biblestudy: Acts (Part Thirteen)
Acts 13: The Work of Paul and Barnabas in Cyprus
John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 13-Dec-88; Sermon #BS-AC13; 60 minutes
Let us go back into the 13th chapter of the book of Acts.
Chapters 13 and 14 bridge over into the very important 15th chapter in that they show the first concerted effort to take the gospel to the Gentiles. And these, of course, are Gentiles without any prior commitment to Jewishness of any kind. Even though we are going to see very clearly that the apostles first went to the synagogue in order to have a point of contact with the community, yet they were not requiring in any way that their converts from the Gentile areas be required to go through circumcision or anything that has anything at all to do with the Old Covenant. Of course they were requiring that the people repent, to believe the gospel, those things involving the New Covenant, and of course we see that this is going to lead right into chapter 15 and the controversy is going to be brought to a head. We have been leading up to this point and chapter 15 is going to be pivotal for the continued taking of the gospel to the Gentile areas.
In verse 1, we have the listing of a group of men in the church at Antioch. Maybe it is just interesting to consider that the first efforts to reach Gentiles was not taken from Jerusalem, but it was taken from the church in Antioch. Why that was, I do not know. I can only guess that it probably had something to do with the nature of the personnel there in the church in Antioch and also in the character of the congregation there. I am sure that it was predominantly Jewish. But I am also sure that there were quite a number of Gentile converts already beginning to come into the church there in Antioch. And I am also reasonably sure that the church there was largely Hellenistic Jews who seemed to have a more tolerant outlook for the Gentile world than did the Jews in Jerusalem.
At any rate, Antioch becomes the base of the apostle Paul's activities. All of his missionary journeys are taken from that base. And in this particular case, he is going to leave from here, and go over into Cyprus and then into Asia Minor.
Now, we do not know which of these people were prophets and which were teachers, perhaps there was some overlapping. It really does not make that big of a difference. But out of this group of people, Paul and Barnabas are selected to be the men who would make this attempt to go out to the Gentile world.
It seems as though the whole congregation was involved in the selecting of these men. I do not mean that they voted. I am talking about this word minister. "As they ministered to the Lord and fasted." That they very likely is the entire congregation. Minister here is translated in other places as worship. In other places, in fact in the Greek Septuagint, that same word means to serve in the temple. It was used in the sense of the priests carrying out their obligations, their responsibilities. You and I know what the word minister means. It means to serve. So these people were serving God.
I am bringing this up because I want you to see the way, at least this one way in which the Bible shows we can serve God. Now how did they do it? They fasted and prayed. You see, that is a service to God. See, they ministered to the Lord and they fasted. Fasting is a service to God.
Let us see, "the Holy Spirit said." There is no indication of how this was arrived at when it says the Holy Spirit said. It is very likely that the way the Holy Spirit said was it simply brought to people's minds the qualifications of these men so that Paul and Barnabas stood out. And the people agreed, "Yeah, they're naturals for this. Barnabas and Paul have these qualifications." So, in a sense, there was no competition for this responsibility because it became very apparent that these were the men who had the qualifications.
Then it says that "having fasted and prayed, laid hands on them, and sent them away." Undoubtedly they were interceding with God in regards to these two men and the responsibility that they were going to be carrying out.
Acts 13:4 So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went on to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.
Seleucia was Antioch's port city. Antioch was inland. And I just found out today in doing some reading why they had a port city and why the main city was set off inland somewhere. Well, the reason was to avoid pirates and invasions. So they have a little city where the seaport would be, and so if somebody was attacked, the loss of the port would not be all that great. And they figured that by the time the port was attacked and sacked, that they would be able to get their defenses arranged and it would be much, much harder for the invader to take the main city there.
Antioch and Seleucia were about 16 miles apart. And so they went from Seleucia, and then they set sail for Cyprus. I am going to give you some distances because I want you to get a little bit of a grasp of how small the area was that we are dealing with here.
The distance from Seleucia to Cyprus was only 60 miles, only half the distance from here to Bakersfield. In that day and age, why, it was a reasonably good journey and I am sure it took them a little while to get there. They were not sailing along at 55 miles an hour. So they reached the eastern edge of Cyprus.
Acts 13:5 And when they arrived in Salamis, . . .
Salamis was a little bit further south, probably traveled over land. They might have gone there the whole way because Salamis is a seaport city.
Acts 13:5 . . . they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.
John turns out to be Mark but John was his first name, John Mark. We will get to back to Mark in just a little bit.
Now Cyprus is a fair sized island. It is about 140 miles long and about 60 miles wide. It was really very important for the Roman Empire. It was important because of its strategic location in the Mediterranean Sea. It was important because of shipping. It was a good place to stop on the way into the area of Palestine or to Egypt. And also it was important for a certain mineral that was very important at that time of history and apparently quite rich copper mines. So it was quite a jewel in Rome's areas of land that they governed over.
About 22 BC or quite a number of years, 40, 50 years before the events that we are going through right now, it was pretty much given its freedom. Rome still kept a proconsul there, and we are going to run into him here in just a little bit. But they were pretty much self-governed. The population was predominantly Greek and apparently a fairly large colony of Jews scattered throughout the island as well.
Now, we see a pattern developing here, and that is that first of all, they went to the Jews. After they had gone to Salamis, they went on to the city of Paphos. Paphos is further southwest from Salamis and it is almost on the western shore of Cyprus, about 90 miles from Salamis. Here they contact Sergius Paulus and also Elymas.
Acts 13:6-7 Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus [son of Joshua], who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.
I am sure that description of Paulus is put in there in order to let us know that Paulus was not taken in by the sorcerer even though the sorcerer was attached to his retinue. That he was intelligent enough to see through that this guy was nothing but a fake. Maybe he kept him around for entertainment. I do not know what it was, but he was intelligent enough to see through that. Now it might also be there because as the nominal governor, as proconsul, it was his responsibility to represent Rome and to see that Rome's wishes were carried out.
Now he undoubtedly began to hear some of the scuttlebutt going around about Paul and Barnabas preaching. And I think that one of the reasons why he is described as being an intelligent man is that he moved very quickly to find out what this was about so that he could head off any kind of a riot that could have developed, or if he could discover whether or not this religion was really legal. Rome had laws regarding the practice of religion and some religions were not legal. Apparently you had to be licensed by the state in order to be able to practice your religion, and if you were not legal then you could just be shut off and persecuted out of existence.
I think that I mentioned this to you when we were covering the background and some of the purposes that Luke would be approaching, describing here in this, and that is, in every case he possibly can he is showing that Christianity was accepted by the government in Rome and that the trouble invariably came from the Jews. Now sometimes Rome was involved, but they were involved at the instigation of the Jews. For some reason, I have not quite figured out yet why, it is very important to Luke to show that the religion was accepted, that it was legal for them to practice what they did. And again, we are going to see that this is another example that this took place because Paulus actually gave his approval.
Acts 13:8-12 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "O fool of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time." And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Here is, I believe, the first time Saul is called Paul. We are going to watch a gradual change take place here. And the change is, this is the first step, Saul becomes Paul. The next thing you begin to notice is that it becomes Paul's company. In the beginning, it was Barnabas and Saul. The first thing you know it is going to be Paul and Barnabas. I do not think that Paul just took over. I think, though, that it just began to dawn on Barnabas that he was dealing with somebody who was better equipped to handle the responsibilities of evangelism than he was. It does not in any way diminish what Barnabas was. It just means that God had called Paul to be a leader in this area and Barnabas was humble enough to recognize it and to, let us say, relinquish his leadership.
I do not know who Luke's source for this was. Luke spent an awful lot of time with the apostle Paul. Maybe the apostle Paul was his source. I do not know. But it seems as though Luke was not amongst them at the time that this was going on, and so he would have to get his material from others who told him the story. But at any rate, you see Paul gradually coming to the forefront here and Barnabas becoming what we would call today, the second man.
Now, did Paulus become a Christian? It is not a burning issue. But the general feeling is that yes, he did. There is a reason why they say that, and that is that it says that the proconsul believed, which is a statement that Luke makes in other places in which the people were obviously converted. But nothing else is told about it because it is believed that he later fell away from the church. His conversion became unraveled and he fell away, that it was not a lasting conversion. But at the time he was deeply impressed and there is no reason to doubt his sincerity, that he believed what was told to him and he was converted but was not real strong.
It would be especially difficult for somebody in government to be converted. Especially somebody that is that close to the very top. To recognize that on the one hand, spiritually you are part of one government, and on the other hand, you are part of a liberal government that is governing over a nation. That would be a tough fence to straddle. I would say the best thing for him is to get rid of that one government and stick with the church. But, who am I?
Acts 13:13 Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.
We are going to find out later that apparently there was quite a contention between these men, Barnabas, Paul, and Mark. Mark left them. No reason is ever really given, it is just open to speculation. But later on, Paul's reaction to Mark is of such a nature that it indicates that he felt that Mark abandoned the work there and went off on his own. I do not mean that he left the church. He did not leave the church, but he left that missionary journey. He left them high and dry and apparently it made Paul distrust Mark to such an extent that he no longer wanted him to be traveling with them. But later on, we find Paul writing of Mark and at least they had, I guess you might say, made up, although I do not think that he was really a part of Paul's team any longer.
Very quickly they had moved from Cyprus and now they are in what we today call southern Turkey. But then it was the state of Pamphylia. They landed at Perga. There is no account at this time of any kind of preaching and nobody knows why. They got there and they left.
Acts 13:14 But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, . . .
Now we have another state within the Roman Empire and another city, Antioch. You know how many Antiochs there were? There were 16 of them. They were all in the Middle East and they were all named after Antiochus. Not necessarily all named after the same one, there was a whole string of them. But in this case it was Antioch in Pisidia. Pisidia, or Antioch, is another 40-50 miles from Perga, a little bit further north and east of there.
Acts 13:14-15 . . . and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them saying, "Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on."
Well, that is kind of interesting. How did they know that Paul was anybody? I mean, somebody other than just an ordinary traveler? Undoubtedly, they had travelers going through there from time to time. Did Paul wear something? Did he have on the robe of a priest? Was he wearing a certain kind of cap or hat? Did he have some tassels on? Did he inform these people beforehand who he was and say that if there was an opportunity, he would like to speak? I do not know, but something gave these people a clue. From synagogue to synagogue, Paul had no trouble at all getting up to speak. And I do not think that there was such disorder in a synagogue that anybody who happened to come by, especially strangers, was allowed to stand up and speak.
But there was something about the apostle Paul, some way of identifying himself undoubtedly would let them know that this man was somebody of importance. Perhaps it had something to do with his days in Jerusalem. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. Perhaps there was some distinguishing feature about his clothing that he used to open up the doors before him. But at any rate, he seemed to have no trouble at all having an opportunity to speak. It was after he spoke that he had trouble speaking anymore after that.
I just wanted to say something about Antioch. Antioch was the major city in that area, it was a pretty good size. And there were apparently fairly large numbers of Jews there and it gave him another base from which to operate. It sort of became the base of his operations in that area.
Acts 13:16-22 Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand, said, "Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it. Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment. After that He gave them judges for about four hundred fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterwards they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul, the son of Kish, man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom He also gave testimony and said, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.'
He is leading here to the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, showing here the genealogy from whence He came. God killed[?] Saul, God chose David to be the family from which the Messiah would come.
Acts 13:23-25 From this man's seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—after John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, 'Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.'
The promise that he is talking about here are those ones that are given back in II Samuel chapter 7. How familiar these things will be to the Gentiles, I do not know. But certainly they would be familiar to the Jews.
II Samuel 7:12-17 [God is speaking to David] "When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall go build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. [Notice that: your house, your kingdom, your dynasty shall be established forever before you.] Your throne shall be established forever." According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
Psalm 89:28-29 [the writer of the psalm is quoting II Samuel 7] "My mercy I will keep for him forever, and My covenant shall stand firm with him. His seed also I will make to endure forever, his throne as the days of heaven."
Psalm 89:36-37 "His seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before Me; it shall be established forever like the moon, even like the faithful witness in the sky."
That is enough of that. Back to Acts 13. And the Messiah is very clearly to come from the seed of David. Paul is quoting here in order to establish that Jesus of Nazareth fits the mold of the promises that were given to David. Jesus of Nazareth is Messiah. John spoke of Him, John was not the one. Undoubtedly, there were many people among the Jews who thought of John as being a very great man. Possibly many of them might have thought of it in terms of being the Messiah. The apostle Paul cuts them off, and says no, he is not the one, that John himself said that he was not the one.
Acts 13:26-27 "Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God [the Gentiles], to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets. . .
That is interesting because he is telling them that they rejected the writings of the prophets, the voices of the prophets, because it was very clear to those people in Jerusalem that they had opened their minds to believe that Jesus of Nazareth fit the prophecies that were made. Whether it was in Psalms or whether it was in Samuel, whether it was in Isaiah, they rejected the law and the prophets. Jesus Himself said that.
Acts 13:27 . . . because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him.
There is that word know again. Surely they knew Him. They knew who He was. They knew His name, they knew what He looked like, they knew Him. They were not intimate with Him. You see, they were not close to Him. They were in fellowship with Him. They were not trying to imitate Him, so they did not know Him in the biblical sense.
Acts 13:28-31 And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was [you notice that he did not blame the death of Christ on the Romans] written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him up from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people.
Right in verse 26 is a turn in this message to its Christian application. Up until that time, the Jews, I am sure, could agree with very much that was said. Practically all of it. But when the application came to Jesus Christ and what it was going to mean to these people's lives, then the message demanded a great deal more attention. Now they were going to be first to make a decision. Would they agree that Jesus was the Christ? Even though it could be shown, there was plenty of evidence available that Jesus of Nazareth fit the prophecies that were made, would they convicted, would they be willing to make an application and to be converted.
There is an appeal here underlying all of this to not throw away their opportunity. You know where it is? He brought that up about the Jews in Jerusalem to give them an example of the way it ought not be done. "They put the Man to death. Don't you do that. Don't you turn your back. Don't reject Him. He fits the prophecies. He is the Messiah."
This application, beginning here in verse 26, has four major points. Number 1, He was crucified. Number 2, He was buried. Number 3, He was resurrected. And Number 4, He was witnessed as being alive. Paul could have said, how many witnesses do you want me to bring forward to you to testify of this? Well, he could have gotten them. I do not think he did it because it would have been unwieldy to do so. But that thing regarding the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not done in a corner! It was done at Passover when there were millions of people from all over the Mediterranean world, Jews who were witness to it. Even on the Day of Pentecost, you have read there in Acts the 2nd chapter of all the nations that were represented. Again, Jews from those areas who were in for Pentecost to keep the holy day. Passover was a bigger holy day, that season was bigger than was Pentecost, and it is more likely that there were far more people there who could testify of what was done. Is it not likely that there were some people there from Antioch? Most certainly. A city that large, with that large of a Jewish population, there would have been people there who were witnesses to what was done in Jerusalem.
Acts 13:32-33 And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As is also written in the second Psalm:
To support the four points, he begins to quote out of the Old Testament. The first comes from Psalm 2.
Acts 13:33 'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.'
Now Psalm 2 the Jews recognized as something that had a dual application. They knew that it applied to the Messiah most directly. But secondarily, it applied to those who are the followers of God. They understood about begettal. They may not have understood the mechanics of it. They certainly did not understand the theology of it. But the concept was there, the idea of begettal. And so it had been the Jews' idea all along that they were the ones that fit into Psalm 2. Certainly, primarily the Messiah, but secondarily them. Now Paul is putting a new light on it and he said, "Hey, it doesn't apply to you, it applies to the Christians." And that of course would include Gentiles.
I am sure that by this time, it is beginning to dawn on the Jews who are there that Paul was making a radical application to something that they thought was theirs and theirs only. That is generally what stirs them up because they do not want to relinquish their favored position with God. Well, that is too bad. Because if they would have just understood, they were not relinquishing a thing! They would have been gaining to have a right understanding and a right relationship with God. Instead they wanted to selfishly hang on and exclude others from the kind of relationship that they felt that they had with God, but they did not in reality have it.
Now in Psalm 2, what God is doing there is that God legitimizes the king. If you read that psalm—you have to read the whole psalm. But in it God legitimizes the king as His Son. Now the Jews' belief was that the beginning of the Son would be fulfilled in the resurrection. That is why Paul quoted it. That was their belief. The Son was resurrected. He is King, and that Son is Jesus of Nazareth. Paul was proclaiming to them their King. Now, it goes on.
Acts 13:34 And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: 'I will give you the sure mercies of David.'
That comes from Psalm 16:10. In this case, the sure mercies of David was the resurrection again from the dead. That is, the mercy that David would receive. David is eventually going to receive it. He too is going to receive that mercy. He is going to be resurrected. He is going to live forever. But God gave it first to David's offspring, Jesus of Nazareth. And so He has given that sure mercy of David. What that works out to in Psalm 16:10 is a promise to David's offspring of the permanent dominion, the kingship, of his offspring.
Acts 13:35-36 Therefore He also says in another psalm: 'You will not allow your Holy One to see corruption.' For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption; . . .
Even one as great as David fell asleep and was buried, saw corruption, and he is not floating around a disembodied spirit.
Acts 13:37-41 . . . but He whom God raised up saw no corruption. Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest what has been spoken in the prophets come upon you: 'Behold, you despisers, marvel and perish! For I work a work in your days, a work which you will by no means believe, though one were to declare it to you.'"
Paul introduces here the subject of justification. We will not go into it a very great deal but it is through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ that forgiveness and justification come. Now justification, we might call it today acquittal, being found innocent, it means more in the biblical sense of being made right with God. Now this offer from God through Christ's death is to all, to everyone who believes. That is universal. If the Jews understood what he said, it would then also have to include the Gentiles.
There was one more thing that I wanted to clarify here. Maybe you did not catch it and maybe it is just a technical point. But it is something that is, I feel, absolutely essential to understand. It is in verse 39, "And by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." That thing where it says "from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." Now if you read that in the right wrong way, it could give you the indication that some things are justified by the law. That is not what it means at all. What he is really saying is that not one thing was ever justified by the law.
Justification is by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. It takes shed blood to be justified. The wages of sin is death. The blood stops flowing. The death pays the penalty and justifies. However, if we are justified by our own death, we are dead. What good is there through justification by one's own death? So God in His mercy applies the death of Jesus Christ vicariously, because of faith, and enables us to continue living. Remember that verse we read back there in Hebrews? "For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to forgive sin." There was never any justification as a result of the blood of a bull or goat or anything that is by law. The law has to be satisfied through death, through blood. That blood, that death was through the death of a perfect Sacrifice.
I want you to hold your finger there and let us go back to Habakkuk. Now that verse that we just read there, verse 41, is quoted from Habakkuk. I just wanted to show it to you in its context. It is very likely if we did this today, if we took something out of context the way the apostle Paul did, we would probably get snipped at with Christianity today. People would write tracts against us and say that we were really nasty and far out in the way that we did things. That we were playing fast and loose with the Bible.
Habakkuk 1:5 "Look among the nations and watch—be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told you."
That is what he quoted. What did it apply to in its context? It did not apply to Jesus Christ at all. It had nothing at all to do with the preaching of the gospel. It had nothing at all to do with justification, it had nothing at all to do with the forgiveness of sin with shed blood, it had nothing at all to do with the law. It does not seem to apply to the context at all, but it does. The principle applies. It applies in the fact that what God did through Christ was a marvel, and it did cause people to wonder, and people did not believe it even though it was done. What? A man lived 33 years and never sinned? A man goes into His grave after being crucified and then be resurrected? And not only be resurrected but ascend to heaven! But before ascending to heaven, His small group of followers were empowered by a Spirit that came from heaven and gave these people the power to speak in different languages and to hear in different languages. And to have the power to raise people up from infirmities that they had from the time that they were born? To heal people who were lame?
Well, the Jews did not believe it. Some Gentiles did and some Jews did, but not very many Jews.
What it applies to here in its context is God raising up the Chaldeans to become the oppressors of the Jews, to ravish the nation, and to take them into captivity. That is what it applies to here in Habakkuk 1. But the apostle Paul just took the principle and said, "Hey, it applies here." And he quoted it and it is in the Scriptures. It does apply. But it really seems to be far out if you look at it in its context.
Acts 13:42-44 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
Apparently they left the synagogue and went out onto the sidewalk. That reminds me of several times that Mr. Waterhouse came to town and he spoke for his usual three hours in the hall that we had rented. And then we talked for another half an hour, an hour inside. And finally they were flicking the lights and everything, and you go out onto the sidewalk and you keep talking away for another for another hour or two, and then finally you have to leave. That is what these people had done. They were just enraptured with what they had heard, it was something that really stirred their minds and they wanted to hear more about it. They could not get enough inside the building and so they went outside the building and how long they asked questions was probably as long as Paul and Barnabas were willing to answer.
Well, the next Sabbath. . . This is one of the proof texts that can be used to show that the apostle Paul was not adverse to the keeping of the Sabbath. It gives no indication at all that there is any change, any directive that came from Christ or any of the apostles in Jerusalem. He had every opportunity to tell these people, well, come on back tomorrow because Sunday is the day that we should be keeping anyway. I just went into the synagogue because there was a crowd here and it was a Sabbath, and I knew there would be people, but tomorrow, come back tomorrow, we will hold another church service, and then the week after that on another Sunday, and we will get you started off on the right day and you can just separate away from these Jews and you will be the better for it. There is nothing like that at all.
So the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word. Probably a bit of hyperbole there, the whole city. It was a pretty good sized city. But you can imagine what happened. During the week the Gentiles who were at the synagogue said, "Hey, guess what I heard a guy talking about last Saturday?" And they were just excited enough that these people said, "Do you think that they'd mind if we came to hear them too? You going there next Saturday?" "Sure." "Well, count me in. I want to hear it too." So everybody probably brought a person or two with them, maybe whole families, and there was a good sized crowd there to hear.
Acts 13:45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; . . .
Jealousy, and probably also a measure of anger because the synagogue was being overrun. I mean, I can understand that because to them it was an important place. Here were people trying to crowd in there, and who knows what kind of destruction could have taken place.
Acts 13:45-46 . . . they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, "It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles."
Now that is very interesting to me because I think we have the approach that if people hear the gospel and they just nonchalantly turn away, that that is all right. They are going to have their chance in the second resurrection. Well, maybe they will, but it seems to me that the apostle Paul took this a lot more seriously. They judged themselves unworthy of eternal life. Had they had their opportunity?
Well, this verse, of course, does not stand alone, but I think that it is a lot more serious than we have maybe been thinking over these years. At the very least, those people were judged unworthy of eternal life. They judged themselves unworthy of eternal life at that time. And it looks to me as though the apostle Paul was saying that if they had made the right decision, God would have then made it possible for them to have eternal life in the first resurrection—a far better resurrection. And maybe in turning away, they gave up a very great deal, in their jealousy, in their anger, moving them to, in a stiff-necked way, reject something that they should have been able to check out both in the Scriptures and also in the news that they could have very easily have gotten from Jerusalem about what occurred. I am sure that they could have gotten evidence regarding the life of Jesus Christ to show them well enough that this Man did fulfill the prophecies regarding the Messiah.
Acts 13:47 For so the Lord has commanded us: 'I have set you to be a light to the Gentiles, that you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.'"
Now that is interesting. There is another scripture that Paul just ripped out of its context. That applies to the Messiah, but Paul applied it to himself! I will tell you, if Mr. Armstrong would have done that, that man had so many detractors that it probably would have hit The Kingdom of the Cults book or something in there about how he is taking all these things upon himself. The apostle Paul was not against, he was not adverse. It is right in the Scripture. He took scriptures that applied to the Messiah and applied to them to himself.
Do you know how he was able to get away with that and not have it be blasphemy? It is because of the close relationship there is between Christ and His church. We are part of His Body. You know the principle there that is in Matthew 25. If you feed one of His servants, it is the same as feeding Him. That principle is in many other places in the Bible. So if one of His servants is a light to the Gentiles, what applied to Christ in the way of prophecy also applies to His servant as well. It works in both directions.
Acts 13:48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
Is that not interesting? There is the choosing of God, being appointed to eternal life. The Gentiles' response is immediate and wholehearted. It does not mean that every Gentile believed but the message spread.
Acts 13:49-50 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the regions. But the Jews stirred up devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas [there is Paul first], and expelled them from the region.
The Jews could not confine Paul's ministry to the synagogue, so what they did is that they stirred up devout women. It is very likely that these devout women were Gentiles. They may have been proselytes. Now these women in turn went home to their husband who was a prominent businessman, politician, council member, or whatever. They were leading lights in the city. And the ladies put the pressure on their husbands who in turn then stirred up the police forces and whatever against them.
Now it is very likely that what the Jews managed to do was to get a charge of false religion against the apostles and somehow or another they made it stick. Even though it was not true, they made it stick. In this case, it was probably an official action taken by the city. And the reason I think we can say that is because in verse 50 they were expelled. It was not a mob action. But apparently the city council made a movement and they got the police to just usher them out of town.
Acts 13:51 But they shook off the dust from their feet against them, and came to Iconium.
The shaking the dust off the feet was a symbol of scorn. It was pretty much tantamount to saying, "I'm going to have nothing at all to do with you anymore." Almost to the place of declaring them as pagans. It is as though the dust was contaminating their shoes, the dust from the city in which these people lived, and when they shook it off, it was tantamount to kind of expelling them or excommunicating them.
Acts 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
From there they went on to Iconium. Iconium is about 80 miles away from there. By next week we will get on into chapter 14.