STUDY EIGHTEEN: PAUL AND BARNABAS – ACTS 14:1 – 28

© Rosemary Bardsley 2026

Paul and Barnabas, expelled from Pisidian Antioch, travelled on to Iconium, Lystra and Derbe, cities to the south-east of Pisidian Antioch.

A. IN ICONIUM – 14:1 – 7

Luke’s report from Iconium is brief.

Read 14:1 – 7. Answer these questions:
What did Paul and Barnabas do first?

What was the response to their message?

How did the Jews who refused to believe react?

How did Paul and Barnabas respond?

What did God do to confirm their message about his grace?

How did all of this impact the city?

Why did Paul and Barnabas leave Iconium?

Where did they go, and what did they do there?

Apart from the historical details, there are a number of points of interest in Luke’s report:

[1] In previous reports the message spoken by Paul and Barnabas has been called – ‘the word of God’ (13:5, 46), ‘the teaching about the Lord’ (13:12), ‘this message of salvation’ (13:26), and ‘the word of the Lord’ (13:44, 48, 49). Now Luke calls the message ‘the message of his grace’ (14:3). See Acts 20:24 & 32 where the gospel is called ‘the gospel of God’s grace’ and ‘the word of his grace’.

[2] Luke didn’t mention any miracles in Pisidian Antioch; but here in Iconium Luke tells us that the Lord ‘confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders’ – verse 3. This appears to have divided the city into two camps, but it didn’t remove the opposition.

[3] Just as Paul had previously moved away from known plots against his life (Acts 9:23 – 25, 29, 30), so he does here (5, 6) – he and Barnabas ‘fled’ to Lystra and Derbe. Similarly, Jesus had instructed his disciples to move on to other towns if the town they were preaching in did not welcome them (Matthew 10:14, 23). Also similarly, Jesus himself repeatedly avoided arrest and death, until the time of God’s appointment. The freedom that Paul and Barnabas had to move on instructs us: there is no report of them seeking or receiving God’s guidance before leaving, they simply ‘fled’, having found out about the plot to stone them. Both the situation in Iconium, and their commission to take the message to the Gentiles, made their decision to flee the way of wisdom.

B. IN LYSTRA – ACTS 14:8 – 20

When Paul and Barnabas fled to the cities of Lystra and Derbe, they continued to preach the gospel there and in the surrounding country (14:6, 7). Luke reports the healing of a lame man (14:8 – 10), and the misunderstanding that resulted from that healing (14:11 – 18).

B.1 The healing – 14:8 – 10
This is the only miracle reported during their time in Lystra. This man was listening as Paul was speaking, and Paul, looking at him, saw that he believed what Paul was saying about Jesus Christ. On the basis of that faith, Paul commanded the man to stand up on his feet. The man immediately jumped up and began walking.

B.2 The wrong conclusions made by the crowds – 14:11 – 18
Although the lame man had come to some understanding of Paul’s message about Jesus Christ, the crowds had no such understanding. They had not taken in Paul’s message that Jesus Christ is Lord, that is, God. Locked in their traditional concepts of the ‘gods’, they concluded that Paul and Barnabas were two of their gods ‘come down in human form’ and started organizing to offer sacrifices to them.

Horrified at such an interpretation of their healing of the lame man, tried to get them to see the truth.

What did Paul and Barnabas tell them…
About themselves? (verse15)

About why they preached? (verse 15)

About the living God? (verses 15 – 17)

But they had great difficulty convincing the crowds not to offer sacrifices to them.

B.3 Enter the Jews from Antioch and Iconium – Acts 14:19, 20
The sacrifices were avoided, but not for good reasons. From determination to honour Paul and Barnabas as gods, the crowds were turned against Paul and Barnabas by some Jews from Antioch and Iconium – those same Jews who had expelled them from Antioch and had planned to stone them in Iconium – forcing them to flee from the city. Here in Lystra, these Jews ‘won the crowds over’, changing their high approval of Paul and Barnabas to murderous opposition.

They stoned Paul, and, thinking he was dead, left him outside the city.

[We can see from Luke’s reports how strong the opposition to the good news about Jesus Christ was. Not content to banish Paul and Barnabas from their own cities, they pursued them to Lystra. They were determined, just as Saul of Tarsus had been, to silence any teaching that exalted the name of Jesus.]

C. DERBE, AND THE RETURN HOME TO ANTIOCH – 14:20b – 28

Luke’s report about Derbe is brief: they preached the good news, and won a large number of disciples. In other words, many people in Derbe heard the message about Jesus Christ and believed in his name.

Luke doesn’t report any miracles or any opposition in Derbe.

They then turned around and went back through the three cities that had rejected them – Lystra, Iconium and Pisidian Antioch and met with the new believers there.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown wrote in their commentary: ‘At Derbe, Paul was not far from the well-known pass which leads down from the central tableland to Cilicia and Tarsus. But his thoughts did not centre in an earthly home. He revisited the places where he had been reviled and persecuted, but where he had left as sheep in the desert the disciples whom his master had enabled him to gather. They needed building up and strengthening in the faith, comforting in the midst of their inevitable suffering, and fencing round by permanent institutions. Undaunted therefore by the dangers that awaited them, our missionaries return to them …’

Albert Barnes comments: ‘The truth was, that these were young converts; that they were surrounded by enemies, and exposed to temptations and to dangers; that they had as yet but a slight acquaintance with the truths of the gospel, and that it was therefore important that they should be further instructed in the truth, and established in the faith of the gospel. This was what Paul and Barnabas returned to accomplish.’

What did Paul and Barnabas do in these cities? (Verses 22 – 23)

On their return trip through these cities there is no report of Paul and Barnabas preaching the gospel to unbelievers. Rather, they spent time with the people who had come to faith in Christ through their previous preaching. Aware of the strong opposition to the gospel present in each of these cities, they endeavoured to strengthen the disciples and encourage them to remain true to the faith. The hardships they would experience as believers were part of the normal Christian life; being members of the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of light, does not mean that there will be no suffering. Rather, membership of the kingdom of Christ, being a disciple of Christ, almost automatically makes a person a target for rejection and persecution. Christ, the King, suffered hatred, persecution and rejection: his servants can expect the same.

What do these verses say about the suffering involved in being a follower of Jesus Christ?
Matthew 5:11, 12

Luke 21:12 – 17

John 15:18 – 21

John 17:14, 15

1Peter 1:6, 7

1John 3:13

In addition to building up and encouraging the Christians, and preparing them for the hardships they would face, Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in each church, and with prayer and fasting committed them to the Lord, in whom they now believed.

C.1 Returning home – 14:24 – 28
On the way home, they preached the gospel in Perga (where they had not preached on the outward journey), then travelled home.

Answer these questions:
In verse 26, how does Luke describe the commission Paul and Barnabas had just completed?

What did Paul and Barnabas report that God had done?

What did Paul and Barnabas do next?

Reflection questions:
Suggest what kept Paul and Barnabas committed to their difficult mission?

In what ways does their commitment encourage you to remain faithful to Jesus and his calling?