THROUGH MANY HARDSHIPS
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It does not sound like the most encouraging message—that the way of the kingdom of God would encounter many hardships—but Paul and Barnabas could not be accused of sugarcoating the experience of following Jesus. They had only just escaped Lystra, where the crowd turned on them, and Paul had been stoned, dragged outside the city, and left for dead. He would have still been nursing those wounds when they arrived in Derbe, “where they preached the gospel . . . and won a large number of disciples.” Then they turned around and went right back to Lystra!—and Antioch and Iconium as well, the home towns of the Jewish leaders who had caused them such trouble! While the message that they were preaching was important, the fact that Paul and Barnabas returned to these cities would have encouraged the new disciples in these places. Their mere presence in each of these places was a demonstration and an example of courage. They did not leave these new converts alone to face the attacks from these same persecutors, and, in risking being there with them, their encouragement to faithfulness was more than words. Paul and Barnabas also took the opportunity on these return visits to strengthen the church organizationally by appointing local leaders and, “with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust” (Acts 14:23).
Seeing the treatment of Paul and Barnabas, these new leaders must have been people of courage, who would continue to encourage their communities of new disciples by their own trust in God and His presence with them. Courage is contagious, particularly when intentionally fostered and founded on the power and promises of God.
