13:1-5 Antioch, Seleucia, Cyprus, Salamis
The sending church in Antioch is key to Paul’s missionary activity. The Holy Spirit delegated the authority of the church to send out Paul and Barnabas for the task He had foreordained. The fellow prophets and leaders of the church are made aware of the task after prayer and fasting and the church sends them on their way. The authority of the church as the entity that affirms the call of the missionary is vital to the proper trajectory of the task and it is to the Antioch church Paul will return and report to when He is finished.
13:6-12 Paphos
Paul continues his strategy of contacting an audience and communicating the Gospel. In the previous verses he contacted his audience through the synagogue. Here he God brings them into a searching individual who occupies a government post. A fo9retaste of Jewish opposition is represented through the Jewish sorcerer’s efforts, but despite the opposition, hearers are converted by the power of the Gospel message. Saul’s name is changed to Paul at this point. Could it be because of his connection with his convert Paulus?
13:13-50 Perga, Pisidian Antioch
This part of the 1st missionary journey allows us to lean over Paul’s shoulder and read the content of what would probably be typical of the message of the Messiah he proclaims to a Jewish audience, usually in the synagogue. He declares Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law, Prophets, and Psalms, who was resurrected after dying at the hands of the Jews, and offers the forgiveness of sins and justification only through Christ apart from the Law and a warning against rejection.
The second time Paul speaks in the synagogue, Jewish opposition breaks out in fervor, Paul turns his message specifically to the Gentiles upon the Jewish rejection, and Gentiles turn to Christ in great number as the Jews expelled them from the region.
13:51-14:5 Iconium
As Paul returns to the synagogue in the new city, Jewish opposition g=follows him and seeks to stir up the people against him. Many Jews and Gentiles did believe and and a plot to stone Paul and Barnabas was sought after.
14:6-20 Lystra
A miracle of healing convinced a heathen crowd to worship them as gods, and Paul argued that it was the true God they should worship. Paul was interrupted before he could proclaim Christ as the Jews seized the opportunity to cause a riot against Paul and stoned him for dead, but God raised him up and they headed out.
14:21-28 Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch (Pisidian), Pamphylia, Perga, Attalia, Antioch
Disciples are made in Derbe and Paul begins the trip back to the sending church of Antioch to report back. On his way back he visits the disciples that were made in journey in the cities and strengthens them in the faith, appoints elders to shepherd them, thus setting place local churches, and commits them to their care and the Lord through prayer and fasting. The work is described as completed for that journey as the first phase of the task the Holy Spirit has set them apart for. The Antioch church gathers and they rehearse what God had done with the Gospel to the Gentiles and stayed there for a while.