Acts 14 Round Two: Riots And Revivals

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.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Today’s Focus: Acts 14
• 0:42 Community Updates And Call For Stories
• 1:25 Shift From Peter To Paul’s Mission
• 3:13 Iconium: Division, Signs, And Threats
• 4:25 Lystra: Healing And Mistaken Idolatry
• 5:45 Paul Stoned And Remarkably Restored
• 7:20 Circling Back: Strengthening New Churches
• 9:10 Hardships, Hope, And Closing Prayer

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 14. And if I were to give this one a title, it would be Riots and Revivals. That is the ministry of Paul. Wherever he goes, there's either revival or there is a riot because he just, that's just the way it is. And we're going to get to see the end of his first of three missionary journeys. We're going to get to that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to this YouTube channel. If you listen to it on a podcast or my favorites, make sure you are leaving us a five-star review. And I would love for you to go to the Bible breakdown discussion. And if you didn't do it yesterday, do it today. I want to know if you've ever been on a missionary journey trip. If it was in your state, if it's within your country, if it's within your continent. I want I want to know where it was. I want to know where it went, where it was and give us like a quick two or three sentence synopsis of how it went. I look forward to hearing your stories down below. I love going on missionary trips. I don't get to go that much, but I love going, but I'm not a called missionary, but I love going and I love even more sending people. So I love hearing your stories. Well, as we were saying yesterday, there's a major shift that now occurs in the Gospel of Acts. Remember that gospel in Acts. I'm hoping by the time we're finished with Acts, I stopped saying gospel, but we'll see. That's what I'm praying for in Jesus' name. But as we see, there's been a shift that's occurred. And don't forget, the doctor-turned historian, investigative journalist, Luke, the guy who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the gospel of Luke, is now writing the narrative of the first 30, 35 years of the church. In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit has filled the church, and then they start going and spreading the gospel, and different things start to happen, and people are getting killed, and the gospel is spreading. And then Saul, he ends up becoming, you know, he was an antagonist, then he becomes a follower, and it's just amazing. It's just growing and growing, growing. And man, the enemy's trying to stop it, but you can't stop the church, man. The church has been empowered by the Holy Spirit. And man, if there was one thing we could learn from this, you cannot stop God's church. It's going to move forward. And then we see in the last couple of chapters, a noticeable shift has occurred. For the first 12 chapters, their main focus is in Jerusalem and the ministry of Peter and a few of those other ones. But as it starts to shift over, we now get to see the ministry of Paul as he takes three different missionary journeys to spread the gospel to the known world at the time, to the Gentiles and to everywhere. Well, he started his first missionary journey in the last chapter, and now we're going to watch as he goes to these different cities spreading the gospel, and we're going to see him finish his first missionary journey and go back to his kind of adopted home, the city of Antioch. But before he can get there, there's going to be some shenanigans that's going to happen. And I can't wait to share it with you. So if you get your Bibles open with me to Acts chapter 14, we're going to open it up. We're going to read out of the New Living Translation, get your coffee ready. It's going to be a wild ride before it's over with. You ready? Here we go. Verse 1. The same thing happened in Econium. And if you remember from the last chapter, there was this time where they were spreading the gospel to the Jewish people, but then some of the Jewish people kind of rose up against them. And so we see the same thing happen. Paul and Barnabas went to the Jewish synagogue and preached with such power that a great number of both Jews and Greeks became believers. Some of the Jews, however, spurned God's message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas. But the apostles stayed there a long time, preaching boldly about the grace of the Lord, and the Lord proved their message was true by giving them the power to do miraculous signs and wonders. Remember, signs and wonders are to spread the gospel. They are signs that make you wonder about the gospel. Verse 4 But the people of the town were divided in their opinion about them. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles. Then a mob of Gentiles and Jews, along with their leaders, decided to attack and stone them. And when the apostles learned of it, they fled to the region of Lesania and to the towns of Lystra and Derby and the surrounding area. And there they preached the good news. Verse 8. While they were in Lystra, Paul and 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 as Paul preached, and looking straight at him, Paul realized he had faith to be healed. So Paul called to him in a loud voice, Stand up! And the man jumped to his feet and started walking. Then the crowd saw that what Paul had done, they shouted in their local dialect, which is not where he was going with this. These men are gods in human form. And they decided that Barnabas, well, he must be that Greek god Zeus, and Paul, well, he must be Hermes, since he is the chief speaker. So now they were now the temple of Zeus was located just outside the town. So the priests of the temple and the crowds brought bulls and wreaths of flowers to the town gates, and they prepared to offer sacrifices to the apostles. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening, they tore their clothes in dismay and ran out among the people, shouting, Idiots! No, no, that's what I said. No, no, no, no. They said, Friends, why are you doing this? We are merely human beings, just like you. We have come to bring you good news that you should turn from these worthless things and turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. In the past, he permitted all the nations to go their own ways, but he never left them without evidence of his goodness. For instance, he sends you the rain and good crops, and he gives you food and joyful hearts. But even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the people from sacrificing to them. Then some of the Jews arrived from Antioch and Aconium and won the crowds to their side. They stoned Paul and dragged him out of town, thinking he was dead. But the believers gathered around him, got up, and went back into the town. He got up and went back to the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derby. Now pause, I gotta tell you about something. Later in the letters of Paul, there is a time when he says, I know a man who either was in the body or out of the body, I can't say. He went to heaven and he saw things that are unspeakable that I can't tell you about. And he said, Whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. Well, we know that when Paul was talking about, I knew a man, he's modestly talking about himself. And he's saying that there was a man, he's like, I don't know if he died or not, but all I know is he went to heaven. Well, most historians think that they're talking that Paul's referring to what just happened. What historians think happened is when these ridiculous Jewish people arrived, they stirred up the people so much that they stoned Paul. Now, if you know much about stoning at the time, they didn't just throw rocks at you, but an actual official stoning would be they would hold you down and get a big rock and smash it on your chest that would that would then, of course, cave your chest in, and then would use rocks to finish the job and would kill you. So what happened is they stoned him, then they dragged him out of town. That means they thought he was dead. And it says they thought he was dead. So historians and scholars think he 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 and went back into the town. And so what a lot of scholars think 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 he died or not, but I know he went to heaven for a little while and came back. Scholars think he did die. And he went to heaven for a few minutes, but they gathered around and prayed for him, and he came back to life. I think that's amazing. And the next day, he went ahead and left. He's like, hey, they they they killed me. So uh y'all win this round, I'll be back. Okay. Verse 21 says this after preaching the good news in Derby and making many disciples, Paul and Barnabas returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch and Pisidia, where they strengthened the believers. So they went back to the other towns. I don't know, possibly going through Lystra kind of fast, on their way back to where they had come from. They encouraged them to continue in the faith, reminding them that they must suffer hardships to enter the kingdom of heaven. It's a great lesson for us. Paul and Barnabas appointed leaders in every church with prayer and fasting. They turned the elders over to the care of the Lord in whom they had put their trust. Then they traveled back through Pis Pis Pisidia and to Pamphylia. They preached the word to Perga and went down to Italia. Finally, they returned by ship to Antioch of Syria, where their journey had begun. The believers there had entrusted them to the grace of God to do the work they had now completed. Upon arriving in Antioch, they called the church together and reported everything that God had done through them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles too. They stay there with the believers for a long time. Now, there's so many great things out of this, but the one thing I think that we could really grow from is when Paul said to the believers, I think he would still say to us today, and that is this if you remember back in verse 22, we must suffer many hardships to enter the kingdom of heaven. Now that doesn't mean that we purposely go out looking for fights or we go out to to do bad things to people. But what he's saying is that bad times will come. And I wonder if he's like, remember what they did to me and Lystra. I died. And I if if if that is an indicator, 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 will not be afraid. Why? Because you walk closely beside me. We don't ask for bad things, we don't want bad things, but we're not afraid of bad things. You know why? Because God is with us every step of the way. And remember, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. He is overwhelmed and he's filled us and he's empowered us for the work of ministry. So we're never alone. And whatever happens, God is with us all along the way. Hope that encourages you today. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for your goodness and for your mercy. Thank you, God, that a journey with you is the adventure of a lifetime. And it goes through twists and turns and hills and valleys, but you're always with us. I pray today that we will see life as an adventure, see life as an opportunity to experience your goodness in all things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Remember, Acts 1.8 says this. Say it with me. Jesus said, You will receive power when? When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer today is that you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and you will be his witnesses everywhere in your life today. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 15.