1. Read verses 1-7. Where did Paul and Barnabas go? Why did they usually go the Jewish synagogue first? What was the initial response? What changed the atmosphere?

2. How did the apostles initially react to the hostility? Why? Why did they finally flee? Where did they go and what did they do? What can we learn from them?

3. Read verses 8-10. What happened while Paul was preaching in Lystra? (How was this similar to a miracle done by Peter at the beginning of his ministry in Jerusalem?)

4. Read verses 11-13. How did this Gentile crowd respond to the miracle? How were they different from the crowd in Jerusalem?

5. Read verses 14-20. How did the apostles react to the worship of the crowd? Why? What did Paul teach them? Why is it good for Gentile believers begin with the study of the Creator and creation? What happened? How did Paul show resurrection faith? Where did they go after this? (20-21)

6. Read verses21-28. Describe Paul’s trip back to Antioch in Syria. How did they help the newly pioneered churches? What did they report to the Antioch Church? What can we learn about how to obey the world mission command from Paul?

This first missionary journey began in Syrian Antioch. Barnabas and Saul were went out as missionaries by the elders of Antioch. They first went to Cyprus, home town of Barnabas. There, Saul became Paul and Paul became the leader of the Journey team. John Mark, Barnabas’ young cousin, John Mark, had begun this journey with them, but the spiritual battle in Cyprus was more than he could take. He left and went home from Perga. In Pisidian Antioch Paul spoke the word of God boldly, first to the Jews. They did not consider themselves worthy of eternal life, so he turned to the Gentiles. He accepted the Lord’s command, “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” He was strongly opposed by the Jews of Antioch, so they left and went to Iconium.

* Iconium, Lystra and Derbe.

In Iconium Paul went as usual to the Synagogue. He spoke so effectively that many Jews and Gentiles believed. The city was divided and a plot against Paul and his company was discovered, so they fled and went to Lystra. Lystra was the hometown of Timothy. Perhaps Paul met Timothy’s mother and grandmother this time. In Lystra, Paul healed a crippled man–just as Peter had done in Jerusalem. But the result was quite different. When the beggar of the beautiful gate in Jerusalem was healed, people were drawn to Jesus. Here in Lystra, the people saw this miracle and tried to worship Paul and Barnabas, assuming that they were Zeus and Hermes, Greek gods who had come down to earth. Barnabas and Paul resisted,telling them clearly that they were only men. Paul proclaimed the good news that the Creator God has not left himself without a witness. He gives rain and sunshine and makes the crops grow. When he spoke to them about God the creator and owner of all things they were even more determined to offer sacrifices to them. Then, suddenly, this fickle crowd changed. Faith based on seeing a miracle doesn’t have any root. When Jews from Antioch and Iconium came and poisoned their minds, they stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking that he was dead. When the disciples gathered around him, he came to and got up and went back into the city. He was not afraid of death. He was unstoppable They spent the night there in Lystra and went to Derbe the next day.


It was time to go home. But the return trip was very important. They went back to the very places from which they had fled, met the disciples and encourage them to remain true to the faith. They told them clearly that following Jesus was not the easy road. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Then, they appointed elders in each church and committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust. How important it is to establish native leadership and entrust the work of God to their hands. They came back through Pisidia (Antioch), then down to Perga (they had not preached there before, so they did this time). Then they went to the port city of Aattalia and back to Antioch in Syria, the church that had commissioned and sent them out. They reported to the church all that the Lord had done through them, especially, how he had opened the door to the Gentile world. The church was changing from a narrow sect of Judiasm to a world wide community of followers of Jesus Christ. The church now would face many hardships, but God was working and he was using his apostles. May we not shrink back from the hardships. May we hold the course and trust the Lord to whom we are committed and to whom we commit the young disciples of Jesus.

One word: don’t shrink back from hardship

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