Riots or revivals—why does Paul keep finding both? We open Acts 14 and walk city to city with Paul and Barnabas as bold preaching collides with mixed crowds, stunning miracles, and sudden opposition. In Iconium, the message of grace lands with power, dividing the town and setting the stage for a flight to safety. In Lystra, a crippled man walks, the crowd misreads the miracle, and chaos swells into misplaced worship, calling the missionaries gods. Paul and Barnabas pull the moment back to center, grounding wonder in creation and inviting everyone to turn from empty idols to the living God who sends rain, crops, and joy.
The mood flips fast when opponents arrive. Stones fly, Paul is dragged out for dead, and the believers gather in a circle of fragile hope. Then he rises. That single act—standing up after the stones—becomes a living sermon on endurance. The next day they move on to Derbe and keep building, proving that resilience can preach louder than a platform. From there they retrace their steps, strengthening disciples and appointing elders with prayer and fasting. Structure follows spirit. The mission matures as leadership takes root, and these young churches learn a hard but freeing truth: we must face hardship on the way into the kingdom, yet we never face it alone.
Back in Antioch, the team reports everything God has done and how a wide door has opened to the Gentiles. The arc of the chapter blends courage, clarity, and community: signs that point to Christ, wounds that don’t stop the work, and leaders who steward growth for the long haul. If you’ve ever wondered how to hold steady when crowds swing from praise to anger, or how to translate spiritual power into everyday faithfulness, Acts 14 offers a map. Listen now, share it with a friend who needs courage today, and if the message resonates, subscribe and leave a review so more people can join the journey.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Episode Transcript
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Acts chapter 14.
(00:22):
And if I were to give this one atitle, it would be Riots and
Revivals.
That is the ministry of Paul.
Wherever he goes, there's eitherrevival or there is a riot
because he just, that's just theway it is.
And we're going to get to seethe end of his first of three
missionary journeys.
We're going to get to that injust a moment.
(00:42):
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
like, share, and subscribe tothis YouTube channel.
If you listen to it on a podcastor my favorites, make sure you
are leaving us a five-starreview.
And I would love for you to goto the Bible breakdown
discussion.
And if you didn't do ityesterday, do it today.
I want to know if you've everbeen on a missionary journey
trip.
If it was in your state, if it'swithin your country, if it's
(01:04):
within your continent.
I want I want to know where itwas.
I want to know where it went,where it was and give us like a
quick two or three sentencesynopsis of how it went.
I look forward to hearing yourstories down below.
I love going on missionarytrips.
I don't get to go that much, butI love going, but I'm not a
called missionary, but I lovegoing and I love even more
sending people.
So I love hearing your stories.
(01:25):
Well, as we were sayingyesterday, there's a major shift
that now occurs in the Gospel ofActs.
Remember that gospel in Acts.
I'm hoping by the time we'refinished with Acts, I stopped
saying gospel, but we'll see.
That's what I'm praying for inJesus' name.
But as we see, there's been ashift that's occurred.
And don't forget, thedoctor-turned historian,
(01:45):
investigative journalist, Luke,the guy who was inspired by the
Holy Spirit to write the gospelof Luke, is now writing the
narrative of the first 30, 35years of the church.
In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit hasfilled the church, and then they
start going and spreading thegospel, and different things
start to happen, and people aregetting killed, and the gospel
(02:07):
is spreading.
And then Saul, he ends upbecoming, you know, he was an
antagonist, then he becomes afollower, and it's just amazing.
It's just growing and growing,growing.
And man, the enemy's trying tostop it, but you can't stop the
church, man.
The church has been empowered bythe Holy Spirit.
And man, if there was one thingwe could learn from this, you
cannot stop God's church.
It's going to move forward.
(02:28):
And then we see in the lastcouple of chapters, a noticeable
shift has occurred.
For the first 12 chapters, theirmain focus is in Jerusalem and
the ministry of Peter and a fewof those other ones.
But as it starts to shift over,we now get to see the ministry
of Paul as he takes threedifferent missionary journeys to
spread the gospel to the knownworld at the time, to the
(02:51):
Gentiles and to everywhere.
Well, he started his firstmissionary journey in the last
chapter, and now we're going towatch as he goes to these
different cities spreading thegospel, and we're going to see
him finish his first missionaryjourney and go back to his kind
of adopted home, the city ofAntioch.
But before he can get there,there's going to be some
shenanigans that's going tohappen.
(03:12):
And I can't wait to share itwith you.
So if you get your Bibles openwith me to Acts chapter 14,
we're going to open it up.
We're going to read out of theNew Living Translation, get your
coffee ready.
It's going to be a wild ridebefore it's over with.
You ready?
Here we go.
Verse 1.
The same thing happened inEconium.
And if you remember from thelast chapter, there was this
time where they were spreadingthe gospel to the Jewish people,
(03:33):
but then some of the Jewishpeople kind of rose up against
them.
And so we see the same thinghappen.
Paul and Barnabas went to theJewish synagogue and preached
with such power that a greatnumber of both Jews and Greeks
became believers.
Some of the Jews, however,spurned God's message and
poisoned the minds of theGentiles against Paul and
Barnabas.
(03:53):
But the apostles stayed there along time, preaching boldly
about the grace of the Lord, andthe Lord proved their message
was true by giving them thepower to do miraculous signs and
wonders.
Remember, signs and wonders areto spread the gospel.
They are signs that make youwonder about the gospel.
Verse 4 But the people of thetown were divided in their
(04:17):
opinion about them.
Some sided with the Jews, andsome with the apostles.
Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews,along with their leaders,
decided to attack and stonethem.
And when the apostles learned ofit, they fled to the region of
Lesania and to the towns ofLystra and Derby and the
surrounding area.
And there they preached the goodnews.
(04:38):
Verse 8.
While they were in Lystra, Pauland Barnabas came upon a man
with crippled feet.
He had been that way from birth,so he had never walked.
He was sitting and listening asPaul preached, and looking
straight at him, Paul realizedhe had faith to be healed.
So Paul called to him in a loudvoice, Stand up! And the man
jumped to his feet and startedwalking.
(04:59):
Then the crowd saw that whatPaul had done, they shouted in
their local dialect, which isnot where he was going with
this.
These men are gods in humanform.
And they decided that Barnabas,well, he must be that Greek god
Zeus, and Paul, well, he must beHermes, since he is the chief
speaker.
So now they were now the templeof Zeus was located just outside
(05:22):
the town.
So the priests of the temple andthe crowds brought bulls and
wreaths of flowers to the towngates, and they prepared to
offer sacrifices to theapostles.
But when the apostles Barnabasand Paul heard what was
happening, they tore theirclothes in dismay and ran out
among the people, shouting,Idiots! No, no, that's what I
(05:44):
said.
No, no, no, no.
They said, Friends, why are youdoing this?
We are merely human beings, justlike you.
We have come to bring you goodnews that you should turn from
these worthless things and turnto the living God, who made
heaven and earth, the sea, andeverything in them.
(06:04):
In the past, he permitted allthe nations to go their own
ways, but he never left themwithout evidence of his
goodness.
For instance, he sends you therain and good crops, and he
gives you food and joyfulhearts.
But even with these words, Pauland Barnabas could scarcely
restrain the people fromsacrificing to them.
(06:24):
Then some of the Jews arrivedfrom Antioch and Aconium and won
the crowds to their side.
They stoned Paul and dragged himout of town, thinking he was
dead.
But the believers gatheredaround him, got up, and went
back into the town.
He got up and went back to thetown.
The next day he left withBarnabas for Derby.
Now pause, I gotta tell youabout something.
(06:45):
Later in the letters of Paul,there is a time when he says, I
know a man who either was in thebody or out of the body, I can't
say.
He went to heaven and he sawthings that are unspeakable that
I can't tell you about.
And he said, Whether in the bodyor out of the body, I don't
know.
Well, we know that when Paul wastalking about, I knew a man,
he's modestly talking abouthimself.
(07:08):
And he's saying that there was aman, he's like, I don't know if
he died or not, but all I knowis he went to heaven.
Well, most historians think thatthey're talking that Paul's
referring to what just happened.
What historians think happenedis when these ridiculous Jewish
people arrived, they stirred upthe people so much that they
(07:30):
stoned Paul.
Now, if you know much aboutstoning at the time, they didn't
just throw rocks at you, but anactual official stoning would be
they would hold you down and geta big rock and smash it on your
chest that would that wouldthen, of course, cave your chest
in, and then would use rocks tofinish the job and would kill
(07:50):
you.
So what happened is they stonedhim, then they dragged him out
of town.
That means they thought he wasdead.
And it says they thought he wasdead.
So historians and scholars thinkhe did die.
They think he died.
But then it said in verse 20,but as the believers gathered
around him, he got up.
He came back to life again andwent back into the town.
(08:12):
And so what a lot of scholarsthink is when Paul is saying
there was a man I knew once,inside the body or outside the
body, I don't know.
Other words, I'm not sure if hedied or not, but I know he went
to heaven for a little while andcame back.
Scholars think he did die.
And he went to heaven for a fewminutes, but they gathered
around and prayed for him, andhe came back to life.
I think that's amazing.
(08:33):
And the next day, he went aheadand left.
He's like, hey, they they theykilled me.
So uh y'all win this round, I'llbe back.
Okay.
Verse 21 says this afterpreaching the good news in Derby
and making many disciples, Pauland Barnabas returned to Lystra,
Iconium, and Antioch andPisidia, where they strengthened
(08:53):
the believers.
So they went back to the othertowns.
I don't know, possibly goingthrough Lystra kind of fast, on
their way back to where they hadcome from.
They encouraged them to continuein the faith, reminding them
that they must suffer hardshipsto enter the kingdom of heaven.
It's a great lesson for us.
Paul and Barnabas appointedleaders in every church with
prayer and fasting.
They turned the elders over tothe care of the Lord in whom
(09:15):
they had put their trust.
Then they traveled back throughPis Pis Pisidia and to
Pamphylia.
They preached the word to Pergaand went down to Italia.
Finally, they returned by shipto Antioch of Syria, where their
journey had begun.
The believers there hadentrusted them to the grace of
(09:36):
God to do the work they had nowcompleted.
Upon arriving in Antioch, theycalled the church together and
reported everything that God haddone through them and how he had
opened the door of faith to theGentiles too.
They stay there with thebelievers for a long time.
Now, there's so many greatthings out of this, but the one
thing I think that we couldreally grow from is when Paul
(09:57):
said to the believers, I thinkhe would still say to us today,
and that is this if you rememberback in verse 22, we must suffer
many hardships to enter thekingdom of heaven.
Now that doesn't mean that wepurposely go out looking for
fights or we go out to to do badthings to people.
But what he's saying is that badtimes will come.
(10:17):
And I wonder if he's like,remember what they did to me and
Lystra.
I died.
And I if if if that is anindicator, we're gonna have bad
days.
But here's the great thing.
The Bible says in Psalm 23,though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I willnot be afraid.
Why?
Because you walk closely besideme.
(10:39):
We don't ask for bad things, wedon't want bad things, but we're
not afraid of bad things.
You know why?
Because God is with us everystep of the way.
And remember, the Holy Spiritlives inside of us.
He is overwhelmed and he'sfilled us and he's empowered us
for the work of ministry.
So we're never alone.
And whatever happens, God iswith us all along the way.
(11:02):
Hope that encourages you today.
Let's pray.
God, thank you so much for yourgoodness and for your mercy.
Thank you, God, that a journeywith you is the adventure of a
lifetime.
And it goes through twists andturns and hills and valleys, but
you're always with us.
I pray today that we will seelife as an adventure, see life
as an opportunity to experienceyour goodness in all things.
In Jesus' name we pray.
(11:23):
Amen.
Remember, Acts 1.8 says this.
Say it with me.
Jesus said, You will receivepower when?
When the Holy Spirit comes uponyou, and you will be my
witnesses to the ends of theearth.
My prayer today is that you willreceive the power of the Holy
Spirit, and you will be hiswitnesses everywhere in your
life today.
I love you.
(11:44):
I'll see you tomorrow for Actschapter 15.
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