Paul and Barnabas returned to the cities of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch so as to appoint elders (see Acts 14:23) and prepare the church to continue functioning without their presence and help. As a result of persecution, they were forced to leave each of these cities prematurely and thus they did not get to appoint office-bearers as they would have hoped to do before moving on.1 It would have been possible for them to make a journey east, overland back to Antioch, but they made a deliberate decision not to do so since their work was not yet done.2
21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,