on. He declares
unto them the glad tidings of a Savior. He warns them
of their peril in rejecting Jesus Christ. Paul is invited to
speak upon the next Sabbath, but there is a division and
those who oppose Paul try to drive him out of their city
which they finally succeed in doing. But the Word has
fallen into good soil and there is the beginning of a
Christian church.

+Iconium in Lycaonia+ (Acts 14:1-5) is over one
hundred miles distant from Antioch. The missionaries were
now in a country of a people with strange ways. They
remained here for some time and their ministry was
attested by "signs and wonders." But again some of
the Jews opposed them and stirred up the multitude. A
plan was made by the ringleaders of the opposition to
stone them, but being made aware of it Paul and Barnabas
"fled unto Derbe and Lystra." They had, however, the
satisfaction of leaving behind "a great multitude of
believing Jews and Greeks" (Acts 14:1).

+Lystra and Derbe in Lycaonia+ (Acts 14:6-21).--"And
there they preached the gospel." There is no
mention of any Jewish synagogue at either of these cities.
The inhabitants were worshippers of the heathen gods.
The healing of a lame man at Lystra brought Paul and
Barnabas directly into touch with the heathen priests and
populace. When they saw this miracle of healing, they
thought that the gods had come down to earth in the
likeness of men. Barnabas was called Jupiter "and Paul
Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker." When
Paul and Barnabas sought to restrain the priests and
people from doing sacrifice to them, it is interesting to
note what words Paul uses in addressing them. As with
the Jews he here seeks first of all a common ground. He
says, "We are men of like passions with you and preach
unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto
the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the
sea, and all things that are therein; who in times past
suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
Nevertheless He left not Himself without a witness, in that He
did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful
seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts
14:15-17). We find the same earnestness the same desire
to preach the gospel to the heathen here as to the Jews
elsewhere. But the Jews who had made trouble in
Antioch and Iconium for the missionaries came to Lystra and,
forming a plot against Paul, persuaded the people and
stoned him so that