Chapter 16: The Lystra Healing
Second year of Paul’s first missionary journey
The man had never walked. Born with twisted legs and malformed feet, he had spent his entire life dependent on others for mobility, begging at the gates of Lystra while the world passed by on functional limbs he could only dream of possessing.
But on this particular day, as Paul and Barnabas preached in the city square about Jesus Christ the healer, something began to stir in the lame man’s spirit—not hope, which had died years ago, but faith. Biblical faith. The kind that “comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Paul was explaining how Jesus had healed the paralyzed man lowered through the roof when his eyes fell on the crippled beggar. Immediately, the same anointing that had enabled him to blind Elymas the sorcerer began to flow through him with creative power.
Paul “observed him intently and saw that he had faith to be healed.” This wasn’t casual observation—it was apostolic discernment, the supernatural ability to perceive spiritual conditions that determine whether divine power can manifest through human vessels.
“Stand up straight on your feet!” Paul commanded with a loud voice, his words carrying the same authority that had spoken the universe into existence.
The effect was instantaneous and complete. The man leaped and walked—not the gradual rehabilitation of physical therapy, but the immediate restoration of divine healing that recognizes no medical limitations.
Divine Honors
The crowds who witnessed the creative miracle had never seen anything approaching this level of supernatural power. In their pagan understanding, only gods could perform such works, and they immediately concluded that the gods had come down in human form.
“Barnabas they called Zeus,” Luke recorded, “and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.”
The priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, intending to sacrifice with the multitudes. The entire city was preparing to worship Paul and Barnabas as divine beings rather than understanding them as human vessels through whom the one true God was demonstrating His power.
When Paul and Barnabas heard this, they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out with the same horror that Mordecai had shown when Haman demanded worship, the same revulsion that Peter had displayed when Cornelius fell at his feet.
“Men, why are you doing these things?” Paul shouted above the crowd’s preparations for sacrifice. “We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them.”
Paul’s impromptu sermon was a masterpiece of contextual evangelism, meeting pagan polytheists where they were while pointing them toward the Creator who had revealed Himself through Jesus Christ.
“Who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
Even with these words, Paul and Barnabas could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them. The power that had healed the lame man was so obviously supernatural that the crowd’s only categories for understanding it were divine manifestation.
The Stoning
But three days later, Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived in Lystra with a different interpretation of the miraculous healing. Instead of seeing divine power, they saw dangerous deception that threatened their religious authority.
These weren’t casual opponents—they were religious leaders who had traveled hundreds of miles specifically to stop Paul’s ministry through coordinated character assassination and physical violence.
They persuaded the multitudes through the same techniques that had been used against Stephen: false accusations, twisted quotations, and manufactured outrage designed to turn public opinion against the apostles.
The same crowd that had tried to worship Paul as Hermes now dragged him outside the city and stoned him, supposing him to be dead. The transformation from worship to violence happened with the speed that characterizes mob mentality when spiritual deception replaces divine revelation.
Luke’s account is medically precise: they “stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.” This wasn’t symbolic violence—it was attempted execution through the same method that had killed Stephen.
But as the disciples stood around Paul’s motionless body, expecting to bury their apostle, divine intervention occurred that paralleled the resurrection power that had raised Jesus from the dead.
“He rose up and went into the city,” Luke recorded with the matter-of-fact tone that characterized his documentation of supernatural events.
Paul didn’t just survive the stoning—he was supernaturally restored to full health and ministry capacity through the same power that had healed the lame man earlier that week.
Derbe and the Return Journey
The next day Paul departed with Barnabas to Derbe, where they preached the gospel and made many disciples without facing the violent opposition that had characterized their previous stops.
But instead of continuing to new territory, they made the dangerous decision to return through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch—the very cities where they had faced persecution, arrest, and attempted murder.
“We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God,” Paul told the new converts, his body still bearing the marks of the stoning he had survived through divine intervention.
This wasn’t masochistic martyrdom—it was apostolic wisdom that understood the importance of establishing sustainable church leadership before moving to unreached regions.
In every city, they appointed elders through prayer and fasting, commending them to the Lord in whom they had believed. These weren’t casual appointments made through human criteria, but Spirit-directed selections that would determine whether the new churches survived and multiplied.
Paul’s methodology was becoming clear: preach the Gospel with supernatural confirmation, face persecution with supernatural endurance, establish leadership through supernatural guidance, and move to the next region with supernatural protection.
The pattern would be repeated in every city across the Roman Empire, establishing churches that would become the foundation for taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth through believers empowered by the same Holy Spirit who had raised Jesus from the dead.
Chapter 17: The Jerusalem Council
Three years after the first missionary journey
The letter arrived in Antioch like a theological bombshell: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
The delegation from Judea spoke with the authority of men who had walked with Jesus, who had been present at Pentecost, who understood the foundations of covenant relationship with the God of Israel. But their message threatened to destroy everything Paul and Barnabas had accomplished among the Gentiles.
“Brothers,” Paul said at the emergency church meeting convened to address the crisis, “if circumcision is required for salvation, then the cross of Christ is made void. If Gentiles must become Jews before they can become Christians, then Jesus died for nothing.”
The debate was fierce because the stakes were ultimate: either salvation was by grace through faith alone, or it required adherence to Jewish law. Either the Gospel was for all nations, or it was limited to those who submitted to Jewish cultural requirements.
“Therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them,” the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas and certain others to Jerusalem, to the apostles and elders, about this question.
This wasn’t a casual theological discussion—it was the defining moment that would determine whether Christianity remained a Jewish sect or became a global faith accessible to every nation, tribe, and tongue.
The Jerusalem Assembly
When they arrived in Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas were received by the church and the apostles and the elders; and they declared all things that God had done with them among the Gentiles.
But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”
The apostles and elders came together to consider this matter, and after much dispute, Peter rose up and spoke with the authority of someone who had personally received divine revelation about Gentile inclusion.
“Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe,” Peter began, referencing his experience with Cornelius.
“So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”
Peter’s theological reasoning was devastatingly simple: “Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”
The assembly kept silent as Barnabas and Paul declared how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles. The supernatural confirmation of their ministry spoke louder than theological arguments—God Himself was demonstrating His acceptance of the Gentiles through signs that could not be denied.
James’s Judgment
When they had finished speaking, James stood up—not just any James, but the brother of Jesus, the leader of the Jerusalem church, the man whose opinion carried more weight than any other voice in the assembly.
“Men and brethren, listen to me,” James began with the measured authority of someone who had grown up in the same household as the Messiah.
“Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written:”
James quoted Amos 9:11-12 with the precision of someone who understood that biblical prophecy was being fulfilled in real time through the Gentile conversions: “‘After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things.'”
His conclusion was definitive: “Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.”
The decision was both theological and practical: salvation was by grace through faith, not by works of the law. But Gentile converts should observe basic moral standards that would enable fellowship with Jewish believers without causing unnecessary offense.
The Letter
The apostles and elders wrote a letter that would shape Christianity for the next two thousand years:
“The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings.
Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be circumcised and keep the law’—to whom we gave no such commandment—it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
The phrase “it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us” revealed the supernatural nature of the decision-making process. This wasn’t human compromise or political negotiation—it was divine revelation received through apostolic consensus.
Chapter 18: The Macedonian Vision
Six months after the Jerusalem Council
The argument between Paul and Barnabas was sharp enough to split their ministry partnership permanently. John Mark’s abandonment during the first missionary journey had created a rift that even apostolic grace couldn’t immediately heal.
“Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark,” Luke recorded with journalistic objectivity. “But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work.”
The contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus, while Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God.
What appeared to be ministry failure was actually divine multiplication: instead of one apostolic team, there were now two, covering twice as much territory with the same urgency for reaching the unreached.
Paul’s second missionary journey began with a visit to Derbe and Lystra, where he found a young disciple named Timothy whose mother was Jewish but whose father was Greek—a perfect representative of the Gospel’s power to unite different cultures in Christ.
“Paul wanted to have him go on with him,” but there was a practical problem: Timothy was uncircumcised, which would create unnecessary barriers for ministry in Jewish communities.
In a decision that demonstrated apostolic wisdom, Paul circumcised Timothy—not for salvation, which the Jerusalem Council had definitively ruled was by grace through faith alone, but for evangelistic effectiveness in reaching Jews who would otherwise reject their ministry.
Divine Redirection
As they traveled through the region, delivering the decrees determined by the Jerusalem Council, the churches were strengthened in the faith and increased in number daily.
But when they attempted to go into Asia to preach the Gospel, “they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit.” This wasn’t human planning being frustrated by circumstances—it was divine guidance redirecting apostolic ministry toward specific regions according to Heaven’s timetable.
When they came to Mysia and tried to go into Bithynia, “the Spirit did not permit them.” Again, supernatural guidance was constraining their movements in ways that would only make sense when God’s ultimate purpose was revealed.
Passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas, where Paul received one of the most significant visions in Christian history.
“A vision appeared to Paul in the night,” Luke recorded with the precision of someone who understood the difference between dreams and divine revelation. “A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.'”
The vision was so clear and compelling that Paul immediately concluded that the Lord had called them to preach the gospel in Macedonia. The same supernatural guidance that had redirected them away from Asia was now directing them toward Europe.
The Philippian Breakthrough
Their first European convert was a woman—Lydia, a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God among a group of women gathered for prayer by the riverside.
“The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul,” Luke recorded, describing the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that must precede every genuine conversion.
Lydia and her household were baptized immediately, and she constrained them to stay at her house—the first recorded Christian hospitality in Europe, establishing a pattern of house church multiplication that would characterize the Gospel’s expansion across the continent.
But their most dramatic encounter came through a slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
“This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, ‘These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation,'” Luke reported.
The demonic testimony was accurate but unwelcome. Paul, greatly annoyed after many days, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.”
The deliverance was instantaneous and complete, demonstrating the superior authority of the name of Jesus over every demonic power. But it also created immediate economic consequences for the girl’s owners, who had lost their source of supernatural income.
The Philippian Imprisonment
When the slave girl’s masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities, making accusations designed to arouse Roman prejudice against foreign religions.
“These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.”
The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods—the standard Roman punishment for disturbing the peace.
After laying many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. The jailer put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks, ensuring they couldn’t escape even if they survived their injuries.
But at midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. This wasn’t the desperate pleading of victims, but the worshipful response of believers who understood that persecution was simply another context for demonstrating God’s faithfulness.
“Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.”
The supernatural deliverance was even more dramatic than Peter’s angelic rescue, affecting not just the apostles but every prisoner in the facility through divine intervention that defied natural explanation.
Chapter 19: The Thessalonian Letters
Six months after the Philippian earthquake
The persecution in Thessalonica had forced Paul to leave before he wanted to, but the Holy Spirit was giving him supernatural insight into the spiritual condition of the believers he’d left behind.
Through prophetic revelation, Paul could see that the young church was facing theological confusion about the second coming of Christ, workplace laziness disguised as spiritual devotion, and the grief that comes from not understanding the resurrection hope.
“We give thanks to God always for you all,” Paul dictated to his scribe, “making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father.”
The letter that would become 1 Thessalonians was more than pastoral encouragement—it was apostolic instruction delivered through the same authority that had enabled Paul to command demons to leave and earthquakes to open prison doors.
“For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance,” Paul wrote, referencing the supernatural confirmation that had accompanied his preaching in their city.
Paul’s methodology was consistent: preach the Gospel, confirm it with signs and wonders, establish leadership through supernatural guidance, and maintain contact through letters that carried the same spiritual authority as face-to-face ministry.
The Rapture Revelation
The theological crisis in Thessalonica centered on believers who had died before Christ’s return. The surviving church members were grieving “as others who have no hope,” suggesting they didn’t understand the resurrection promises that were central to the Gospel.
Paul’s response was direct divine revelation about the sequence of end-times events: “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.”
The phrase “by the word of the Lord” indicated that Paul was receiving direct revelation from Jesus Christ about future events, not making theological speculation based on Old Testament prophecies.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
This was the first detailed description of what would later be called the rapture—the supernatural catching away of believers to meet Christ in the air before His visible return to establish His earthly kingdom.
“Therefore comfort one another with these words,” Paul concluded, providing eternal hope grounded in supernatural intervention rather than human optimism.
The Day of the Lord
But Paul’s second letter to Thessalonica addressed an even more serious problem: false teaching about the timing of Christ’s return that was causing believers to abandon their responsibilities in anticipation of immediate rapture.
“Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come.”
Paul was combating the same kind of deception that Jesus had warned about: false prophets claiming special revelation about the timing of His return.
“Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”
This was prophetic revelation about the Antichrist—the future world leader who would demand worship and persecute believers during the tribulation period that would precede Christ’s millennial kingdom.
“And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.”
Paul was revealing that the Holy Spirit, working through the church, was restraining the full manifestation of evil until God’s appointed time for the final conflict between the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of darkness.
The Work Ethic
But Paul’s most practical instruction addressed believers who had quit their jobs in anticipation of Christ’s immediate return: “If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.”
This wasn’t harsh legalism—it was apostolic wisdom that understood the importance of maintaining testimony through responsible behavior while waiting for Christ’s return.
“We hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies,” Paul wrote, addressing the spiritual laziness that often accompanies prophetic speculation.
“Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.”
The command carried apostolic authority—not human opinion, but divine instruction delivered through the same supernatural calling that had commissioned Paul to plant churches throughout the Roman Empire.
The Thessalonian correspondence established the pattern for all subsequent New Testament epistles: apostolic authority addressing practical problems through divine revelation, providing instruction that would guide churches until Christ’s return.
And in Corinth, where Paul was writing these letters, he was already receiving visions and supernatural guidance that would direct him toward the next phase of his mission to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12
