We now begin chapter 14 with the same scenario. After Paul and Barnabas were chased from Antioch, they went to Iconium. While there, they preached and taught the word of God. God again blessed their work as "a great number of both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles) became believers." Just as in Antioch, some Jews strongly rejected God's message. They also went so far as to say things about Paul and Barnabas thus poisoning the minds of the Gentiles against them. Paul and Barnabas didn't give up but rather stayed and kept preaching the Good News. God continued to bless their work and affirmed what they were doing by giving them the power to do miraculous signs and wonders.
The town was divided between those who sided with the Jews and those who sided with Paul and Barnabas. In other words, the division was between those who accepted the Good News and those who rejected it. The division got more intense and a mob made up of both Jews and Gentiles and some leaders devised a plan to attack and stone Paul and Barnabas. When they heard of that plan, Paul and Barnabas fled to the towns of Lystra and Derbe and the areas around there and continued to preach the Good News.
As we have been studying Acts, we can't help but see when the Good News was peached in an area and many came to Christ, God allowed the Apostles to be chased from the town. It seems things intended for bad were actually used to move the word of God on to a new place where the Good News was preached and more people were saved. When evil attempted to squash the teaching of Christ, their efforts actually contributed to the spreading of the word.
While Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra, they met a man who had crippled feet at birth and had never walked. Paul was preaching and noticed how intently the man was listening to his preaching, Paul looked right at the man and realized he had great faith. Paul called to him, "Stand up!" and the man jumped up and walked for the first time.
The people who saw this began shouting that Paul and Barnabas were gods in human form. They believed Paul was Hermes because they were both great speakers or spokespersons. They believed Barnabas was Zeus because he was quiet, dignified, and kind of behind the scenes. This was a pagan community and the people calling them gods were speaking in their dialect. Paul and Barnabas had no idea what they were saying about them.
Being a pagan area, the temple of Zeus was just outside of town. The priest sent people out to gather wreaths of flowers and bulls back to the city to be sacrificed to Paul and Barnabas. The priest was excited to do this possibly because he was aware of the legend of an older couple in Lystra (Philemon and Baucis) who were visited by Zeus and Hermes. Zeus and Hermes rewarded them greatly for their being treated so kindly. Perhaps the priest believed they too would be rewarded if they treated Paul/Hermes and Barnabas/Zeus well.
When Paul and Barnabas understood the people were seeing them as gods, they were horrified and tore their robes. Tearing their robes was an understood display of their intense dislike of something, in this case, blasphemy. They had to be horrified that the people were seeing them as gods when they were there to awaken people to God and the Good News. The tearing of the robes was not random. The custom was to make a tear about 5 inches long down from the neckline.
Paul and Barnabas then ran into the crowd shouting, "Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings just like you! We have come to bring you the Good News that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made the heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them. In the past, He permitted all the nations to go their own ways, but He never left them without evidence of Himself and His goodness. For instance, He sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and joyful hearts." Doing all they could do to stop them, they could hardly stop the crowd from sacrificing to them.
Some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium (where Paul and Barnabas had been chased from in chapter 13 and earlier in this chapter) and began polluting the crowds with their lies against Paul and Barnabas. It is not said that these Jews were following Paul and Barnabas to deliberately attempt to stop them from preaching the Good News of Jesus but I cannot think otherwise. In reality, Paul and Barnabas were being persecuted for their preaching of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins. The riled up group stoned Paul and thinking they had killed him, they dragged him out of town and left him.
The believers followed them out of town and when Paul got up, they helped him back to town. The next day, Paul and Barnabas left town to go to Derbe.
After they preached the Good News in Derbe, they went back through they towns that had chased them away (Lystra, Iconium and Antioch) to strengthen and encourage the believers there to continue in their faith. They spoke to them that they will suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God. Paul and Barnabas could easily speak to that for they had endured many things. While Paul and Barnabas were in these areas, through prayer and fasting, they appointed elders in every church and turned the care of them over to the Lord in whom they put their trust. Following that, they traveled back through Pisidia to Pamphylia and preached the word in Perga, then Attalia.
They continued on to Antioch of Syria by ship thus going full circle back to where they started their journey. The believers back in Antioch of Syria had entrusted them to the grace of God in their journey and preaching. Paul and Barnabas called the church together and gave them a report of all that happened on the journey along with all that God had done. They spoke of how God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles also. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch of Syria for a long time. Perhaps a well deserved rest from travel and persecution.