Acts 14:8-20--Paul and Barnabas at Lystra

Acts 14:8-20
English Standard Version
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Paul and Barnabas at Lystra
8 Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked. 9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well, 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he sprang up and began walking. 11 And when the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. 14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” 18 Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

Paul Stoned at Lystra
19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

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We've noticed that everywhere that Paul and Barnabas have gone that there has been opposition to the gospel that usually starts with the Jews and then also stirs up the Gentiles and gets the city leaders involved so that Paul and Barnabas are encouraged to flee under threat of being stoned to death.  Things are going to come to a head in Lystra today and those threats are going to be acted on, but not for the reasons that we might imagine--this is going to be a different crowd that is going to be mostly Gentile, and when they see the miracles, signs and wonders that are performed, the only explanations that the Gentiles can come up with is that they have been visited by some of the gods of Mount Olympus and that Paul must be Hermes (the messenger of the gods) because he was the one who spoke and that Barnabas was Zeus, probably because God allowed Barnabas to perform signs and wonders, but they are also in close proximity to a pagan temple of Zeus and a priest from that temple wants the crowds to offer sacrifices to these men, so it should not surprise us that the pagan priest of Zeus would see one of these men as Zeus since that is who he worshiped and served.

The people were fine with listening to Paul and Barnabas for as long as they though they were gods of Mount Olympus, but as soon as they denounced being gods and that they were men just like the people in the crowd, then the crowd became enraged with them for these men had denied the worship they wanted to offer and the message they were speaking was clearly one that God would have to give to men, but they were unwilling to hear it from someone who was "just a man."

Now the Jews from Iconium have been following Paul and Barnabas and they come in on the tail end of this and see that the crowd is already agitated, so they decide to make the most of it and convince the crowd that they need to stone Paul.  They seem to leave Barnabas and Paul's other companions alone, probably thinking that since Paul did most of the talking that if they killed him, they would put an end to this work they were doing.  They dragged Paul outside the city supposing he was dead (which seems to indicate that he was not dead).  Imagine seeing the one you thought you had killed come back into the city to keep preaching to you after you had just tried to kill him!  Paul didn't stay long though as after this they started their return trip, which we'll talk about next time.  They will revisit all the places they've been with the exception of Pisidian Antioch and Cyprus.