Paul and Barnabas, along with John Mark, now take off on the first missionary trip.
What do we learn from their travels?
The are bold and courageous. They go anywhere, take whatever dangers there are - being thrown out of a city, being stoned by opponents. They just keep on going.
They preach about Jesus in the same way Peter had preached -- there is not a different message.
And they meet people where they are. To the Jews in the synagogue, they show how Jesus follows on from the line of David, but differed from David because God raised him up. To the Gentiles they echoed the language that God would make them a light to the world.
Besides preaching they pronounced the healing of the crippled man in Lystra, and spoke to the Greek crowd of the living God, greater than Zeus and Hermes whom they worshiped.
And they helped give structure to the church, appointing elders or presbyters.
 |
| Stoning of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra |
Thank you for providing this map and commentary. This is one of the better maps of this journey that we found on the internet and referenced it in our online study of Acts 12-13. http://www.listeningforgod.org/11/Bible365_1116.html
ReplyDeleteGod Bless!