Acts 14 gives us the reality of gospel ministry. It’s messy, dangerous, and costly. Yet it’s precisely through this suffering love that God’s kingdom advances. Luke structures this chapter around Paul and Barnabas’s first missionary journey, showing us that the way of Jesus is not a path to earthly triumph but to costly faithfulness. The pattern established here proclamation, opposition, persecution, perseverance will repeat throughout Paul’s ministry. Luke wants us to understand that this isn’t an anomaly but the normal Christian experience. The book of Acts isn’t a manual for church success but a manifesto for faithful endurance.