Acts 14:20

‘But as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and entered into the city.'

But as the grief-stricken believers gathered round his body, to their surprise Paul rose up and walked into the city, and was able to leave for Derbe the next day. There may be a hint here that it was to be seen as a kind of resurrection. Certainly it was symbolically so. It was an evidence of Christ's resurrection and a reminder that He Who could heal the lame could also protect this man from the effects of stoning and could raise the dead at the last day.

But Paul must have been very battered and he would probably carry the scars from that incident for the remainder of his life. It was partly of these that he would shortly write, ‘I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus' (Galatians 6:17). But the remarkable thing is how little the New Testament writers, as with Luke here, concentrate on the depth of their joint sufferings. They looked on them as a necessary part of their ministry and almost shrugged them off (Acts 14:22).

‘And on the morrow he went forth with Barnabas to Derbe.'

So the next day it was felt advisable to depart for Derbe, which has now been identified as near Kerti Huyuk. And there they proclaimed the Good News to the town, and made ‘many disciples'. It was a wholly successful visit, but there were otherwise no incidents of any note. It was possibly even too small to have a synagogue and would therefore not be of interest to the persecuting Jews. Yet it was from Derbe that Gaius the companion of Paul would come (Acts 20:4). Little acorns can produce great oaks.