‘And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingly Rule of God.
Once they had established a group of disciples in Derbe who could have blamed them if they had taken the opportunity offered to make for the nearby port of Perga only a few miles away (they had come round in a circle), the port at which they had first arrived on landing in Pamphylia (Acts 13:13)? As they looked back it must have seemed such a long time before. Behind them were hostile towns. Before them could have been an almost immediate pleasant voyage home. But they did not go home. Instead they went back, back the sixty miles to Lystra where Paul had been so severely treated and left for dead, back the further twenty four miles to Iconium from which they had fled in danger of imminent stoning, back the further eighty miles to Pisidian Antioch from which they had been expelled so forcefully, and this in order that they might make strong the souls of the disciples at each place, and exhort them to continue in the faith, and remind them that through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingly Rule of God.
Thus does Luke make clear, as he has done all along, that as the word of God advances and triumphs, persecution and tribulation inevitably follow in its wake. Christians who are having an easy ride need to look at their foundations, for if they are serving the Lord truly they can be sure that Satan will not allow them to left alone for long.
One encouraging thing about these words is the assurance that in each of the cities and towns were sufficient believers to be formed into a church. None had been mentioned at Lystra, but there had been converts nevertheless.