Acts 14:9-22

⁹He listened as Paul was speaking about the Lord Jesus. Paul looked directly at him and could see in the man's face that he believed that the Lord Jesus could make him well.

¹⁰So Paul called out to him, “Stand up!” When the man heard that, he immediately jumped up and began to walk normally.

¹¹When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they thought that Paul and Barnabas ◄ were/must be► the gods that they worshipped. So they shouted excitedly in their own Lycaonia language, “ Look! These people are the gods that we(inc) worship! They have made themselves look like people and have come down from the sky/heaven to help us!”

¹²They began to say that Barnabas was probably the chief god, whose name was Zeus. And they began to say that Paul was Hermes, the messenger/spokesman for the other gods. They mistakenly thought that because Paul was the one who had been speaking.

¹³Just outside the gates of the city there was a temple where the people worshipped Zeus. The priest who was there heard what Paul and Barnabas had done, so he came to the city gate, where many people had already gathered. He brought two bulls with wreaths of flowers around their necks. The priest and the other people wanted to kill the bulls as part of a ceremony to worship Paul and Barnabas.

¹⁴But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard about that, and understood that the people thought that they were gods and wanted to sacrifice the bulls to worship them, they were very distressed, so they tore their own clothes. They rushed among the people, shouting,

¹⁵“Men, ◄you must not kill those bulls to worship us(dl)!/why are you doing this?► RHQ We are not gods! We are just human beings like you! We have come to tell you some good news! We have come to tell you about the God who is all-powerful. He wants you to stop worshipping other gods, because they cannot help you. This true God made the heaven/sky and the earth and the oceans and everything in it.

¹⁶In the past, all of you non-Jewish people worshipped whatever gods that you wanted to. God let you worship them, because you did not know him.

¹⁷But he has shown us LIT that he acts kindly toward us(inc). He is the one who causes it to rain and causes crops to grow. He is the one who gives you plenty of food, and makes you very happy.”

¹⁸The people heard what Paul said, but they still thought that they should sacrifice those bulls to worship Paul and Barnabas. But finally, the people decided not to do it.

¹⁹However, after that, some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and persuaded many of the people of Lystra that the message Paul had been telling them was not true. The people who believed what those Jews said became angry with Paul. They let the Jews throw stones at him until he fell down, unconscious. They all thought that he was dead, so they dragged him outside the city and left him lying there. But some of the believers in Lystra had followed them outside the city.

²⁰They came and stood around Paul, where he was lying on the ground. And Paul became conscious! He stood up and went back into the city with the believers. Acts 14:20b-23 The next day, Paul and Barnabas left Lystra and traveled to Derbe.

²¹They stayed there several days and they kept telling the people the good message about Jesus. Many people became believers. After that, Paul and Barnabas started on their way back. They went again to Lystra. Then they went from there to Iconium, and then they went to Antioch in Pisidia province.

²²In each city, they helped the believers SYN to become strong spiritually, and they urged them to keep on trusting in the Lord Jesus. They told the believers, “It is necessary that we endure people often persecuting us (inc) before we enter the place where God will rule over us forever.”