And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.
Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
Once again, we find ourselves with the apostle Paul and with Barnabas, in the town of Lystra. Lystra was the town to which they fled after their persecution in the cities of Antioch and Iconium. Today we would recognise these towns as being in southwest Turkey; a region known in Roman times as Galatia.
Remember that name and region, Galatia, because, as you know, Paul would later write to his church in that region he would write that letter we know today as the ‘Letter to the Galatians,’ it is the same letter that we can find and read in the New Testament.
For it was in AD 48 or 49 that Paul wrote that
somewhat incendiary letter to the Galatians, in which he said:
If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. (9;1)
However, I began by saying that once again we find ourselves in that agricultural town of Lystra, and we find ourselves there in the aftermath of the high drama, and the violence that was instigated by certain Jews who whipped up a pagan crowd against Paul and Barnabas. A pagan crowd who thought Barnabas and Paul were the gods: Jupiter and Mercury. This crowd, you will recall, had heard Paul preach and they had witnessed Paul’s miraculous healing of the man crippled from birth.
The result of this Jewish agitation amongst the pagans saw Paul being stoned. When it was thought that this stoning had killed Paul, Paul was carried out of the city and no doubt his body was dumped some distance from the city walls – to avoid the Roman authorities who would, no doubt, have taken a dim view of any unauthorised and therefore illegal execution or murder that had taken place in their jurisdiction; remembering too, that Paul was a Roman citizen.
Then we have, in Verse 20:
However as the disciples stood round him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas into Derbe.
Again, you notice, we have this extreme economy of words in the text that say so little and yet it’s laden with meaning. There is a method that we can resort to now – it has got a grand-sounding name: exegesis. A definition of exegesis is that it is the critical examination or interpretation of a text or scripture. Quite simply, I suppose, it means what we can infer from the words that have been given to us.
So, what CAN we infer from these few words? Well, certainly that Paul was stoned, that he was taken for dead and dragged out of the city. Also, what seems to be clear is that, these ‘certain Jews’ who turned the crowd against Paul were skilled agitators or at the very least, experienced public speakers, but there would only be a few of them relative to the crowd. This alone may explain the failure of the public stoning, that is ultimately the failure to kill Paul. Now let’s imagine that that incident, that stoning had been taken up by a Jewish crowd, in a Jewish city or even in a predominantly Jewish area – if that had been the case it almost certainly might have been a different story.
What we are looking at here is – what? A botched job. A botched job. Stoning, after all, is a brutal method of execution and as we have discussed previously, that method of execution did usually involve a set procedure, culminating in dropping a huge rock onto the victim to ensure that at the end – that he or she would be undeniably dead.
What happened in Lystra seems to have been a rushed job, without enough dedicated stone throwers or killers to finish the job. This would certainly seem to be the case if the ‘certain Jews’ were going to rely on a pagan, gentile crowd to help them undertake this rather macabre task. Added to this we have the sheer illegality of this action, undertaken, we can assume, in broad daylight. Those protagonists, certainly those with any common sense, would wish to leave the scene of the crime with all due haste- and at the same time, dump the incriminating evidence as far away as practicably possible.
A stoning would be, a sickening and repulsive spectacle to witness in any case, and at the same time, we can be sure that a sizeable number of the crowd would not entirely be in favour of this course of action.
And what can we say about those disciples who, we are told, stood around him? What do you think they might be doing? Even if they were not strong or numerous enough to prevent the actions of the crowd, surely there would be cries of protest and other forms of intervention that may well have mitigated against, or constrained, others from being sucked into a killing frenzy. Looking at this text we can see that Paul (and Barnabas) were not alone, because, again at verse twenty it reads
Howbeit as the disciples stood around him he [that is, Paul] rose up…’
Who were these people, these disciples that were ‘stood around Paul’? Not only were they there, presumably in a concerned and ultimately protective way, but they had formed a ring around him, not only were they there outside the city walls with him, they very obviously had been there when the Jews were trying to kill Paul in the town of Lystra, but clearly, they had followed those killers who had supposed Paul to be dead, those killers were now trying to dump the evidence.
And again, who were these disciples? That’s an important question too – because here’s the victory! These were not disciples that Paul and Barnabas had brought with them. No, they were disciples who had been won to the Christian gospel in Galatia, disciples who were to be the backbone of Paul’s churches in Antioch, in Iconium and in Lystra and Derbe. How do we know this? Simply by continuing our reading:
20 He [Paul] rose up and came into the city and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.
21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium and Antioch.
22 Confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained the elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
So here we are outside of that city, Paul now protected, surrounded not by enemies now, but by his followers. The storm had passed, those would-be lynchers those would be killers caught up in a moment of mob mentality had now drifted away. Although we don’t know the extent of Paul’s injuries, here he is now, rising from his ordeal, no doubt battered and bruised. Battered and bruised, but regardless, once he got back on his feet he headed back into the city.
That’s right, he got up, and he walked right back into Lystra. Now there’s courage for you; God was with Paul and the whole of his ministry does attest to that. Two words that come to mind in terms of Paul’s spirit-led leadership two qualities in fact– audacity and decisiveness – audacity and decisiveness. As we read the story of his life and his mission we are constantly reminded and inspired by his heroism.
We are also assured then, that he was the greatest Christian ever. But let us be clear, no man, no leader can exist and can achieve on his own, in a vacuum. We would have to say that such inspiring leadership acted as it did as a lightning conductor, as a pole of attraction, as a magnet to other like souls; lesser souls, yes, perhaps, but nevertheless other like souls, other men with similar attributes of courage and self-sacrifice, other souls imbued with the Holy Spirit, ready to follow Paul and ready to help him build the Church.
You know, one thing we can be certain of, is that Paul didn’t walk back into Lystra alone – No, there was that circle of men around Paul, and they walked right back into Lystra with him, I think it’s worth our while considering that; it’s worth our while considering what an act of courage that was also for each individual who, in spite of the violence they had experienced, plucked up their courage and walked back into town with Paul. We could say perhaps it was a calculated risk, the Jews who had tried to bring about Paul’s death might not be hanging around in the aftermath of the storm they had kicked up, certainly considering what they had done and especially if they knew that Paul was indeed a Roman citizen. And in any case the momentary passion of the crowds, of the mob, had probably dissipated leaving them only to disperse and to head for home.
Calculated risk indeed, and it is easy to see from the comfort of one’s arm chair. But they, Paul, and his disciples, you know, they just did not go back quietly to town to take it easy and to rest up in their lodgings; and yes, they did go back. However, they left Lystra the next day, what did they do? they, Paul and Barnabas then travelled from Lystra to Derbe, a distance of 75 miles.
We can imagine that Paul would have sustained some painful injuries in Lystra and that to walk, or even to travel by horseback after such an ordeal may well have been a quite painful experience and not an experience to be relished by any stretch of the imagination. Paul and Barnabas, we are told, departed for Derbe.
What can be said about that visit to Derbe is that it appears to be the only town or city mentioned in the New Testament where Paul encountered no resistance to the message of the gospel. We should imagine this to be a welcome relief compared to the trials and tribulations of Antioch, Iconium and Lystra.
So, we read, perhaps with some relief ourselves, at verse 21 that they preached the gospel to that city of Derbe. Just note that it doesn’t say they preached the gospel in that city – no, it says they preached the gospel to that city. We can then be sure that left to Paul and Barnabas that the gospel message was widely disseminated in that area. No Jews arriving from the former cities to tip up the apple cart, so to speak, no serious murmurings of discontent from the opposition and no opposition from the synagogue there in Derbe that Paul and Barnabas preached in.
Then we have that statement that in Derbe, that ‘they taught many’ (20). They taught many in Derbe. Clearly Derbe, again part of Galatia, proved to be fertile ground for the sowing of the seeds of the Church. That expression, 'taught many', tells us that there was a ready audience, and it tells us that despite the previous difficulties in the other cities that the mission into Derbe was an unmitigated success.
Let me return to a phrase I used earlier on; I said ‘here’s the victory’ – remember those other cities that Paul and Barnabas visited – you should know them off by heart by now – Antioch, Iconium, Lystra; I have also used the phrase ‘unmitigated success’ in relation to Derbe – but at the same time, for Paul and Barnabas, Antioch, Iconium and Lystra were not unmitigated disasters. Far from it, so here’s the victory – after that very successful foray into Derbe. They, that is Paul and Barnabas, returned to those three cities in this order: they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. We can say therefore that the work had been done and that despite everything the new churches had been planted and were growing.
However, how much violence, fear and intimidation had been levelled at the apostles in those cities – here was the victory – Paul and Barnabas were able to return to strengthen and encourage the new and growing Christian witness as in verse 22.
Confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith.
Exhorting them, pleading with then, urging them to continue in their new faith. What a difference that kind of leadership can make. Such leadership to the success of the Church in the world is not optional, it is essential. We could ask where the source of such leadership is now, how could a man like Paul keep going under such fire, when lesser men would most certainly have crumbled under the pressure. We are led once again to be reminded of the spirit-led ministry; the hallmark of the early Church as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
You may ask what it means? It means that such power comes from the hand of God, through faith, through belief and endurance. If we believe that God created the world, then we must believe in a supernatural power, that exists outside of space and time, and yet that power which is God is the power with whom we are intimately connected. Paul in his lifetime suffered much, and to his followers in the faith he said, he said to then that ‘we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Paul said we must suffer a lot to enter God’s kingdom and towards the end of his life, imprisoned in Rome, Paul reiterated this message to his spiritual son, Timothy (2:3-4). He said, to enter the Kingdom of God, to be saved, requires commitment. So challenging is this kind of commitment that Paul likened it to being a soldier – that we should endure the hardness of this life like a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and that our minds and our lives should be fixed entirely on him; and not that we should become entangled with the affairs of this world. That glorious message of Paul’s that if we are dead with Christ we shall also live with Christ. In other words, if we can die to our old worldly selves we can live with Christ, if we take up the cross and follow him.
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