Acts 14:19-23 19But Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds and stoning Paul, they dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. 20But when the disciples gathered about him, rising up, he entered the city. And on the next day, he left with Barnabas to Derbe. 21When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many afflictions, it is necessary for us to enter the kingdom of God. 23And after they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting, they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
Things turned really bad for Paul. The antagonistic Jews from Antioch and Iconium followed Paul and Barnabas, seeking to stop their ministry of preaching the gospel. Their animosity towards the pair must have been severe to travel so far and chase them down. Antioch was 100 miles from Lystra. These Jews were doing what Saul did back in chapter 8 when he went to Damascus to arrest believers. Verse 19 suggests that there were few or no Jews in Lystra, at least none who bothered Paul and Barnabas. It may have been a totally Gentile city of pagan worshipers.
Somehow, the outside Jews were able to persuade the crowd against Paul and Barnabas, which might imply something about the people’s gullibility, naivety, or easy persuasion. The people may have become disenchanted with Paul and Barnabas when they found out they were not incarnated gods. Since Paul was the focus of their animosity, the words from verses 15-17 may have been Paul’s, though Luke includes Barnabas with the plural subject in those verses. The surprise of this story is how the Lystrians went from worshiping Paul and Barnabas to stoning Paul almost to death. The extremes imply the fickleness of this city, or at least of some of the mob of the people.
To be stoned almost to death must have been very painful, something that might cause many people to give up and go back home to safety. But not for Paul and the disciples. In spite of the trouble, the mission of Paul and Barnabas must have been successful because there were already disciples present who gathered around Paul after he had been stoned. They thought he was dead because of what happened, but miraculously, he got up and went into the city. Paul mentioned later in 2 Corinthians 11:25 that he had once been stoned, likely referring to this incident. It was a miracle that he could travel the next day with Barnabas to Derbe, about a 30-mile journey. It is likely they walked everywhere, so Paul went from almost dead to walking quite a ways, another sign of God’s grace in their missionary journey.
Verse 21 is a brief summary of the pair’s successful ministry of making many disciples in Derbe, during an unknown amount of time. At each town they visited, despite the hardships, they made many disciples of the Lord. These cities were part of the province of Galatia and may have been the churches to whom Paul wrote the New Testament letter to the Galatians. In that letter, he dealt with outside Judaizers who were preaching a different form of the gospel. The Jewish legalistic influence upon these churches was leading the believers astray from the gospel of grace that Paul preached.
As Paul and Barnabas journeyed back to the sending church in Antioch of Syria, they retraced their path and encouraged the churches to stand strong in their faith in the midst of suffering. They could speak from experience, which gave their words more power and truth. The challenging phrase in verse 22 is that we must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations.
There are many lessons to be learned from the experiences of Paul and Barnabas that made the ministry in their first missionary journey effective. They were filled with and guided by the Holy Spirit. They prayed and fasted as part of their discipleship and discernment of God’s will. They trusted the Lord Jesus to take care of the new believers as they moved on to new locations. Their strategy was to appoint local leaders to carry on the work. They endured through various trials and physical abuse, with Paul almost dying from being stoned. They had deep knowledge of the Scripture and the gospel and knew how to apply it to their listeners. They had quick thinking when faced with a challenging situation and turned to God for guidance.