The apostles' ministry in Derbe appears to have been free from persecution, and it must have provided welcome relief from the many dangers and trials they had recently experienced. All we know about it is the encouraging announcement that they "preached the gospel to that city" and made many disciples see ( Acts 14:21). Derbe was the literal turning point of the first missionary journey, and from there they began to retrace their steps.
The shortest way of returning to Antioch in Syria, which they had left perhaps two years before, would have been via the Cilician Gates, a pass over the Taurus mountains. Some have calculated that Paul and Barnabas probably completed their work in Derbe late in the year, or during the winter, when the pass would be blocked with snow. But the apostles certainly had other cogent reasons for returning by the way they had come. By passing through Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch of Pisidia, returning to those very towns from which they had escaped in peril of their lives, they would encourage and be encouraged by the small Christian communities they had established in these outposts of the faith. We are told that as they went they confirmed "the souls of the disciples" and appointed and ordained elders to have charge over the various groups. Indeed, on this first part of the return journey there is no reference to public preaching (see w. 22, 23).
It was different when they finally reached Perga, where they had not taught when they first passed through. This time they preached there and also in the neighboring seaport town of Attalia. Here they took ship for Antioch in Syria, "from whence," as the writer of Acts expresses it, "they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled" (see vv. 24-26).
