PODCAST
Be True to Your Faith
June 16th, 2024
Acts 14:21-28
Acts 14 concludes Paul’s first missionary journey with his and Barnabas’s return to their sending church at Syrian Antioch (see 13:1-3). While on this journey, these two missionaries testified to “the disciples” at Lystra, Iconium, and Pisidian Antioch that, “We must go through many hardships” (14:22).
They had certainly experienced hardships: “Jewish leaders” had expelled them from the region of Pisidian Antioch (13:50); they had fled Iconium because of a plot to stone them (14:5); and at Lystra, an angry mob actually stoned Paul nearly to death (vv. 19-20).
The journey wasn’t all hardship, however. In Lystra, a man lame from birth was healed (14:8-10). In Derbe, their preaching “won a large number of disciples” (v. 21).
Upon returning to their sending church, Paul and Barnabas made no mention of their journey’s hardships. Rather, they reported that “through them” God “had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles” (v. 27).
May our testimonies focus on what God is doing through us for others. Hardships pass; God’s grace extended to others through us has eternal consequences.
Author: Barry Ross
