Nov 28, 2017
Lystra was the home of Timothy (perhaps Timothy is converted now), and there is no synagogue there. Paul and Barnabas come across a man who is disabled, never able to walk, and he is healed. Local legends had it that Zeus and Hermes, two chief Greek gods (Jupiter and Mercury in the Roman Latin) had done something similar, and as a result, the people of Lystra begin to honor the two as Zeus and Hermes. In Lystras were shrines to these gods, and the head priest of Zeus prepared to offer sacrifices, a bull decorated with wool garlands, but the apostles rush about to abort that attempt. Paul then presents a sermon unlike one he would preach to a Jewish audience, which is focused on the grace of God in the creation. Opponents from Antioch and Iconium arrive and stir up the crowds. Paul is stoned, recovers (not sure if it is a resurrection from the dead or not), and the apostles leave Lystra and head to Derbe, 60 miles away. After some period of preaching there, they return the way they had come and appoint elders in the churches in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch.