Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch Pisidia

Acts 14:20-24 Derbe, then follow up ministry in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch Pisidia

Verses 20-21: Though supposed to be dead, Paul was not. As the disciples were standing around him, he got up and went back into the city. Luke does not say he was dead, so this is not a miracle of resurrection. However, a miracle of healing occurred. The next day after being stoned, Paul undertook a journey of about 60 miles. Notice also, though the Jews had turned a contingent against Paul and Barnabas, there were also disciples in Lystra who stood by them for the faith. 

In II Timothy 3:11, Paul refers to things Timothy had “fully known” about him, including “persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.” A reference to stoning is also found in II Corinthians 11:25 – “once was I stoned.” When Paul wrote to the Galatians “I bear in my body the marks (τα στιγματα) of the Lord Jesus” (Galatians 6:17), this well could include the marks of stoning at Lystra.[i]

Having stayed in Lystra overnight, the next day Paul and Barnabas left Lystra and went to the town of Derbe, a travel of some 60 miles. They had preached the gospel there, and “taught many.” After that they went back again to Lystra, where Paul had been stoned, then to Iconium and Antioch – the two cities from whence the opposing Jews who persuaded the people of Lystra to stone Paul had come. Consider their actions in light of Acts 13:51.

Verse 22: In the travels back where they had been, they were “confirming the souls of the disciples,” strengthening, establishing, making more firm or fixed. They were also “exhorting them to continue in the faith” (cf. 13:43), as well as warning them “that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (II Timothy 3:12). With their own eyes these disciples had seen evidence of this, in the direct opposition generally, and in the stoning of Paul particularly.

The description of the return trip is that of instructing the new disciples (teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you), rather than evangelizing unbelievers.

Verse 23: “they had ordained them elders in every church” Formal leadership is established in the churches. With prayer and fasting associated, they “commended them to the Lord” – that is, committed, entrusted (παρεθεντο cf. Luke 23:48; Acts 20:32). “The appointment of men to office in the Christian church was a matter of deep solemnity.”[ii] 

There were itinerant preachers in New Testament times, who “went every where preaching the word” (Acts 8:4). The apostles also traveled, preached, and visited. However, when churches were established and settled, an established and settled ministry was ordained in those churches. The settled ministry usually consisted of several preachers and teachers. For plurality of elders, compare Acts 13:1, Acts 20, et al.

Verse 24: Finishing their tour through Pisidia, Paul and Barnabas go to Pamphylia. They are wending their way back home.

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[i] Some Bible students connect the timing of Paul’s stoning at Lystra with II Corinthians 12, “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.”
[ii] Ripley, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 195. “One good practice in the early church, we have departed from. They prayed with fasting. We have wonderful prayer meetings, but instead of fasting we have sisters of the congregation bring in the food for the fellowship which we sometimes overstress and they are all such good cooks that we begin feasting instead of fasting.” J. E. Wright, Treatise, p. 102.