Please read the passage before reading the comments.
We have a story in Genesis about a huge flood and how God saved Noah and his family in the ark. The people of Lystra had a story about a flood and how Zeus and Hermes had come in human to visit the town and saved them from the flood. The townspeople had great reverence for Zeus and his son Hermes. When Barnabas and Paul showed up healing a man lame from birth, the townspeople sensed the presence of holiness among them and concluded that Zeus and Hermes had come back to them.
This explains the reaction to Barnabas and Paul. This also explains why the apostles had such a hard time in convincing the people not to offer them sacrifice.
Paul and Barnabas explained that in times past God had allowed the Gentiles to “go their own way” in worshipping false gods. That was the situation before Christ, but now all people would have to acknowledge the Christ. Although the pagans had worshipped Zeus and Hermes, it was the God proclaimed by Paul and Barnabas who had provided “rains from heaven and fruitful seasons” to nourish the people of Lystra.
Paul and Barnabas made the core of their proclamation to the people of Lystra that the God of all creation is the one who sent Jesus. The people would have to learn about Jesus by knowing about the God who created heaven and earth. The pagans could by-pass being Jewish in their conversion to God and Jesus.
The apostles would continue their mission among the pagan towns until their later return to their home base in Antioch. We continue this missionary work of the Church, calling people to faith in the true God and Jesus Christ the only true Son of God.
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