Lystra and Derbe

Lystra and Derbe of Lycaonia

Acts 14:5-11 Lystra and Derbe

ACTS 14:5 5 And when a violent attempt was made by both the gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to abuse and stone them, 6 they became aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region. 7 And they were preaching the Gospel there.

Why did they make a "violent attempt ... to abuse and stone" (Acts 14:5) Paul and Barnabas?
Unable to win the spiritual war of words, they resorted to violence.

And why would God allow this "violent attempt"?
To have Paul and Barnabas move and preach "the Gospel" (Acts 14:7) also in "Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding region" (Acts 14:6).

Where are Lystra, Derbe and Lycaonia?
They are cities just to the south (Lystra) and southeast (Derbe) of Iconium, and Lycaonia is a large land-locked region in the interior of what is Turkey today that includes all of the cities mentioned above: Iconium, Lystra and Derbe.

ACTS 14:8-10 8 And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. 9 This man heard Paul speaking. Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, 10 said with a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” And he leaped and walked.

How did God open Paul's ministry in Lystra?
With a miracle pretty much from the start.

Who had the faith to be healed?
The crippled man "had faith to be healed" (Acts 14:9).

How did he get that faith?
By hearing the Gospel: "This man heard Paul speaking" (Acts 14:9).

Does a person need to have faith in Jesus to be healed by Him?
Not necessarily. Sometimes the faith to heal rests with the one being used by Jesus to affect the healing. An example is the case of another man with bum legs recorded in Acts 3.

So does a healing miracle require either the one healed or the one being used to heal to have faith?
Again, not necessarily. Nobody had "faith" that Jesus would heal another lame man when Jesus healed him as recorded in John 5.

What then can we say about the Lord's miraculous healings?
He can give the faith to be healed to the one being healed, or to the one being used to heal, or to neither. God heals whomever He wills to heal. This doesn't mean that you should stop praying for those who are sick or have infirmities, for God could very well intend for you to pray for that person so that His healing can be in answer to your prayers. But such prayers should trust both His power and sovereign choice to heal. And the cases of God not healing terminally-ill Christians shouldn't be seen as His failure to heal or not hearing your prayers, but recognized as promotions to heaven.

ACTS 14:11 11 Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!”

Why did the people mistake Paul and Barnabas for "gods" (Acts 14:11)?
Their idolatrous Greek mythology claimed that "gods" occasionally come down to earth "in the likeness of men" (Acts 14:11).