Acts 14:21-28--Paul and Barnabas Return to Antioch in Syria

Acts 14:21-28
English Standard Version

Paul and Barnabas Return to Antioch in Syria
21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. 23 And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
​
24 Then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia. 25 And when they had spoken the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia, 26 and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled. 27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. 28 And they remained no little time with the disciples.

---

I have taken some liberties with moving the ESV heading for this section from the beginning of verse 24 to the beginning of verse 21 as I extended the last section to include all of their time in Lystra.  Derbe was the furthest point on their journey (take a look at the map that I posted a few articles ago that shows the route for the first missionary journey) and Paul and Barnabas travelled to Derbe after their time in Lystra.  The text says they turned around and went back because they had "preached the gospel to that city (Derbe) and made many disciples they made their return journey travelling back through all the regions they had originally come through--Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch.

Why go back and visit these places they had just been if the goal of the gospel was simply to get people saved?  Notice their goal this time was not strictly evangelism, but encouragement and strengthening of the brothers--yet their message of strengthening and encouragement is not what we would expect.  They are told that they are going to have to go through many trials and tribulations before entering the kingdom of God.  That means that Jesus' return was not going to be immediate (though it would be "soon") and their faith in Jesus would not protect them having trouble--no, it would guarantee that they would have trouble.  Since this was a long-term plan that would require much teaching, exhortation and discipleship, they needed to make sure that there were local churches for all of these Christians that would be their leaders since it seems that by this point the Jews would have expelled all of the Christians from the synagogues.  For this reason, Paul and Barnabas, through the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit, appointed elders in each and every area so that faithful men could be entrusted to take care of these believers in their absence.  It is not the job of the evangelist to take take care of those that they preach the gospel to for their entire lives.  Much like how Moses could not take care of the entire nation of Israel by himself and needed to be surrounded by faithful men to help him lead, so it is with Paul that there would be somewhere close to 70 different men that would help him with leading these churches that he's going to help plant and assist him with continuing the work in each and every region that he would visit--for the apostles cannot be everywhere in all places at all times like God can, and God has chosen to use faithful men to participate in His work, so we must have faithful men in each and every town and village and region that will faithfully continue the work started by Jesus and His apostles.

They returned from these towns back to the coast to board a ship to return back "home" to Syrian Antioch.  When they got back they gathered the whole congregation together to give them a missions report to declare all that God had done--notice that God is the central character, not Paul and Barnabas.  These are the Acts of Holy Spirit, not the Acts of the Apostles.  The most important thing that they wanted to share was that God had "opened a door of faith to the Gentiles."  They then stayed in Antioch for quite some time (though we don't know exactly how long) before the next main event in the book of Acts, which will be The Jerusalem Council.  While we may not be facing exactly the same issues in our world today, it would be wise for us to continue to follow the advice that was given and to settle the matter once and for all that Peter, Paul, James, and John were not preaching different gospels, but the one true gospel.  We'll look at the first 21 verses of chapter 15 next time to set the context for why there was a Council meeting, and then the following article will focus on the end of chapter 15 with the letter that they wrote and signed with their decision to be sent to all the churches--especially the new churches just planed by Paul and Barnabas, so that the rumors and speculation of those trying to stir up dissention, trouble, and strife would be put to rest.  This would necessitate another journey to these regions though to carry this message and this letter to all these churches.  At the very end of chapter 15 we'll see Paul and Barnabas separate as Paul along with Silas will revisit these areas while Barnabas will take John Mark back to Cyprus and then on into other areas where we are not totally sure of as Luke stays with Paul so that is the history that Luke will focus on.