Today's Devotion

Thursday, July 9, 2026 - Acts 14:1-18

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

In spite of all of the prophecies – and the words of Jesus Himself – that the Gospel would be received by the Gentiles of the world, Paul and Barnabas continue to visit new cities and begin their work in the synagogues. This makes sense, since they are themselves Jews, they are preaching the Old Testament Scriptures. So, they don’t have to make a case for things like there only being one God, that the material world is not evil, that the God of the universe chose the Israelites centuries ago. Jesus Himself called Jews to be His disciples. It makes sense from a strategic point of view to go to the synagogues first.

But we are seeing a pattern emerging. We see it here in Iconium. At first, “A great number of both Jews and [God-fearing] Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.” Paul and Barnabus run into opposition, and this division often turns violent. And civil strife is one of those things that the tolerant Romans won’t put up with. This is the same strategy that was used against our Lord: to turn the Roman government against Christ and against Christians. For that is where the power lies. Even to this day, it’s easy to poison people’s reputations with lies and get them ‘canceled’ – whether socially or even officially. And the truth is indeed the first casualty in this war.

But the war is being prosecuted and led from above. Paul and Barnabas, threatened with stoning, “fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country. And there they continued to preach the gospel.”

But in Lystra, there is a change in the pattern. They are preaching among the pagans. St. Paul gets their attention by means of a miracle: healing a paralytic who “had never walked.” And as they did in response to the miracles of Jesus, the crowds marveled. They began to worship Paul and Barnabas, calling them “gods,” likening them to Zeus and Hermes. To those who do not follow Jesus, this would be a ticket to fame and fortune. But instead, Paul and Barnabas “tore their garments” in distress, and set the record straight: “We are also men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news.”

For the Good News is that there is only one God, and the one true God took flesh in the form of Jesus, and Jesus has redeemed the world of sin, and that gift is received not by birthright, not by works, not by merit – but by faith alone. And this faith connects us to the power of God, even causing miracles to happen, even causing us to be raised from the dead and to have the promise of eternal life.

Their difficulty with the pagans was different than their challenge with the Jews. While Jews tended toward unbelief and opposing their preaching with political pressure and violence, the pagans were tempted to fall into their old ways. For “even with these words,” Paul and Barnabas “scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.”

At every stop, these pioneering missionaries encounter opposition both from Jews and Gentiles. For the Good News that they (and we) preach sounds too good to be true. But the fact of the matter is that it is too good not to be true!

Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.