Acts 14:1-7 "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

Sometimes I’ll be having a conversation and thinking, “This is going great!”—I’m explaining something that’s important to me, they seem to be vibing, nodding along, eyes wide, hanging on every word... and then out of nowhere, they completely misunderstand me, get offended, and now I’m somehow the bad guy.

Like I say how disruptive daylight saving time is—because it’s obviously a dumb idea—and they’re like, “Wow, why do you hate farmers?”

I used to be able to admit I like the way Cybertrucks look, and would probably buy one if they didn’t cost half a million dollars and made one that ran on gas—but now, instead of just risking that people might think I have an unhealthy obsession with stainless steel toasters and Minecraft, now it stirs up heated political conversations that make about as much sense to me as arguing over which bottled water is more patriotic.

Sometimes you got to know when the conversation is a dead horse—it ain’t going anywhere.

But sometimes you have to push through—get past the awkward. Sometimes difficult conversations need to happen.

Like when you finally sit down with your teenager and say, “Look, deodorant is not optional. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a public service.”

Or when you tell your parents it might be time to stop forwarding email chains from 2007, or clicking on links that say, “You have won a Walmart Gift card—just enter your credit card and blood type here!”

But seriously—some conversations really do matter. Like talking to your spouse about something that’s been hurting you. Or telling a friend the truth when they’re spiraling. Or checking in on someone who’s struggling—even if you’re not sure what to say.

And yes—spiritual conversations. Talking about your faith, your hope. Actually speaking up for Jesus and telling them about His grace. Those are the most important conversations of all. And they can be the hardest.

Because we never know how it’s going to go. Are they going to lean in? Are they going to push back? Should you say more? Should you say less? Push harder? Give them some space? Stay in the conversation or let it go?

We’re going through the Book of Acts verse by verse and today we’re starting chapter 14. Paul and Barnabas are in Iconium making cold calls for the Gospel and they’re getting mixed reviews—should they stay or should they go. Acts 14… 

"Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed." Acts 14:1

Paul and Barnabas had a strategy. Enter a new city, start at the synagogue. Preach to the Jews and people who already believe in the God of the Old Testament first, enlist as many locals as possible, then go to the Gentiles.

Iconium was an important crossroads city in the middle of Roman trade routes—a cultural melting pot. All kinds of Greeks, Jews, Phriygians, Romans—unbelievers of every stripe. This was a place the Gospel could really take root and spread.

It says they spoke in such a way that a bunch of them believed. They were persuasive. They knew how to put together a sermon and deliver it. They were good at it. They tried to be engaging. They didn’t just phone it in like a dry dust sandwich. When we speak for the Lord and tell people the most important message they will ever hear, we need to make sure we give it our best shot.

And it worked! People believed!

Since I was 14 years old, that’s what I lay awake at night thinking about. Those are the conversations I replay in my head. How can I tell people the message of Jesus so they’ll get it. So they come to faith. So they don’t resist, so it gets past all the lies that are plugging up their ears and they can believe. 

But that’s not always how it goes… Not even for our Bible heroes…

"But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers." Acts 14:2

Unbelieving doesn’t mean they don’t believe in God—they certainly did. They just had Him all wrong. They were holding on to their Old ideas. Confused notions of who God is and what He wants that made them reject Jesus. Unbelieving doesn’t mean they don’t believe in anything, it means they believe the wrong things. It means they don’t believe in Jesus.

When it says they “poisoned their minds” in the Greek it literally means “to make them evil.”. They were being demonicly twisted against the message of Jesus by these unbelievers.

This is why it’s so hard to share the message of Jesus with people. There is an active campaign to twist and distort their minds. They’re so poisoned by all the lies they’ve been told over the years that it’s really hard for them to hear the truth about Jesus. It’s a miracle when anyone believes.

You ever met someone who hates Christianity, but they’ve never actually read the Bible? They’ve never really heard the Gospel but they have their mind made up. They just picked up a few things from the internet, their college professor, some TV preacher, or an ex-evangelical deconstructing on TikTok, and now they think they know all there is to know.

The problem isn’t that people lack faith—they have plenty of faith—just in the wrong things. Hardly anyone ever rejects Jesus as He really is, they reject a false version of Him that’s been fed to them by culture, bad theology, or personal experiences.

Their minds have been poisoned. Twisted. Not by logic. Not by evidence. Not by truth. But by assumptions, misinformation, and their own hard hearts.

The unbelievers push back hard against Paul and Barnabas and do an active smear campaign against them. That had to be frustrating. After that, everyone in town was like, “Oh, you’re the guys trying to sell that fake messiah nonsense.” 

But what did they do? Did they quit because it was hard? Nope.

"So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands." Acts 14:3

They stayed. They didn’t back down or run away. They kept preaching. They had a ton of opposition and it says, “So they remained for a long time.” Not, “But they stayed.” The reason they stayed is because they had so much opposition. There was a new church there and they needed to stay and make sure it wasn’t destroyed by the unbelievers.

And what did they do? Did they argue? Set up debates between the smartest angry unbelievers and Paul? Stand up on a soapbox and scream “turn or burn” to scare the unwashed infidels? Tell them they better shape up or God was going to ship them out!

Not what it says. It says they boldly spoke for the Lord and were witnesses to His grace.

They didn’t just talk about Jesus. They spoke boldly for the Lord. And what did the Lord want to say to them? Not condemnation. Not guilt. They bore witness to the word of His grace.

His grace. Mercy. Lovingkindness. Compassion. 

They spoke for the Lord and told the people that God forgives them because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This is the amazing message of hope we need to tell all the unbelievers surrounding us. God has called them to be His people. He forgives their unbelief, their sin, their rebellion. He says the same thing to all of us. Every day. His mercy is new every morning. And He doesn’t just tell you in words—He gave His life, He gives you His very presence in Holy Communion—grace and mercy in a tangible way. He feeds you, strengthens you, and remembers you. He invites you here and He meets you here. 

So Paul and Barnabas kept going when it got ugly and God showed up to encourage them. He backed up what they said with signs and wonders. Let them know they did the right thing by staying. Let the unbelievers know the message of Jesus was true. 

I’m tempted to think, “Man, why doesn’t God always do this? Perform a bunch of miracles and prove everything we say about Jesus is true? Wouldn’t that make things easier? Wouldn’t everyone believe then?” 

No, they wouldn’t. That’s what the Bible, cover to cover, shows us. Miracles never made people believe. Jesus did a ton of miracles and some believed but a lot of people didn’t and they killed Him anyway. They knew the miracles happened but it didn’t make them believe in Jesus. He rose from the dead and a bunch of people saw Him—everyone’s going to believe now, right? Nope. The religious leaders knew He came back from the dead but they made up lies to try and cover it up. A lot of you are reading the Bible in one year with me. Remember the signs and wonders at the time of Moses? Pharoah saw the plagues, it never changed his mind. And then there’s the Israelites, they saw the parting of the Red Sea, they were fed magic bread for forty years, they followed a physical manifestation of God—cloud by day and fire by night—they had signs and wonders every single day. But they wanted to go back to Egypt. They worshipped false gods. Their faith and faithfulness had a pathetic track record. Miracles don’t create faith. Jesus said, “An unbelieving generation looks for a sign.” If you ever wonder why there aren’t more miracles, this is why. Miracles have a small role to play. They always point to the message of God that must be believed on its own.

But they still happen, it’s cool when they do. They’re just not the point. 

So, Paul and Barnabas had a lot of opposition but they stayed and continued to ministry anyway—I’m sure the signs and wonders helped assure them they were doing the right thing. They stayed for a long time.

This is important—sometimes we need to stay and fight. 

But then, other times, the right move is to go. 

"But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia." Acts 14:4-6

How do you know when it’s time to move on? Maybe when you see them picking up nice smooth, heavy rocks and looking in your direction with murder in their eyes. Some people had heard about Jesus and believed, but an angry mob was ready to riot and stone them. 

Jesus said in Matthew 10:23,

“When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next.”

They had shown up with nothing more than the message of Jesus, they were the only two Christians in Iconium. Now there was a solid church—people who could take it from here. It was time to start from scratch in another town. 

So Paul and Barnabas left. They weren’t running because they were afraid—they were running toward the next opportunity. How’d they know it was time to go? Because if they stayed, they were going to be killed. Opposition is one thing, they stayed for a long time when it was merely hard to do ministry but their death was going to put a real kink in the mission going forward. So they got out of there. 

But they didn’t just leave and sulk, keeping a low profile like going into the witness protection program. They went head-first into the land of the Gentiles, loud and proud.

"And there they continued to preach the gospel." Acts 14:7

They kept doing what they were doing. Because the Gospel wasn’t just for Iconium. It wasn’t going to be any safer to talk about Jesus in the next city—it’s not about playing it safe. It’s about continuing to walk forward in faith, doing what God called them to do. People in the next place needed to hear about Jesus, too—so they didn’t waste time sitting around and complaining about being rejected. Same attitude we need to have in all the ministry God is sending us to do—as individuals and as a church.

The Gospel will always do one of two things: Either people will believe and be saved, or people will reject and get mad. It will either soften the heart of the hearer and give them faith, or it will harden their heart and push them away. And we’re not in control of which way it goes. 

Our job is to deliver the message with as much love and kindness as we know how to do, then trust God to do what He wants with it. God is God. Trust Him with the God parts. He’s more loving than we are, He’s more kind, and He’s also more just and fair. Be comforted that He’s God and you’re not.

So yeah, sometimes we’ve got to recognize when the conversation’s a dead horse—it’s not going anywhere, and pressing harder might make things worse.

But other times? We’ve got to stay in it. Push through the awkward. Because some conversations—especially the ones about Jesus—are worth the risk. They might not go the way we hoped. They might get messy. But God’s the one doing the real work. We just show up, speak with grace, and trust Him to do something with it.

Think about all the times you rejected Him or doubted. All the times you ignored His word, walked away, got distracted. Let your emotions take over. 

But He never gave up on you.

He forgives you for all the times you got it wrong. Jesus covers it all.

You’re loved, accepted, and perfectly right with God. You didn’t do any of that. You didn’t earn any of that. No one talked you into any of that—the Holy Spirit opened your heart and gave you faith. It’s going to be the same for everyone He sends you to tell about it. God is already working on them long before you get there.

You are saved. You are loved. And you are sent. Not to talk people into anything. Not to win arguments—but to share the Good News of the hope Jesus has given you—share it and trust God to do the rest.

At one time Paul and Barnabas were the only two Christians in Iconium—a city of about 30,000 people. They had their work cut out for them, wouldn’t you say? When they left, there was a growing church full of people spreading the message of Jesus, a church that continued to grow for decades—they turned the city upside down.

We’re supposed to do the same thing.

There’s a little more than a hundred of us here at NewChurch—with more than 400,000 people in the greater Katy area who need to hear the message of hope that can only be found in Jesus. We have a pretty big job in front of us, too. Most of those people don’t have a church home and haven’t really heard the message of Jesus.

I mean, we’re a little church but we have a big vision.

We don’t just want to share the Gospel inside these walls—we want to connect to the whole community. We want people to join us here but this awesome mini mega church is too small for our big dreams of what we believe God is calling us to do. We want to have our own space that can be open seven days a week, a place where people can come to eat, drink, listen to music, hang out with friends and family, and us.

We want to create a space where people feel at home—and then invite them to worship with us on Sundays in the same space.

Because this is bigger than us. This is about reaching people with the love and grace of God. This vision , this dream, is over ten years old. 

Right now, we’re working on a business plan so we can take the next steps—business partners, investors, location. 

Sometimes I think, “Oh man. Why hasn’t it happened yet?” I’m tempted to think talking about this idea is beating a dead horse. But I look around and—no! Ten years is still young for a horse. Plenty of life in this baby! Ten years is nothing in God’s timeline. 

It might be time to try some new approaches. Take a few more risks. Lean into it! Remember where we’re going and why we’re going there! But we’re just getting started. 

We need to keep showing up, be persistent, keep praying, keep moving forward.

Pray for God to give us fresh eyes and renewed strength. To keep sharing the Gospel. To keep speaking to the people God is calling to be His church.

Because there’s a lot of people out there ready to hear some Good News. Like not everything that dies stays dead.

So, may you walk in wisdom as you share the hope of Jesus. May you have the courage to keep speaking when hearts are open, and the faith to trust God when it’s time to step back. Know that the Gospel is never wasted, that every seed planted matters, and that salvation is His work, not yours. AMEN