They spent a year and a half in southern Galatia and they operated out of four towns: Antioch of Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Their trip through Galatia is told in Acts 13-14.
They started in Antioch of Pisidia and because of their success, the Jews drove them out of town. Next, they spent ‘considerable time’ in Iconium. Again, they preached, did signs and wonders, and the people had a split decision about them. Finally, the dissenters stirred up a crowd to stone them – Paul and Barnabas left town crossing the border into Lycaonia (subdivision of Galatia) and stopped at Lystra (Acts 14.6). To understand what happened in Lystra we need some background, some feeling of the city.
Lystra Background:
Lystra was 20 miles south of Iconium (almost a day’s journey) and off the main road that went through central Turkey.
There were not enough Jews in Lystra to have a synagogue. In one Jewish family, the wife Lois, had a daughter named Eunice that married a Greek. We’re not told about the family problems that this marriage must have caused. Eunice and her Greek husband named their son Timothy but he was not circumcised on the eighth day as a Jew.
Lystra was a rural town, and although Greek was the commercial language they also spoke the local Lyconian dialect. Another unique feature was their special spiritual beliefs. The Roman Emperor Augustus (63 BC - 14 AD) started emperor worship but when Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra 50 years later (in 48 AD), Lystra had a temple to Zeus just outside the city gates.
The popular Roman poet Ovid also played a part in Lystra’s background. Ovid lived during the reign of Augustus and he wrote a poem about the Roman gods Jupiter and Mercury visiting a province not far from Lystra. In his poem, Jupiter and Mercury came into the region to test the quality of the local people. The gods visited a thousand homes looking for a place to stay and they were always turned away. Finally, they came to the door of and old poor couple named Baucis and Philemon. These poor people didn’t have enough food and wine for four, but they gave what they had. As they cooked their food and poured their wine the couple noticed that after each serving their vessels were mysteriously filled, soon they recognized the visitors as gods in disguise.
Jupiter and Mercury were angry with the local people so they took Baucis and Philemon up a hill and then destroyed the whole region.
The people in Lystra didn’t want to have their town destroyed by the gods so they had a temple to Zeus, the supreme ruler of the gods, by the city gates to protect them.
Paul and Barnabas came to Lystra - unaware
When Paul and Barnabas came to town they preached to the people in Greek and Lois, Eunice, and Timothy, along with others, became believers.
One day, as they were preaching Paul noticed a man, crippled from birth, listening intently. Paul looked at him and yelled, “Stand up straight on your feet!” The startled man jumped up and started walking.
The locals were shocked, understandably. They switched to their Lycaonian language and shouted “The gods have become like men and have come down to us!” They called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercury because he was the main speaker.
The next day the Zeus priest organized a parade of bulls, banners, and flowers outside the city gates, and they were ready to offer sacrifices to these god-men.
When Paul and Barnabas realized what was happening, fear ran through their veins because they knew the penalty of proclaiming oneself as god or accepting worship as a god. They ran into the crowd shouting, “What are you doing, we’re not gods! We’re men just like you!” Talking hard and fast they barely stopped the crowd from offering their sacrifices. They convinced them by preaching this message:
“We are not gods! We are men like you! We’ve come to persuade you to abandon this silly notion about creating your own gods and instead embrace the one true God.
People don’t make gods, God makes people, and loves them. He made the sky, earth, sea, and everything in them.
In the past, he let people go their own way but he was always there doing good things to prove that he is real. He provides rain and good fall harvests, and he gives plenty of food to fill your hearts with joy- evidence of good beyond your doing.”
Finally, the crowd broke up and the crises passed.
Even without the internet the news of healings and god-visits traveled fast and within a few days the Jewish dissenters in Antioch and Iconium heard about Lystra and they came to stir up trouble.
I’ve always wondered what these Jews told the local gentiles. Paul had healed a man! He was different! He had a loving peaceful message. Yet, these Jews from out of town convinced the locals to turn against them.
In their local language, they arranged a lynch-by-stoning mob and caught Paul off guard; they stoned him and drug him out of town for dead. With the help of Barnabas and the new believers Paul went back into town. He and Barnabas left the next day for Derbe.
Timothy, a young teenager, watched all of this and yielded his heart to the Lord.
Three years later, on Paul’s second missionary journey, Paul and Silas found Timothy making a name for himself in the Christian circles of Lystra and Iconium. Paul had him circumcised so he could travel in Jewish circles, and Timothy worked with Paul the next 16 years, until Nero beheaded Paul in 67AD.
One of the take-aways for me, from this account, is how God provides everyone evidence of his presence by the food we eat. Reflecting on Paul’s message I’m amazed at the good around me that is beyond my doing.
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