Acts 14:1-18 And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke… I. WHAT THE MISSIONARIES DID. They went immediately to work. They did not stop to complain of the treatment they had received at Antioch. Persecution made them change their place, but not their purpose. Neither did they abandon their method of working. Though they had turned to the Gentiles, they had not turned away from the Jews. II. HOW THE MISSIONARIES SPOKE. So convincingly, that Jews as well as Greeks believed. Care should be taken so to speak as to give effect to the Word. III. HOW THE MISSIONARIES WERE OPPOSED. As was natural, the Jew who did not accept the gospel, was its bitterest enemy. The man who is acting against God and his own conscience must permit himself no rest. He cannot endure To see others accept what he has rejected. Hence he tries to make the souls around him "evil affected." IV. HOW THE MISSIONARIES WERE PROSPERED. 1. They continued their work. Not because of the opposition, but in spite of it, and for the reason that so many were believing. So long as a harvest was to be reaped, they would not abandon the field. 2. They spoke boldly. The threatening cloud of danger did not abate their courage. "Boldly in the Lord." Their courage came from Him, and not from themselves. 3. They were borne witness to by the Lord. He spoke through their hands as well as their lips. He made it impossible for any but the incorrigible to doubt that they were His ambassadors. 4. They divided the city (ver. 4). The division appears to have been pretty even. Whether evenly or not, the gospel always divides a community. Every one must be on the one side or on the other. V. HOW THE MISSIONARIES WERE DRIVEN OUT (ver. 5). They were not rash as well as bold. There was no call here to lay down their lives. So, being persecuted in this city, they followed the Saviour's injunction, and fled into the next. "And there they preached the gospel." Persecution was God's plan for propagating His gospel. Having furnished certain seeds with wings, God sends rough winds for their transportation. (M. C. Hazard.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. |
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