SS11-16-03
“TAKING THE GOOD NEWS TO OTHERS.” ACTS 13: 1-52.
ACTS 13: 1-3, 28-33a, 38-39, 45-48.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ACTS 13.
This paragraph is a brief one, but of great importance. It may be spoken of as the watershed of this Book of Acts. We now enter upon a study of that wonderful movement, of which Paul was the central figure. In this story, without any announcement or reason give, Saul’s name is changed to Paul. These three verses give the account of the beginning of the great missionary movement.
The last verse of Ch. 12 says, “and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministration, taking with them John whose surname was Mark.” Paul and Barnabas had been to Jerusalem, carrying the gifts of the Antioch Church for the relief of the suffering saints in Jerusalem. Now they had returned, bringing John Mark with them.
From this point Antioch in Syria was the new base, the new center of the Christian outreach. From it, messengers were sent forth; to it they returned. In considering the missionary journeys of Paul, we shall see that in each case he started from Antioch, and reported back there.
Our lesson today is about how the early Church became involved in taking the gospel to people of different nationalities and different countries.
The Key Verse of today’s lesson is Acts 13:47, “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.”
Luke recorded the founding of the church in Antioch of Syria in Acts 11:19-26; But how was the Christian Church in Antioch constituted? Certain men of Cyprus and Cyrene had preached in Antioch to these Greek men, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ; and these men hearing the Gospel of the Lord Christ had believed, and had been baptized by the Holy Spirit. That company of men and women, in living union with the living Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, constituted the Church.
The Church grew to have several strong leaders. The two offices in the Church at Antioch mentioned in these verses were prophets and teachers. The text does not make clear which of the men named in Vs. 1 were prophets or teachers. Possibly they all were called to do both ministries. Barnabas is listed first, possibly indicating he was the primary leader at this point in the church. He had enlisted Saul earlier to help him in the early days at the Antioch Church. The name Barnabas means “son of exhortation.” He was an encourager. Cyprus was his home country. John Mark of Jerusalem was his cousin.
Simeon was also called Niger, which means “black”. He is thought to have been from Cyrene or somewhere in northern Africa. Some believe he was the Simeon compelled to carry Jesus cross. It would be a thing most wonderful if the man whose first contact with Jesus was the carrying of the Cross—a task which he must have bitterly resented—was one of the men mainly and directly responsible for sending out the story of the Cross to all the world.
Lucius the Cyrenian was also from northern Africa. His name was also spelled “Luke.” Manaen (MAN uh en) was described as a close friend of Herod the tetrarch. This was Herod Antipas who had John the Baptist’s head cut off and who mocked and treated Jesus with contempt at Jesus’ trial. The two lives of Lucius and Herod surely turned out differently because of their attitudes toward Jesus Christ. Saul was the apostle Paul. His Hebrew name was Saul. And his Roman name Paul. Though mentioned last here, he soon was thrust to the fore-front by the Holy Spirit, in the missionary ministry of the Antioch church. These five men reveal the diversity of the people in that church.
During one of their times of worship and fasting, the Holy Spirit directed them to send forth two of their strongest leaders. The church in Antioch had not lost the art of worship. The outcome of worship is always readiness to obey the Spirit when He sends us forth to work. We cannot say definitely how the Spirit spoke to the church at Antioch. Most likely He made known His will to the assembly through one spokesman, whose word produced agreement.
The Christian Church was now poised to take the greatest of all steps. They had decided, quite deliberately, to take the message of the gospel out to all the world. It was a step, which was taken under the direct guidance of the Holy Spirit. It was always true of the men of the Early Church that they never did what they wanted to do, but always what God wanted them to do.
If we will place ourselves at the disposal of the Spirit, He will lead and guide us today in the same way as He has ever done, guiding definitely, immediately, positively making known His will. Are we listening for His voice, as these men listened?
When the Spirit had spoken, the work was done decently and in order. They fasted and prayed, this time for the men who were to be separated; and they laid their hands on them. That service was probably a commissioning service rather than an ordination service.
Who laid hands on them? Not apostles, as there was not an apostle amongst them; consequently the laying on of the hands was the laying on of the hands of prophets and teachers. In this great Church every believer stands on an equality with every other believer. Then they let them go. They released Paul and Barnabas as in the next verse we read, “So they being sent forth by the Holy Spirit.” The Church could release them, by taking responsibility for all they would need.
But the church didn’t think up the idea of Global Missions. God called the missionaries and called the church to release them to go.
The final word in these verses is for the individual. No man can go unless the Spirit calls him. Men cannot make a minister; not even the Church, or, her theological halls. He must be called of the Spirit. Unless he hears that call sounding in his soul, let him stay where he is, in his present calling. But if he hears the call, then let him remember that it is his business to go forward within the fellowship and under the guidance of the church.
In these first three verses of Ch. 13 we find there are three lines of consideration that demand our attention. First, that which is central in the paragraph, the declared activity of the Spirit of God: “The Holy Spirit said, “Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Secondly, the preliminary conditions that made possible this activity of the Spirit. These are revealed in the first phrase, “The Church in Antioch”; and the following description of prophets and teachers ministering to the Lord, and fasting. Thirdly, and finally, the resulting cooperation of the church, and the Spirit. “Then, when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away”.
The Holy Spirit made know His will to these people, so that they had neither doubt nor uncertainty in their minds. There is a sense in which it would be perfectly accurate to say that the Church had no voice in the selection of these men. The choice was not left to the church. The Spirit says separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. They were called to be missionaries. The missionary call is a specific role given to some to share Christ with the unreached peoples of the world.
Paul was obedient to the command of Christ. On the first missionary journey, Paul preached to both Jews and Gentiles. He did not discriminate against anyone! His first recorded sermon was at Antioch in modern Turkey.
We must now skip over the success of Paul and Barnabas in Cyprus where the name of Saul changed to Paul and he became the leader of the missionary team. We will also miss the desertion of John Mark when he returned to Jerusalem. You may ask why they did not preach in Pamphylia? Why did they leave the coast with the Word unproclaimed and set out on that difficult and dangerous way?
Not so very long afterwards Paul wrote a letter to the people of Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. It is the letter called the Letter to the Galatians, for all these towns were in the Roman province of Galatia. In that letter he says in Gal. 4: 13; “You know that it was because I was sick in body that I first brought the good news to you.” So when he came to Galatia he was a sick man.
YOU WILL CERTAINLY WANT TO READ PAUL’S FIRST RECORDED SERMON IN ACTS 13: 16-41, AS IT IS THE ONLY FULL LENGTH REPORT OF A SERMON BY PAUL THAT WE POSSESS.
Let’s read just a small portion of the sermon to show why we should read it all.
2. PLEASE READ ACTS 13: 28-32.
After Barnabas and Paul left Antioch, their first missionary stop was Cyprus. During that mission, Paul acted with such initiative and power that he became team leader. Luke had been referring to “Barnabas and Saul.” As they left Cyprus, he wrote of “Paul and his company. This change may have been why John Mark, a relative of Barnabas’s left the missionary team at Perga.
Paul and Barnabas journeyed inland on Asia Minor to another city named Antioch—Antioch of Pisidia. Paul and Barnabas visited the Jewish synagogue on the Sabbath. This became Paul’s strategy in entering a new city. In the synagogue were people who believed in the Scriptures and were looking for the Messiah. This included not only Jews by birth but also Gentile converts to Judaism and their God-fearing Gentiles who believed in Israel’s God but had not become converts. In the providence of God, Jews had settled all over the Roman world. Thus the synagogue provided a place for the missionaries to begin their work in each city.
Because Paul was a rabbi, he was invited to speak in he synagogue. He began with a summary of Israelite history leading up to
David, from whose descendants God promised a Savior, Jesus. He told about the work of John the Baptist. Paul told how the Lord’s own people condemned Jesus. Although they found no cause of death in Him, they pressured Pilate that Jesus should be slain. In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 Paul summarized the gospel he preached: how that “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” The death of Jesus was the death of an innocent---yes, even a sinless man. Pilate saw that Jesus was not guilty of any crime against Rome, but the Roman was pressured into crucifying Jesus. After all the prophecies about His death were fulfilled, Jesus body was taken down from the cross and placed in a sepulcher. One purpose of mentioning the burial was to show that this was a real event and that Jesus was really dead. Then Paul proclaimed, “But God raised Him from the dead.”
Many people reject the cross because they cannot imagine God allowing His Son to die the death of a criminal. But for believers, the cross is the power of God to salvation. Many deny that a dead person can be raised, but those who were witnesses of the risen Lord told what they had seen and heard. And before Jesus’ ascension, He was seen many days of them, which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. Those who had seen Him alive after his death became his witness unto the people.
Paul boldly declared the good news of he death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He was not ashamed of this gospel because it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe. Because Paul had received the good news, he felt like a debtor to tell all people the way of salvation. He wrote in Romans 1:14-16 “ I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians: both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are in Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
In his first recorded sermon, Paul told the congregation in Antioch of Pisidia about how Christ died for their sins. Then he declared how God has raised Jesus from the dead. Paul also preached about the appearances of Jesus made after His resurrection. Paul declared there were many eyewitnesses to the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.
I think when Paul delivered this message, he looked at Barnabas and Luke more often than at the crowd. Paul conscious, or unconsciously, modeled his speech in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, upon the address of Stephen in acts 7. Paul had heard Stephen’s defense, and had never escaped the power of it.
3. PLEASE READ ACTS 13: 38-39.
Paul concluded his message to the people in the synagogue in Antioch by extending God’s offer of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. He addressed them again as brothers as he did in vs. 26, probably desiring to identify with them as one who needed and had received what God was offering to them. The message was that through this man forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you. The man is Jesus Christ. God offers forgiveness of sins, but this forgiveness can come only through Jesus because He died on the cross for the sins of humanity. The reason Paul and Barnabas were in Antioch preaching the message of Jesus was so they could also experience forgiveness and there was a way that would never bring the forgiveness of God. Everyone, both Jew and Gentile who believes in Him (Jesus) will be forgiven. People must believe that God gives salvation through faith in Jesus Christ because He died and rose again for them.
Faith in Jesus allows God to declare the believer to be justified from everything. Justified means “to declare righteous.” The word is a legal term that means the judge has pronounced a person to be in the right. Because Jesus paid the penalty for sins, believers are no longer held responsible for the penalty of sin. They stand fully accepted in Jesus Christ before God. But there was another way that many Jews trusted to make them right with God. Paul had followed that way slavishly before he met Jesus. Paul testified and declared pointedly to his Jewish and God-fearing hearers that the Law of Moses could never justify them. They hoped that having the Law and obeying it would make them right with God. Their problem was that they couldn’t obey it. Humanity is unable to live up to the absolute standards demanded by God. Anyone who believed in Jesus would be saved from sin. But, keeping the Laws of Moses would save no one.
God offers forgiveness to both Jews and Gentiles. Christ died for both Jews and Gentiles. Therefore, He wants those who have experienced forgiveness to go to all people and proclaim to everyone God’s offer of forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.
4. PLEASE READ ACTS 13: 45-48.
The response to Paul’s sermon in the synagogue at Antioch was mixed. Some liked what they heard and begged Paul and Barnabas to tell them more on the following Sabbath. In the synagogues the God-fearers who were Gentiles responded more favorably to Paul’s message about Jesus than the Jews did. Therefore, the whole town assembled on the following Sabbath to hear more from Paul.
However, this synagogue service did not go as well as the one the previous week. While the crowd was listening to Paul, the Jews were watching the crowds of people. Such large numbers that had come to he synagogue filled the Jews with envy and jealousy. So hey began to oppose what Paul was saying by contradicting and blaspheming him. They started interrupting the service and contradicting Paul and kept it up as long as he was speaking.
Paul’s response was decisive and far-reaching. He and Barnabas announced boldly, that they had been proclaiming God’s message to the Jews first because that had been God’s will. But now the Jews wee rejecting it because they considered themselves unworthy of eternal life. Therefore Paul announced that from then on he and Barnabas would turn to the Gentiles. Rejection by the Jews did not deter Paul’s commitment to proclaim Christ to all people. He determined to persevere in obedience to the Lord’s call to preach the gospel of Christ.
When the Jews rejected the message about Jesus Christ, they were making a fatal decision. They already thought they were right with God because they were Abraham’s descendants and were the people of God—or so they thought. However, turning from Jesus was also turning from God’s salvation of eternal life for both Jews and Gentiles.
Paul based his decision to turn to the Gentiles from a prophecy that he quoted in Vs 47. In Isaiah 49:6 Isaiah declared that Israel would be a light for the Gentiles. As God’s light of salvation, they were to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Israel did that by bringing forth Jesus Christ as the light of the world. Paul believed that he and Barnabas were messengers of Jesus Christ, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy of long ago. Therefore, he and Barnabas would concentrate on Gentiles from then on.
For some of the Gentiles in Antioch, Paul’s announcement was great news. They rejoiced and glorified the message of the Lord. Whereas the Jews rejected the message and turned on the messengers, the Gentiles who accepted the messengers’ announcement rejoiced in the message about the Lord and from the Lord. They rejoiced that Gentiles were also the objects of God’s love and grace.
Luke said that all who had been appointed to eternal life believed. Throughout the Book of Acts, Luke was careful to keep a balance between the sovereignty of God and the response of individuals. In this phrase we encounter the same balance between human volition and divine providence that is found throughout Acts. On their part these Gentiles took an active role in believing, in committing themselves to Christ: but it was in response to God’s Spirit moving in them, convicting them, appointing them for life. All salvation is ultimately only by the grace of God.
Next Sunday from Acts 17 we learn to stand firm on the gospel when confronting other world-views. A.V. Daugherty 11-16-03.