of Lycaonia:
    7. Lystra was a city in Lycaonia about 18 mi (30 km) south of Iconium, a Roman colony that was not on the main roads of Lycaonia. Because of its relative isolation, its local character was able to be preserved.[9]
    8. Derbe was a city in Lycaonia about 35 mi (60 km) southeast of Lystra.[10]
    9. Sproul shares:
    10. Luke tells us that the Apostles fled to Lystra and Derbe, which were situated in the province of Lycaonia. This minor detail is of great significance. In the nineteenth century we saw an unprecedented attack by liberal scholarship against the trustworthiness of the biblical record, and at the very front of this assault was an attack against the historical reliability of Luke, who gave us this history of the expansion of the early church. One of the things about which the critics carped was this little clause, “They fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region.” The critics said that Lystra and Derbe, while closely situated, were not in the province of Lycaonia but in different provinces. That, the critics said, is a clear example of a historical error and inaccuracy in Luke’s writing.
    11. One of those scholars, distinguished for his historical expertise, was the British Sir William Ramsay. Ramsay decided to embark on a journey that followed the biblical record of Paul’s missionary journeys and wherever possible to do archaeological research pertaining to the accuracy of the details supplied by Luke. Ramsay was a skeptic. He agreed with the liberal viewpoint that Luke’s book had been filled with error, but everywhere he went, every time he turned over a shovel of dirt, his findings verified the details Luke had included in both his Gospel and in Acts. When Ramsay came in his journey to the places noted in this particular passage, he found the boundary marker between Derbe and Lystra, and indeed the boundary marker had the two cities in different provinces. However, upon further examination he found that at various times in antiquity the boundaries of those provinces changed, and, to his amazement, he discovered that between the years d. 37 and a.d. 72 Lystra and Derbe were in the same province—the exact province Luke mentions here in the text. At the end of his tour Ramsay said that he could not find a single error of historical reliability in the book of Acts, and he joined other later scholars who now call Luke the most reliable historian of the ancient world.[11]

Again from Swindoll:

Paul’s ministry was saturated with the Word of God. Fifteen times in chapters thirteen and fourteen the phrases “God’s Word,” the “Word of truth,” the “teaching of the Lord,” the “Law and the Prophets,” and the “Good News” are mentioned (13:5, 13:7, 13:12, 13:15a, 13:15b, 13:32, 13:44, 13:46, 13:48, 13:49, 14:3, 14:7, 14:15, 14:21, 14:25).

On that first journey Paul took with him just enough to live on, sufficient clothing to cover his nakedness, a heart full of hope in God’s truth, and a confidence in God that would keep him faithful. That’s what held him together. That’s what steeled him against the tightening jaws of mistreatment in the ministry.

Could it be that you’ve grown a little soft in the past few months in your commitment to time spent in the Scriptures? It may be happening to you just as it happens to me from time to time. Please heed this gentle warning: If you’re getting ready to go off to school, or preparing to take on new ministry responsibilities, or getting ready to launch a new phase of your career, don’t do it without first establishing a regular time to meet alone with the Lord, preparing yourself for the new challenge by spending time in His Word. Your spiritual future depends on it. Without that commitment to saturate your life with God’s Word, you step into the unknown future at your own risk. I urge you to spend sufficient time with the Lord so you might be strengthened within. It can begin with as little as fifteen minutes each day.

Some of you are thinking, I don’t have fifteen minutes a day! Try cutting your lunch break short so you’ve got time on the other end to spend reading through a Psalm or two or digesting one of the New Testament letters.

If Paul could saturate his life in the Word of God, you and I can too. You are touching some people in your sphere of influence that likely no one else will touch. Be known for your biblical commitment, your biblical counseling. Be known for your biblical advice. Be appreciated for your biblical stand on moral values. It all starts with your investment of time in the Bible. Go there. Become saturated with the Word of God. That in itself will carry you miles down the road toward establishing an authentic ministry.[12]

[1] Viktor E Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (New York: Pocket Books, Simon and Schuster, 1976).

Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com

Accessed on website on 04.28.2025: https://www.insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/good-attitude1

[2] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2112.

[3] Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com

Accessed website on 04.28.2025: https://www.insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/elusive-popularity1

[4] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 14:1–4.

[5] Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com

Accessed on website 04.28.2025

https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/disappointing-results1?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ifldailydevo&utm_campaign=daily-devotional&goal=0_daec2b65fd-53beaba8d9-106822917

58 For bibliography and further discussion, see chap. I, n. 61.

[6] John B. Polhill, Acts, vol. 26, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 311.

[7] John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), Ac 14:5.

[8] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), Ac 14:5.

[9] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ac 14:6.

[10] Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition Notes (Biblical Studies Press, 2006), Ac 14:6.

[11] R. C. Sproul, Acts, St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 251–252.

[12] Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com

Accessed on 04.28.2025

https://insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/authentic-ministry1?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_content=ifldailydevo&utm_campaign=daily-devotional&goal=0_daec2b65fd-c9ed3abf3a-106822917

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