There were many Gentiles present. The Jews, as a body, did not favorably receive this address of Paul. The Gentiles, on the contrary, entreated him to preach to them again on the next sabbath. There were also many of the Jews who united with them in this request. During the week, Paul and Barnabas were doubtless busy preaching the gospel as they could find opportunity. The next sabbath, the synagogue was thronged. “Almost the whole city came together to hear the word ofGod; but, when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy,and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.”[117]
It is of no avail to present the truth to those who are determined not to receive it. To these cavilling Jews Paul and Barnabas replied, “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles: for so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles,that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”[118]
Luke adds the expressive words, “And, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.”
The successful preaching of the gospel has almost invariably excited corresponding antagonism. Converts were multiplied; and penetrating the region around, proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation through a suffering Messiah, they established flourishing churches in many places. Here, for the first time, we find female influence arrayed against the cause of Christ. The hostile Jews won to their side some ladies of high respectability, and, through them, influenced the political leaders. Thus so formidable an opposition was roused, that Paul and Barnabas were expelled from the city, and from its immediately surrounding region.
They therefore pressed on their way to Iconium, nearly a hundred miles east from Antioch. Here, also, they found a mixed population of Greeks, Jews, and Romans. They repaired to the synagogue, and preached the gospel of Jesus with such success, that it is recorded, “A great multitude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, believed.” As usual, opposition was excited; but it was at first not sufficiently strong to drive them from the city. We are told that “long time abode they, speaking boldly in the Lord.” At length, the opposition assumed very formidable proportions. A riotous mob was roused by the unbelieving Jews, who threatened to stone Paul and Barnabas.
They therefore withdrew from Iconium; and, continuing their journey eastward (forty or fifty miles), they reached the small town of Lystra. Here they found a man who had been a cripple from his birth, and who had never walked. Paul healed him. The rude, superstitious people, accustomed to the idolatrous worship of almost any number of gods, exclaimed, “The gods are come to us in the likeness of men!”
Assuming that Paul and Barnabas were two of their favorite gods,—Jupiter and Mercurius,—they summoned the priest from the temple of Jupiter, which was reared before the principal gate of the city, and, with garlands and sacrifices, were preparing to offer idolatrous worship to the strangers. When Paul and Barnabas perceived what the Lystrians were about to do, they were horror-stricken, and, rushing in among the idolaters, remonstrated so vehemently, as to dissuade them, though with difficulty, from their purpose.
Some malignant Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and roused the fickle-minded mob, so that they stoned Paul, and drew him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. The converts, who were not numerous enough to prevent this violence, gathered around the bruised and gory body; when Paul revived, and, with characteristic bravery, went back again into the city.
The next day, Paul, accompanied by Barnabas, proceeded to another city (Derbe), a few miles farther east. Here they preached the gospel for some time, gaining many disciples; when “they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting,they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.”[119]
They then returned by the same route they had already traversed, preaching as they went, till they reached Perga, whence they took ship for Antioch. It is conjectured thatthis tour occupied about a year. Upon their arrival in Antioch, they gathered all the disciples, and recounted to them the events of their excursion, dwelling particularly upon the fact that God “had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.” They both continued in Antioch for a “long time,” preaching the gospel.