Acts 14: opening the door to the Gentiles

Intro

Remember the key themes of the Acts, which we emphasised in our earlier studies in the series:

The unstoppable advance of the gospel - the increase of the Word of God; under

The unmistakeable impulse of the Holy Spirit; leading to

The irrepressible joy and gladness of the disciples.

We have all of that in chapter 14. This chapter marks something of a watershed for the advance of the gospel - God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. We’ll come back to that in a moment.

Although the Spirit is not named directly in this chapter, the evidence of his ministry is very clear from what Luke records. On completion of their mission, the brothers reported all that God had done through them (literally, with them). That included the signs and wonders that God did through them in Iconium, which Paul and Barnabas would later recount to the Jerusalem conference (see Ac 15:12). Notice the similarities between Ac 14:3 and Heb 2:4, God bearing witness to his word by enabling his apostles to perform signs and wonders by the power of his Spirit.

The lame man at Lystra was one such incident, clearly recounted by Luke in language bearing striking similarity to that used in Acts 3 to describe the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful gate. Luke’s means for his readers to see the similarities and to note the ministry of the one same Spirit in the ministry of Peter to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles. Both men were operating under the hand of God and in the power of his Spirit.

And then there’s the believers’ joy. It isn’t spelled out in chapter 14, but in Ac 15:3 we’re told that the news of how the Gentiles had been converted made all the believers very glad. That was the response of the churches in Phoenicia and Samaria. Surely the response of the church in Syrian Antioch, the sending church, can not have been any less as they gathered together to receive back Paul and Barnabas and to get a full report on the work they had sent them to do.

The door of faith

Why do we read in Ac 14:1 that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed? Why does Ac 14:21 tell us that, in Derbe, they won a large number of disciples? The answer is in Ac 14:27 - God had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Here, the door is used as a metaphor for faith. And a door is a means of coming in and going out. So it is with the door of faith - there’s movement in two directions:

Faith comes by hearing the message. The message has to go out, to be preached. That requires an open door. Here, the gospel had reached the Gentiles; they’d heard it. The preaching in Lystra and Derbe was ground-breaking - the first preaching in ‘true’ Gentile territory.

Next there has to be a response, a coming in. The message proclaimed was the word about Christ - a ‘by faith’ message! And that is precisely how the Gentiles responded - with faith! They came in.

Importantly, we learn that God was behind it all. He’s the one who opened the door - for the message to go out and for them to respond in faith, to come in. This is the grace of God.

The grace of God

And grace is another theme which permeates this chapter. In fact, we have the grace of God in three different senses:

Back in chapter 13, the converts at Pisidian Antioch were urged to continue in the grace of God (Ac 13:43). What did that mean? Well, I think there is a parralel verse in chapter 14 (Ac 14:22) where, retracing their steps, Paul and Barnabas strengthen the disciples in each place, encouraging them to continue in the faith. The faith, is one of the ways the NT describes the body of teaching that was first given by the Lord Jesus to his apostles and later became known as the apostles’ teaching, the good deposit, the truth, and the faith. Jude describes it as: the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people (Jud 3). This, then, is God’s sanctifying and sustaining grace. The grace by which his saints can render acceptable service to him.

The second sense in which the word grace is applied in this passage is in the lovely description of the gospel we find in Ac 14:3 - the message/word of his grace. This was the message about God’s redeeming grace.

And finally, in Ac 14:26, we’re reminded that Paul and Barnabas were commended or committed to the grace of God for the mission, which they had now completed. This is a reference to God’s providential grace. It was by that grace that:

Jewish opposition arose in Iconimum in such a way as to prompt the missionaries to extend their stay and redouble their efforts to speak for the Lord;

Paul and Barnabas learned of the plot to stone them in Iconium;

the lame man of Lystra heard the gospel and responded with faith to be healed;

Paul was stoned to within an inch of his life at Lystra and, by that same grace, that he recovered and was able to journey to Derbe the very next day;

the gospel was preached in Iconium, Lystra, Derbe and that a door of faith was opened to the Gentiles.

Churches established

Of course, this chapter also sets the scene for chapter 15 - the first conference of elders, which met to consider the question of what requirements should be laid down for these new Gentile Christians?

If you look at Ac 14:23, you will see that what Paul and Barnabas left behind them at the end of this journey were churches. Not missions, not pockets of interest awaiting follow-up, but churches. Indeed, it’s seems quite likely that Paul’s letter to the Galatians was written shortly after his return from this journey to the newly established churches in the cities we read about in Acts 13-14.

Scholars believe that the first mission lasted somewhere in the region of 12-24 months. I find it really quite remarkable that indigenous churches could be established in such a short period. What, then, were the ingredients for their long-term stability and growth? Ac 14:22-23 gives us three:

first, the faith, which we’ve already considered. What did this comprise? I can’t help but think that, for the pagans of Lystra and Derbe, Paul would have kept things simple. Remember that there wasn’t, at this stage, a written new testament. The core beliefs would have been taught and learned orally. The fact that there were Jews in their congregations meant that they would have had access to the OT Scriptures. And, in due course, they would begin to collect apostolic letters, which they would recognise as having the same authority as the OT;

secondly, we see that they appointed elders in each church. It’s notable that this was considered vital to the health of the churches from this first mission. We might wonder how overseers could be appointed so quickly after conversion (1 Tim 3:6), except for the fact that we know that it is the Spirit who makes overseers (Ac 20:28) and it’s likely that these men will have faced opposition from the moment they put faith in Christ. So, they will have been tested. It’s also notable that elders is plural - no one man ministry, but a pastoral team who were loyal to the apostles’ teaching and gifted by the Spirit for teaching it. And that is precisely how they would care for the needs of each church;

and the third ingredient - the grace of God. For Paul and Barnabas committed the elders (and the churches placed under their care) to the Lord. Ultimately, they belonged to God, the one in whom they had placed their trust. And he can be trusted to look after his own people.

Interpretation Questions:

What do you understand by the phrase “word of his grace” in verse 3?

Why do you think “signs and wonders” were performed in Iconium?

In verses 4 & 14, Luke describes Barnabas and Paul as “apostles”. What is an apostle?

Explain verse 22 - “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God”. When do we enter that kingdom?

Application Questions:

Contrast the preaching style employed by Paul & Barnabas at Pisidian Antioch (in ch 13) with their address in Lystra. Why the change of tactics? Is it right to consider our audience in our preaching of the gospel today?

Seven times in this short chapter, Luke describes the action of Paul & Barnabas as ‘speaking’ or ‘preaching’. It seems that this activity was continuous, bold, and done in reliance on the Lord. How does this compare with our own experience?