Acts 14 | Facing HardshipSample

Facing Fears

Paul is stoned, dragged outside the city, and left for dead. What’s his response? He gets up and goes back into the city!

Expect to be afraid when you follow Jesus. Always be ready to face those fears.

Luke tells us that he and Barnabas left the next day for Derbe. Here, they preach the gospel and large numbers of people become Jesus’s disciples. And here, they decide to return back to Lystra and Iconium. These are the very cities where people rose against them, Jews poisoned people’s minds against them, it’s where Paul and Barnabas’s enemies plotted against them, and even hunted them down and riled up the crowds to stone them.

But Paul and Barnabas doubled-down. They go back into the lion’s den to strengthen the new believers in the cities where the Jews tried to kill them! They could have returned to Antioch another way but they chose this way. That’s what you risk when you’re sold out for Jesus. You don’t let fear back you down.

They had to be afraid of what they’d face. But their response? “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). They embraced hardship and faced their fears as a way of life.

Let’s say it again. At times you will be afraid when you follow Jesus. Opposition, misunderstanding, and persecution are constant possibilities. It’s in times like this that we lean into the words of Jesus:

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows…. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12. Some time, read the whole chapter. It’s that good, especially in the face of fear.)

The US Army has a slogan: “Courage is putting your fear aside and doing the job.” The same could be said for following Jesus: “Faith is putting your fear aside and trusting in God.”

Paul and Barnabas go back into the fray. We find that leaving town (whether Iconium or Lystra) did not mean abandonment. They were diffusing the situation, but willing to risk themselves again once things died down because there were other disciples there and they too would face hardship. They would also be afraid. Peter and Barnabas would not abandon them.

John Wesley writes, “Always look a mob in the face“ or any fear that comes your way. Face your fears; don’t turn away. Face them back in Jesus’s name. The Lord Jesus is with you.

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