Paul's First Missionary Journey - In Iconium; Acts 14:1 – 7 – Part 1

Church History: 1At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. 2But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. 3So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders. 4The people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews, others with the apostles. 5There was a plot afoot among the Gentiles and Jews, together with their leaders, to mistreat them and stone them. 6But they found out about it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding country, 7where they continued to preach the good news.

Paul and Barnabas continued preaching the gospel in Iconium. They made the first offer of the gospel to the Jews in their synagogues; they not only went to their meeting place, but to a place of meeting with them first. Though the Jews at Antioch had used them barbarously, they did not decline preaching the gospel to the Jews at Iconium. The Jews there were thought be better disposed to hear it. We must not condemn those of any denomination in mass for the faults of others; but let us do good
to those who have done evil to us.
They so spoke that a great multitude, some hundreds perhaps, if not thousands, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, that is the Gentiles, believed. The gospel was now being preached to Jews and Gentiles together, and those of each denomination that believed came together into the church. In the close of the foregoing chapter it was preached first to the Jews, and some of them believed, and then to the Gentiles, and some of them believed; but here they are put together, being put on the same level. Both are reconciled to God in one body (Ephesians 2:16), and both together admitted into the church without distinction. There seems to have been something remarkable in the manner in which the apostles' preached which contributed to their success: They spoke in such a way that a great multitude believed, so plainly, so convincingly, with such an evidence and demonstration of the Spirit, and with such power; they spoke, so warmly, so affectionately, and with such a manifest concern for the souls of men, that one might perceive they were not only convinced, but filled, with the things they spoke of, and that what they spoke came from the heart and therefore was likely to reach to the heart; they spoke so earnestly and so seriously, so boldly and courageously, that those who heard them could not help but say that God was with them in truth. Yet the success was not to be attributed to the manner of their preaching, but to the Spirit of God, who made use of that means.