Acts 14:1-7--Paul and Barnabas at Iconium

Acts 14:1-7
English Standard Version
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Paul and Barnabas at Iconium
14 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 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. 4 But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. 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.

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As we mentioned last time, they moved on from Pisidian Antioch, seemingly to never return, to the next major city which had a synagogue, which was Iconium.  There they also spoke boldly so that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed, but they faced similar opposition as in Pisidian Antioch from both the unbelieving Jews and unbelieving Gentiles.  In fact, this passage says that the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers (that is against those who had put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ).  Luke makes no distinction between the "brothers" that were Jewish in ethnicity and those that were Gentile in ethnicity because we are all one family in and through Christ.

Unlike Pisidian Antioch, they stayed here many days--as long as there was still potential fruit to be harvested, and the Lord supplied witness to His Word (I'm not exactly sure what Luke means by this) and granted signs and wonders to be done that validated the Lord's message that they were speaking.  This then led to a division among the people as those who believed and had been transformed, that is "born again," were on one side and those who were still unregenerate and living according to their flesh and sin nature (both Jews and Gentiles alike) were on the other side.  The unbelievers sought to murder (they would say execute, imagining they were somehow righteous in their crusade against what they deemed to be "blasphemy") so that the Jews and Gentiles together sought to stone Paul and Barnabas.

Paul and Barnabas will once again escape, but this time they do not shake the dust off of themselves when they leave, giving us a sign that they intend to return to this city at some point--there is still hope for more work to be done there.  They will go next to the smaller towns of Lystra and Derbe and the surrounding countryside in the region of Lycaonia.  They continued to preach the gospel faithfully despite the persecution and in a way, the persecution was a validation to them that they were on the right track because the world, the flesh and the devil should be opposed to them in the same way that the world, the flesh and the devil have always been opposed to the work that God is doing--especially during the time of Jesus' earthly ministry.  We have been told to expect persecution and to be wary of those who seem not to be persecuted and seem to be friends of the world as they are likely preaching a false gospel if everyone loves them.  One of the first things we see happening in these towns as the gospel comes to them is that division between believers and unbelievers is almost immediate--not because the believers refuse to be with the unbelievers, but because the unbelievers cannot stand the gospel message and changed lives of the believers so much so that the world seeks to "cancel" them.  There are still those today who die for their faith in areas around the world, and there is still very real persecution with people being beaten, imprisoned and sometimes having ones family taken and sold into slavery to fund the terrorism and evil that is behind the persecution.  Churches are set ablaze or bulldozed with the congregation still inside.  There is no "safe space" given to those seeking the Lord and trying to study and teach His Word.  Even owning a Bible in some countries is enough to earn you life imprisonment or the death penalty.  We are not without our own kind of persecution here in the USA, but at this time it is nothing like what our brothers and sisters in Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe and South America are facing.  Even places that used to be friendly towards the gospel in Europe, Australia and North America are now trying to proclaim themselves to be post-Christian and Atheism and Secular Humanism are their new religions of choice.  We should expect that these groups will also stand in opposition to us when we faithful preach the Word of God, and we are not to shrink away from it, for God will use the persecution we face to help validate the message for we will be willing to be persecuted and maybe even die for something we know to be true, but it would make no sense for us to allow ourselves to be persecuted, tortured and even killed if we knew the things we were believing in and espousing was a lie.